House Veterans Affairs Health Subcommittee Explores How Best to Support Military Families

Yesterday, another important hearing, Mental Health Treatment for Families: Supporting Those Who Support Our Veterans, was convened on Capitol Hill by the House Veterans Affairs health subcommittee. [Audio now online; video link not presently available] Details from Army Times:

A House subcommittee was urged Thursday to expand the Veterans Affairs Department’s authority to provide mental health counseling for the families of veterans, including National Guard and reserve members who have returned from combat.

Current law restricts VA to providing “limited services to immediate family members,” said Kristin Day, VA’s chief consultant for care management and social work service.

“The law provides, in general, that the immediate family members of a veteran being treated for a service-connected disability may receive counseling, education and training services,” Day told the House Veterans’ Affairs health subcommittee.

That leaves a lot of gaps for people who fall outside the military health care system, some critics say.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.

Selections below offer only a glimpse of the day's discussion; click on linked names for full opening statements and written testimonies, and listen to hear the day's testimony in full.

Opening statement of Hon. Michael H. Michaud, Chairman, Subcommittee on Health, and a Representative in Congress from the State of Maine:

Mental health issues are at the forefront of our agenda, and for good reason.

Of the approximately 300,000 veterans from Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom who have accessed VA health care, over 40% have presented with mental health concerns, including PTSD, substance abuse and mood disorders. Veterans’ mental health conditions not only affect the returning veterans, but also have a significant impact on their families. Living with and caring for veterans with mental health concerns is stressful and can change the way that families relate to one another.

While the VA is working hard to care for veterans with mental health needs, too often families of these veterans are neglected. Spouses, children and parents of veterans have been affected by this conflict, yet oftentimes they do not have access to treatment which may help them. In turn, veterans may have a more difficult time recovering from their mental health concerns because of family problems.

As we will hear, the VA is currently limited in the authority Congress has given them to provide treatment to families. I know that the VA does everything they can to care for the whole veteran, including the family unit, when possible. But the question is, how can we do more?

The purpose of this hearing is to hear a variety of perspectives about how Congress might expand VA’s current authority to provide mental health treatment to families of veterans. We will hear from leaders of regional and state programs who are currently providing services to families of veterans. We will also hear about the importance of the family’s mental health to the mental health and well being of the veteran. Finally we will hear from the VA about what services they are currently authorized to provide to families.

The committee realizes that this is a complex issue. But we also recognize that it is an important one that deserves serious thought and consideration.

Opening statement of Hon. Jeff Miller, Ranking Republican Member, and a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida:

Families of soldiers make tremendous sacrifices so that the men and women they love can defend the country we all love and I want to take this moment to thank them for their role in supporting America.

Currently VA does provide certain mental health services open to assist family members. This includes Readjustment and Bereavement Counseling Services at VA Vet Centers, the VA’s Family Mental Health Learning Program and care for Civilian Health and Medical Program of Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) beneficiaries.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and their views on what else could be done to support the mental health needs of family members. Meeting the health care needs of veterans in the best way possible will always be our first and greatest priority.

Witness Linda Spoonster Schwartz, RN, DrPH, FAAN, Commissioner of Veterans’ Affairs, State of Connecticut:

I served 16 years in the United States Air Force both on Active Duty and as a Reservist during the Vietnam War, since that time, a great deal has changed in the composition and needs of America’s military and the Nation’s expectations for the quality of life and support for the men and women of our Armed Forces. For example, now women comprise approximately 15 % of the military force, a stark contrast to the fact that before the advent of the all volunteer force, women were limited by law to only 2% of the Active Duty force. Another striking feature of our military force today is the heavily reliance on the “citizen soldiers” of our Reserve and National Guard and the increasing number of military men and women on Active Duty who are married with children. The Department of Defense reports that 93% of career military are married and the number of married military personnel not considered career is 58%. As a recent report by the Rand Corporation observed, “Today’s military is a military of families”. I would add that the families of many Active Duty, Guard and Reserve units are no longer housed on military instillations and are lacking the support systems enjoyed by previous generations of military members.

As America has continued to task Reserve and National Guard units with greater responsibilities in combat areas the realities of multiple deployments, loosely configured support systems and traditional military chain of command mentalities are not solving problems, they are creating them. Transitioning in and out of family life is not only difficult for the military member, the family, spouse, children, mother, father, sister, brothers and/or significant other are also traumatized as well. This is not happening on a remote site or military base, this time we read about our neighbor next door, the young woman who teaches kindergarten, our friend from school or church. In essence the war has come to every town and city in America only it is invisible until a crisis or tragedy surfaces to remind us that the cost of war is also borne by those who wait and watch for the return of our troops. ...

Along with the “Send Off” ceremonies and the “Welcome Homes”, observers began to realize that families left behind experienced difficulties and stress every day of the deployment. Due to modern technology, internet and cell phones these frustrations and difficulties at home could instantaneously be shared with the deployed military member in combat areas which placed an additional burden on their “mission readiness”. Along with readjusting to the absence of the military member and the great unknown of what they would be encountering during their tour of duty, those of us tasked with working with these families came to the realization that there were serious gaps in the system. In addition to the day to day concerns of home repairs, young spouses managing additional duties in the home, environment and financial constraints, families were having difficulties that indicated a need for professional counseling and treatment to cope with the demands and strains they encountered.

In 2003 when I became Commissioner, there were already Iraq veterans living at the State Veterans Home at Rocky Hill because living at home with Mom and Dad was not tolerable after being in combat, families of deployed Active Duty and Reserve were encountering problems with no place to turn for help and severely disabled veterans were coming home to families that had no idea how to care for them. ...

With the reality that troops being deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Global War on Terrorism represented a striking departure from the mobilization of American troops in previous wars, the pro forma conventional methods and remedies relied on in the past seemed inadequate for addressing the emerging needs of military and veterans in the 21st Century. Thus, we embarked on a survey of returning veterans to “take the pulse” of their thinking, needs and expectations. In order to assess the growing population of returning “Warriors” and “Heroes” specifically problems they were encountering, their expectations for services and the goals they had for their future a mail out survey designed in collaboration with Central Connecticut State University’s O’Neil Center for Public Policy and the Yale School of Medicine was mailed to 1000 Iraq/ Afghanistan veterans. We have completed an initial mailing and are finalizing our second wave of surveys. So far we have learned that 63% of the respondents were married, 10% were divorced and 25% never married. Major concerns identified by respondents were: problems with spouses (41%), trouble connecting emotionally with others (24%), connecting emotionally with family (11%) and looking for help with these problems (10%).

Also incorporated in the instrument was a PTSD Scale “Post Traumatic Stress Checklist – Military scale developed by VA National Center for PTSD which indicated that 24% of respondents met the diagnostic criteria. The most salient results fell under the rubric of sizable number of veterans experiencing problems in several domains of interpersonal life issues. Researchers concluded that the data regarding both family and peer relationships, indicated that a sizable proportion of veterans report difficulties in these areas. These problems are undoubtedly exacerbated by the symptoms of PTSD with nearly a quarter of respondents exceeding the diagnostic threshold. ...

Due to the limitations of VA Health Care, families are often excluded from the therapeutic process which can be counterproductive in the long run. Family therapy is less threatening to a military member who may not seek treatment because of the stigma associated with mental health problems. A 2005 study of Iraq Veterans assigned to the Maine National Guard indicated that 30% of those in the study indicated a likelihood of participating in “confidential services in the community”. Responses to the question of who they would be most likely to participate in support groups included “with other veterans (32%), couples’ communication shills training (28%) and couples/marital counseling (26%). (Wheeler, 2005) lends credence to the concepts we have implemented.

Witness testimony of Stacy Bannerman, M.S., Author and wife of Iraq veteran:

During the few hours it takes for this historic hearing to conclude, another veteran will commit suicide. Most likely it will be a veteran of the Guard or Reserves, “who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan [and] make up more than half of veterans who committed suicide after returning home from those wars.” (The Associated Press, February, 2008) There will be at least seven family members left to deal with the adjustment, loss, anger, and grief. Because their loved one was a citizen soldier, they will do so alone. They will be forced to live with the pain of their preventable loss for the rest of their lives, without the formal and informal mental health services and support available to active duty military families. Just as they did during all phases of their loved ones’ deployment.

I am the author of "When the War Came Home: The Inside Story of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind." I am currently separated from my husband, a National Guard soldier who served one year in Iraq in 2004-05. Just as we are beginning to find our way back together, we are starting the countdown for a possible second deployment. Two of my cousins by marriage have also served in Iraq, one with the MN Guard, a deployment that lasted 22 months, longer than any other ground combat unit. My other cousin, active duty, was killed in action.

My family members have spent more time fighting one war - the war in Iraq - than my grandfather and uncles did in WWII and Korea, combined. When the home front costs and burdens fall repeatedly on the same shoulders, the anticipatory grief and trauma – secondary, intergenerational and betrayal - is exponential and increasingly acute. Nowhere is that more obvious than in Guard and Reserve households.

Our loved ones perform the same duties as regular active troops when they are in theatre, but they do it with abbreviated training and, all-too-often, insufficient protection and aging equipment. It was a National Guardsman who asked then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld what he and the Army were doing "to address shortages and antiquated equipment" National Guard soldiers heading to Iraq were struggling with.

Guard families experience the same stressors as active duty families before, during, and after deployment, although we do not have anywhere near the same level of support, nor do our loved ones when they come home. Many Guard members and their families report being shunned by the active duty mental health system. Army National Guard Specialist and Iraq War veteran Brandon Jones said that when he and his wife sought post-deployment counseling, they were “made to feel we were taking up a resource meant for active duty soldiers from the base.” One Guardsman’s wife was told that “active duty families were given preference” when seeking services for herself and her daughters while her husband was in Iraq.

The nearly three million immediate family members directly impacted by Guard/Reserve deployments struggle with issues that active duty families do not. ...The Guard didn’t have regular family group meetings, and I couldn’t go next door to talk to another wife who was going through the same things I was, or who had already been there, done that. Most Guard/Reservists live miles away from a base or Armory, many are in rural communities. We are isolated and alone.

At least 20% of us experience a significant drop in household income when our loved one is mobilized. This financial pressure is an added stressor. The majority of citizen soldiers work for small businesses or are self-employed. Some have lost their jobs or livelihoods as a direct result of deployment. The possibility of a second or third tour makes it difficult to secure another one. Guard members have reported being put on probation or having their hours cut within a few days of being put on alert status for deployment. Some of us have to re-locate. Some of us go to food shelves. Where we once had shared parenting responsibilities, the spouse left behind is now the sole caregiver, without the benefit of an on-base child care center.

During deployment, we withdraw and do the best we can to survive. Anxious, depressed, and alone, we may attempt to cope by drinking more, eating less, taking Xanax or Prozac to make it through. We close the curtains so we can’t see the black sedan with government plates pulling into our drive. We cautiously circle the block when we come home, our personal perimeter check to make sure there are no Casualty Notification Officers around. Every time the phone rings, our hearts skip a beat. Our kids may act out or withdraw, get into fights, detach or deteriorate, socially, emotionally, and academically. There are no organic mental health services for the children of National Guard and Reservists, even though they are more likely to be married with children than active duty troops.

There are a growing number of military families with what psychologists are beginning to recognize as Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder. Secondary Trauma may occur when a person has an indirect exposure to risk or trauma, resulting in many of the same symptoms as a full-blown diagnosis of PTSD. These symptoms can include depression, suicidal thoughts and feelings, substance abuse, feelings of alienation and isolation, feelings of mistrust and betrayal, anger and irritability, or severe impairment in daily functioning. ("Walking On Eggshells." Mary Tendall and Jan Fishler, Vietnow Magazine.) ...

When I went to the VA, I spoke with a program officer, who said, “It’s the wife’s responsibility to set the tone for the whole household.” A veteran’s advocate asked me, “Why don’t you take care of him?” The VA’s mental health professionals preach to the wives about resilience, but they aren’t the ones being woken up at three in the morning because their husband has shot the dog, or is holding a gun to your head, or a knife at your throat.

Expecting the wife or family member to treat the veteran violates the professional standard prohibiting family members from treating their own; places the burden of care on the family; creates a highly unfair and unethical expectation that we are trained mental health providers; discounts our reality; excuses the VA from fulfilling its responsibility to our veterans; and places an immoral burden upon the family member, who is likely already suffering undue mental health and financial consequences as the result of having their loved one deployed.

The legacy of guilt and self-blame this creates is profound. Virtually every family member I have talked to who lost their veteran due to suicide or divorce has said, “I thought if I loved him enough, I could fix him.” That the VA and the military continues to lay this on the wives and family members, in practice, if not in policy, is a gross moral and ethical violation and an abdication of responsibility.

Witness testimony of Peter Leousis, Deputy Director, H.W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science, University of North Carolina:

We know that the majority of Reserve Component families are resilient. They are able to cope with the demands and challenges of repeated deployments with few lasting effects. But there is mounting evidence that service in OEF and OIF comes at a price for families. We know, for example, that the incidence of child maltreatment in families with deployed parents rises significantly. (Am J Epidemiol 2007; 165:1199-1206).

Post-deployment reintegration of veterans can be as challenging for families as for soldiers and Marines themselves. For example, the report of a joint working group composed of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the United States Army Medical Research and Material Command concluded that:

[T]he burden of illness, including the cost of PTSD and other trauma responses, spans beyond symptoms to impairment, altered functioning, and disability, and crosses family, occupational, and social realms. This applies not only to those who have served in the military and suffer from deployment-related problems, but also to their spouses, partners, and children (“Mapping the Landscape of Deployment Related Adjustment and Mental Disorders: A Meeting Summary of a Working Group to Inform Research,” working paper 2006; p. 9).

There is evidence that exposure to combat has an even greater effect on Reserve Component service members. According to the “Longitudinal Assessment of Mental Health Problems Among Active and Reserve Component Soldiers Returning from the Iraq War” (Journal of American Medical Association; 11/14/2007), “clinicians identified 20.3% of active duty and 42.4% of reserve component soldiers as requiring mental health treatment.”

Over 360,000 “citizen soldiers” have served in Afghanistan and Iraq so far. More than 10,000 are from North Carolina alone. They do not return to military installations where the community “gets it” and appropriate services are available, but rather to their home towns and communities that might not even be aware of their service and sacrifice.

We know that PTSD has a secondary effect on spouses and partners and that the repeated deployments typical of OEF and OIF are having lasting effects on service members and their families. The report of the Mental Health Advisory Team IV published in the December 2007 issue of Traumatology notes that:

Not surprisingly, deployment length and multiple deployments to Iraq were related to soldier mental health and well-being, with soldiers deployed longer than 6 months and soldiers on their second deployment to Iraq being more likely to screen positive for a mental health problem than soldiers who were deployed less than six months or on their first deployment (“The Intensity of Combat and Behavioral Health Status,” Traumatology 2007; 13; 6).

Clearly, the mental health needs of returning veterans, including but not limited to PTSD, have an impact on their entire family, not just themselves. The issue is not whether the families of returning veterans may face serious mental health challenges, but how best to make sure they get the mental health services they need when and where they need them.

When returning veterans and their families have reasonable access to VA medical facilities, mental health treatment should be made available to the entire family, not just the veteran, when it is clinically appropriate. We define reasonable access as living within a 30-minute drive of a mental health treatment provider.

Witness testimony of Charles Figley, Ph.D., LMFT, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy:

The impact of mental illness on our veterans and their families is striking. Recognition of the need to expand VA mental health services to include families is growing as the impact of mental health disorders among veterans from OIF-OEF manifest, following their mustering out of military positions. A 2004 study by Hoge, Castro, Messer, McGurk, Cotting, and Koffman,demonstrated the significant mental health consequences from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In “Combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, mental health problems, and barriers to care,” from the New England Journal of Medicine, the estimated risk for PTSD from service in the Iraq War was listed at 18%, while the risk for PTSD from the Afghanistan mission was 11%. According to Sherman, Sautter, Jackson, Lyons, Han, in “Domestic Violence in Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Who Seek Couples Therapy,” Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, October 2006, “domestic violence rates among veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are higher than those of the general population. Individuals who have been diagnosed with PTSD who seek couples therapy with their partners constitute an understudied population.”

