Showing posts with label Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. Show all posts

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Will Ferrell Talladega Nights Cougar used in Army Resilience Training?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 6, 2014

The LA Times reported that just before the Fort Hood shooting there was a class on Resilience Training.
Just over an hour after the class was dismissed, sirens went off across the sprawling military installation. A soldier was on a shooting rampage. Authorities say Spc. Ivan Lopez killed three fellow service members with a handgun and wounded 16 others before shooting himself in the head.

What happens during Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Training?
In the course of the day, the students would practice escaping a wrestling hold while being taunted by fellow soldiers. They would balance a dime on the end of an M16 rifle. They would watch a clip from the movie "Talladega Nights" in which Will Ferrell tries to get into a car with a cougar in the front seat. Such exercises, the Army hopes, will build troops who are not just physically tough but psychologically resilient.

Ok, and the Army thought that a situation from a comedy would equal combat?

Hell if they wanted to use a movie they should have use The Robe since that movie is about a Roman soldier involved in the crucifixion of Christ played by Richard Burton in 1953. That movie is about PTSD and even attempted suicide. Burton played Marcellus a Tribune haunted by the Robe Christ wore as He took His last walk on earth. He had nightmares and flashbacks driving people up the wall with the constant question "Were you there?" It was not until Marcellus found a way to heal his spirit that he was able to live again. Ok a bit twisted because he ended up in the end heading to be put to death because he had become a Christian.

It isn't the first time the government has used stupid examples. Gilgamesh was used as a serious example by the VA-DOD.
Yes, Gilgamesh!

Finally a reporter, Alan Zarembo, decided that this "program" needed to extensive coverage.
The training at Ft. Hood is part of a $50-million-a-year program launched in 2009 to do for the mind what physical fitness does for the body. Known as Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness, it trains 900,000 troops a year in 14 skills aimed at preventing psychological disorders, building resilience and improving performance.

He isn't right on the $50 million a year because it isn't just the Army paying for it but all other branches are using the same type of "training" plus other departments funding other programs and congress dolling out millions more in grants, but at least he is a lot closer than other reporters have been.
The resilience program is based on a field known as positive psychology, which emerged in the 1990s. Unlike clinical psychology, which targets mental illness, it focuses on building strengths and helping people flourish.

The best evidence that psychological resilience can be taught comes from studies involving children. Those who received such training were less likely to develop depression.

Is it money well spent? Hell no! Suicides went up after they started it but as you read in the other article, it didn't take a genius to figure out the harm this would do.
The Army has portrayed the program as a success based on anecdotal reports and internal reviews, which found that soldiers saw small improvements on some measures of psychological health.

But last month, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine issued a report saying those improvements were not clinically meaningful and that the program had never been properly evaluated. It joined a growing number of critics.

While the rest of the press is coming up with headlines that end up slamming the troops and veterans with PTSD, at least this article takes a good hard look at how it got this bad.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Military using unproven programs to take on mental illness

The reports on CSF failures have been all over the internet lately. The problem is, much of what is being report has been wrong. I left this comment on PBS.
It was called "Battlemind" and the drop in suicides had more to do with the reduction of forces than anything else. The Army discharge 11,000 for "misconduct" in 2013 plus had discharged many more as a way of reducing the size of the Army. All branches did the same thing so as we look at the number of suicides, we must factor in everything. CSF actually prevents them from seeking help because they blame themselves of not training right and, as they see it, being mentally weak. I warned about this in 2009 but couldn't get anyone in power to listen.
Read THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR by Kathie Costos and know what was known all along. Everything in this book on military suicides came from government and news reports. It was all available to the public, but no one told them they had the power to change what was happening.

Military using unproven programs to take on mental illness
PBS News Hour
February 23, 2014

TRANSCRIPT
HARI SREENIVASAN: It’s estimated that nearly a thousand additional Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder every week. A report out Thursday by the Institute of Medicine said that despite dozens of programs by the military to help treat the mental illnesses that veterans suffer, few of them are proving effective. For more we’re joined by Gregg Zoroya of USA Today who has been covering this story. So the Department of Defense asked for this review, what did it find?

GREGG ZOROYA: Well it really was a review that was, the request was really built on something that happened last year. The Institute of Medicine had completed a four-year review of just how prevalent the problem was and they found that the numbers of folks that were ill were really kind of getting so large that both the Pentagon and the V.A. were having trouble staying ahead of it. So the Pentagon asked for this report. They wanted to know — we’ve got prevention programs out there, why aren’t they working? And essentially what this panel, from the Institute of Medicine, found was that while some of these ideas in theory made sense when they were introduced earlier in the war, that there really hadn’t been a strong enough effort by the Pentagon and by some of the branches to try to understand whether through some real strong scientific research whether the programs worked. And they found that in fact, they hadn’t.
read more here

Friday, February 21, 2014

CSF Clusters of FUBAR

CSF Clusters of FUBAR
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 21, 2014

USA TODAY reported Comprehensive Soldier Fitness price was $125 million
The Army began the program in 2009 amid increasing cases of suicide and mental illness. It has cost $125 million to teach the coping skills to a million soldiers.
"Lt. Col. Justin Platt, an Army spokesman, said the program was redesigned in recent years and is not now intended as a way of preventing illnesses such as PTSD or depression.

When it was started in 2009, it was supposed to be a "long-term preventative health strategy." New goals released last year are now more generally worded. One of them, for example, says the program should provide soldier and families with "self-awareness and psychological resources and skills to cope with adversity and thrive in their lives."

This was reported by the LA Times $50 million a year
"A lot of their programs don’t have any good data behind them," said Kenneth Warner, a professor of public health at the University of Michigan who led the Institute of Medicine committee that produced the report. "We remain uncertain about which approaches work and which ones are ineffective."

The 291-page report was especially critical of the Pentagon’s biggest and costliest prevention program, known as Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness, which is used throughout the Army.

Based on the principles of positive psychology, it includes training in assertiveness, negotiation and coping strategies such as maintaining an optimistic outlook on life. About 900,000 soldiers receive the training each year at a cost of $50 million. The program was recently expanded to include families of service members.

That may sound like a lot of money but that isn't close to how much money was spent on this.

NBC reported on this failure with
"One obvious example of an unproven and controversial approach is the Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program, which includes a mandatory online training program developed with the American Psychological Association, the report finds."

But did not seem interested in the fact the man responsible for this program had developed it as a research project to give school aged children a better sense of self-estime. A research project? Yes. He was also president of the American Psychological Association.

From The Warrior SAW Suicides After War
One of the issues they found was that CSF was “embraced” by the American Psychological Association and Martin Seligman was past president. Why is he important? Because this was his program and he received a $31 million dollar no-bid contract to implement and run the program. (The publication is still online as of the writing of this book.) This really nails it. “ At minimum, they should issue an unambiguous and widely disseminated statement acknowledging that the report is seriously flawed an that, as a result, the verdict is still out as to where CSF actually works.”

