9/11 Still Producing FDNY Casualties

At least four of those failed tests were tied to firefighters suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to their work on or shortly after 9/11, the firefighters union says.

9/11 Still Producing FDNY Casualties
Firehouse.com (subscription) - USA

REUVEN BLAU
Courtesy of The New York Post


John Schroeder lost everything on 9/11 - and now it's cost him his job as well.

As a hose man for Engine Co. 10, Schroeder was one of the first firefighters to respond to both the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, reaching the 23rd floor of the north tower during the latter catastrophe.

"I saw more people die that day than anyone can imagine," he told The Post.

Afterward, he struggled to cope with the staggering loss of 55 friends and colleagues. "I turned to the drink, the whole department did," he said.

Now Schroeder, 49, is one of several scarred firefighters fighting to keep their pensions because of failed drug tests, caught between the sympathy of their colleagues and the zero-tolerance policy of the Fire Department.

Schroeder tested positive for cocaine during a random FDNY drug sweep on Oct. 24, 2004. He denies using cocaine and claims he's been sober for more than a year. His lawyers argue he's a victim of a flawed test.

The department moved to fire Schroeder through a disciplinary hearing. In a highly unusual ruling, an administrative-law judge in August 2007 recommended that the 18-year veteran be allowed to retire with dignity.

Judge Kevin Casey didn't comment on the drug-test results but suggested the FDNY allow the decorated firefighter to complete his application for a disability pension. That way, Casey said, Schroeder, who suffers from lung disease that he believes came from breathing toxic Ground Zero air, could keep his health benefits.

click link above for more

9-11 New York:Seven Years and Still Struggling to Breathe Easier

Seven Years and Still Struggling to Breathe Easier
Nurse.com - Falls Church,VA,USA
By Vikki Newton
Monday November 17, 2008

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the greatest burden borne by 9/11 rescue and recovery workers and the residents of lower Manhattan who lived through the attacks on the World Trade Center, according to the recently released 2008 Annual Report on 9/11 Health from the World Trade Center Medical Working Group of New York City.

Among directly exposed populations, 12% of rescue and recovery workers and 13% of lower Manhattan residents reported symptoms of PTSD, which is three times higher than would be expected if the WTC attacks had never occurred, says Jeffrey Hon, New York City Department of Health 9/11 health coordinator. People from these groups also often present with a constellation of symptoms, he says, including respiratory problems, asthma, and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

"Healthcare providers who treat people in these groups need to be aware of and sensitive to the fact that these health issues persist," Hon says. "Many of the people with respiratory illnesses report that they worked at the WTC site shortly after the attacks or were caught in the dust cloud that rolled through lower Manhattan after the buildings collapsed."

Health Registry Tracks 71,000+

The WTC Health Registry, launched in 2003, periodically collects information about the physical and mental health effects of the collapse from more than 71,000 adults and children who were exposed. Funded by the federal government, the registry is the largest effort in U.S. history to study the health effects of a disaster. Half of the registrants reported being in the dust cloud that rose from the collapsing towers; 70% witnessed a traumatic event that day, such as a plane hitting the tower; and 13% were injured.

The 411 on 9/11 HealthThe 9/11 Health website advises healthcare professionals to do the following –• Ask your patients about their exposure to the WTC disaster during routine exams, even if they live outside the city. People from other areas rushed to the scene to assist with rescue and recovery.

• Refer patients with symptoms described in the Clinical Guidelines to one of the three Centers of Excellence. Treatment is free. Contact information is on the website.

• Share your clinical knowledge and experience evaluating and treating patients with WTC-related illnesses with the NYC DOH and Mental Hygiene. Call or e-mail Jim Cone at 212-442-2402 or jcone@health.nyc.gov/.

• Report the death of any patient with WTC exposure to the NY State Department of Health at 518-402-7900. For more information, visit the 9/11 Health website at http://www.nyc.gov/9-11HealthInfo/.
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Grieving Together After 9/11, and Now at Odds Over a Firefighter’s Pension

Grieving Together After 9/11, and Now at Odds Over a Firefighter’s Pension
By ANDY NEWMAN
The parents of a firefighter who was killed on 9/11 and the fiancée he left behind are engaged in a bitter court battle over who gets his pension.

click link for more

Soldiers read 4,700 names of fallen since 9-11

Bases in Europe honor 9/11 victims, war dead
By Steve Mraz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, September 12, 2008

U.S. servicemembers in Europe took time Thursday to remember those lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, as well as remember those who died overseas in the wars that followed.