Service member deployment length is intrinsically related to higher rates of mental health problems and marital problems. Within the U.S. military report, “the Mental Health Advisory Team IV,” (MHAT IV) released on November 17, 2006 there have been at least 72 confirmed soldier suicides in Iraq since the beginning of OIF. As with previous MHAT reports, this study also found suicide rates were 28% higher compared with average army rates for those not deployed (16.1 vs. 11.6 soldier suicides per year per 100,000, respectively). For soldiers, deployment length and family separations were the top noncombat (deployment) issues. Marital concerns were higher than in previous surveys among Operation Iraqi Freedom troops, and like other concerns, they were related to deployment length. Those in Iraq more than 6 months were 1.5 to 1.6 times more likely to be assessed as having mental health problems. In addition, troops in Iraq for more than 6 months were more likely to have marital concerns (31% vs. 19%), report problems with infidelity (17% vs. 10%), and were almost twice as likely to be planning a marital separation/divorce (22% vs. 14%).

In post-deployment reassessment data completed inJuly 2005, Army researchers found that 21% of soldiers returning from combat areas were misusing alcohol a year after their return home; just 13% were found to misuse alcohol prior to deployment. Soldiers with anger and aggression problems increased from 11% to 22%, and the divorce rate rose from 9% to 15%. Those planning to divorce their spouse rose from 9% to 15% after time spent in the combat zone. With the rise in the psychological needs of our veterans, it is critical that they have access to the most appropriate providers, including Family Therapists at Vet Centers as well as at other VA facilities.

This urgency for access to qualified mental health practitioners within the VA is clear: "one of the most troubling problems facing the VA today is the near crippling effects of severe staffing shortages in nearly every conceivable staff category," reports the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association (EPVA). More specifically, monthly VA staffing surveys provided to the EPVA by the Veteran’s Administration indicate significant shortages of mental health professionals (see position paper "Veterans Health Care," October 2002).

This leads to an obvious problem hampering veteran access to mental health services - a shortage of qualified mental health providers in rural communities. One sure way of addressing the staffing problem is through increasing access to mental health services provided by practitioners who are widely present in rural communities; Family Therapists. AAMFT data shows that 31.2% of rural counties have at least one Family Therapist, demonstrating our strong MFT representation in rural America. Improving access is crucial, particularly since the National Rural Health Association reports that the average distance for rural veterans to get VA care is 63 miles. This is unacceptable travel time for those who have already traveled the world on our behalf in pursuit of U.S. safety and security. Our service members deserve more than this to help make a seamless transition out of active duty and into veteran status.

Witness sestimony of Ralph Ibson, Vice President for Government Affairs, Mental Health America:

In assessing the wide range of post-deployment mental health issues confronting veterans and their families, VA’s Special Committee on PTSD advised in a February 2006 report that “VA needs to proceed with a broad understanding of post deployment mental health issues. These include Major Depression, Alcohol Abuse (often beginning as an effort to sleep), Narcotic Addiction (often beginning with pain medication for combat injuries), Generalized Anxiety Disorder, job loss, family dissolution, homelessness, violence towards self and others, and incarceration.” The Committee advised that “rather than set up an endless maze of specialty programs, each geared to a separate diagnosis and facility, VA needs to create a progressive system of engagement and care that meets veterans and their families where they live…The emphasis should be on wellness rather than pathology; on training rather than treatment. The bottom line is prevention and, when necessary, recovery.” Importantly, the Special Committee also advised that “Because virtually all returning veterans and their families face readjustment problems, it makes sense to provide universal interventions that include education and support for veterans and their families coupled with screening and triage for the minority of veterans and families who will need further intervention.” [Emphasis added.]

Strengthening family relationships can be crucial to a veteran’s mental health. But despite recognition in the VA regarding the mental health needs of returning veterans’ families and the importance of engaging family members in the veteran’s readjustment and treatment, current law and practice limit VA’s assistance to, and work with, family-members. ...

VA health care, and particularly mental health care, would certainly be more effective if barriers to family engagement were eliminated.

Current law appears to cause difficulty. In the case of a veteran being treated for a service-connected condition, current law states that “the Secretary shall provide such consultation, professional counseling, training, and mental health services as are necessary in connection with that treatment.” (38 US Code section 1782(a)) But with respect to any other veteran, VA may provide such services to family members but only where the services had been initiated during a period of hospitalization and continuation is essential to hospital discharge. (38 US Code section 1782(b).) Under that provision, VA might conclude that family services could not be provided where it is treating an OIF/OEF veteran who has not been adjudicated service-connected and is not hospitalized. But while current law provides broad authority to furnish needed mental health services to family members of veterans who are service connected, we are not aware that any VA facilities are providing (or contracting for provision of) mental health services (other than consultation, education and psycho-education) to family members. Yet current law surely contemplates that VA would provide, or arrange to provide, mental health services to a spouse whose anxiety or depression, for example, compromised the readjustment or treatment of a veteran who is service-connected for PTSD.

Certainly, there is potentially great benefit to a veteran under VA treatment for a mental health problem from having VA also counsel or provide needed mental health treatment to a spouse. We see no compelling reason to foreclose VA from making such services available to family members of OIF/OEF veterans. To the contrary, the family has a unique role to play in providing support, and it is entirely consistent with VA’s mission to help family members carry out that role. However the law now makes a distinction, relating to provision of family services, between a veteran being treated for a service-connected and a nonservice-connected condition. But it is noteworthy that VA is authorized to provide medical care and services (subject to a five-year time limit in the case of veterans) to OIF/OEF veterans who are not otherwise eligible for VA care. This special eligibility effectively treats the veteran who served in a combat theater on what amounts to a presumptive service-connected basis.

Given that the law effectively considers health problems experienced by combat veterans as though they are service-connected for treatment purposes, there appears no obvious rationale for treating an OIF/OEF veteran’s mental health problem differently for purposes of counseling family members. In fact, the language in current law, linking provision of family services to the goal of hospital discharge appears to be a relic of a long-abandoned provision of a prior eligibility law. Congress should have no hesitation about amending current law to enable family members of OIF/OEF veterans to get counseling and services that would enable them to better support the veteran in his/her treatment. ...

Ultimately, however, one might ask a broader question: can and should the Department of Veterans Affairs pursue a broader role than it has to date in meeting the mental health needs of returning veterans, and by extension those of their families? Systemwide, VA has not mounted an effort to engage family members, a particularly striking lapse in the case of OIF/OEF veterans who are service-connected for PTSD or other mental health problems. In our view, the Department has also been timid and unimaginative in looking beyond its own facilities even to meet OIF/OEF veterans’ needs, and has been appropriately criticized for a largely passive stance in failing to reach out aggressively to the approximately 500 thousand OIF/OEF veterans and their families – a population at significant risk of readjustment and mental health problems -- who are not under VA care for any condition. Despite the limited reach of its facilities in rural America, VA has only minimally pursued opportunities for partnerships with community providers of mental health services, resulting in widespread disparities in access to mental health services. And it has failed to heed the advice of its expert advisory body, the Special Committee on PTSD which urged the Department to mount a program of education and support for all returning veterans and their families. It may be that such an undertaking is beyond the scope of the Department’s capacities, but – despite widespread and profound national concern regarding the mental health issues facing many OIF/OEF veterans and their families -- VA has clearly neither budgeted for such an initiative nor, to our knowledge, reached out to other potential partners (to include its sister agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) to assist in such an initiative.

Many others testified as well and additional professional health care organization representative and VA witness testimony is available at the House Veterans Affairs Committee website.

Related Posts

• Upcoming Congressional Hearings on Combat PTSD
  
• Military Spouses Challenge Presidential Candidates to Attend February Veterans Issues Forum
  
• Helpful Guides for Returning Troops and Military Families
  
• A Look at the Unease of Transitioning to Homefront Living Following Combat
  
• Army Chief Agrees Troops Need More 'Dwell Time' at Home After Deployment
  
• Proactive Reintegration Suggestions for Military Family Members
  
• Wisconsin Guard/Reserve Spouses Needed for Deployment Stress Study
  
• First Combat PTSD College Course for Vets, Military Families Arrives
  
• Pace, Considering Another Troop Surge -- Now a 'Boost' -- Meets with Troops, Military Families
  
• Colorado State Senate Supports Funding OEF/OIF Family Mental Healthcare
  
• Denver/Boulder 'Strength after Service' Event for Vets, Military Family and Community Members
  
• New Army Hotline for Wounded Warrior, Military Family Help Now Available
  
• Study: Military Kids Have Higher Blood Pressure, Heart Rates, and Stress Levels
  
• Increased Deployment Tempo Strains Military Family Ties
  
• PTSD Breakdown: We're Failing the American Military Family
  
• Weekend Australian: PTSD Affects the Entire Family
  
• Need Transition Help? Free Resources for OEF/OIF Troops and Families
  
• Lifelines Online PTSD Video Series for Military Families
  
• Military Families: Preparing for Your Troop's Return Home
  
• PTSD and the Military Family: Recommended Reading

Illinois Action: Sauk Valley Veteran Feedback Sought Regarding New Area Medical Clinic

For many veterans, in rural areas especially, a trip to the local VA can be an irritating if not daunting, all-day affair.

As younger Afghanistan and Iraq vets stream home in need of -- at times specialized -- health care services in greater numbers, they join those in their area who've served in previous conflicts and continue to draw on their health care benefits.

Not surprisingly, the need for local VA medical clinics has grown by leaps and bounds. Veterans in my area of Illinois are no different, and they've been advocating for more easily accessible options closer to home. From the SaukValley News Editorial Board:

A proposed new medical clinic for Sauk Valley military veterans is a fantastic opportunity local residents should strongly support. As outlined by U.S. Rep. Phil Hare on a trip to Sterling earlier this week, the clinic could be situated in either Sterling or Rock Falls, saving veterans lengthy trips out of state.

Currently, veterans living in our region must travel to distant cities to receive care from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Some must drive or be transported as far west as Iowa City, about 110 miles away from our area. Others must go as far north as Madison, about 140 miles from us.

Hare, a Rock Island Democrat who just took over last month for his former boss, Lane Evans, wants to change all that. He has asked the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee to initiate the appropriations process to pay for a new clinic here.

Appearing at Monday's news conference with Hare was Ed Andersen, president and CEO of CGH Medical Center. It was to Andersen that a local veteran posed a question that sparked the medical clinic effort. The veteran asked why he had to drive all the way to Iowa City for a simple blood test.

That question got Andersen working toward a possible solution. He said the hospital is more than willing to cooperate with a veterans clinic, for instance, by offering services that the clinic might not be able to provide itself.

For his part, Hare said he is convinced there are enough veterans in the Sauk Valley to merit their own clinic. Based on U.S. Census figures for 2000, he's probably right. Whiteside County led the region with slightly more than 6,500 veterans. Ogle had more than 5,100 veterans, Bureau more than 3,800, Lee about 3,400 and Carroll more than 1,900, a total of almost 21,000.

Those figures are seven years old, however, so Hare said the first thing he needs to do is come up with a census of current veterans who would be interested in using a new clinic.

While Hare pursues this information through government channels, we think local veterans ought to give him a hand. We urge them to contact Hare's office with their names, addresses and comments of support for this important project.

Write to Hare at his district office: 1535 47th Avenue, #5, Moline, IL 61265; phone (309) 793-5760. [Hare's online contact information and form]

A new veterans clinic in the Sauk Valley will save local vets time, money and quite possibly their lives.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more on Hare and his work...

In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.

Medill Reports on Hare's move to fully fund VA benefits:

After erasing, changing, and perhaps skipping over answers on the Feb. 5 Illinois primary ballot, voters were overwhelmingly sure of their answer to one question.

More than 1 million voters in 23 counties throughout Illinois said yes to an advisory referendum calling for full and mandatory federal funding for veterans' health care. They were likely responding to reports about the difficulty veterans are having getting adequate medical care.

Federal funding is necessary to assure that veterans receive timely and fair benefits, says U.S. Rep. Phil Hare (D-Rock Island), a member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. Hare is the author and lead sponsor of a bill that would make health care for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs a mandatory spending item in the federal budget, like Social Security and Medicare.

Hare, who served six years in the Army Reserve, said the fact that the referendum passed by a vote of 90 percent or more in every county shows people in Illinois are pushing to compensate veterans. He hopes to see similar support in other states.

Hare talked this week about his fight for fair disability payments.

Q: How is the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs affected by annual changes in the budget?
A: Basically, everything related to veteran’s health care is related to this. The VA doesn’t know how much they have to operate their health-care facilities. In simple language, it’s like a person trying to pay their home expenses and not knowing how much their paycheck is, so it’s difficult to operate.

Q: How much does the bill call for under mandatory funding?
A: We’ve had 11 years in a row where we haven’t gotten the necessary funding to the VA for health care. The department is the second largest federal agency, and it needs assured funding. We’re asking for funding equal to about 130 percent of the administration’s obligations, which can be adjusted annually based on the number of veterans served.

Q: Does the bill target a specific issue?
A: The president’s budget calls for $38 million in cuts for prosthetics and health-care research. We're going to restore those funds. But while we’re doing that, the VA is kind of languishing and saying, ‘while you guys are duking it out, what do we do?’

Q: Is local support for the bill any indicator of a nationwide push?
A: [It shows] we have public support for the bill. And we have about 150 co-sponsors. I hope to have a hearing pretty soon on the issue. We’ve also gotten support from every major veterans organization, and now we have the Secretary of Veterans Affairs open to talking about assured funding. We want to expand [the ballot question] to other states across the country, and get the referendum on the ballot for the November election to let members of Congress take a look at what people in their congressional districts and states are saying. If you see such high numbers of support in Illinois, I’m guessing you’ll see as much or even more support nationally.

Q: As a veteran yourself, do you have a personal investment in pushing this issue?
A: Yes, it is close to my heart. We’re going to have more veterans come into the system with the Gulf War and Iraq and Afghanistan. The bottom line is we’re going to have more people in need of veterans health care. But you can’t do it if you don’t have the money. The VA is supposed to be the veterans' advocate, not the veterans' adversary. Veterans have never asked for anything in return for their service except for what we’ve promised them.

Related Posts

• Illinois Veteran PTSD Screening, Reintegration Program Gets Underway
  
• Dixon Elks Lodge Veteran's Dinner: Pictures and Remarks
  
• The American Conservative and IL Governor Take on Traumatic Brain Injury
  
• CNN: Local VA Hospitals Increase PTSD Outreach and Care

Experts, Advocacy Groups, Officials: VA Disability System Fixable

From Kelly Kennedy via Navy Times:

Medical experts, advocacy groups and Veterans Affairs Department officials say VA’s disability rating schedule needs to be updated — continually — but they denied the system is so bad that it needs to be dumped completely.

A Tuesday hearing of the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on disability assistance and memorial affairs also focused on studies conducted over the past year that point toward needed improvements not only in the ratings schedule, but in VA’s disability retirement system itself.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., chairman of the subcommittee, said VA needs to remove “archaic” criteria from the rating schedule; update psychiatric criteria to better reflect symptoms of troops diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder; find out why so many veterans with PTSD have been rated fully disabled; and update neurological criteria to include new research on traumatic brain injuries.

“The VA needs the right tools to do the right thing,” Hall said.

VA argued that it is already doing the right thing and has been updating the rating schedule, though officials acknowledged they could do better. From 1990 through 2007, VA had updated 47 percent of the ratings schedule, but 35 percent of the codes had not been touched since 1945. However, VA said it updated the codes for TBI in January and is working on an update for PTSD.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.

Continuing:

The Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission began looking at how service members’ and veterans’ disability cases were being handled long before February 2007, when Military Times and the Washington Post featured stories highlighting problems in the system. Retired Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn, a member of the commission, said VA has made “very limited progress” since the group’s report came out in October.

“I believe the ratings schedule needs to be clarified so it has logic from the point of view of medicine and science,” McGinn said. “It has not progressed in the last five decades.”