It is very difficult for me to take my emotions out of this. I have had too many veterans and family members contacting me for help because of this. Here are the cold, hard facts.
2006, 2007, 2008 2009
$2.7 million Baylor Texas A and M Army Medical Research Project for PTSD
$1.6 million Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital received Monday the mock check of a $2.7 million was handed over to a contractor to make phone calls. Yep~phone calls! 570,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were supposed to be called to find out why they hadn’t gone to the VA.
$50 Million study by the National Institute for Mental Health for practical interventions for mitigating suicides and enhancing Soldier resiliency
$1.4 Billion We initiated programs to better diagnose and treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury and other injuries through advanced medical research. We also have made investments in upgrading our clinics and hospitals including a $1.4 Billion investment in new hospitals at Forts Riley, Benning, and Hood.
$500 Million in additional psychological health providers, new facilities, and world-class research
$1.5 Billion to Army Family programs
$50 million research program into the factors behind soldier suicides and how to prevent them, Army Secretary Pete Geren told reporters at the Pentagon.
$1.97 million Defense Department study.“The Army's alarming suicide trend continues this year, said David Rudd
$34 million University of Pennsylvania no-bid contract to develop Comprehensive Soldier Fitness and run it.

But that is just the start of all of this. Every branch has also spent billions on the same "efforts" that failed. Money came from each branch, plus the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institute of Mental Health, grants and a growing list of colleges and universities receiving grants. Much like the University of Kentucky receiving $677,000 for a two year study to discover how 100 families felt after their veteran committed suicide.

The rest is in The Warrior SAW. The government has also been spending billions on "addressing" veterans committing suicide and treating PTSD. We have also seen more of them committing suicide along with a dramatic rise in younger veterans committing suicide. What we have seen as a result of all these "efforts" is the money keeps going out but no one is held accountable for the money and lives they have already lost.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Military Uses Unproven Mental Health Programs

There are things veterans talk about and then there are things the military makes claims about. Finally the truth is coming out, or at least they want you to think this is all some kind of big shocker. The truth is, we knew what they were not telling everyone else!

Was Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Designed to Fail?

Military Uses Unproven Mental Health Programs, Report Finds
NBC News
BY MAGGIE FOX

Veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars, as well as other service members and their families, have high rates of depression, anxiety and other disorders, yet the U.S. military isn’t using tested screening methods to help prevent them, a team of experts said Thursday.

And despite extensive research, the panel of experts couldn’t find any proven Department of Defense programs to prevent domestic abuse. Programs to battle sexual assault — another documented problem — aren’t being assessed to see if they actually work, the Institute of Medicine panel reported.

“A fundamental finding of the committee is that, with some notable exceptions, few of DOD’s prevention interventions are theory- or evidence-based,” wrote Kenneth E. Warner, a public health expert at the University of Michigan who headed the panel.

One obvious example of an unproven and controversial approach is the Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program, which includes a mandatory online training program developed with the American Psychological Association, the report finds.
read more here

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Was Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Designed to Fail?

UPDATE Keep in mind that I have no inside information but managed to report the same findings.  Not just yesterday but last year when I wrote my book and since 2009 when I warned about this program would in fact increase military suicides. I have only been proven right because I paid attention!
Report: Military efforts to prevent mental illness ineffective
FROM USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
February 20, 2014
There's little evidence that the military's efforts to prevent mental illness among troops are effective, a panel of scientists has concluded.

The military has produced dozens of programs aimed at preventing mental illness among troops during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there's little evidence that most of them work, a blue-ribbon panel of scientists said in a report released Thursday.

The findings by a committee of 13 experts appointed by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies come as about 1,000 Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans are being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder each week, according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"There's no substantive indication of effectiveness (in the military prevention programs) and most importantly, there's no evidence of an enduring impact," said panelist David Rudd, provost at the University of Memphis and an authority on suicide in the military.
read more here


Was Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Designed to Fail?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 19, 2014

Veterans and their families have been paying attention and wondering if the military efforts to address wide ranging issues was designed to fail on purpose or not. No one can blame them considering what the result have been while every branch of the military has been pushing the same spiel for years no matter what happened afterwards. The thoughts turned from hope that the military finally understood what the men and women were going thru into thoughts of being pushed into suffering and suicide.

This was the "news" on Valentines Day
Pentagon data provided to Military Times show 296 suicides among active-duty troops and reserve or National Guard members on active duty in 2013, down 15.7 percent from the 2012 total of 351.
It followed the worst year for suicides on record. It also followed what amounted to thousands of servicemen and women dishonorably discharged. According to the AP report, Misconduct Forces More Soldiers Out put together with the report on the number of suicides, it is obvious what the military is doing is not working.
Army 2012 351 2013 296=55 less suicides. 11,000 discharged for "misconduct" in 2013
Navy 2012 59 2013 46=7 less suicides. 3,700 discharged for "misconduct" in 2013
Air Force 2012 59 2013 55=4 less suicides. 2,900 discharged for "misconduct" in 2013
Marines 48-45=3 less suicides. 3,000 discharged for "misconduct" in 2013

Yes, that is a Power Point slide show but it should be called, "powerless point" since no one learned much from it. They actually make fun of it. Take a look at this group among the empty chairs. They are bored.


The military can claim these were all behavioral problems but what they cannot do it prove it. Considering the military does do psychological testing and checks backgrounds, they have also claimed to be addressing problems from substance and sexual abuses, yet they still continue.

Since early 2006 the Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program (SARP) has been integrated into the Behavioral Services Department. In the case of sexual abuse they have been "addressing" that for many years including this report from what happened in 2009

Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2009 Annual Report on Sexual Assaults in the Military
"In 2005, the Department enacted the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Program to encourage increased reporting of the crime, facilitate improved access to victim care, better organize response resources, and promote prevention. The Department‘s vision is to enable military readiness by establishing a culture free of sexual assault. The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) within the Office of the Secretary of Defense is responsible for the policy that supports this program and oversight activities that ensure its effectiveness. The Department of Defense (DoD) policy requires each Military Service to maintain its own SAPR program, investigate Unrestricted Reports of sexual assaults, and hold subjects appropriately accountable."


Suicides, PTSD, misconduct and everything else going wrong can be summed up in one terrible approach that began in 2008.
Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness (CSF2) is designed to build resilience and enhance performance of the Army Family — Soldiers, their Families, and Army Civilians. CSF2 does this by providing hands-on training and self-development tools so that members of the Army Family are better able to cope with adversity, perform better in stressful situations, and thrive in life.