On Sept. 11, terrorists hijacked airplanes and crashed them into the Pentagon and New York’s World Trade Center towers. Another hijacked airliner, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

A total of 2,992 people died in the attacks.

On Kaiserslautern’s Panzer Kaserne, soldiers read aloud the names of the more than 4,700 servicemembers who have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars since the attacks.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57364

9/11 survivors troubled by asthma, PTSD

9/11 survivors troubled by asthma, PTSD
Story Highlights
Working group looked at more than 100 studies done since 2001

Survivors reported higher levels of PTSD and respiratory problems such as asthma

More federal funds needed for medical services for at-risk groups, panel says

By Andrea Kane
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- On September 11, 2001, Kathryn Freed watched from two blocks away as a plane hit the World Trade Center's north tower.

"Honestly, it was so surreal," Freed said. "We heard the plane coming -- it was very low and very loud -- and we watched it go right over our heads; we just watched it hit dead center the north tower. I stood there and watched the skin of the building come off. It looked like tinsel from a Christmas tree falling down."

A short while later, Freed saw the second plane plow through the south tower in a giant fireball. And as she headed back toward her apartment, four blocks from what was soon to be known as ground zero, the south tower collapsed, sending a plume of debris into the air and straight down her street.

Freed believes that the lingering cloud of dust -- caused by the towers' collapse and the digging out of ground zero -- caused some of her long- and short-term medical problems, such as her "WTC cough" and other respiratory issues.

She's among the many residents of lower Manhattan, emergency responders, recovery workers, commuters and passers-by to have developed serious, sometimes chronic medical problems since the terrorist attack seven years ago.

A commission charged with examining the scope and depth of the attack's health effects reviewed more than 100 scientific articles published since 2001 and found that new asthma levels among residents and rescue workers were two to three times higher than the national estimates.

The report by the World Trade Center Medical Working Group, issued in advance of the September 11 anniversary, also found that two to three years after the attack, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder remained elevated among rescue and recovery workers and residents of lower Manhattan.

But the most reassuring finding was that in all the studies they looked at, there was consistency.

"The primary finding of the report, as you synthesize the main findings from more than 100 peer review articles on the health ramifications of 9/11, is that the findings are very similar across the studies," Lorna Thorpe said. Thorpe, the deputy commissioner in the Division of Epidemiology at New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is a member of the Medical Working Group.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/09/11/wtc.health.report/index.html

It would have been a wonderful memorial to take care of all the rescue workers who rushed in to help and came from all other the country, but they didn't. Too many have been dying for the simple fact they acted to help. They lost jobs because they became ill on that day. They lost family members because too many felt it was their duty to go there and help. Police officers, firefighters, construction workers, all rushed in to help and they have been paying the price ever since but no one has paid attention to any of them. Healthcare has been denied and the debt we owed to all of them has yet to be paid. kc

Charity Fails Families Of Fallen Firefighters After 9/11

A Charity Fails Families Of Fallen Firefighters After 9/11
Donors contributed $11 million to Firefighters National Trust, which promised that the money would go "directly to the spouses and children of the New York Firefighters and Rescue workers who lost their lives in the World Trade Center tragedy." But millions promised in scholarships were never distributed.
Where The Money Went

NY Toxic Tower Reminders of 9-11 Failures

Fire at WTC building exposes government lapses

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 17, 2008

Filed at 3:03 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Every two weeks, firefighters ascend a condemned, black-shrouded skyscraper, checking carefully marked exit signs, a rebuilt water supply system and wide-open corridors. They wear protective suits on floors still contaminated by toxic dust from the World Trade Center.

A year ago, more than 100 firefighters ran into the partially demolished building during a fire and had trouble finding their way out. Thick, plastic sheets meant to contain asbestos on some floors also held in smoke. Two firefighters died on the building's 14th floor when their oxygen supply ran out.

The Aug. 18, 2007, fire at the former Deutsche Bank tower across a street from ground zero exposed the incompetence of multiple government agencies assigned to near-daily inspections of the building, which was being dismantled. It also unmasked a questionable subcontractor and the Fire Department's failure to point out dozens of hazards -- including the cutting of a pipe meant to supply water to fire hoses -- before the blaze.