The group found that VA compensates veterans according to the schedule in a way that is “generally adequate to offset average impairment” and that the schedule does “reasonably well.”

But there are specific areas where VA’s system does not serve troops and veterans well, McGinn said, including those with PTSD, those severely disabled at a young age and those granted maximum benefits because a disability makes them unemployable.

Veterans with PTSD, he noted, have “much greater loss of employment and earnings” than those with physical disabilities.

McGinn recommended separate criteria on the rating schedule for PTSD, as well as a way to compensate unemployable veterans for lost quality of life, not just their inability to work.

So-called “individual unemployability” veterans may have formal VA disability ratings of less than 100 percent, but are still rated fully disabled because of their inability to work. The commission found that almost half of the 223,000 IU veterans have primary diagnoses of PTSD or other mental disorders.

The problem is that if a veteran has physical disabilities that lead to a 100 percent disability rating, he can still work and keep his full compensation. But a veteran who has a 100 percent disability for a mental disorder tries to work, he loses his compensation.

This could inspire a veteran to avoid seeking out vocational rehabilitation or employment, and also implies something “suspect” about claiming PTSD — which only adds to the considerable stigma behind the disease, said Dean Kilpatrick, a member of the Committee on Veterans’ Compensation for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder at the Institute of Medicine.

McGinn also requested couples therapy as part of treatment for PTSD. That is important because responding to a veteran’s anger with more anger can exacerbate the problem, while learning how to work with a spouse suffering PTSD can be part of a cure, he said. Also, many family members deal with their own mental health issues while living with someone with PTSD.

McGinn’s group and Kilpatrick had different recommendations as far as follow-up evaluations for people with PTSD. Again, other disabilities are not re-examined, so an exam puts those with mental disabilities in a separate class. But McGinn’s group sees follow-ups as a way to encourage vets to seek further treatment.

Kilpatrick said the exam for PTSD is also key. Examiners need to be carefully trained in how to diagnose and rate PTSD, and the exam should take up to three hours, rather than the 20 minutes that the Institute of Medicine found is often the case with veterans.

Sidney Weissman, a member of the American Psychiatric Association, said it is critical for for VA to repeat and update the training so that the way veterans are rated is standardized — rather than veterans in Ohio, for example, receiving higher ratings for the same symptoms than veterans in Texas.

Brad Mayes, director of VA’s Compensation and Pension Service, said VA has a five-part plan for updating the schedule: A study to look into the matter, hiring and training staff, finishing revisions that are under way, creating a review process, and looking at the possibility of quality-of-life compensation.

“I think you’re right on point, and we agree,” Mayes told Hall. “There has to be an ongoing, systemic approach.”

 Related Posts

• CNN: Waging War on the VA
  
• Veterans Disability Benefits Commission Releases Report, Recommends Sweeping System Overhaul
  
• DoD, GAO Reports Show Lack of Resources, Personnel Slowing Necessary Veterans Health Care Changes
  
• Delving into the Veterans' Disability Ratings System
  
• Disability Compensation Gap Higher for PTSD vs. Physically Wounded Vets
  
• U.S. News & World Report: More Evidence That Military Downgrading Disability Ratings
  
• Lead Ft. Lewis Army Lawyer: Military Stacks Deck Against PTSD, TBI-injured Troops
  
• Fewer Vets Granted Permanent Disability Today Than in 2001, Based on Percentages

Sunday's NIU Memorial to be Simulcast at Iraq's Camp Victory; Remembering Another Lost Huskie

On January 31, 2008, indirect fire ended the life of 1st Lt. David Schultz serving in Iraq with the 82nd Airbone Division.

Two short weeks later, on February 14, the 2005 NIU alum was joined by five other Huskies -- one of them a 12-year Army veteran herself -- after the senseless events that unfolded in Cole Hall that day.

This coming Sunday, NIU and its supporters will draw together throughout the community, throughout the state, throughout the country -- their embrace even extending as far as the sands of Iraq -- to honor those lost:

NIU Student Memorial Service - "Forward, Together Forward"
The university is planning a memorial service to be held at the Convocation Center in DeKalb on Sunday, February 24, 2008. The service will begin at 7 p.m. - Doors open at 5 p.m. The service will be broadcast live and available in real time from the NIU Home Page. In an effort to bring Huskies from across the country together, we've arranged group viewings in several locations...

[snip listing of all locations]

Baghdad, Iraq: Camp Victory
Our alumni and friends serving our country on the front lines are gathering at Camp Victory to watch the service and show their support for NIU.

I'll be in attendance at Sunday's memorial service.

While I'll be remembering those lost on February 14, I'll also be paying special tribute to another of our own: this one a Bronze Star, Purple Heart Huskie lost so far away from home only two weeks earlier. Enormous losses, every one.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more on David Schultz...

In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.

From AP:

The 82nd Airborne Division said a North Carolina-based paratrooper died from wounds he sustained during combat in Scania, Iraq, last week. The division said Saturday that 1st Lt. David Schultz, 25, of Blue Island, Ill., was hit by indirect fire Thursday. He was a platoon leader assigned to the division's 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team.

"First Lt. David Schultz was a vital part to this organization," said Lt. Col. Michael Iacobucci, commander of the 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment. "His standards of leadership, resolve, and professionalism were benchmarks by which others measured themselves."

Schultz graduated from Northern Illinois University in 2005 and joined the Army the same year. He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne a year later.

"First Lt. Dave Schultz was a soldier's soldier," said Capt. Nathan Paliska, Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, commander. "He did not mind rolling up his sleeves and getting dirty to accomplish the mission, not just for mission's sake, but for the success of the soldiers he led."

Schultz's awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart. Schultz is survived by his wife, Sabrina, and their son, who live at Fort Bragg; and his parents, David and Marjorie Schultz of Blue Island, Ill.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Sabrina Schultz clicked off the vacuum cleaner. Someone was pounding at the door of her home in Fort Bragg, N.C.

She peered out the kitchen window and nearly dropped to her knees. Two military officers in Class A uniforms stood outside. She took a moment to collect herself and then opened the door, thinking they might be at the wrong address.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Are you Sabrina Schultz, wife of 1st Lt. David Schultz?" one of them asked. Without answering, she spun around and went back inside, closing the screen door behind her. "I didn't want to hear what they had to say," she said Sunday from her home in Fort Bragg. "I thought they made a mistake. I am still in disbelief." ...

Schultz graduated from Eisenhower High School and Northern Illinois University. "He started out as this shy, quiet little boy and blossomed into a wonderful, caring young man," said his mother, Marjorie Schultz, of New Lenox. "He made us so proud. Every time we turned around, he was getting another award."

Schultz was featured in a November 2007 Daily Southtown story for his work collecting school materials and soccer balls for Iraqi children. With the help of his high school Spanish teacher, Michelle Alfano, they delivered several shipments to Iraqi school children.

"Seeing the smiles on Iraqi children's faces when you bring them the school supplies they need is one of the greatest things I have experienced over here," he said in an e-mail at the time.

Schultz left for Iraq last June.

"That was an awful day," said his wife, who grew up in Galena. "I was very pregnant, and it was hot. There were lots of hugs and kisses. Lots of emotion and long embraces."

Baby Logan, now seven months old, was born days later on Father's Day. Schultz had just arrived in Kuwait and spoke to his wife the day after the birth.

"It was wonderful. He was so excited but also heartbroken because he missed it," Sabrina Schultz said. He met his son for the first time during a two-week leave near Christmas. "I don't think I had ever seen him smile so big. He was so happy and nervous because he had never taken care of a baby before," she said. "But he had a real knack for it."

Schultz returned to Iraq Jan. 9. While they worried, no one in his immediate family sensed that he experienced danger on a daily basis. He was expected to return home in the fall. "He always told me there was no reason to worry. The violence level dropped significantly since they had been over there. I was feeling a little more comfortable about where he was," Sabrina Schultz said.

His mother agreed.

"I know he was in harm's way, but he was an executive officer. What are the odds of a missile coming through your office?" she said.

Schultz enjoyed hunting, fishing and country music. He was proud of his home town and Eisenhower High School where he wrestled and played football. His parents - dad David Schultz is a Blue Island police sergeant - moved to New Lenox a few months ago. The move and wintry weather on Thursday delayed the military's arrival at the Schultz home to deliver the tragic news.

They learned of their son's death after phoning Sabrina to gush about Logan. She sent photos and video showing him crawling for the first time - footage that David Schultz also saw hours before his death. After several back-and-forth phone calls, they learned the horrible news and spent the rest of the night pacing.

"I want Logan to know his daddy was a hero, that it was very hard for him to be away from him and that he felt so terrible when he missed his birth," Sabrina Schultz said. "We are all so proud of what he did." Schultz also is survived by a sister, Rebecca, and a brother, Doug. Funeral arrangements are pending at Hickey Memorial Chapel in Blue Island.

"It's the most God-awful feeling in the world for someone to tell you your child is gone and so far from home, and you can't touch him and see him," his mother said. "Did he suffer? Did he feel anything? That's what haunts me."

But they also find comfort knowing he enjoyed his work and was making a difference in Iraq. "He was an extremely patriotic person and believed in what he was doing. As corny as it sounds, he did give his life for all of us," Marjorie Schultz said. "He is a true hero."

From the Chicago Tribune:

Blue Island was a town in mourning Monday.

Hundreds of residents turned out to honor one of their own, Army Capt. David Schultz, who was killed in Iraq last month. They packed the pews at First Evangelical Lutheran Church. They stood outside in the freezing cold, many with signs and flags in their hands, to watch the procession.

Marine Corps Junior ROTC cadets from Eisenhower High School stood in formation as the procession passed, and the band played the U.S. Army Anthem. Some of the students who came outside to watch wept.

Schultz, who graduated from Eisenhower in 2001, was remembered by friends and family for his goofy sense of humor, ever-present smile and huge heart. "The one thing with David is, he's so much a part of all of us, part of the whole family," said uncle Ron Schultz. "It's hard to contemplate the loss."

Schultz, 25, was killed Jan. 31 in Scania, Iraq, when he was hit by indirect fire. He was a platoon leader assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. During the funeral, Army Maj. Todd Platner promoted Schultz to the rank of captain.

Schultz graduated from Northern Illinois University in 2005. The same year, he married his college sweetheart, Sabrina. The two met while working in student government. Last June, the couple had a son, Logan.

"I don't want to accept the reality that my husband is gone," Sabrina Schultz said during her eulogy, as many in the crowd dabbed their eyes. She said she couldn't believe she wouldn't be spending the next 50 years with her husband or having the dozen children they had planned. "In the next few months, the reality of this will hit me. ... I do find comfort knowing where he is."

She added that she believed her husband was still caring for her and their son. "Just a few days after Dave died, Logan said, 'Dada,' for the first time," she said. The loss was especially hard, friends and family said, because of his potential.

Last year from Iraq, he orchestrated a local donation drive for soccer balls and school supplies. He enlisted the help of his high school Spanish teacher, Michelle Alfano, and together they organized a fundraiser that resulted in at least 35 boxes being shipped to Iraq for schoolchildren.

During the service, Alfano said that when Logan asks about his dad someday, his family will have an answer. "David Schultz is a testament to how one person can change the world," Alfano said. "And he did."

He was also known for cracking jokes and having an upbeat attitude. He loved snakes, telling a teacher at Eisenhower that he wanted to bring his pet snake to class because "history is my snake's favorite subject."

His classmates remembered his smile. "He was very friendly and would help anybody out," said Brittany Sidler, 23. "He was always funny."

His former high school teammates and fellow soldiers spoke of Schultz's tenacity and determination. He was considered a hard worker on the football field and wrestling mat in high school, a quality he apparently took with him to Iraq. In his eulogy, Capt. John Luckie said Schultz possessed a "ferocity in which he approached life."

Schultz's father, David, is a sergeant at the Blue Island Police Department. Officers from the department, as well as neighboring police agencies, were on hand to guide the funeral procession, which led mourners past Schultz's old house and high school. Signs and flags dotted the route. Onlookers peered through windows. Several marquees in town said "Rest in Peace."

Schultz is also survived by his mother, Marjorie; a sister, Rebecca; and a brother, Doug. A benefit account has been set up to benefit Logan Schultz. Contributions can be made in the name of "Friends of 1st Lt. David E. Schultz" at any Interstate Bank.

Unbearable loss. My heart goes out to the entire Schultz family. Offer your condolences by signing David's guestbook.


Related Posts

• A Tribute to the Life of Army Veteran and NIU Student Julianna Gehant
  
• Emotional Warmth and Sunny Saturday Light Chase Away the Darkness at NIU
  
• A Little Update on Things Here
  
• A Dark Day at NIU with Pockets of Light
  
• NIU Veterans Day Ceremony Calls Upon Nation to Care for Its Heroes

Amidst Warrrior Transition Unit Overdoses, Army Surgeon General Schoomaker Blasts Streamlined Disability Pilot Project as 'Fast Bad Process'

From Kelly Kennedy via Army Times:

A pilot project intended to speed the process of evaluating and rating service members’ disabilities will do little more than turn a bad process into “a fast bad process,” the Army’s top medical official said Friday.

Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker’s comments came at a hearing at which the services’ surgeons general had their chance to brag about what they have done in the year since the outpatient scandal at Walter Reed broke — standing up units specially designed to take care of wounded troops, asking for and receiving money to house those service members, ombudsmen, internal checks and toll-free numbers for reporting problems – before the House Armed Services Subcommittee.

Schoomaker also spent some time talking about continued problems, including his view that the pilot project designed to streamline the disability system will not prove to be the answer. Under the test, taking place at three military medical facilities and one VA medical center in the Washington, D.C., area, service members will receive a single medical examination and a single disability rating issued by VA, an effort to eliminate duplication in the separate military and VA systems and speed up the process.

But Schoomaker said both the military and VA systems for dealing with service members’ disabilities is based on an “outdated” model from the 1940s, when most of the force consisted of single soldiers with no health care. “When you speed up a bad process, all you have is a fast bad process,” Schoomaker said of the ongoing pilot project.

On other issues, Schoomaker said mental health descriptors used by military medical professionals need to be updated to fit today’s ideas about post-traumatic brain injury and depression.

He also said the Army found a new “trend” as it grouped all of its wounded soldiers into one system where they could be carefully monitored: 11 deaths in that population due to suicide, accidental overdose by prescription medications, and in motor vehicle accidents. Schoomaker said the combination of multiple prescription drugs — usually pain medication — mental health issues, alcohol and no supervision on the weekends are contributing to the problem.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.

More on that new trend from an AP report earlier in the month, coming amidst the attention accidental overdoses was given in the wake of actor Heath Ledger's death:

Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army’s surgeon general, said there has been “a series, a sequence of deaths” in the new, so-called “warrior transition units.” Those are special units set up last year to give sick, injured and war-wounded troops coordinated medical care, financial advice, legal help and other services as they transition toward either a return to uniform or back into civilian life.

Without giving a number, Schoomaker said the deaths among the convalescing troops were “accidental deaths, we believe, often as a consequence of the use of multiple prescription and nonprescription medicines and alcohol.”

“This isn’t restricted to the military, alone, as we all saw the unfortunate death of one of our leading actors recently,” Schoomaker told Pentagon reporters. ... Schoomaker said he didn’t know whether the number of overdoses among soldiers was on the rise, but would try to provide statistics as soon as possible. The series of deaths was noticed and is getting attention partly because the new units concentrate the Army’s temporarily disabled and ill into special groups, thus making it possible for leaders to track and tabulate their health issues more closely and carefully than ever before.

“We’re dealing now with a group of wounded, ill or injured soldiers that have available to them through the medical system, a constellation of very potent and potentially lethal drugs (when taken) in the wrong combination,” Schoomaker said. Officials are working to try to prevent such deaths and “alert the soldiers themselves about what the medications they have may do to them,” Schoomaker said.

'Safety net' proposed
Officials want to “put a safety net around those folks who might have either psychological problems or other injuries or illnesses which may make it difficult to manage a constellation of drugs,” he said.