CSF2 has Training Centers located across the United States. These Training Centers provide Resilience and Performance Enhancement Training where it is needed most – at Army installations (unit level). CSF2 is an integral part of the Army’s Ready and Resilient Campaign ; a campaign that promotes physical and psychological fitness and encourages personal and professional growth. Resilient Soldiers, Family members and Army Civilians perform better, which results in improved unit readiness and better lives.

Nice slogan but not worth more than the lives lost while they continued to push it.

FIVE DIMENSIONS OF STRENGTH but the outcome has been proven to be a failure. It isn't as if no one warned about any of this.

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a professor of psychiatry at Boston University

“This report reads more like propaganda than a serious scientific study,” he said in an email after reviewing the Army study results. “The big question, though, has not yet been addressed: Does this intervention make combat soldiers more resilient and prevent PTSD and somatization [a condition in which a person has many physical symptoms but no physical cause that can be detected]?

Anything else we try to do will fail until we can undo the damage done by this.

When we see the outcome spread past the military life and into the lives of our veterans, the whole nation should have screamed instead of just yawning. How could the military push something that experts have been complaining about for years? How could they just ignore the results?

If you want to know how much we knew and how much was spent to produce these deplorable results, read THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR Everything in this book was complied from news reports along with military documents. Nothing in it was hidden but most of it was forgotten.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

History has proven need for accountability on military suicides

History has proven need for accountability on military suicides
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 15, 2013

The numbers released on military suicides from last year were not the shocking part.

The numbers are from Air Force Times
Army 351-296=55
Navy 59-46=7
Air Force 59-55=4
Marines 48-45=3

The shocking part is no one has been held accountable since 2008 and no one ever will be unless the public demands it.

The headlines are not impressive at all considering every branch has also had a reduction in enlisted personnel and the rate of younger veterans committing suicide has gone up. 517 revised from 2012?

This is from 2009 with military leaders. House Armed Service Subcommittee held the hearing.



As you can see, the numbers went up after this hearing even though they made it sound as if they were doing everything possible to reduce suicides.

This is from 2010 with General Carroll Air Force Vice Chief of Staff



This is a year after training was pushed across the military. The number of Air Force Suicides, Post Traumatic Stress and TBI were increasing. As you can see, they increased even more after "addressing" the problems.

One more thing to consider when any military brass talks about how non-deployed forces committed suicide is the simple fact, civilians do not receive mental health evaluations but enlisted personnel do. They were tested before they enlisted. Either the testing is inadequate and cannot discover underlying psychological problems or the problems are in fact caused by the military.

Nice speeches did not save lives. Good intentions did not save lives. When the military decided to do more to prevent suicides and encourage troops to seek help for PTSD but ended up with these terrible results, they should have changed but they didn't. They just pushed the same programs harder.
JULY 2, 2010
Veterans and Military Mental Health
National Institute on Mental Health 2010 Convention Officials from the Defense and Veterans Departments took part in a discussion looking at the range of mental health and counseling services available to returning war veterans. Among the topics they addressed were evaluation methods, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and congressional initiatives to address to assist veterans. Psychiatric service dogs in the audience were pointed out. Following Colonel Ritchie’s remarks, Vietnam War veteran Ron Morton unexpectedly stepped up to the podium and spoke about soldiers committing suicide and the increase of veterans with AIDS and HIV. He argued that the Veterans Administration is not doing enough for veterans with PTSD. After the panelists' prepared remarks, they responded to audience members' questions.

"We have solutions we're working on" but after listening to Richie, it is clear their solutions did not work. Just look at the numbers above as a reminder.

Richie praised Dr. Ira Katz. Dr. Katz was hiding data that at the time there were 12,000 attempted suicides each year within the VA system. Another good reminder is that the VA cares for only a fraction of the veterans in this country. Less than 4 million out of almost 23 million veterans.

John Bradly of NAMI reminded the audience they had given Katz an award in 2009. That is the same year I resigned from NAMI Veterans Council. Dr. Katz was the focus of a lawsuit by Veterans for Common Sense and documents were uncovered by a Freedom of Information Request.
Sens. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Patty Murray of Washington state said Tuesday that Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's mental health director, withheld crucial information on the true suicide risk among veterans. "Dr. Katz's irresponsible actions have been a disservice to our veterans, and it is time for him to go," said Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "The No. 1 priority of the VA should be caring for our veterans, not covering up the truth."


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

That report was from 2008.

Katz said during his address in 2010 that the VA takes care of 24 million veterans but the VA records showed there was less than 4 million receiving VA compensation. Katz's chart showed 7.8 million enrolled in VA healthcare with 5.2 million seen each year and 1.6 million with mental health diagnosis.

That is an important factor in attempting to discover how many veterans attempt suicides and how many are not being counted.

Was it a serious problem in 2008? Yes, like the story of Josh Barber,
FORT LEWIS, Wash. — Josh Barber, former combat soldier, parked outside the Army hospital here one morning last August armed for war.

A cook at the dining facility, Barber sat in his truck wearing battle fatigues, earplugs and a camouflage hood on his head. He had an arsenal: seven loaded guns, nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition, knives in his pockets. On the front seat, an AK-47had a bullet in the chamber.

The "smell of death" he experienced in Iraq continued to haunt him, his wife says. He was embittered about the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that crippled him, the Army's failure to treat it, and the strains the disorder put on his marriage.

Despite the firepower he brought with him, Barber, 31, took only one life that day. He killed himself with a shot to the head.

"He went to Fort Lewis to kill himself to prove a point," Kelly Barber says. " 'Here I am. I was a soldier. You guys didn't help me.' "

Barber's suicide is part of a larger story — the record number of soldiers and combat veterans who have killed themselves in recent years, at a time when the Pentagon has stretched deployments for combat troops to meet President Bush's security plans in Iraq. In 2007, the Army counted 115 suicides, the most since tracking began in 1980. By October 2008, that record had been surpassed with 117 soldier suicides. Final numbers for 2008 have not been released.

This post would never end if I kept going but after tracking news reports from across the country since 2007, there is enough proof on Wounded Times that what the DOD has been doing has not helped keep them alive. It has caused too many to not want to live anymore.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

When will the military stop pretending CSF is working?

When will the military stop pretending CSF is working?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 16, 2014

Every time I hear a claim like this "Resilient leaders yield resilient soldiers" I want to scream "Where is the proof?"

How many years have to go on before they actually figure out this does not work?

Here are the basic facts.

The Department of Defense Suicide Event Report for 2012 was not released. This is 2014. 2012 was the highest year for military suicides. It was also during a time when there were less serving in the military.

The total for 2013 has not been released yet. The last report from the DOD Army Suicide Information, which includes Army, Army National Guards and Army Reserves, (does not include the other branches) and did not include December numbers.

As of November the total for Army Suicides was 139. The total for all of 2012 was 185.

Army National Guards suicides for 2013 in the same report were 89. For all of 2012 it was 93.

Army Reserves for 2013 50. For all of 2012 47.

