Aventura firm helps veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

It is the war soldiers fight once they come home from deployment.

Post-traumatic stress disorder affected 171,423 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans as of June 2010, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Aventura real estate company Keller Williams Elite Properties will hold an event at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Town Center Park in Sunny Isles Beach to raise awareness about post traumatic stress disorder as well as to raise money to fund therapy for veterans with PTSD. Town Center Park is located at 17200 Collins Ave.

Keller Williams is working with Accelerated Resolution Therapy, an Orlando-based PTSD therapy clinic, that will send at least four doctors to Miami-Dade County so they can help veterans.

“A lot of people don’t realize that there is still an issue once veterans come back,” said Tracey Schmitt of Keller Williams Elite Properties. “Some veterans can’t afford the treatment and others are too embarrassed to come forward.”

People can contribute by either buying a $5 ticket for the raffle at the event or by writing a check.

There will be food and music at the May 12 event as well as guest speakers, including Bill Barardi, a veteran with PTSD, and Eric Huskey, an Iraq veteran and agent with Keller Williams.

Schmitt said the company is willing to fly veterans to South Florida from north and north central Florida.

“If someone said I really need this right now, we would get them to the therapist or get the therapist to them,” she said.

So far, about 20 veterans have already reached out for help paying for and finding therapists, said Schmitt.

“It seems a lot of them know someone else who needs help as well.”