“I don’t believe those are suicides in the conventional sense. I think these are truly accidental deaths,” he said.

Schoomaker brought up the subject of overdoses when asked how he assessed recent preliminary figures indicating a possible rise in Army suicides during 2007.

The figures showed that, as of last month, officials had confirmed 89 suicides last year among active duty and activated National Guard and Reserve — and that another 32 deaths were still under investigation. If all are confirmed, the total of 121 would be nearly a 20 percent increase over 2006.

Soldiers who have killed themselves most commonly have used weapons, not drug overdoses, which accounted for less than 10 percent of suicides in recent years, according to Army figures.

Statistics show accidental overdoses have become a national problem, with the deaths from accidental ingestion of multiple prescription drugs now exceeding deaths from illegal drugs, Schoomaker said.

Unfolding throughout February, more details trickled out on these "drug cocktail" overdoses. Last week, the AP reported:

There have been at least three accidental drug overdoses and four suicides among soldiers in special units the Army set up last summer to help war-wounded troops, officials said late Thursday.

A team of pharmacists and other military officials met early this week at the Pentagon to look into the deaths in so-called "warrior transition units" - established to give sick, injured and wounded troops coordinated medical care, financial advice, legal help and other services as they attempt to make the transition toward either a return to uniform or back into civilian life.

The Army said officials had determined that among those troops there have been 11 deaths that were not due to natural causes between June and Feb. 5.

That included four suicides, three accidental overdoses of prescribed medications, three deaths still under investigation and one motor vehicle accident, the Army said.

"Army medical and safety professionals continue to remind soldiers and their families of the importance of prescription-drug safety precautions, including following the printed directions and information for each medicine," the Army said of the overdoses in a statement Thursday. Noting the death of actor Heath Ledger, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker last week first disclosed the issue of drug overdoses in the 35 special transition units, which care for more than 9,500 soldiers.

This comparison did not sit well with everyone:

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., [a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,] told reporters during a conference call Friday that likening Ledger's death to the deaths by overdose of wounded soldiers was not appropriate because Ledger was not injured in combat.

"He didn't have a traumatic brain injury," Bayh said. "He wasn't, as far as I know, under a physician's care or residing in a unit designed to protect him and treat him or given by his own caregivers potentially lethal doses of medication and left to self medicate himself when he had a traumatic brain injury."

Said Bayh, "I just think that analogy is inappropriate and I hope it will stop."

The senator pushed for an investigation following the death of Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, a member of the Indiana National Guard. Cassidy, who was in one of the transition units, was found dead in his room Sept. 21 at Fort Knox, Ky., about 15 months after being wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

An autopsy later determined he had been dead for hours and might have been unconscious for days before he was found alone. The Army Criminal Investigation Command determined the death was accidental and caused by a multidrug toxicity complicated by severe atherosclerotic coronary arterial disease.

Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, said Friday that Schoomaker's intent by the comments was to educate about the growing health risk of overdoses in the military population and the American population as a whole.

 Related Posts

• Are PTSD-Medicated Veterans Dying in Sleep -- or Committing Suicide?
  
• Studies, Reports, Promises and Reality: Another Deplorable Case of Veteran Neglect
  
• DoD, GAO Reports Show Lack of Resources, Personnel Slowing Necessary Veterans Health Care Changes
  
• DoD Task Force on Mental Health Report Arrives
  
• 20/20: ABC News Uncovers Soldiers and Drugs Story
  
• Some OEF/OIF Troops Returning Addicted to Military-Given Meds
  
• Times Argus: Some Troops Self-Medicating in Field
  
• More than 50% of Army's 948 Suicide Attempts in 2006 Sought Help First
  
• NPR's On Point: Troops in Combat Zone on Anti-Depressants
  
• Drug War: More Details on Medicated Troops in Combat

War-Related Mental Health Problems of Today's Veterans: New Clinical Awareness

This one is an oldie, but still a goodie.

Appearing in the July 2005 issue of the Journal of Psychological Nursing, this 11-page article is a good all-purpose clinical guide that can help us all better understand the diagnosis and treatment of combat PTSD. Download your own pdf copy to learn more about the following issues and more:

• War-related Emotional Responses
• Screening Questions for PTSD
• Stressors Faced by Today's Soldiers
• Medications Used to Treat PTSD

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for an excerpt...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

A brief excerpt:

With the increasing involvement of the United States in military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the number of veterans of these conflicts can be expected to rise steadily. Veterans of these actions and of the first Gulf War are unlike veterans of previous wars in many ways, and may experience different etiologies of illnesses related to their exposure to war. Health care professionals caring for these veterans must be aware of their potential problems if they are to treat them effectively.

WARTIME DIFFERENCES
The armed forces of the current era differ from those of the Vietnam and previous eras. In 1973, the all-male draft initiated as the Selective Service Act of 1948 was terminated. Since that time, the military has been composed of a much smaller, all-volunteer force. Today, the U.S. military is a diverse and complex population.

Ethnic minorities make up significant portions of the armed forces, ranging from 24% in the Air Force to 40% in the Army (Cozza et al., 2004). Approximately 16% of the active U.S. armed forces are women, and more than 50% of service members are married (Cozza et al., 2004).

A significant number of active duty personnel are drawn from National Guard and Reserve components. Such personnel may be exposed to significant stress related to deployment. Dates of their deployment are often unpredictable, and the duration of their active duty may not be known when they are deployed, creating an unstable environment for service members and their families. ...

PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS SEEN DURING WARTIME
War is an extremely stressful event that creates an atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty, and forces participants to face possible injury, loss, and death. The combat environment, with its violence, physical demands, and separation from loved ones, may precipitate a wide range of emotional distress or psychiatric disorders.

For example, as evidence of the emotional effects of the current war, 19.5% of an Army study group returning from Iraq reported perceiving they had a moderate or severe mental health problem (Hoge et al., 2004).

The psychiatric differential diagnoses for military patients at war is broad. The clinical picture will vary over the course of a war, depending on several factors, including individual patient characteristics, available social supports, and the time elapsed since the precipitating event. It is useful to consider the range of emotional responses in the context of the multi-phasic traumatic stress response, dividing the course of mental health issues into three phases based on the length of time since the event(s) precipitating emotional distress (Cozza et al., 2004):

• An immediate phase, during or immediately after a traumatic event.
  
• A delayed phase, in the aftermath of combat.
  
• A chronic phase, months to years after a precipitating event.

Various aspects and diagnostic considerations during each of the three phases are detailed in Table 1. Veteran patients seeking service in the civilian sector will usually be in the chronic phase of illness. In the following section, we will discuss the most common mental health problem expected to occur in veterans returning from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq—posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Related Posts

• Combat PTSD: What are the Symptoms?
  
• Combat PTSD: General Sequence of Treatment
  
• PTSD Treatment Options - A Quick Overview
  
• For Father's Day: Blue Star Mothers' "Guide to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder"
  
• Army Field Manual: Combat Stress Control Scope & Definitions

Illinois Veteran PTSD Screening, Reintegration Program Gets Underway

From the Quad City Times:

Barely off the ground, Illinois' first-in-the-nation program to help returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans deal with mental health issues is drawing intense interest from legislators who would like to see the country as a whole take similar steps.

In late January, Illinois began using state money to set up mandatory screening of all returning National Guard and Reserve troops for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, and also established a 24-hour hot line for veterans having trouble readjusting.

"We should be doing it nationwide, and we should be paying for it at the federal level," says Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who is exploring what aspects of the $8 million Illinois program can be implemented at the federal level. "These are ticking time bombs. We've got suicides, homicides, domestic violence."

Last week, Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., called on Congress to adopt full mandatory funding for veterans' health care - making it a legal requirement in the federal budget, like Social Security and Medicare. In so doing, Hare cited Illinois' efforts at the state level as showing the unmet needs among veterans, and as pointing the way toward the type of programs that can succeed.

Since the program was started two weeks ago, 860 veterans and family members have come forward to get help, says Jessica Woodward, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

Continuing:

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, says Illinois bears watching for what it can offer to avert "a national tragedy" in the making, with hundreds of thousands of combat veterans being inadequately diagnosed and treated for mental health problems after combat.

"Part of the cost of war should be treating our warriors," Filner says. Screening everyone as Illinois is doing avoids situations where soldiers forgo mental health checks to avoid the "stigma," he says. While mandatory screening helps in some instances, other veterans don't experience problems until much later, which is where the hot line can be key.

The story of Staff Sgt. Scott Snyder, a member of the Illinois National Guard and until last year a recruiter for the Army National Guard, suggests the gaps the Illinois program already is filling.

Snyder spent 10 years in the Army, then joined the National Guard and volunteered for Iraq. After taking part in the initial invasion of Iraq and fighting for 17 months, Snyder returned home to Moline, Ill., in July 2004 and quickly readjusted to civilian life - or so he thought.

He settled into a good job as a diesel technician with the Department of Defense and into his family role as a husband and father of three. "On the surface everything appeared pretty normal," Snyder says. "I had no idea what was in store for me."

He found out on the evening of March 24, 2007. It was a quiet night, and he and his wife were looking forward to some hot wings and a war movie. Two minutes into the movie, everything changed.

Suddenly he was back in Iraq, standing in the city of Balad with his M-16 in his right hand and, inexplicably, a croquet mallet in his left hand, watching blue and white missiles come into view and explode, one after another. He was dying, and Iraq was something "I was supposed to relive, before passing over completely to the other side." ...

Since that episode, Snyder, 40, had put his family through an ordeal with his bizarre behavior, which included one night in May when he was "running around the house trying to find my guns, of which I didn't have any at home." Police arrested him that night.

He ended up at Fort Knox for an intense 30-day evaluation program. And later, he was told he had post-traumatic stress disorder, but the term meant nothing to him. Local National Guard officials couldn't do much to help him, either, he says, adding that he felt he got caught up in "a lack of resources, red tape and bureaucracy."

"Nobody knew what to do with me," he says.

A few days ago, hoping for help, Snyder called the new hot line. The clinical psychologist with whom he spoke answered his questions in ways he could understand, he says. She walked him through his condition and then startled him by calling back a day later to continue the conversation, he adds.

Now, Snyder is in the state's program, optimistic that he has seen the worst of his condition, and regretting that he didn't get this kind of help earlier because it could have saved him "a year of red tape and grief."

Screening for traumatic brain injuries is currently available to all Illinois veterans, Woodward says, and the first demobilization events with mandatory screening for the Illinois National Guard will take place at the end of the month, with another set for March.

"We hoped that Illinois veterans, their family members and friends would use this program - and they are," she said.

For a full list of Illinois veterans resources, download a copy of the State of Illinois Veterans Benefits Guide and the Veterans Benefits Initiative Booklet [both pdf].


Related Posts

• States Move to Assist Uninsured Veterans
  
• The American Conservative and IL Governor Take on Traumatic Brain Injury
  
• IL Chief of Vets Affairs Tammy Duckworth Testifies on TBI and PTSD

Comforting, Yet Discomfiting, New Clue Found in Florida Missing Iraq Veteran Case

From ABC News:

The discovery of a military-style "spider hole" that may have been used by a missing ex-Marine who is likely suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder has restored hope for the combat veteran's family that he is alive.

Eric Hall, 24, disappeared on Feb. 3 in Port Charlotte, Fla. He was staying with his grandmother when he experienced what his family and authorities have described as a "combat flashback." The Marine, who was left with a permanent limp from a 2005 bomb blast in Iraq, began walking around the house shooting an imaginary gun at imaginary enemies.

Hall then took off on his motorcycle, which later was found with engine running lying in the middle of a road in Deep Creek, near Fort Myers, on Florida's west coast.

The local sheriff's office called off its search more than a week ago, but Hall's mother, Becky, and a cadre of volunteers led in part by retired members of the military continue to look for the former Marine in an area densely covered with trees and shrubs. [pictures of the search and the spider hole they found]

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

Continuing:

On Monday, one of those volunteers discovered what is generally known in the military as a spider hole, a dugout camouflaged hiding place. It measured approximately 2-and-a-half feet deep, 3 feet wide and 6 feet long. Near the hole, which was in a wooded area about four miles from where the motorcycle had been found, was a Reebok footprint matching the shoes Hall was reportedly wearing when he disappeared. There was also a hole in the ground that had been used as a military-style toilet.

Tracking dogs from the Southwest Florida K-9 Search Unit were called in, a spokeswoman for the group told ABC News. Using the scent from an article of clothing provided by Hall's family, the dogs immediately alerted to Hall's track, according to Becky Hall and Ret. Army Sgt. 1st Class Tim Baker, one of the volunteers involved in the search. A truck bed liner was found near the spider hole that could have been used to hide Hall's location during the day.

"What my gut tells me is that he was experiencing Iraq," Becky Hall told ABC News, "that he's still in that mode." ... Hall is thought to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from a June 2005 explosion that killed a fellow Marine and injured Hall's right arm, left leg, hip and the left side of his abdomen, according to his family.

His injuries were so severe that he spent 13 weeks in military hospitals in Germany and Bethesda, Md. He has undergone nearly 20 operations since the explosion and was granted a medical retirement by the U.S. Marine Corps. Before serving in Iraq, Hall served in Afghanistan, according to his mother.

Hall frequently would wake up in the night after having nightmares about combat, his aunt, Marge Baker, told ABC News earlier this month. He had moved to Florida in January with the hope of putting his military experiences behind him. "While it is a disabling [injury], he didn't want it to be the forefront of him," Marge Baker said. "He wanted a job, he wanted to get back into society and be meaningful to society." ...

The behavior Hall has exhibited is consistent with PTSD, which is often associated with combat veterans, according to Nadine J. Kaslow, a professor at Emory University's Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.

Kaslow described three ways in which PTSD can manifest in men and women back from war: "re-experience," in which a person continues to think intensely about combat situations; "avoidance," in which emotions associated with trauma are beaten back; and "hyper-arousal," in which a person may act abnormally paranoid or jumpy.

Flashbacks can be a common symptom of PTSD, Kaslow said, but added that hallucinations may go beyond the disorder into some type of psychosis.

More from the Evening News and Tribune:

Pain killer addiction, flashbacks and stress were among some of the most significant challenges Eric Hall has faced since returning from Iraq in 2005. At the time of his disappearance relatives said he was having flashbacks and hallucinations. The symptoms were something Eric Hall had experienced before, though “not in this grand of fashion,” said Kevin Hall, his father.

Kevin Hall recalls one instance when Eric was driving his Jeep along 8th Street in Jeffersonville and slammed on his brakes, thinking there was an Iraqi road block ahead. Kevin Hall believes pain medication may have been a contributor to his son’s stress.

Eric Hall had been on medication since he was injured in an explosion in Fallujah, Iraq, in June 2005. He spent 13 weeks in the hospital immediately following the bombing, treated for damage to his right arm, left leg and hip and the left side of his abdomen. A fellow Marine was killed in the same blast.

Around the time he went to a doctor to wean himself off of the pain medication, he was involved in a car accident on the Kennedy Bridge that broke his jaw, Kevin Hall said. After that, he found himself back on the drugs.

“The drug part of it more or less was trying to cover up the mental scars,” he said. “He was excited about going to Florida — it was going to be a new start.” Kevin Hall said Eric Hall took himself off pain medication once he arrived in Florida.

But there are also other factors to consider as well. Eric Hall once went weeks without seeing a psychiatrist. Then just before his scheduled appointment, he received a call saying his psychiatrist would have to reschedule. “Just that little bit of rejection goes a lot deeper than it would to a normal human being,” Kevin Hall said.

Media influences varied for Eric Hall. Kevin Hall said he and his son once watched a TV program that showed scenes from Iraq. It even showed the Fallujah street on which he was injured, he said. “I watched his attitude and mannerisms the next couple of days — it didn’t seem to bother him at all.”

Friends reported he had recently been playing a video game released by the Army as a recruiting tool. He started backing away from it after playing for a few days. “Has it been a typical three years — no,” said Kevin Hall. “We’ve had good times, we’ve had bad times — we knew we were going to have both.”