The military as a whole have downsized. In other words, less serving in the military topped off with less deployed into Afghanistan, should have given them a clue that this program they hatch in 2009 failed.

This is the claim made about CSF
Master Resiliency Training, a part of Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness, focuses on five areas of strength: physical, spiritual, social, family and emotional. The resiliency program teaches soldiers the skills needed to cope with adversity, adapt to change, and recover from emotionally challenging life events.

If it worked we would have seen a lot less suicides. We would not have seen a 44% increase in young veterans committing suicide.
Suicides Among Young Male Vets Jumped 44 Percent From 2009-2011
That was the headline from NewsMax
New data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows the number of young male vets committing suicide jumped 44 percent from 2009 to 2011, or roughly two young men a day, reports say.

The suicide rate for all veterans remained mostly unchanged over the same period; the department estimates some 22 veterans a day take their own life, Stars and Stripes reported Thursday.

Top all that off with the fact that even I saw this coming back in 2009 and know that this should not have come as any kind of shock to the people in charge.

May 29, 2009
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness will make it worse

General Casey, now hear this, you cannot, repeat, cannot train your brain to prevent PTSD and until you understand this "Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience." does not equal the cause of PTSD, you will keep making it worse! Did the rise in suicides and attempted suicides offer you no clue that Battlemind didn't work? Apparently something told you it didn't or you'd still be pushing this. When you have a program in place to "train them to be resilient" beginning with telling them if they do not, it's their fault, what the hell did you and the other brass expect? Did you think they would listen to the rest of what the Battlemind program had to say to them? Are you out of your mind?
If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Is the DOD trying to make it worse for military men and women?

Is the DOD trying to make it worse for military men and women?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 27, 2013

On July 18, 2013 the Department of Defense released the April and May suicide report. This was done when they should have been releasing the June report.

In April the DOD said there were 11 "potential" suicides. Think about that. That means the families are left wondering what happened. For May it was 12 "potential" suicides. So far this year there have been;
For calendar year 2013, there have been 64 potential active-duty suicides: 31 have been confirmed as suicides and 33 remain under investigation.
They also revised the total of Army suicides to 183.

Updated active-duty suicide numbers for calendar year (CY) 2012: 183 (162 have been confirmed as suicides and 21 remain under investigation).

The most forgotten group has been the National Guards and Reservists.

For April 2013, among that same group, the Army reported 16 potential suicides; however, subsequent to the report, one more case was added bringing April’s total to 17 (14 Army National Guard and 3 Army Reserve).

During May 2013, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were 10 potential suicides (8 Army National Guard and two Army Reserve).

For CY 2013, there have been 70 potential not on active duty suicides (45 Army National Guard and 25 Army Reserve)

Updated not on active duty suicide numbers for CY 2012: 140 (93 Army National Guard and 47 Army Reserve)

So far as of the last week of July, they have not released the Suicide Event Report for 2012. Why? Why on earth would it take this long to release what they have been tracking all along?

The headline from DVIDS is that "Army's Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program spreads the importance of resiliency"

Secretary of the Army John McHugh announced the formal beginning of the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Oct. 2, 2009, according to www.army.mil.

The Army-wide implementation of this program focuses on enhancing the performance and improving the overall strength and resiliency of soldiers, family members and Army civilians. In July 2012, Comprehensive Soldier Fitness was re-named Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness to incorporate family members.

This is the claim they are still making.
“The purpose of launching CSF2 was to increase people’s emotional strength, equip them with coping skills, and give them the ability to bounce back from any situation life may throw at them,” said Army Col. Kenneth Riddle, CSF2 director. “As well, the CSF2’s vision is to have a total Army team of physically healthy and psychologically strong soldiers, families and Army civilians whose resilience and total fitness enables them to thrive in both the military and civilian sector and to meet a wide range of operational demands.”
While this all sounds good the trouble is coming from not actually looking at the history of this programming. Are they trying to make it worse for the military men and women on purpose? If that is their intention, then they succeeded. If they are trying to save lives, then they failed miserably. The numbers prove it.

The suicides they have to count have gone up since they started this program.
2008 Army suicides at 3-decade high 128

But that was followed up by this
7 soldiers committed suicide in January of 2009 and the cause of death in 17 other cases is still pending, Army officials announced Thursday, marking a significant increase in soldier suicides from the same time period in previous years.

Last month’s numbers are six times higher than those from January 2008 and eight times higher than in 2004.

They said they didn't know why and then tried to blame it on winter.
"This is terrifying," an Army official said. "We do not know what is going on."

Col. Kathy Platoni, chief clinical psychologist for the Army Reserve and National Guard, said that the long, cold months of winter could be a major contributor to the January spike.

Then they tried to explain it away by pointing the finger at repeated deployments, which had been shown to raise the risk of PTSD according to an Army report in 2006.
"US Soldiers serving repeated deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health. (Washington Post 2006)
It wasn't that they were not trying. They were still pushing what was called Battlemind in 2009.
Battle Mind must be eliminated from what they are trying to do. There is no doubt in my mind that they really want to save the lives of the troops but they are the last to learn shooting with rubber bullets may be good for target practice but it in no way resembles or prepares them for the real thing. In other words, they are usually the last to learn what the rest of the country already knows. When it comes to PTSD, they are still shooting with blanks.


In March of 2009 William McMichael, staff writer for Army Times reported this.
But calls by troops and former troops to a Veterans Affairs help line indicate that the problem may be even larger that the alarming statistics provided at the hearing.

In calendar year 2008, the Army reported 140 confirmed or suspected suicides. That’s 20.2 suicides per 100,000 troops — an all-time high that is nearly twice the national average of 11.0 suicides per 100,000. The service’s suicide rate has more than doubled since 2004.

The Navy reported 41 suicides in 2008, a rate of 11.6 per 100,000. The Marine Corps lost 41 Marines last year to confirmed or suspected suicides — up from 25 two years earlier — a rate of 19.0 suicides per 100,000. The Air Force lost 38 airmen in 2008, a rate of 11.5 suicides per 100,000.

More ominously, 780 callers to a national Veterans Affairs suicide prevention hotline in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2008, identified themselves as active-duty troops, said Kathryn Power, director of the Center for Mental Health Services in the Department of Health and Human Services.


It was already proven to not be working when in February of 2009 the other bad reports were followed up by these.
U.S. Marine Corps, 1 suicide every two days, attempted ones, every 2 hours!
As many as 18 soldiers killed themselves in February, Army officials announced March 5.

Over at Fort Carson there was a recording of a psychologist saying "I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD"

The Army counted 64 possible suicides in the first four months of this year, 11 of those were at Fort Campbell, Ky. — four suicides in January, three in February and four in March.
All of this is bad but what followed was even worse.
Eight soldiers committed suicide in eight days of New Year of 2010
Then by November of 2010 172 soldiers committed suicide this year—surpassing last year’s total of 162 for all of 2009.

