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Care through a living nightmare

29 May 2013
Care through a living nightmare

Moneycare Financial Counsellor Kate Johnstone helped Peter* and Suzie* get back on their feet. (Photo supplied by Kate Johnstone)


It took around ten years for proud, professional soldier Peter* to realise he had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He just thought he was “very angry and upset and out of place.”

It wasn’t until his wife Suzie* made an attempt on her own life that the couple began to begin to realise what had been tearing at their lives and their children’s lives for so many years.

As one of the first Australians into a conflict zone in the late 1990s, Peter says: “One thing they didn’t train you for was (seeing) the devastation that other humans can do to another human.”

Ten years later, already in extreme emotional crisis, Peter, who could no longer work, says the financial pressures on the family kept growing until finally Suzie ended up in hospital. It was her care team that suggested Peter make an appointment to see a Salvos Moneycare financial counsellor.

“The only reason I would agree to go and see someone was basically because they were the Sallies,” Peter says. He explains he had great respect for “the Sallymen” from his deployment.

In the three years that followed, Salvos Moneycare financial counsellor Kate Johnstone helped Peter and Suzie through a lengthy and complex process to access a range of super entitlements and insurance policies tied to those.

Peter says that much more than simply help financially, this truly helped him save his home and most importantly, his family.

He says the best thing Kate did for the couple was organise for debtors to deal directly with her and give the family breathing space to heal and think without additional pressures.

“That gave me the freedom to edge forward and write statements and also put Suzie’s mind at ease that somebody was helping us. It was a glimmer of hope.”

Despite finding it hard to leave his home – Peter says he still sweats profusely at the thought of having to go somewhere” – just before Christmas last year, he went out and presented The Salvation Army Townsville with a generous cheque to help others.

Peter still struggles greatly, but he says he is so grateful for the support. “What Kate did was invaluable!” he says.

Despite the couple’s appreciation of Kate’s high degree of professionalism and huge level of competency, Peter’s wife Suzie says of Kate, that above all, to their family “she is just an angel”.

*Names changed

Comments

  1. Claire Twivey
    Claire Twivey

    What a great story! Well done Kate, thank you for you all you do!

  2. Great job Kate. Good to see you are still very much appreciated and valued by the clients and the Salvos

  3. Kate .... You do such a great job... Making a difference in the life of others.

  4. Thank you for looking out for our troops.

    Yes the soldiers do have a great respect for the sally men and women!

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