Many of Eric Hall’s family members are questioning how they reacted to the changes in his behavior prior to this episode, Kevin Hall said. Some are even blaming themselves. “Should we have seen something? Another danger sign?” he asked rhetorically. “You just don’t know how to deal with some of these situations.”

Rep. Baron Hill, D- Seymour, said his office made contact with the Hall family this week, offering to help in the search in anyway it can. Hill believes the federal government is not doing all it can to help keep up with the needs of veterans suffering from mental health disorders, although he feels the situation is improving.

The military is beginning to give such disorders the attention they deserve, Hill said. “The number of suicides as a result of post traumatic stress disorder has increased,” he said. There is not much Washington D.C. can do about it directly, other than increase funding for veterans care, he said.

Recently an additional $6 billion was appropriated to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Within the last few years the Department of Veterans Affairs has started major initiatives related to mental health care, said Laurie Tranter, a department spokesperson. Approximately 3,800 new mental health experts have been staffed at veterans’ hospitals across the country. Additionally, a suicide prevention hotline has been started.

“If they come to the VA, what they need is going to be provided,” Tranter said.

Since the war in Iraq began, approximately 800,000 service men and women have separated from the military, she said. About 300,000 of those veterans have come to the department seeking medical care, of that total about 120,000 came for mental health care. About half have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, she said.

“Back in Vietnam, we were just learning about PTSD,” Tranter said. “Everybody has learned so much about it since then.”

Details:

Eric Hall is a white male, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, 160 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, a plaid shirt and a black leather jacket. He has a scar on his left leg and numerous tattoos. Anyone with information locally can call the Clark County Sheriff’s Office at (812) 283-4471.

Related Posts

• Vietnam Veteran Believed to Have Found Missing Iraq Vet Suffering with PTSD
  
• Another Georgia Family Searches for Missing Iraq Veteran Son
  
• Missing GA Iraq Veteran
  
• Missing OH Iraq Veteran

Military PTSD Diagnosis Now Proof Enough for VA -- For Some

From Kelly Kennedy via Air Force Times:

The Department of Veterans Affairs has scrapped a policy requiring combat veterans to verify in writing that they have witnessed or experienced a traumatic event before they can file a claim for post-traumatic stress disorder — but only if the military has already diagnosed them with PTSD.

“This change provides a fairer process for veterans with service-connected PTSD,” Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, said in a written statement. “[It] leaves claim adjudicators more time to devote to reducing the staggering backlog of veterans’ claims.”

In the past, a veteran has needed written verification — a statement from a commander or doctor, or testimony from co-workers — that he or she was involved in a traumatic situation to receive disability compensation from VA if they had not already been diagnosed by the military during a disability retirement process. But PTSD is the only condition that a veteran must “reprove” to receive disability benefits from VA.

“They don’t have to reprove their diabetes,” said Mary Ellen McCarthy, special projects counsel for the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “They don’t have to reprove a leg injury. I have never seen any other condition diagnosed in service [for which] people had to reprove their injury.”

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

Continuing:

The VA regulation was written at a time when the military was not diagnosing PTSD among troops, McCarthy said.

She travels to VA regional offices to check the progress of veterans going through the disability claims system. Even though many of the former troops had already proven they had witnessed a traumatic event in writing as they went through the military disability retirement system, often that paperwork had been lost by the time they reached VA, McCarthy said.

“It could take months to get that paperwork,” she said.

That slows up the paperwork process. And the veteran has to go through the stressful process of reproving that they lived through a roadside bomb explosion or that they witnessed a friend’s death or that they killed an insurgent.

“Revisiting those stressors in a non-therapeutic environment can make the diagnosis worse,” McCarthy said. Akaka said he asked VA Secretary Dr. James Peake if the rule was necessary and requested that it be removed, and Peake agreed.

“I am pleased that the secretary took quick action to reverse this requirement after it was brought to his attention,” Akaka said. Peake has already informed VA regional offices of the decision, Akaka said.

Of course, some clarification of this new rule is needed. Larry Scott (VAWatchdog.org) and Kathie Costos offer a few things worthy of considering, via Wounded Times:

Leave it to Larry Scott of VAWatchdog to get to the bottom of this.

UPDATE: VA'S NEW PTSD POLICY APPLIES ONLY TO THOSE DIAGNOSED WHILE ON ACTIVE DUTY -- VA agrees that veterans who are diagnosed with PTSD while on active duty should be recognized as having PTSD for VA purposes.

Yesterday it was reported that the VA had a new policy regarding proof of trauma in PTSD claims. Unfortunately, a confusing story published by the Military Times Group did not mention that the new policy applies only to those diagnosed with PTSD while on active duty.

We now have a clarification from Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Akaka's press release on the matter.

As posted earlier, it sounded too good to be true. It's a step in the right direction but leaves too many holes to be plugged up. Personality Disorder discharges, all over 20,000 of them, along with the misdiagnosed are left with what under these new rules?

PTSD being diagnosed while active, in other words by the DOD, have not protected any of them so far. Remember the redeployed under medication for PTSD? Where does this leave them? What about the discharged who were diagnosed with PTSD but at such low levels they are receiving zero compensation or ridiculously low compensation?

This will do nothing to reduce the backlog of claims in the VA especially if they were diagnosed after they were discharged. Then we also have to figure in those who have not been diagnosed yet but are trapped in the waiting line. How do they turn around and prove the traumatic event happened? Are they supposed to end up like the Vietnam veterans still trying to find people who will offer support for a claim?

Like I said, it's a step in the right direction but why does it have to be such a tiny baby step?

Related Posts

• Action: Full Faith in Veterans Act
  
• VA Continues to Fall Behind in Claims Processing Time
  
• When Time Isn't on Your Side: The Veterans' Medical Disability Claim System Backlog

A Tribute to the Life of Army Veteran and NIU Student Julianna Gehant

"God seemed to have made her just what she was that she might be a blessing to others, and when the influence of her character and abilities began to be felt, removed her. These are the Mysteries, my Dear, that we cannot contemplate without astonishment, but which will nevertheless be explained hereafter, and must in the mean time be revered in silence."

-- William Cowper

In a few hours, my husband and I along with a veteran friend are attending slain NIU student and 12-year Army veteran Julianna Gehant's visitation. While I don't wish to overstate this, I was near her and the others when the incident occurred and will carry them in my heart forever.

I did not personally know Julianna, but it's been my pleasure to have met a time or two with a few of the fine members of the NIU Veterans Club (images and words from last November's NIU Veteran's Day ceremony); a few of them even helped with a class paper of mine written last semester on returning veterans seeking college degrees following service to their country.

Returning veterans are among a community's greatest assets, among their greatest citizens. In times of crises and dark and violent circumstances on our soil or abroad, they step up to defend us; it's a shame that more in our society don't realize the strong leaders our returning veterans are.

Julianna was clearly one of these.

It will be our honor to pay our respects to the Gehant family, to offer our support, and to thank them tonight for the service of their daughter and the many sacrifices made by the entire Gehant family to our country. It will also do me much personal good to be able to reach out to them in their darkest time, banding together with other community members to offer them and the Veterans Club even a small sliver of comfort and kindness.

This space pays tribute to Julianna's obvious grace and goodness, many talents, her inner and outer beauty, personal and professional strength, and her soaring heart borne out by both her accomplishments and the words offered up in tribute to her since her death last Thursday. Please add your own condolences.

May she find the eternal peace she so valiantly and selflessly worked to bring about in our world while she was with us.

[UPDATE Feb 20, 2008]: From the NIU Veterans Club blog:

The Julianna Gehant Memorial project team is working hard to make this a reality. We are finalizing the proof [for a memorial in her honor] today and then will have a quote on pricing. Donation information will follow.

[Photo of wreath placed in Julianna's honor at NIU Veterans Memorial used by permission of Jose Alfonso Villalobos.]

The memorial dedication is going to be Friday, March 7, 2008 at 11:00am Central time. The location will be the NIU Veterans Memorial in DeKalb, IL, at the corner of College Avenue and Castle Drive, across from Lowden Hall and next to the East Lagoon.

The dedication ceremony will be open to the public. The ceremony will feature guest speakers, a military-style service, and more. Updated information will continue to be posted on this blog, on our Facebook group site and on www.niuveteransclub.org.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for much more...

Faculty advisor Jon Lehuta posted this NBC News interview with NIU's Veterans Club reflecting on their lost friend and colleague:



In educational interest, articles quoted from extensively.

From the Rockford Register Star:

Julianna Gehant stood out among 400 college students that Betsy Smith works with as academic adviser for elementary education at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

“She lit up a room. She was thrilled to finally be doing what she wanted to do. She was very nice, kind, and mature, and very smart,” Smith said Friday of Gehant, who was on the dean’s list for being a high academic achiever.

“The reason she was in that science class was she was taking it so she could be a better elementary schoolteacher,” Smith said, referring to the geology class where Gehant was shot and killed on Thursday by a lone gunman.

Gehant’s mother, Debra Gehant of Mendota, said another daughter, Jennifer, whom Julianna lived with in Meriden, called her Thursday afternoon to tell her she’d heard about a shooting at NIU. The family tried to reach Julianna, as did university officials, but she didn’t answer her cell phone. About 10 p.m., police called and asked for a description of Julianna, a 5-foot-tall, longhaired, blue-eyed, 32-year-old woman. Her family said she had a zest for life that included serving about 12 years in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a carpenter whose job included building schools overseas.

After the call, the family traveled to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, where Julianna had been taken by rescue staff. Only once before did Julianna give her parents, Debra and Ed, a scare. She wasn’t able to call home for a few weeks during her service in Bosnia.

“I worried about her being in Bosnia,” Debra said in a phone interview Friday. “I didn’t worry about her sitting in a classroom.”

Julianna, a commuter student, was hardly one to sit around, though. One of her favorite things to do was watch “Dancing with the Stars” on TV with her mom. She liked it so much that she enrolled in a ballroom dancing class at NIU, where she started classes last year with the aim of getting a degree to teach young children.

Julianna enrolled in the service right after she graduated from Mendota High School in 1994, her mom said, recalling memories of her daughter in high school. One proud moment for Debra: when Julianna played a voodoo witch in a school play. Debra also said Julianna was in high school when her mother was impressed with her daughter’s artistic talents. Julianna found a picture of her mom when she was a baby, copied it, made a portrait of her mother and gave it to her as a Christmas gift.

“She was a wonderful woman, a go-getter, who knew what she wanted and went after it,” her mother said.

From the DeKalb Daily Chronicle:

Family and friends described Julianna Gehant as a woman who followed her own path and was always there to offer a smile or a hand.

Gehant's aunt, Tina Pocius, said her niece was driven in every aspect of her life. Whether it was her 12-year military career or her family and friends, Gehant would give everything she had.

“She was an overachiever,” Pocius said. “Everything she did, she put 150 percent in.”

Christine Benson, a former choir teacher, taught Gehant at Mendota High School for four years. During that time, she came to appreciate the quick smiles and caring personality that defined her student and friend.

“She was just so affable,” Benson said during a phone interview Friday. “She was a very special person.” It was her love of creating, and a desire to one day attend college, that led her to the military.

“She wanted to go to college, and one of her ways of doing that was going into the service,” Benson said. “For such a young individual, she knew what her goals were and followed through with them. I just really admired her.”

Enlisting in the Army after graduation, Gehant worked as an engineer and served in places like Bosnia and Korea. She rose to the rank of staff sergeant. She returned to Mendota High School as an Army recruiter, then began to follow her dream as she enrolled at NIU with the goal of becoming a second-grade teacher.

Dave Schroeder, a retired drama teacher, kept in touch with Gehant through the years and spoke Friday during a memorial service at Mendota High School.

“I had told her before, ‘When you go to apply for a job, I want to be the first one to write a recommendation,'” Schroeder said during a phone interview Friday. “She would have been an absolutely great teacher.”

The Chicago Sun-Times:

After serving for more than 12 years in the U.S. Army and the Army Reserves, 32-year-old Julianna Gehant enrolled at Northern Illinois University last fall, planning to get an education degree so she could become a teacher.

Gehant took her classes seriously — she usually sat in the front row and took lots of notes, friends said Friday as they mourned her death in a classroom shooting that left the Mendota woman and four other classmates dead.

“It’s just unfortunate because we all know that she paid attention and would always be in the front of the class,” said a friend and NIU classmate, J.D. Kammes. “That’s why, probably, this happened. She was always diligent, always in the front, always wanted to learn.”

Her family on Friday found it hard to reconcile that Gehant was killed inside a lecture hall.

“They were so afraid of her going to Iraq, and what took her was going to school,’’ said Mike DePaul Jr., a close family friend. Kammes said Gehant worked in the Army — she never was sent to Iraq — as a carpenter but had a variety of interests, including ballroom dancing. They partnered together at ballroom dances on campus and around the area, Kammes said.

“She would do anything for you,” he said. “She was always happy. Just being around her around made you happy. You couldn’t be sad around her. She believed strongly in service and helping other people, that’s why she was in the military and now she was trying to get an education. It’s such a loss you can’t even express it.

She lived with a sister in the Mendota area and commuted to NIU, but she had stayed overnight on campus Wednesday with a friend, largely because of the snow and cold weather. She spent the evening studying, including preparing for Thursday’s geology class.

“I just saw her,” said Theresa Blank, another friend and classmate. “She left to go to this class and never came back.” Blank added: “It’s just tragic to see someone taken.”

Gehant had joined the NIU Veterans Club, so she spent some time associating with other military vets who tended to be older and more worldly than most freshman students. Members of the club placed a framed color photo of a smiling Gehant at the base of a flagpole near Altgeld Hall and a campus park.

“As a veteran, she served her time and you come here for a fresh start and she was on her path to her new career,” said Danielle Adame, a classmate. “She probably sat in the front row to get the best notes and everything.”

Gehant served in the Army in an engineering unit, where her building skills could be put to use, Kammes said. One of her favorite stories from the service was spending time in Laos, where she helped build a school for local children.

“She was very proud of that,” Kammes said. “She was the kind of friend that you find once in a lifetime. She was an unbelievable person.” He broke into tears when he learned early Friday that she had been killed, though he had grown uneasy on Thursday after not hearing from her after the shooting.

“She would never have hurt anyone. She was just so kind all the time,” he said, adding he wants to remember how she lived her life, not how she was slain. “You try to think of all the good times you had, not the tragedy. It’s horrible that this kind of thing happened. I’d rather remember her how I knew her and not how it is today,” he said.

From the Arlington Heights Daily Herald:

After spending more than a decade on active duty in the Army, Julianna Gehant had set her sights on a new career: teaching. In a recent Christmas card to a former drama teacher, the 32-year-old woman from Mendota in LaSalle County, had written of plans to teach second graders.

"(She) would have made a tremendous teacher," said Dave Schroeder, who taught Gehant for four years at Mendota Township High School, where she graduated from in 1994. "She would just have been superior."

Known as Julie during her high school years, Gehant was involved in many dramatic productions at Mendota High, Superintendent Jeff Prusator said. She also participated in concert choir and art.

Although she acted occasionally, her real interest in stage work was on the technical crew, said Schroeder, who retired in 2000 but remained in touch with Gehant. She designed many programs for the high school's productions, he recalled.

"She was a tremendous artist," Schroeder said. "Her designs for the covers were absolutely fantastic."

Gehant also helped build sets and did other technical work for the school's stage shows. "She knew how to handle a hammer," Schroeder said. Gehant's acting and technical credits included productions of "Murder in the Magnolias," "Brigadoon," "Night Watch" and "Anything Goes."

She enlisted in the Army while still in high school. Her military service began in July 1994, a Defense Department spokesman said. A decorated soldier, she served as a construction engineer supervisor and had earned the rank of sergeant first class. Her service included time in the war-torn Serbian province of Kosovo in the late 1990s.

Gehant left active duty in March 2007 and joined the Army Reserve. She was most recently assigned to the 100th Division in Louisville, Ky., the largest institutional training division in the Army Reserve. Several teachers on staff at Mendota High knew Gehant and were shaken by her death.