Fort Hood’s 22 confirmed suicides, meanwhile, doubled its 2009 mark and was eight more than Fort Bragg, N.C., which had the second-largest tally.

For the beginning of 2011 it got worse
2 Marines killed themselves in February, raising to 4 the number who have committed suicide in 2011.

Another 17 Marines attempted suicide, according to the latest figures from the headquarters of the Marine Corps.

Military Suicides while enlisted are only part of the story. When you factor in how many the DOD no longer has to count, the numbers prove more deadly evidence that Battlemind and "Comprehensive Solider Fitness" do more harm than good. While most of the veterans committing suicide everyday are Vietnam veterans, reports from across the country are about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans taking their own lives even after having all this "training" plus getting involved in standoffs with law enforcement and showing up in veterans courts.

Psychologist and true researchers, including RAND Corp, have exposed this attempt as doing more harm than good. If you want to know more then read The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War and see what caused all of this. Every report in it gives you the source to where the news report came from, the government reports and everything you need to know the DOD doesn't want to tell you.

They can keep saying they are doing something about it but with these results it should leave you wondering why they would push what has made it worse and why the media has not even asked them to explain these results.

What are they doing about it now? They are pushing it harder.

Army's Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program spreads the importance of resiliency

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Preventing PTSD treatments lack sufficient scientific evidence

Billions spent on "preventing" and higher PTSD numbers, higher suicide numbers, higher attempted suicide numbers plus thousands of calls to suicide prevention hotline pretty much confirm THEY HAVE TO END THE RESILIENCE PROGRAMS!
Little Evidence Supporting Most Treatments to Prevent PTSD
PsychCentral
By RICK NAUERT PHD
Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
April 3, 2013

Co-author Gerald Gartlehner, M.D., M.P.H., agrees, “Clinicians and patients have to be aware that while there are many treatments offered for the prevention of PTSD, many lack sufficient scientific evidence.”
Exposure to trauma may cause an individual to experience some of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as flashbacks, emotional numbing and difficulty sleeping.

Although millions of adults are exposed to traumatic events each year, researchers admit little is known about the effectiveness of treatments aimed at preventing posttraumatic stress symptoms.

In a new study, researchers looked into various forms of treatment to prevent PTSD after at least one traumatic event.

After reviewing 2,563 abstracts, the investigators found 19 studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Only two psychotherapeutic treatments showed possible benefits for adults exposed to trauma.
read more here

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

List of Resilience Programs Reviewed by RAND

Today has been one more eye opener while researching my book, The Warrior SAW, Suicide After War and I am sick to my stomach over what I discovered today. The following cannot wait until the book is done.

Rand has a fascinating report that must have just missed every reporter in the country because it addresses the problems with the military approach of reducing military suicides by making them "resilient" and actually showed the results from this huge study.

If you want to know why hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent over all these years producing the record high suicide rates across the military branches, this is it.

Table 3.2 List of Resilience Programs Reviewed
Assessment of the Army Center for enhanced Performance (ACeP)
Battlemind
Operational Stress Control and Readiness (OSCAR)
Employee engagement Program (nSA)/Corporate Athlete
Energy Project
Gallup Consulting
HeartMath
Joint Speakers Bureau (JSB)
Landing Gear
Marine Resiliency Study (MRS)
Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness training (MMFt)
National Guard Resiliency Program
Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS)
Passport toward Success
Penn Resiliency Project (PRP)
Preventive Psychological health Demonstration Project (PPhDP)
Promoting Alternative thinking Strategies (PAthS)
School Mental health team (SMht)
Senior Leader wellness enhancement Seminar (SLweS)
Soldier evaluation for Life Fitness (SeLF)
Spiritual warrior training Program (SwtP)
Warrior Resiliency Program (wRP)
Warrior Resilience and thriving (wRt)
Most programs have been implemented before evidence of their effectiveness has been established. Programs often are modified for each client or context, making it difficult to design studies that will provide evidence of effectiveness for all military populations and situations. New scientific studies have recently been funded and are in the planning or initial data collection stages, but, as with most quasi-experimental or controlled studies, it will be a number of years before evidence of their effectiveness is fully established. As these studies with evaluative data progress, they should be encouraged to publish their results.
Conduct More Rigorous Program Evaluation
Although there are many programs available to the military and civilian communities, there is very little empirical evidence that these programs effectively build resilience.

Similarly, there are a number of factors related to resilience, but there is almost no evidence that resilience can be taught or produced. Results from both the literature review and the program review echo the need for more program evaluation, as identified as one of the missions of the DCoE. As noted, only 11 documents in the literature review are based on RCT evaluation design, and only five of the programs reviewed have formally evaluated program success, yet programs are often rolled out before evidence of their effectiveness has been established and are modified for each client or context, making it difficult to provide evidence for effectiveness across populations and situations.

In general, studies of resilience in the military should enhance scientific rigor by conducting more RCTs and longitudinal studies that span the phases of deployment. This is particularly true for military families, since little research has been published in this area (MacDermid et al., 2008). In addition, studies with existing evaluative data need to be encouraged to publish their results.


Conclusion
Promoting resilience in the military is an increasingly important objective of DoD.
Effective programs that improve service members and their families’ resilience directly assist the military in keeping its personnel better prepared for combat. Our study reached the following conclusions:
• There is evidence in the literature supporting many factors that can help to promote resilience at the individual, family, unit, and community levels.
– Scientific evidence is especially strong for positive thinking, positive affect, positive coping, realism, and behavioral control, as well as for positive command climate and belongingness.
• Many of the programs that were reviewed as part of this study incorporate these evidence-based factors into their core missions.
• However, interviews with program representatives identified five types of challenges to program implementation, which suggest opportunities to improve program capabilities:
– lack of leadership support by the military
– problems with logistics
– limited funding to sustain programs
– poor fit within the military culture
– mental health stigma.
Building resilience in the military can be strengthened in several ways. Clear policy to define roles, responsibilities, and broad guidance for implementation would be extremely helpful. Using evidence-based resilience factors in a flexible, culturally sensitive context is also important. Resilience policies should also direct more rigorous program evaluation, using standardized measures and comparing across different programs.

Such evaluations could help guide military members and their families to make informed decisions about program selection. Ultimately, strong command leadership will enable the success of resilience programming and will enhance the overall strength and resilience of service members and their families.
I knew this was bad but I didn't know how much proof there was the DOD has pushing something they didn't even know would work and then refused to end it when it was proven to leave more dead by suicide, 43% still refusing to get care and 57% committing suicide even after they got it.
UPDATE MARCH 21, 2013
Findings from 2011 also by RAND RAND Study Promoting Psychological Resilience in the U.S. Military 2011 Summary of Reported Barriers to Program Implementation
Lack of leadership support
13 “Supportive leadership . . . can model change in their own behavior and also serve as a ‘strong internal champion’ for the program.” “when communication from the top down is not as clear, families may not get relevant information or feel particularly encouraged to attend. there is higher participation when commanders’ families participate in the program.”
Problems with logistics
12 “Identifying appropriate periods of measurement within the military is an ongoing challenge.” “there are many demands on training time . . . sometimes training time is cut short in order to continue the mission.”
Limited funding to sustain program
8 “the business process [of] traditional systems works against efforts to provide a prevention oriented system. Currently, they are tied to a system that rewards for patient encounters.” “we started with some seed money to develop the program and got additional support from local representatives. It will be important to get ongoing support to further develop and expand the program.”
Poor fit within the military
8 “It is a challenge to figure out how to present the material in an effective way, e.g., self-care and self regulation can be presented as part of self-sustainment.”
Mental health stigma
5 “Soldier’s reaction is ‘why do we need this touchy-feely course?’ It is sometimes hard to get through to senior leadership the importance of addressing these issues prior to deployment.”

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

When will the DOD and VA stop feeding stigma of PTSD?

"Stigma, mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation."

That is the definition of a stigma. The DOD said years ago they understood that and had changed how they respond to the troops in need of help. The problem is, they came up with a program that does not work because they did not understand it any more than they understood the men and women suffering from it.


Local veteran discusses PTSD problems
KOAA News
Posted: Mar 18, 2013
by Matt Stafford

"I'd die for my country, and in a heartbeat," says George Barnes, an Iraq War veteran who spent the end of his career at Fort Carson before being medically discharged from the Army.

Barnes did nearly die for his country. While in Iraq, a rocket-propelled grenade hit the door of his vehicle. After that incident is when he says that he first started noticing symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

PTSD is something Barnes feels daily.

"Scared, very scared," Barnes describes. "Ashamed; people look at you differently."

"It cost me my career," says Barnes. "The Army didn't know what to do with me."

Now he's afraid it may soon cost him more. Now that Barnes is medically retired, he's in the Department of Veterans Affairs, but he says assistance is barely letting him get by -- bills are piling up and he doesn't feel stable enough to hold a job.

"I don't know where I'm going to be in the next year," says Barnes. "I could be out on the street; i just don't know."

Unfortunately Barnes' story isn't unique. After more than a decade of war, suicides now outpace combat deaths for the Army; that's despite the doubling of their behavioral health staff over the last five years.
read more here


In 2009 I wrote this warning about Comprehensive Soldier Fitness
If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them.


The $125-million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Failure posted in December of 2011 and was followed by the deadliest year for military suicides.

COMPREHENSIVE SOLDIER & FAMILY FITNESS
BUILDING RESILIENCE ★ ENHANCING PERFORMANCE


I left this comment
Want to know why suicides went up? Start here. This training tells them that they can train their brains to be mentally tough. In other words, if they end up with PTSD, it is their fault for being weak. Spiritual training only works if you do it right. The proof is in the numbers and in 2009 I warned if this program was pushed, suicides would go up.


I am sure the highly educated psychologists are laughing at what I posted since I am just a regular person. The thing they miss is, if I knew this would happen as a nobody, why didn't they? After all aren't we supposed to believe they are the best and the brightest? Aren't we supposed to believe they get paid the big bucks and millions in contracts because they know so much more? Isn't that the deal? Money and power go hand in hand but not so much for accountability so I get to spend hours talking to veterans apologizing for not training right and being mentally weak. I get to spend hours and hours undoing the damage this program did. What sickens me the most is I spend even more time with Moms after their sons and daughters committed suicide after this program started and their kids couldn't admit they needed help.

The stigma is on all the people pushing this program when average people figured out a long time ago it makes PTSD worse.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Families are blaming themselves for military suicides

Families are blaming themselves for military suicides
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 9, 2013

Why does it seem as if everyone is blaming themselves for military suicides except the military? Think about how many times we've read General after General talking about soldiers committing suicide and then end up pointing to the number of civilian suicides. Do they ever once mention the fact that among those numbers are veterans? Do they mention that while veterans are only about 7% of the population, they represent 22% of suicides? Do the mention the stunning number of 28 Vietnam veterans committed suicide a day when they came home?

Families blamed themselves even back then when there was no information, little public knowledge about research being done and far less support.

Times have changed. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent every year over the last 40 years researching PTSD and combat. We now have the internet, Facebook, books online, support groups and hundreds more charities collecting donations to save their lives, raise awareness, you name it but the results are just as heart wrenching when a family has to stand by the flag covered coffin of someone who should have still been here.

Veterans and families work to raise awareness about military suicides
Mar 3 2013
Monica Hernandez
Eyewitness News

NEW ORLEANS - Andrew O'Brien may have survived a tour in Iraq, but he nearly succumbed to the depression that followed when he returned.

“I did attempt suicide. I attempted it in 2010. I took a bunch of pills and ended up going to the hospital and having to get my stomach pumped and a tube shoved down my throat,” said O'Brien, an army veteran who left the military in 2011.

Now O'Brien is sharing his story with others in hopes of shedding light on a growing problem. Last year, more active duty military died from suicide than in combat. A group called the NOLA Patriots rallied for awareness at the Veterans' Memorial in Metairie Saturday. “You come back and you feel like you're just supposed to go right back into who you were before,” said O'Brien. “And you come back and you're paranoid about everything.”
Danielle Comeaux lost her son to suicide in 2011. Specialist Matthew Comeaux had just returned home from a tour in Afghanistan. He was 21.

“I'm only ashamed, not of Matthew, I'm ashamed that we didn't know what the signs were to recognize so that we could have helped him,” said Comeaux.
read more here


Everyone is blaming themselves. Marine Clay Hunt's family blames themselves and his friends wonder what they could have done. Yet when you listen to what Jake Wood had to say about the attitude carried over, it is clear the men and women in the military come home with a screwed up idea of what it is to be mentally tough with Comprehensive Soldier Fitness and Resilience Training.

Sgt. Timothy Cichon, wrote about being a devote Christian and failing the CSF. Why does this matter? Because it is a spiritual test and he had a lot of questions, so his response was honest but didn't fit in with the answers they wanted out of him.

Twisting spirituality/faith is part of the problem. The other part is telling them they can train their brains to be mentally tough. Yet even worse, far more deadly, is when families are the last to know what these war fighters come home within their own bodies. How is it that after all these years, after all the money, mounting suicide numbers and claims they finally get it, are families still left out of all of this?

The last few years I've been talking to more and more Moms about the sons and daughters they had to bury because of suicides. Every single one of them didn't know what PTSD was, what they could do to help, what the medication warnings were or even why their soldier managed to survive combat but couldn't survive being "safe" back home.