"It's hit some of them very, very hard," Prusator said. "It's one of those things you hear about but never think it'll happen to you."

Students and staff members were encouraged Friday to sign a banner that will be sent to Gehant's family. Additionally, the Mendota High School is collecting money for the NIU crisis center in her memory, Prusator said.

[UPDATE Feb 20, 2008]: Funeral coverage from FOX Chicago:

With one hand, Edward Gehant held his wife Debra as the pair watched their daughter’s flag-draped coffin exit a Mendota church Wednesday morning. With his other hand, Gehant saluted in honor of the Army veteran who died in the Feb. 14 shooting at Northern Illinois University.

Julianna Gehant, a 32-year-old freshman at NIU who spent 12 years in the Army in both active duty and the reserves, was buried with full military honors Wednesday near her family’s Mendota home. An Army flag hung next to her grave; a bugler played “Taps;” and seven soldiers shot rifles three times in a row.

The burial followed a funeral mass at Holy Cross Church, infused with bright light and incense. Outside the church, members of the Patriot Guard Riders stood watch, next to a block-long stretch of American flags blowing in the bitter wind.

“Today we bury a hero,” said the Rev. James E. Kruse, pastor of Holy Cross Church.

Concelebrating the funeral mass was Bishop Daniel Jenky, head of the Peoria Archdiocese, and Msgr. Glenn Nelson of the school’s Newman Center. Kruse spoke of Julianna’s many military honors, and speculated that in her final moments of terror in the classroom, she did what soldiers are trained to do. She helped.

“Soldiers are not taught the way of cut and run,” Kruse said. “Soldiers are taught to help in the time of need.”

Kruse wondered aloud if Julianna was the woman students in the Cole Hall classroom spoke of who yelled that the shooter was reloading and students should run.

“I don’t know for certain but she’s a hero in my mind,” he said as mourners were heard quietly crying in the church.

More than 100 people gathered at the cemetery for the burial despite the severe cold, many holding pink, orange or red roses, their winter coats decorated with black and red ribbons. The road cutting through the Mendota cemetery leading to Gehant’s grave was lined with American flags.

Huddled together in a tent, Julianna’s parents, sister and other relatives accepted condolences and the American flag that draped her coffin.

Julianna was studying to be a second grade teacher, Kruse said. Her second grade teacher read the first reading at the mass in honor of her ambitions. Her friends previously said that she was serious about school, typically sitting in the front row of her classes and taking lots of notes.

Kruse told family and friends gathered in the church that the incident brought tough questions, but today they should not look for answers. They should look around them, at the packed church, and remember the comfort and support offered to them in their daughter’s name.

“Ed, you are not alone,” Kruse said. “Deb, you are not alone.”

Photos from Rockford Register Star:


From ABC News-Chicago:

The service was private, as hundreds of friends and family offered a final tribute to Juliana Gehant, known as Julie to most. Having served 12 years in the Army, her services got the escort of the Patriot Guard.

"She was continuing to be a soldier and didn't put that behind her. And sitting in the classroom, the unthinkable happens," said Master Sgt. Lee Clement, co-worker. Among those attending were friends from Meriden, the small town where Gehant grew up.

"I grew up with her and lived next door and we all grew up together. It was a small town. And we all played together and spent the night together. And she was a really nice girl," said Tina Hensley, friend.

"We lived in a small town. So the siblings were all gone and she was always fun loving and joking around and laughing," said Tammy Caddell, friend. "She was a sweet kid. I'd known her her whole life. She will be missed," said Robin Ridley, friend.

After Gehant's military service, Gehant wanted to do something new.
She wanted to teach. So she enrolled at NIU last fall to get her teaching certificate. She was known as a serious, focused student, usually sitting in the front of the class. Unfortunately, she was near the front of the classroom when a gunman opened fire last Thursday.

Gehant was one of five students killed in a college lecture hall before the gunman killed himself. She was buried Wednesday with full military honors. Her [final] resting place is Holy Cross Cemetery in Mendota.

[Video of ABC's broadcast.]

Related Posts

• Memorial Dedication Ceremony Slated for Slain NIU Student, Army Vet Julianna Gehant
  
• Sunday's NIU Memorial to be Simulcast at Iraq's Camp Victory; Remembering Another Lost Huskie
  
• Emotional Warmth and Sunny Saturday Light Chase Away the Darkness at NIU
  
• A Little Update on Things Here
  
• A Dark Day at NIU with Pockets of Light
• NIU Veterans Day Ceremony Calls Upon Nation to Care for Its Heroes

Veterans for America Issues Report on Fort Drum, Site of Much Post-Combat Distress

Last November, eight-year Army veteran Sgt. Brad Gaskins was arrested for going AWOL from Fort Drum, New York. He'd served one peacekeeping tour in Kosovo and two tours in Iraq, having problems with flashbacks, nightmares, headaches, sleeplessness, weight loss and aggressive mood swings after returning from the second Iraq tour.

At the time of his arrest, AP reported:

...Gaskins said he left the base in August 2006 because the Army wasn't providing effective treatment after he was diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression. "They just don't have the resources to handle it, but that's not my fault," Gaskins said.

From Veterans for America:

Over the past decade, Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division has been one of the Army’s most heavily deployed divisions. Since September 11, 2001, Fort Drum’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT) is the most deployed brigade in the Army – with more than 40 months logged away from home in that time.

VFA’s new report [details :: download pdf] highlights the lack of treatment available to combat Soldiers and presents potential solutions to what the Pentagon acknowledges is a “daunting and growing” problem.

“Sooner or later, and likely sooner, we’re going to hit the wall and something will have to change,” said Bobby Muller, VFA’s founder. “Simple morality and decency demand a change. We cannot continue taking such gross advantage of those who have offered themselves in service to our country.”

On their latest Iraq tour, members of the 2nd BCT were more than five times more likely to have been killed than others who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and more than four times as likely to have been wounded. In all, the 2nd BCT has been deployed four times. Pentagon studies have found that a Soldier’s chance of developing mental health problems increases 60 percent upon each deployment.

“Soldiers at Fort Drum have been repeatedly exposed to high intensity combat. Mental health resources must match this level of sacrifice,” said Jason W. Forrester, one of the report authors.

Multiple Soldiers at Fort Drum informed VFA of low morale on base and rising DUI and AWOL rates. Even when Soldiers had the courage to seek mental health treatment, they often waited as long as two months for appointments with on-base mental health professionals.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

From the Introduction:

Soldiers from Fort Drum are bearing a disproportionate burden of the costs of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the mental health care system at Fort Drum is not meeting the demands of this burden.

Of all U.S. Army divisions, the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, New York, has been the most affected by our country’s crushing recent deployment cycle. Since September 11, 2001, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT)1 is the most deployed brigade in the Army, having recently completed its fourth tour (the Appendix contains the 2nd BCT’s post-9/11 deployment history). In all, the 2nd BCT has been deployed for more than 40 months since 9/11.2 Compounding the difficulties facing members of the 2nd BCT is the Army-wide problem of inadequate dwell time (i.e., the time between deployments to readjust, rest, retrain, reconstitute, visit family and friends, and integrate new unit members).

None of the 2nd BCT’s three dwell periods has risen to the Army’s traditional goal of a 2:1 dwell time to deployed time ratio for active Army units. One of the dwell periods for the 2nd BCT was only six months, after having been deployed to Afghanistan for eight months and before being deployed to Iraq for another 12 months. Fortunately, Army leadership—most notably General George Casey, Jr., the current Chief of Staff of the Army—has been vocal in stating that the problem of inadequate dwell time must be fixed. In his words: “…it’s so important to extend the time that they [Soldiers] spend at home… [Current deployment policies are] not something that we can sustain over time, and that’s one of the key elements of putting ourselves back in balance, to get to 18 months or so dwell [time]…”3

Further complicating the challenges facing members of the 2nd BCT is the regrettable decision, announced in April 2007 by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, to extend Army tours in Iraq from 12 to 15 months. Soldiers from the 2nd BCT noted the greatly dispiriting effect of this policy shift, which was announced shortly after the BCT had passed what it assumed was its half-way deployment mark. Mental health experts have informed Veterans for America (VFA) that “shifting the goalposts” on a Soldier’s deployment period greatly contributes to an increase in mental health problems within units.

Finally, the intensity of the combat experienced by the 2nd BCT is remarkable. During its most recent deployment, 52 members of the 2nd BCT were killed in action (KIA), 270 others were listed as non-fatality casualties, and two members of the unit remain missing in action (MIA). When compared to all who have served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the intensity of combat for the 2nd BCT is quite clear. On their most recent deployment, members of the 2nd BCT were more than five times as likely to be killed as others who have been deployed to OEF and OIF and more than four times likely to be wounded.

This level of combat will bring with it considerably higher rates of mental health challenges for members of the 2nd BCT than other units that have served in OEF and OIF and will merit considerably closer attention by Army and Pentagon leadership to reduce the likelihood that these Soldiers are failed by the already-overburdened mental health treatment system.

The 1st BCT of the 10th Mountain Division is also among the most deployed Army brigades. Being heavily deployed is nothing new...

The New York Times offers us some background on the VFA report:

The four tours in Iraq served by the Second Brigade at Fort Drum here have created an unusual level of stress, especially after the standard Iraq tour was increased to 15 months from 12. Yet according to a new report on the shortcomings of mental health care at the base, a soldier’s wait to be seen for psychological help can take more than a month.

The draft report, “Fort Drum: A Great Burden, Inadequate Assistance,” which was given to The New York Times last week, was done by Veterans for America, a nonprofit advocacy organization for wounded members of the armed forces. It also uncovered several other problems with the mental health services on the post, which is north of Syracuse.

Based on interviews with a dozen soldiers and the mental health providers on the base, the report describes problems with understaffing, a reliance on questionnaires to identify soldiers in need of treatment and a sometimes dismissive view at the company level of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The system is very much overburdened,” said Jason W. Forrester, director of policy for Veterans for America, in a telephone interview last week. “These problems are going to continue as long as we have units, such as the Second Brigade Combat Team, that have seen high-intensity combat, extended deployments and inadequate time between deployments.” ...

the report said that the wait for an appointment has eased since three Army psychiatrists were reassigned last month from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, joining three psychiatrists already on the base, to address the needs of 3,500 Second Brigade soldiers recently back from Iraq. But, the report noted, the reassignment was “only a temporary fix” since the psychiatrists from Walter Reed would probably return to Washington in a few weeks.

Fort Drum lacks its own hospital, so any soldier needing inpatient treatment has to be sent to Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, which recently increased the number of beds in its psychiatric unit to 32 from 24.

But the report said that when the psychological facilities at the base have closed for the day, some soldiers have bypassed Samaritan and driven more than an hour to Syracuse for treatment. The Veterans for America report said the soldiers fear that doctors at Samaritan will side with some base leaders, who had, “in some cases, cast doubt on the legitimacy of combat-related mental health wounds.”

“The Department of Defense itself has recognized that with every tour you increase the likelihood of post-traumatic stress disorder,” said Adrienne Willis, spokeswoman for Veterans for America. “Here we have a brigade that has served four tours.”

Nor is the heavy service the only problem at Fort Drum. In the last two weeks, it has been at the center of a controversy over whether the Army instructed the Department of Veterans Affairs last March to stop helping soldiers there with their disability claims. At first, the Army surgeon general, Eric B. Schoomaker, denied that the Army had told Veterans Affairs to do so.

But after National Public Radio reported on a memorandum from the March meeting in Buffalo in which a colonel was quoted as directing Veterans Affairs to discontinue counseling, the surgeon general apologized for his denial and said it was based on a “miscommunication.”

More on this from NPR:

Army officials in upstate New York instructed representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs not to help disabled soldiers at Fort Drum Army base with their military disability paperwork last year. That paperwork can be crucial because it helps determine whether soldiers will get annual disability payments and health care after they're discharged.

Now soldiers at Fort Drum say they feel betrayed by the institutions that are supposed to support them. The soldiers want to know why the Army would want to stop them from getting help with their disability paperwork and why the VA— whose mission is to help veterans — would agree to the Army's request.

'A Worn Pair of Boots'

One disabled soldier, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he fears retaliation from the military, says it feels like a slap in the face.

"To be tossed aside like a worn-out pair of boots is pretty disheartening," the soldier says. "I always believed the Army would take care of me if I did the best I could, and I've done that."

At a restaurant near Fort Drum, the soldier described his first briefing with the VA office on base. According to the soldier, the VA official told a classroom full of injured troops, "We cannot help you review the narrative summaries of your medical problems." The official said the VA used to help soldiers with the paperwork, but Army officials saw soldiers from Fort Drum getting higher disability ratings with the VA's help than soldiers from other bases. The Army told the VA to stop helping Fort Drum soldiers describe their army injuries, and the VA did as it was told.

It's unclear why the Army wanted to stop the soldiers from getting help with the disability paperwork. Cynthia Vaughan, spokeswoman for the Army surgeon general, says the VA was not doing anything wrong by helping soldiers at Fort Drum.

"There is no Army policy on outside help in reviewing and/or assisting soldiers in rewriting their narratives during the 10-day period which they have to review them," Vaughan says.

She says the officers who asked the VA to stop helping Fort Drum's soldiers were part of what the Army calls a "Tiger Team"— an ad-hoc group assigned to investigate, in this case, medical disability benefits.

According to Army spokesman George Wright, the Tiger Team thought the VA should not be helping soldiers with their medical documents. The Army delivered that message to VA officials in Buffalo, N.Y., who went along with the request, even though the VA's assistance complied with Army policy.

The Army declined to provide any information about the Tiger Team members' identities or their motivations in asking the VA to stop reviewing the soldiers' paperwork. However, private attorney Mara Hurwitt points out that the Army has a financial incentive to keep soldiers' disability ratings low.

"The more soldiers you have who get disability retirements, the more retirement pay is coming out of your budget," Hurwitt says.

Qualified to Help?

Another question is why the VA would go along with the Army's request.

Tom Pamperin, deputy director of the VA's compensation and pension service, believes VA officers are not qualified to help with soldiers' disability paperwork.

"We do not train our employees in the intricacies of the Defense Department's disability evaluation system, so we would feel that it would be inappropriate for our employees to apply VA standards to a Defense Department process," Pamperin says.

But Hurwitt argues the VA is more equipped than anyone to help soldiers with their paperwork. "VA counselors understand the disabilities, what the different kinds of conditions are, how they should be properly described in the paperwork," Hurwitt says.

She points out that VA officials have to look at a soldier's medical history anyway to counsel him or her on VA benefits, which are separate from Army benefits.

"Really what it comes down to is you're just helping the soldier get what he's entitled to under law," Hurwitt says.

On the memo that bolstered NPR's position after the Army denied the veracity of its report:

A document from the Department of Veterans Affairs contradicts an assertion made by the Army surgeon general that his office did not tell VA officials to stop helping injured soldiers with their military disability paperwork at a New York Army post. ...

The day the NPR story aired, Army Surgeon General Eric B. Schoomaker denied parts of the report. Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), who represents the Fort Drum area, told North Country Public Radio, that "The Surgeon General of the Army told me very flatly that it was not the Army that told the VA to stop this help."

Now, NPR has obtained a four-page VA document that contradicts the surgeon general's statement to McHugh. It was written by one of the VA officials at Fort Drum on March 31, the day after the meeting. The document says Col. Becky Baker of the Army Surgeon General's office told the VA to discontinue counseling soldiers on the appropriateness of Defense Department ratings because "there exists a conflict of interest."

When contacted by NPR, Baker referred an interview request to the Army Surgeon General's spokeswoman. The spokeswoman rejected requests for interviews with Baker and Schoomaker.

The document says that before the Army team's visit, people from the Army Inspector General's office came to Fort Drum and told the VA it was providing a useful service to soldiers by reviewing their disability paperwork.

According to the document, joining Baker on the Army team at the Fort Drum meeting was Dr. Alan Janusziewicz. He retired as deputy assistant surgeon general for the Army in October.

"I was part of the team, and I was probably instrumental in the surgeon general denying that the Army had instructed the VA" to stop reviewing soldiers' Army medical documents, Janusziewicz told NPR in a phone interview.

Meanwhile, while the Army goes back and forth trying to cover its own behind, its soldiers continue to spiral downward at an ever-increasing rate. Two recent cases:

On January 20, 2008, a Fort Drum soldier was found dead:

A 29-year-old soldier from Louisiana was found dead in his barracks at Fort Drum. Officials at the northern New York Army post said Spc. Lawrence Holloway was healthcare specialist assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 85th Infantry Regiment. He was found dead in his barracks room shortly after noon on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Benjamin Abel, the post's media relations officer, said autopsy results have not been released. He said the investigation is continuing.

A native of Ponchatoula, La., Holloway joined the Army in February 2004 and completed basic training at Fort Knox, Ky., before receiving advanced individual training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In Afghanistan from February 2006 to January 2007, he served as a medic and ambulance driver with the 10th Sustainment Brigade.

On February 9, 2008, Fort Drum was back in the news when an Afghanistan veteran was killed by police responding to his residence following an apparent domestic dispute:

Officials say the Army is conducting a full-scale investigation into the killing of a Fort Drum soldier by military police.

The incident happened early Saturday after Fort Drum emergency services received a hang-up call from an on-post residence. Two officers went to the home and talked to Staff Sergeant Dustin McMillen and his wife.

Tenth Mountain Division spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Paul Swiergosz says things took a drastic turn when McMillen pulled out a concealed non-military handgun. He says a second group of officers tried to get McMillen to surrender, and McMillen fired two shots in the direction of the officers.

1 of the officers shot McMillen, who later died at a Watertown hospital.

These issue must be squarely addressed and alleviated.


Related Posts

• Another Fort Drum Soldier, AWOL to Seek PTSD Care, Arrested

Navy, Marines May Send Psychologists to the Front

During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1906), the first organized military system for treating combat fatigue occurred when physicians were placed close to the front ("forward treatment"). They were sent to perform evaluations of and administer care to traumatized soldiers. The lessons of forward treatment, that soldiers receiving immediate care close to the action and their battle buddies were more resilient, is still relevant today.

From the Associated Press:

Navy Chaplain Dick Pusateri has witnessed the stress of war on the faces of troops put in harm's way daily, in the strained relationships of families facing long deployments and the confessions of men shaken by the human cost of war.

For too long, chaplains were among the few people combat Marines felt they could turn to in a crisis. The Navy and Marine Corps aim to change that by sending teams of mental health professionals to the front lines after studies showed a jump in the past five years in cases of combat-related mental health disorders, primarily post-traumatic stress disorder.

"We've got a lot of knowledge about the way combat trauma affects people, and having somebody there to guide Marines through it in Iraq means we can respond to it more quickly," Pusateri said.

While psychologists and psychiatrists have long treated military service members on bases and in field hospitals, next month's deployment of teams of psychological professionals - one per regiment - to combat zones marks a new approach in identifying and treating mental health before problems arise.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

Continued:

The teams assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force - made up of about 11,000 Marines - will include a psychiatric technician, a chaplain and, in some cases, a naval social worker. Psychiatrists or psychologists could deploy to forward operating bases and, in extreme cases, patrol with units.

Three top commanders of the U.S. Marine Corps' fighting forces recently asked to make the pilot program a permanent fixture.

"Now is the time to adjust fire," the generals wrote in a letter to the commandant. "We must shift the current direction of combat/operational stress control efforts to a more holistic, nested enabling strategy that provides a sound, unified approach."

Marine commandant Gen. James T. Conway is reviewing the request and a decision is expected later this year.

The Army adopted a similar approach last year and has been deploying behavioral health specialists to patrol with its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"What is probably new here is that we want to address it close on the front lines, and thereby return people both back to combat and back to society healthy," said Navy Capt. Mike Maddox, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force surgeon.

The push to make the program permanent comes after a report by the Institute of Medicine found post-traumatic stress disorder to be the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder among veterans. It affected an estimated 13 percent of those returning from Iraq and 6 percent from Afghanistan.

Figures released by the Marine Corps show a fourfold increase in the number of Marines diagnosed with PTSD - from 394 in 2003 to 1,669 to 2006.

"If we identify a stress and if we can treat it close to the unit, it's less likely that person will be sent back, medevaced out of there," said Cmdr. David Oliver, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force psychiatrist.

Previously, Marines identified with possible combat-related mental health stress or disorders have been pulled from duty in Iraq and shipped to the United States or Germany for assessment and treatment.

Under the expanded program, mental health specialists would be in daily contact with troops at forward bases, working with chaplains to identify potential risks to troops, talking with squad leaders about their troops, and responding to IED explosions and other combat situations that could effect a Marine's mental health.

My only question: What took you so long?


Related Posts

• Christian Science Monitor's In-depth Military Chaplain Series a Worthy Read
  
• ABC World News Looks at Combat Stress Care
  
• CBS Early Show: Helping Troops Deal with PTSD
  
• Online Combat Stress Counseling for Troops Coming in July
  
• "Brain Rangers" Honored for Treating OIF Combat Stressed Troops

Emotional Warmth and Sunny Saturday Light Chase Away the Darkness at NIU

I wanted to quickly share a few photos with you of my return visit to NIU yesterday [see them all at Flickr]. It was a chilly day, in the upper 20's; but, the warm hugs and heartfelt nods amongst Huskies -- now all much more related and open to one another than at any time before -- leaning on one another cast a soothing glow in my heart. It was quite a tonic to my soul.



[UPDATE Feb 20, 2008]: Tribute video made @ NIU TV Center



Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

Passing along a quick thank you for the space to diverge a bit from my focus on combat PTSD in these NIU-focused posts. They may be a nuisance to some of you who are most interested in the issue of how our troops are fairing following their return from Afghanistan and Iraq, and so I apologize for that.

I've received comments and emails from a few of you, however, that have been appreciative of my discussing some of my experiences since Thursday. And so, for you, here's another update.

My campus visit was, as already mentioned, a great comfort to me. Arriving, I first came into contact with a faculty member; a nice lady who stopped to chat with me briefly. We both asked the other how they were doing and then gave each other a hug before ending our conversation. Faculty members carry a lot of guilt over such incidents, and so it was great to be able to reach out a bit to her and say 'thanks for all you guys are doing for us at NIU.'

A little while later, I spoke with a young student and her mother.

Both mentioned they were having a hard time. They'd been watching a lot of the news coverage, and said they'd finally turned the TV off.

I was very glad to hear that as one of the best pieces of advice in times of tragedy is to turn the TV off, and keep away from the endless 24/7 news coverage. Watch where you surf on the Internet, too. Remember the replaying of the toppling WTC buildings following 9/11? It's unhealthy to have to witness a traumatic event over and over like that; how can you rest your nervous system once the image has been been so fully embedded?

Better to stay away at least early on.

The worried mom informed me that her daughter had been crying for most of the day before, but refused to tap into the counseling services that NIU has provided for all students and faculty. She felt they both needed it, which I heartily agreed with. Caregivers have their own secondary symptoms to watch out for, since they're soaking up so much of their loved one's pain and often neglect their own needs for relaxation and release in the process.

Before I parted ways with the mother-daughter pair, we all gave each other those ubiquitous hugs that everyone needs right about now. And then I had them promise me that they would get some counseling to help them process their feelings.

They said they would, and I'm holding them to it...

As for me, to be authentic about my own advice of not being ashamed of or afraid of or above reaching out for help, I stopped in at NIU's counseling center before my husband and I went out for dinner (I decided to give him a long-needed break, too, by taking the subject of Thursday off the table while we ate; it was really a nice break after an emotional day).

But before dinner, I arrived at the Campus Life Building and filled out the appropriate paperwork. While I waited, I chatted with the ladies -- one the receptionist, the other a student's Mom who's lending a hand with the extra load of work in the office. Seeing so many people pull together is a one of the great blessings to come out of tragedy. We should look for those positives in all the negatives because they help to make the heavier realities a bit easier to bear.

My conversation with my alloted counselor was rich and rewarding. He let me speak freely and without guilt about how I was doing (and even answered my questions about how they were doing).

Talking to a professional vs. relying solely on family or friends as your sounding board is beneficial because their whole job is to listen. They are not being burdened by your full (and selfish) focus on yourself. A great plus for me was the chance to discuss some of the broader issues of violence and its societal after-effects, as well as what I can do to increase the success of my journey forward.

Taking the time to go in for such support was reassuring.

Incorporating this into your after-stress self-care regimen is heartily advised. Having another person to mull things over with, to give you a professional 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' on your approach to self-care, has a way of releasing your worries. You find validation that you're doing the right things, the best things. Rather than diminishing or demeaning you, counseling in times of crisis can empower you to stay on track and get your groove back.

If you are someone who has lived through any type of trauma, be it gun violence or combat, natural disasters or rape, please reach out. Being proactive and taking those steps to heal yourself fully will put you back in the driver's seat of your life. You'll take charge of its direction, and eventually leave the trauma behind (or at least under your control).

No backseat driving allowed on the road to life.


Related Posts

• Sunday's NIU Memorial to be Simulcast at Iraq's Camp Victory; Remembering Another Lost Huskie
  
• A Tribute to the Life of Army Veteran and NIU Student Julianna Gehant
  
• A Little Update on Things Here
  
• A Dark Day at NIU with Pockets of Light

Action: Full Faith in Veterans Act

Editorial from the Bangor Daily News:

The phrase "War is hell," attributed to Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War, is perhaps the most succinct and eloquent description of armed conflict. Yet it falls far short of bridging the gulf between those who have experienced war and those who have not, and it fails to impart the indelible impression this particular hell leaves on young hearts and minds.

Almost no one survives war unscathed; whether the scars are physical or psychological, they are there, and remain for decades. The terms used to describe troops who struggle to heal from those wounds have changed, from "shell shocked" in the World War II era, to "flashbacks" from the Vietnam years, to the clinical Post Traumatic Stress Disorder now in vogue. But the condition is the same. After witnessing unspeakable horrors, or having to kill, or simply from the crushing weight of constant fear, our young men and women succumb. It is a reaction that is more normal than not.

Some rebound with rest and connection with family and friends back home. Others need help. Just as the federal government is obligated to treat the physical wounds, so must it treat the psychological wounds. A bill proposed by Reps. Tom Allen and Mike Michaud, the Full Faith in Veterans Act [pdf], goes a long way toward ensuring that PTSD victims get help and compensation.

The bill would change the standard of proof for veterans who don’t have full military records to verify the cause of their PTSD. Under current law, veterans must have a diagnosis of the condition and military documentation or two "buddy statements" to show the stressor event occurred during duty.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

Continuing:

"This has led to situations where it is clear to mental health professionals that an event during a veteran’s service caused the veteran’s PTSD, but the veteran is not eligible to receive compensation for disability because of incomplete military records," Rep. Allen said. He cited research showing that nearly two-thirds of Iraq veterans who were identified as having PTSD were not getting treated. A recent study found 12 percent of Iraq veterans suffering with mental disorders.

The Defense Department has not been responsive to PTSD claims, and has even gone so far as to challenge some who seek treatment and compensation for PTSD, suggesting those men and women had the condition when they enlisted.

Rather than resist admitting that our warriors suffer from PTSD, the Defense Department should take steps to reduce its occurrence. Regular screening and intervention during a tour of duty might get some troops back on track. Evaluation on returning home, with referrals to counseling as needed, could also help deter problems.

Expanding the Veterans Administration’s response to PTSD will cost money. But it is the right thing to do. And it will help the men and women who have volunteered to fight our wars return and become successful, active employees, entrepreneurs, fathers, husbands, wives and mothers. That’s an investment as important as building ships, planes and armored vehicles.

The bill is in response to recommendations given by the Veterans Disability Commission. Please contact your representatives to ask for their support of this long-overdue piece of legislation.

A Little Update on Things Here

Thought I would pass along a few quick impressions and thoughts going through my mind the past few days in reaction to the incidents at NIU, as well as share a bit of personal musings.

It has been a very hectic few days for me; many, many calls and emails of concern have come in and I'd like to thank everyone for caring, for giving of themselves, for listening. It all the more is appreciated because I have not been giving of myself, reaching out to you, in the same measure lately.

It's been a peculiar few months for me.

For those who've been longtime visitors to PTSD Combat, you've surely noticed that my posting decreased and even stopped for a good portion of January. I apologize for that.

It's been a winter with colds and flu a plenty over here. From November to mid-January I had some four separate weeks of being under the weather in one form or another and dead dog tired the rest of the time as a result.

Having finals at NIU and preparing for and being called to testify in Washington, DC, in December sent things into overdrive physically; and afterwards, I just kind of shut down and needed to turn inwardly for a time to focus on health and home a little.

The two and half years of pushing myself by juggling classes and working on veterans' issue at the same time -- as much as it is a source of renewal and sustenance and honor for me to be able to do such important and necessary work with such great people -- caught up with me a bit, and I just needed to sleep more, eat better, exercise, and spend a little more time with my family and friends. As good as those things are for us, doing all of those things cuts down on productivity.

In January I began my new semester at NIU, and this time I took a full slate of classes rather than attending as a half-time student. Posting here suffered as a result, as has my ability to respond to the many emails that I receive. If you've written and not heard a response yet from me, please accept my apologies. Have been trying my best to make headway in that area; while I have a long way to go yet, I'll continue to try to get back on top of things as best I can in the coming weeks.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

Now for a few quick impressions on how things are going for me in the wake of the NIU shooting:

Fortunately, my PTSD research as it pertains to veterans has been helpful in my process of dealing with things so far. I have a great support network, and being an older student (42) I have a bit stronger of a foundation to attempt to deal with the emotions that have been cropping up inside of me (shock, fear, worry, sadness, vulnerability, and especially survivor guilt).

The shock has worn off a bit, and now I've arrived at the physical reaction phase to the event: persistent stress headache since last night, a tight knot in my chest, and a couple of crying jags so far today that come quickly and subside just as quickly. They are overwhelming when they come and during their duration (about 5 mins.) they're pretty intense. The overwhelming feeling for myself right now is the ache I have for those who were lost, injured, and inside the room and building. I was so much more fortunate.

This afternoon, I'm heading back to the campus to place flowers. [UPDATE] You can view my photos at Flickr.

I also want to get some exercise in the sunshine with my husband before another winter storm arrives tonight and tomorrow. While there, I'll stop to talk with one of the counselors they have provided on campus for us. Cannot stress enough how important that is for everyone post-traumatic event -- even me. :o)

In all, though, I'm doing fine even with all of these symptoms I'm sharing with you. I have a great husband who is here, supporting me. The greatest family and lots of friends who have been listening to me. Many professionals to tap into. I am blessed.

How does this relate to veterans and their PTSD?

The issues veterans dealing with PTSD face are very similar to what we have here now. One of my local vet friends said to me when he called to counsel me on Thursday night (thank you Dick, as always), "Well, you're one of us, now. You're just survived your first IED." While I don't think I would be that dramatic or presumptuous, I do see how my experience will enhance my understanding of the range of emotions soldiers in the area of such incidents must work through.

Nowhere do I mean to say that my experience of being in the vicinity of such a tragedy compares with what soldiers in battle face; but, there are some common themes present in all forms of traumatic reaction following all types of violent experience.

I have been taking notes on some of the related facets and will be writing an ePluribus Media piece; I will share that with you when it is complete. I've also submitted a column, expected to run in Monday's edition of the Northern Star, sharing a few tips and thoughts with NIU's student body. I've wanted to try to reach out and help in some way. Writing is the only way I best know how to do that, and so I hope that they find the piece I submitted worthy of running.

But what of our veterans with PTSD? How does this relate to their experience? There are many connections to the veterans issue tied together with the incident at NIU that I've seen cropping up.

One of the students, Julianna Gehant was a 32-year old female who was said to have loved children and was studying to be a teacher. She was also an Iraq veteran a 12-year Army veteran who'd served in Bosnia and Korea.