So while the military refuses to accept responsibility for these deaths, refuses to change what they do and how they address it, the families and friends must go on with their own lives and the self-blame that belongs to leadership of the military and Congress for refusing to hold no one accountable. After all, they manage to fight to make sure the DOD has all they money they need but never seem to manage to make sure the funding is used properly. Imagine if the DOD wanted a weapon that ended up killing more soldiers than the enemy. Do you think they'd keep funding it? Keep using it? Hell no. So how is it they are still funding programs that kill more after combat than the enemy does during it?

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Comprehensive Solider Fitness increased suicide warning ignored

Comprehensive Solider Fitness increased suicide warning ignored
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 26, 2013

Working on The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War, my new book on military suicides and reviewing some research I've done over the years has dropped a bombshell of a reminder of how we got the deadliest year of suicides connected to military service. While suicides within the military made headlines across the country and internationally, the results of a study done trying to figure out how many veterans have committed suicide produced a finding that their suicides are almost one an hour everyday.

What no one seems to be talking about is how did they get there from when nothing was being done? How is it possible with all the Bills Congress has passed and funded, these suicides have been allowed to increase without accountability from them?

In May of 2009, I offered this warning about what they were doing.
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness will make it worse
General Casey, now hear this, you cannot, repeat, cannot train your brain to prevent PTSD and until you understand this "Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience." does not equal the cause of PTSD, you will keep making it worse! Did the rise in suicides and attempted suicides offer you no clue that Battlemind didn't work? Apparently something told you it didn't or you'd still be pushing this. When you have a program in place to "train them to be resilient" beginning with telling them if they do not, it's their fault, what the hell did you and the other brass expect? Did you think they would listen to the rest of what the Battlemind program had to say to them? Are you out of your mind?

With all due respect, because I do believe you care about the men and women you command, this is just one more in a series of mistakes because it seems no one in the Pentagon or the upper rows of the food chain have a clue what causes PTSD.

While adversity does make some stronger, you cannot train them to do it. Life and character does that quite effectively on their own. Some will walk away stronger after traumatic events but one out of three humans will not. Some experts put the rate at one out of five walk away wounded but the best experts I've listened to since 1982 have put it at one out of three.

Do you think that this man could have "trained his brain" as well?
UK:WWII veteran finally diagnosed with PTSD
A D-DAY hero has been told he is suffering a stress related illness picked up in battle — 65 years AFTER he was the first Brit to storm an enemy beach.

WWII vet George McMahon, who was the first soldier on Sword Beach in Normandy, France, had revealed he is still suffering terrifying flashbacks from June 6, 1944.

And Army docs have told the 89-year-old war hero he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) picked up during WWII.

Mr McMahon's family first sought help from docs when the ex-soldier talked vividly about the war in the lead-up to the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

Mr McMahon of Kirk Ella, Hull, was then visited by the Service Personnel and Veterans' Agency — part of the Ministry of Defence — who said he was displaying PTSD symptoms.

The Scotland-born Army vet who served with The King's Regiment Army was awarded the Military Cross for storming two machine-guns.
Back then there were plenty of excuses to use for what happened to veterans but after Vietnam veterans came home and forced the wound to be treated, we ran out of excuses. How can you continue to dismiss what is so obvious? It is the nature of man, what is in their core, their empathy for others that is at the root of PTSD. I've talked to them long enough and enough of them to have understood this over 20 years ago. I also live with one.

I'm sick and tired of reading about what does not work being repeated. In all these years, people like me have already learned from the mistakes we made trying to help our husbands and others. To us, it wasn't a numbers game or a research project. This has meant our lives and the lives of the men we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. Aside from that General Casey, I've spent countless hours attempting to undo the damage done because the troops are not being told what they need to hear in the first place.

I've held Marines in my arms crying because the military told them they were not strong enough and National Guardsmen told they were not cut out for combat. All of this because the military has been telling them it's their fault they didn't work hard enough to toughen their brains.

How many more suicides are you willing to live with? Has it not gotten thru to you yet that you are losing more men and women after combat than you do during it? This is only part of it because I doubt you have considered how many have committed suicide and tried it after they were discharged. You cannot order them to stop caring! You cannot order them to become callous or oblivious to the suffering of others. Between the members of their own unit to the innocent civilians that do end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you cannot seriously expect them to just "get over it" and "toughen" their brains. These men and women walk away with their own pain compounded by the pain of others. This is what opens the door to PTSD and until you understand this is what the difference is, you will never get close enough to finding the best treatment for it and they will continue to pay for it.

Ever notice the vast majority of the men and women you command end up carrying out the mission they are given, fighting fiercely and showing great courage even though they are already carrying the wound inside of them? They fulfill their duty despite flashbacks and nightmares draining them because their duty comes first to them. Do you understand how much that takes for them to do that? Yet you think telling them their minds are not tough enough will solve the problem? What kind of a tough mind do you think they needed to have to fight on despite this killing pain inside of them?

I fully understand to you, I'm no one. I have been ignored by senators and congressmen, doctors and other brass for as long as I've been trying to help, so you are not the first. I've also been listened to by others trying to think outside the box, but more importantly to me, by the men and women seeking my help to understand this and their families. I tell them what you should have been telling them all along so that they know it's not their fault, they did not lack courage and they are not responsible for being wounded any more than they would have been to have been found by a bullet with their name on it.

If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them.
Army Launching Program To Train Soldiers To Combat Post-Traumatic Stress
Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com HuffPost Reporting

Faced with a growing number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases in the armed forces, the U.S. Army will begin a program this summer to proactively address the problem by focusing on building the mental resilience of its personnel.

In a speech before the international affairs organization the Atlantic Council on Thursday, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey laid out the virtues of the newly formed initiative, which he called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.

"We have been looking very hard at ways to develop coping skills and resilience in soldiers, and we will be coming out in July with a new program called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness," said Casey. "And what we will attempt to do is raise mental fitness to the same level that we now give to physical fitness. Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience."

"The whole idea here is to give soldiers the skills they need to increase their resilience and enhance their performance," he went on. "A lot of people think that everybody who goes to combat gets post-traumatic stress. That's not true. Everybody that goes to combat gets stressed. There is no doubt about it. But the vast majority of people who go to combat have a growth experience because they are exposed to something very, very difficult and they prevail. So the issue for us is how do we give more people the skills so that more people have a growth experience... We thought it was important to get started on this because everything else involves you treating the problem. We need to be more proactive."
Yet this did little good. Researchers ignored this warning. In June, half way through the worst suicide record in 2012, there did come a warning from psychiatrists but again, most reporters failed to fully understand what this all meant.
Dangerous Ideas
How our core beliefs promote and prevent progressive change
by Roy Eidelson, Ph.D.
The Army’s Flawed Resilience-Training Study: A Call for Retraction
Claims about the CSF program’s effectiveness are not supported by the research.
Published on June 4, 2012 by Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. in Dangerous Ideas
Note: My thanks to co-author Stephen Soldz.