In addition, my understanding is that while kids were rushing out of Cole during the shooting, three former veterans on campus rushed in to come to the aid of students who were wounded, dragging some of them out and giving them medical attention.

I do not have that story confirmed, but it wouldn't surprise me that those would be the reactions of our fine veterans. Such things only further prove how important our nation's veterans are to our communities in such dark times.

We've had to turn to them for protection numerous times. It is only fitting that we turn to them for guidance now as well.


 Related Posts

• Sunday's NIU Memorial to be Simulcast at Iraq's Camp Victory; Remembering Another Lost Huskie
  
• A Tribute to the Life of Army Veteran and NIU Student Julianna Gehant
  
• Emotional Warmth and Sunny Saturday Light Chase Away the Darkness at NIU
  
• A Dark Day at NIU with Pockets of Light

A Dark Day at NIU with Pockets of Light

More lives dramatically changed by another base act of the type we've become all too familiar with over the past few years.

I'm sure most have by now heard about the events on the Northern Illinois University campus yesterday afternoon. I'm a student at NIU and was seated at a doorway, catching up on reading between classes, in a building immediately next to Cole, the building where the shooting took place. [I shared my experience in a post after returning home.]

Alongside so much mourning that we have before us, we have much to be proud of. I witnessed some really courageous, kind, insightful actions yesterday. I’m proud to be a Huskie, blessed to be a part of the NIU family. Yet even more importantly, I'm keeping those most directly faced with personal losses in my thoughts tonight and in the days and months ahead.

We will persevere.

By Abraham Lincoln (who lost three sons during his lifetime):

"In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all...
It comes with bitterest agony...
Perfect relief is not possible, except with time."

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for videos, related posts...

[UPDATE Feb 19, 2008]: A few tribute videos







[UPDATE Feb 22, 2008]: A selection of coverage from the past week

(...coming soon)

Wikipedia: NIU shooting


Related Posts

• Sunday's NIU Memorial to be Simulcast at Iraq's Camp Victory; Remembering Another Lost Huskie
  
• A Tribute to the Life of Army Veteran and NIU Student Julianna Gehant
  
• Emotional Warmth and Sunny Saturday Light Chase Away the Darkness at NIU
  
• A Little Update on Things Here

Upcoming Congressional Hearings on Combat PTSD

Received this head's up on two important upcoming House Veterans Affairs Committee hearings from Mike and Kim Bowman. In December as you may recall, they offered Chairman Bob Filner and the committee heartrending testimony on their son Tim's suicide. Tim was an Illinois National Guard member, one of the OEF/OIF veterans' groups most at risk for taking their own lives after returning home.

Dates to make a note of:

2/28/2008 - Mental Health Treatment for Families: Supporting Those Who Support our Veterans

4/01/2008 - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Treatment and Research: Moving Ahead Toward Recovery

More on these hearings as it becomes available.

P.S. And a big congrats to Rep. Filner for recently being recognized as the 2007 “Legislator of the Year” by the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers (CACVSO). The award generally goes to state legislators, but the local organization felt it was appropriate to extend the honor in the face of the incredible work Filner has done on the national level for veterans and the issues that are important to them.

I couldn't agree more. Kudos, Chairman Filner!

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for related posts...


 Related Posts

• A Thank You to the House Veterans Affairs Committee From a Concerned Citizen
  
• Upcoming House Veterans' Affairs Committee Hearing on Veteran Suicide and Homelessness
  
• Veterans Service Organizations Praise Democratic Congressional Leadership
  
• Incoming House Veterans Affairs Chair on PTSD
  
• Today, Thank Those Working for Our Veterans

AP: Over 50% of VA's OEF/OIF Veteran Suicides from Guard/Reserve

From the Associated Press:

More than half of all veterans who took their own lives after returning from Iraq or Afghanistan were members of the National Guard or Reserves, according to new government data that prompted activists on Tuesday to call for a closer examination of the problem.

A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of ongoing research of deaths among veterans of both wars — obtained by The Associated Press — found that Guard or Reserve members accounted for 53 percent of the veteran suicides from 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, through the end of 2005. The research, conducted by the department's Office of Environmental Epidemiology, provides the first demographic look at suicides among veterans from those wars who left the military.

Joe Davis, public affairs director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the Pentagon and VA must combine efforts to track suicides among those who have served in those countries in order to get a clearer picture of the problem.

"To fix a problem, you have to define it first," Davis said.

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

Continuing:

At certain times in 2005, members of the Guard and Reserve made up nearly half the troops fighting in Iraq. Overall, they were nearly 28 percent of all U.S. military forces deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or in support of the operations, according to Defense Department data through the end of 2007.

Many Guard members and Reservists have done multiple tours that kept them away from home for 18 months, and that is taking a toll, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement Tuesday. ...

The VA has said there does not appear to be an epidemic of suicide among returning veterans, and that suicide among the newer veterans is comparable to the same demographic group in the general population. However, an escalating suicide rate in the Army, as well as high-profile suicides such as the death of Joshua Omvig — an Iowa Reservist who shot himself in front of his mother in December 2005 after an 11-month tour in Iraq — have alarmed some members of Congress and advocates.

In November, President Bush signed the Joshua Omvig suicide prevention bill, which directed the VA to improve its mental health training for staff and do a better job of screening and treating veterans.

According to the VA's research, 144 veterans committed suicide from the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, through the end of 2005. Of those, 35 veterans, or 24 percent, served in the Reserves and 41, or 29 percent, had served in the National Guard. Sixty-eight — or 47 percent — had been in the regular military.

Statistics from 2006 and 2007 were not yet available, the VA said, because the study was based in part on data from the National Death Index, which is still being compiled.

Among the total population of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have been discharged from the military, nearly half are formerly regular military and a little more than half were in the Guard and Reserves, according to the VA.

Among those studied, more than half of the veterans who committed suicide were aged 20 to 29. Nearly three-quarters used a firearm to take their lives. Nearly 82 percent were white. About one in five was seen at least once at a VA facility.

Last year, the VA started a suicide hot line. The VA and the military have also made other improvements in suicide prevention care, such as hiring more counselors and increasing mental health screening. ... The VA study does not include those who committed suicide in the war zones or those who remained in the military after returning home from war.

Last year, the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops, the highest level in 26 years of record-keeping. The Army said recently that as many as 121 soldiers committed suicide last year. If all are confirmed, the number would be more than double the number reported in 2001.

Some mental health advocates have complained that there is no comprehensive tracking in one place of suicide among those who served in the wars, whether they are still in the military or discharged.

In October, the AP reported that preliminary VA research found that from the start of the war in Afghanistan in October 2001 and the end of 2005, a total of 283 troops who had served in the wars and later were discharged from the military had committed suicide.

The VA later said the number was reduced to 144 because some of the veterans counted were actually in the active military and not discharged when they died.

 Related Posts

• VA Reports Nearly 300 Estimated OEF/OIF Veteran Suicides
  
• Groundbreaking CBS News Investigation Into Veteran Suicide 'Epidemic'
  
• Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Bill Signed by President
  
• More than 50% of Army's 948 Suicide Attempts in 2006 Sought Help First
  
• OEF/OIF Vets Seeking PTSD Care from VA Jumps 70%, Mental Health Counseling Tops 100,000
  
• Fort Campbell: 9 Suicides in 2007, 3 in Last 2 Weeks Moves Commanding General to Act
  
• Is the Army 'Spinning' its Increase in Suicides?
  
• Last Year's 99 Army Suicides Highest in Recorded History
  
• As Another Suicide Occurs, Minnesota Leaders Urge DoD to Revise Post-Deployment Contact Rules
  
• Family Sues VA for Iraq Veteran Son's 2004 Suicide
  
• Flash Video Remembers 100+ OEF/OIF Veteran Suicides
  
• Returning Veterans and Suicide: Alaska's Perfect Storm?
  
• Family 'Respectfully Disagrees' With VA Report on Son's Suicide
  
• Montana Iraq Vet Suicide Reflects VA, Military System Failure
  
• PTSD Timeline: The Latest Incidents
  
• 20 War Zone Suicides So Far in 2006
  
• WUSF 89.7 News: Report on Combat Zone Suicides
  
• Combat PTSD Timeline: 41 Stateside OEF/OIF Suicides
  
• Combat PTSD: Incident Database for Reporters, Researchers
  
• Army: 83 suicides in 2005, 67 in 2004
  
• Marine Corps Suicides Spiked 29% in 2004

Bush Administration: Vets Have No Legal Right to Expect Specific Types of Medical Care

Latest updates on this and related VA/Army lawsuits posted in "As Second Legal Attempt Fails to Force VA Hand on Disability Claims Processing, Army Sued Over Discharged Veteran PTSD Disability Ratings." -- Ilona Meagher, 12/17/08

Astounding when you see how our government really feels about caring for its vets. The San Francisco Chronicle:

Veterans have no legal right to specific types of medical care, the Bush administration argues in a lawsuit accusing the government of illegally denying mental health treatment to some troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The arguments, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, strike at the heart of a lawsuit filed on behalf of veterans that claims the health care system for returning troops provides little recourse when the government rejects their medical claims.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is making progress in increasing its staffing and screening veterans for combat-related stress, Justice Department lawyers said. But their central argument is that Congress left decisions about who should get health care, and what type of care, to the VA and not to veterans or the courts.

A federal law providing five years of care for veterans from the date of their discharge establishes "veterans' eligibility for health care, but it does not create an entitlement to any particular medical service," government lawyers said. They said the law entitles veterans only to "medical care which the secretary (of Veterans Affairs) determines is needed, and only to the extent funds ... are available."

The argument drew a sharp retort from a lawyer for advocacy groups that sued the government in July. The suit is a proposed class action on behalf of 320,000 to 800,000 veterans or their survivors.

"Veterans need to know in this country that the government thinks all their benefits are mere gratuities," attorney Gordon Erspamer said. "They're saying it's completely discretionary, that even if Congress appropriates money for veterans' health care, we can do anything we want with it."

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

Continuing:

The issue will be joined March 7 at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti, who denied the administration's request last month to dismiss the suit. While the case is pending, the plaintiffs want Conti to order the government to provide immediate mental health treatment for veterans who say they are thinking of killing themselves and to spend another $60 million on health care.

The suit accuses the VA of arbitrarily denying care and benefits to wounded veterans, of forcing them to wait months for treatment and years for benefits, and of failing to provide fair procedures for appealing decisions against them.

The plaintiffs say that the department has a backlog of more than 600,000 disability claims and that 120 veterans a week commit suicide.

In his Jan. 10 ruling that allowed the suit to proceed, Conti said federal law entitles veterans to health care for a specific period after leaving the service, rejecting the government's argument that it was required to provide only as much care as the VA's budget allowed in a given year. A law that President Bush signed last week extended the period from two to five years.

In its latest filing, however, the Justice Department reiterated that Congress had intended "to authorize, but not require, medical care for veterans."

"This court should not interfere with the political branches' design, oversight and modification of VA programs," the government lawyers argued. They also said the VA "is making great progress in addressing the mental health care needs of combat veterans." Among other things, they cited a law passed in November that required the department to establish a suicide-prevention program that includes making mental health care available around the clock.

The VA has hired nearly 3,800 mental health professionals in the last two years and has at least one specialist in post-traumatic stress disorder at each of its medical centers, the government said.

Since June, government lawyers said, the VA has had a policy that all veterans who seek or are referred for mental health care should be screened within 24 hours, that those found to be at risk of suicide should be treated immediately, and that others should be scheduled for full diagnosis and treatment planning within two weeks. A new suicide-prevention hot line has been responsible for "more than 380 rescues," the lawyers said.

Erspamer, the plaintiffs' lawyer, was unimpressed.

"Nowhere do I see any explanation of what kind of systems they have in place that deal with suicidal veterans," he said. "There's no excuse for not spending the money Congress told them to spend on mental health care and leaving $60 million on the table when people are going out and killing themselves."

 Related Posts

• As Second Legal Attempt Fails to Force VA Hand on Disability Claims Processing, Army Sued Over Discharged Veteran PTSD Disability Ratings
  
• Controversial VA Email Accepted into Evidence in Veterans' Rights Class Action Lawsuit Case
  
• Full Trial Moves Ahead in Lawsuit Against VA, OEF/OIF Veterans with PTSD Sought
  
• Testimony Begins in Class Action Lawsuit Against Veterans Administration
  
• Vets' Legal Challenge to VA Health Care System Shortfalls Allowed to Proceed Forward
  
• Arguments Heard Today in Government's Motion to Dismiss VA Class Action Lawsuit Case
  
• Government Moves to Dismiss Class Action Lawsuit Against Veterans Administration
  
• Veterans Issues in Sharp Focus Today in Hearings, Reports and Lawsuits
  
• Class Action Lawsuit Brought Against VA

Chicago Tribune Magazine Brings the War Home

From Sunday's Chicago Tribune Magazine:

PTSD can make the bravest soldier, police officer or chaplain curl up and cry, explode with rage or drown in drink, remembering something they saw or did when only chance seemed to separate life and death.

It is why [Army medic Eugene] Cherry brought a seething anger home along with his dog tags. They dangle and dance at the end of a chain hanging from the knob of his bedroom door. When he closes the door to the outside world the tags make a sound like the tinkling clatter of wind chimes or an alarm on the perimeter.

Cherry knows that soldiers have a hard time accepting as real a war wound they cannot see. "I was in denial for a long time," he says. "I always thought I was strong enough not to let that stuff get to me." So have thousands of other soldiers returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan

"Eugene speaks for many, many people," says Tod Ensign, director of Citizen Soldier, a veterans advocacy group based in New York. "We've only just begun to see the beginning of the PTSD problem. A tsunami is coming."

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

In the interest of education, article quoted from extensively.

Continuing:

The National Center for PTSD estimates that between 12 and 20 percent of the troops returning home from Iraq are wrestling with the condition. Others say the numbers are much higher.

"I'm hearing 30 percent at least," says Dr. John Mundt, who heads the day hospital program at the Veterans Administration's Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago.

Meanwhile, the National Center estimates that 6 to 10 percent of veterans of the Afghanistan war will experience PTSD.

The disorder probably has been around as long as war itself. The earliest recorded reference to it is by the ancient Greeks. It has had different names over time, as Ilona Meagher points out in her book, "Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops." Among them: "nostalgia," "soldier's heart," "shell shock," "battle fatigue."

Some people are genetically vulnerable to PTSD and depression if they suffer trauma. On the other hand, some people are more resilient to PTSD. "The military knows that there is a spectrum of resilience,'' says Dr. Joan Anzia, a psychiatrist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital who has worked with PTSD patients, "thus the selection of super-resilient Navy Seals and Army Rangers. It has nothing to do with moral strength."

It wasn't until after years of lobbying by Vietnam veterans and their advocates that the American Psychiatric Association added PTSD in 1980 to its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Its symptoms include depression, anxiety, dread and insomnia.

There are vets who pretend to have PTSD, hoping to get money from the VA. "But experienced PTSD clinicians can tell the difference," says Anzia. "We know the objective signs and symptoms to look for. It can't be faked for long."

The symptoms can last decades, often a lifetime. About 30 percent of Vietnam veterans were afflicted with PTSD, and many of those now-60ish veterans are still receiving therapy. The VA is being stretched to its limits; "The government is going to have to bite the bullet," says Mundt. "This is going to be tremendously expensive."

He tells his psychology trainees that for every soldier killed by a roadside bomb, at least five of his buddies saw it happen. "They will be our clients," he says.

Armed with Frisch's psychological report on his condition, Cherry turned himself in to military authorities in March 2007, 15 months after going AWOL, and was sent back to Ft. Drum. He was hoping to be discharged because of his condition.

Instead, the Army decided to court-martial him. He faced a year in prison and a bad-conduct discharge, which could haunt him when he looked for work in the civilian world.

The Army's decision hit him hard. It smashed the little faith he had left in the uniform he had worn proudly for nearly five years. Still, he tried to hide his hurt. He laughed when he heard what the brass planned to do to him. He would fight them, of course. He was a soldier. Hooyah.

Be sure to read the entire piece for the full story.