Ten years of continuous war, characterized by multiple deployments, elusive guerilla adversaries, and occupied populations seemingly more tilted toward resentment than gratitude — have taken a significant toll on US troops. In addition to those who have been killed, physically maimed, or neurologically impaired by combat, many soldiers have experienced debilitating psychological disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. Large numbers are on antidepressants and other psychotropic medications, while the suicide rate among troops has risen to alarming levels.

The sobering realities of the psychological effects of war pose a serious challenge for the US military tasked with simultaneously fighting multiple wars and anticipating years of “persistent conflict” ahead. The good news is that key sectors within the military have now identified the mental health of our troops as a major issue that must be addressed. Indeed, in addition to treatment for those suffering psychological impairment, the military leadership is pursuing intervention efforts aimed at preventing such adverse outcomes by increasing soldiers’ psychological resilience to combat exposure. The largest of these new initiatives is the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program, launched in 2009 and based upon the “positive psychology” framework of psychologist Martin Seligman. And that brings us to the bad news: despite the over-hyped claims of CSF’s leading proponents, at this point there is little evidence to suggest that CSF works.
I strongly suggest that if you are researcher or member of the media trolling this blog, you go to the link and read what else was in the report. When you do you'll understand what I've been screaming about all this time.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Comprehensive Soldier Fitness will make it worse

General Casey, now hear this, you cannot, repeat, cannot train your brain to prevent PTSD and until you understand this "Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience." does not equal the cause of PTSD, you will keep making it worse! Did the rise in suicides and attempted suicides offer you no clue that Battlemind didn't work? Apparently something told you it didn't or you'd still be pushing this. When you have a program in place to "train them to be resilient" beginning with telling them if they do not, it's their fault, what the hell did you and the other brass expect? Did you think they would listen to the rest of what the Battlemind program had to say to them? Are you out of your mind?

With all due respect, because I do believe you care about the men and women you command, this is just one more in a series of mistakes because it seems no one in the Pentagon or the upper rows of the food chain have a clue what causes PTSD.

While adversity does make some stronger, you cannot train them to do it. Life and character does that quite effectively on their own. Some will walk away stronger after traumatic events but one out of three humans will not. Some experts put the rate at one out of five walk away wounded but the best experts I've listened to since 1982 have put it at one out of three.

Do you think that this man could have "trained his brain" as well?
UK:WWII veteran finally diagnosed with PTSD
A D-DAY hero has been told he is suffering a stress related illness picked up in battle — 65 years AFTER he was the first Brit to storm an enemy beach.

WWII vet George McMahon, who was the first soldier on Sword Beach in Normandy, France, had revealed he is still suffering terrifying flashbacks from June 6, 1944.

And Army docs have told the 89-year-old war hero he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) picked up during WWII.


Mr McMahon's family first sought help from docs when the ex-soldier talked vividly about the war in the lead-up to the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

Mr McMahon of Kirk Ella, Hull, was then visited by the Service Personnel and Veterans' Agency — part of the Ministry of Defence — who said he was displaying PTSD symptoms.

The Scotland-born Army vet who served with The King's Regiment Army was awarded the Military Cross for storming two machine-guns.

Back then there were plenty of excuses to use for what happened to veterans but after Vietnam veterans came home and forced the wound to be treated, we ran out of excuses. How can you continue to dismiss what is so obvious? It is the nature of man, what is in their core, their empathy for others that is at the root of PTSD. I've talked to them long enough and enough of them to have understood this over 20 years ago. I also live with one.

I'm sick and tired of reading about what does not work being repeated. In all these years, people like me have already learned from the mistakes we made trying to help our husbands and others. To us, it wasn't a numbers game or a research project. This has meant our lives and the lives of the men we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. Aside from that General Casey, I've spent countless hours attempting to undo the damage done because the troops are not being told what they need to hear in the first place.

I've held Marines in my arms crying because the military told them they were not strong enough and National Guardsmen told they were not cut out for combat. All of this because the military has been telling them it's their fault they didn't work hard enough to toughen their brains.

How many more suicides are you willing to live with? Has it not gotten thru to you yet that you are losing more men and women after combat than you do during it? This is only part of it because I doubt you have considered how many have committed suicide and tried it after they were discharged. You cannot order them to stop caring! You cannot order them to become callous or oblivious to the suffering of others. Between the members of their own unit to the innocent civilians that do end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you cannot seriously expect them to just "get over it" and "toughen" their brains. These men and women walk away with their own pain compounded by the pain of others. This is what opens the door to PTSD and until you understand this is what the difference is, you will never get close enough to finding the best treatment for it and they will continue to pay for it.

Ever notice the vast majority of the men and women you command end up carrying out the mission they are given, fighting fiercely and showing great courage even though they are already carrying the wound inside of them? They fulfill their duty despite flashbacks and nightmares draining them because their duty comes first to them. Do you understand how much that takes for them to do that? Yet you think telling them their minds are not tough enough will solve the problem? What kind of a tough mind do you think they needed to have to fight on despite this killing pain inside of them?

I fully understand to you, I'm no one. I have been ignored by senators and congressmen, doctors and other brass for as long as I've been trying to help, so you are not the first. I've also been listened to by others trying to think outside the box, but more importantly to me, by the men and women seeking my help to understand this and their families. I tell them what you should have been telling them all along so that they know it's not their fault, they did not lack courage and they are not responsible for being wounded any more than they would have been to have been found by a bullet with their name on it.

If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them.

Army Launching Program To Train Soldiers To Combat Post-Traumatic Stress
Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com HuffPost Reporting

Faced with a growing number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases in the armed forces, the U.S. Army will begin a program this summer to proactively address the problem by focusing on building the mental resilience of its personnel.

In a speech before the international affairs organization the Atlantic Council on Thursday, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey laid out the virtues of the newly formed initiative, which he called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.

"We have been looking very hard at ways to develop coping skills and resilience in soldiers, and we will be coming out in July with a new program called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness," said Casey. "And what we will attempt to do is raise mental fitness to the same level that we now give to physical fitness. Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience."

"The whole idea here is to give soldiers the skills they need to increase their resilience and enhance their performance," he went on. "A lot of people think that everybody who goes to combat gets post-traumatic stress. That's not true. Everybody that goes to combat gets stressed. There is no doubt about it. But the vast majority of people who go to combat have a growth experience because they are exposed to something very, very difficult and they prevail. So the issue for us is how do we give more people the skills so that more people have a growth experience... We thought it was important to get started on this because everything else involves you treating the problem. We need to be more proactive."
go here for more
Army Launching Program To Train Soldiers To Combat Post-Traumatic Stress