''The community had been raising red flags for months and sometimes years'' about the toxic tower, said environmental activist Kimberly Flynn. ''It's a mystery to us how you can have the number of inspectors that ... were practically living in that building and have that level of disaster.''
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One month from today, 9-11 7 years later

This is one of the sites the Bush administration would rather you did not see when you remember the day heroes rushed in while others were running away. They came from all over to help after one of the most traumatic events this nation had ever seen and many did it without pay then or pay back after. They are the police, firemen and first responders who spent weeks on end searching for the remains of the fallen and the civilians. They have been paying for it all ever since. They were volunteers for the most part and are not compensated by workmen's comp. Their health has kept far too many of them from working and most of them have received no financial help at all. All of this after they were called heroes after 9-11. They breathed in air the government knew could kill them and then deserted them. When the bell tolls a month from today, when the names are read of the fallen, remember these men and women and those who paid the price for their service to NY that day. They died and are dying for attention but no one wants to remember any of them in the position to take care of them.

There were contractors who rushed in from all over the country as well just trying to whatever they could and they are dying as well. Who is doing anything about any of this after all this time?

Here is just one picture you'll see on this site.

I'd like my wife to be remembered as a person who wasn't afraid to do her job, and her most important thing was the kids. Really, everything she did was for our two kids. When it came time to do her job she did her job, no questions asked. She was a very good mother, a good wife, and an excellent paramedic." - Husband David Reeve, FDNY Paramedic

The wake for FDNY Paramedic Deborah Reeve, who died of cancer from working at Ground Zero after 9/11. The Bronx, New York, 3/19/2006.

http://www.sohoblues.com/9-11-Still-Killing.html

Study Finds High Ground Zero Stress

Study Finds High Ground Zero Stress
By ANTHONY DePALMA
Published: May 21, 2008
A new study by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine suggests that the percentage of ground zero workers who suffered post-traumatic stress is roughly the same as for airline crash recovery workers and returning Afghanistan war veterans.

The study of 10,132 workers, published in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives and released Tuesday, showed that roughly one in 10 rescue and recovery workers who toiled at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center in 2001 and 2002 reported disturbing flashbacks and recurring nightmares.

The results are based on self-reported symptoms provided by workers when they filled out a questionnaire during the study period, which began 10 months after the twin towers collapsed and continued for five years.

Workers with post-traumatic stress reported experiencing symptoms associated with the disorder — intrusive memories, insomnia and numbness of emotions — in the month before they were interviewed.

The study also found that stress can exacerbate a range of medical conditions, including heart, lung, stomach and autoimmune disorders, caused by environmental exposures.

Of the workers who participated in the study, 11.1 percent met the scientific criteria for probable post-traumatic stress. That is about the same percentage as for returning war veterans and is significantly higher than the 3 to 4 percent found in the general adult population.
go here for more
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/nyregion/21mental.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

Their bodies walked away,,,,,,,

but their minds never left.

With PTSD, they travel back in time. They see it all as if time became a magnet pulling them back to the event that changed them in an instant. The smell of the debris returns. The sounds of the crunching under their feet, the sounds of the equipment running, the voices of their friends, all of it reverberates in their ears. They feel their strength being drained from them, muscles ache from being tightened under the stress of the urgency. The disbelief of what they witnessed returns. It's like a horror movie replaying over and over again, only with this, they are there.

We are all just humans. No matter how much training provided to do jobs very few are willing to do, no training can dehumanize any of us enough to be untouched, unmoved, unchanged.

Soldiers train to kill but no one can train them to escape all that makes them human.

Police officers are trained to protect citizens and often this places their own life in danger. They are placed in positions when they have to make a life or death decision, but often they cannot simply deal with what comes after.

Firefighters and emergency responders, are trained to rescue and take care of citizens but there is no amount of training that can make them immune to the carnage they find after an accident or after a fire.

So how is it that so few of us understand what any of them go through? Is it because we depend on them to take care of us that we forget they sometimes need someone to take care of them?

Social workers can get secondary trauma

Social workers can get secondary trauma


Published: April 22, 2008 at 5:35 PM
DANVILLE, Pa., April 22 (UPI) -- Hearing repeated stories of suffering from trauma victims causes serious psychological stress in clinical social workers, U.S. researchers found.

Geisinger Health System senior investigator Joseph Boscarino and colleagues examined psychological stress, job burnout and secondary trauma among 236 New York City social workers following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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Every time I read a report like this I shake my head in agreement. While I know how hard it is on me being online, I can only imagine how hard it is on people doing this face to face, seeing the pain in someone's eyes and the tears. I give them a lot of credit because I wouldn't be able to do that on a daily basis. It's bad enough from where I sit already. There should be bumper stickers "support your mental health worker" because they sure do need it.

Study: September 11 Caused PTSD, Extreme Anxiety

Study: September 11 Caused PTSD, Extreme Anxiety
Study: September 11 Caused PTSD, Extreme Anxiety

Associated Content - Denver,CO,USA
By Article Writers Inc., published Jan 11, 2008

It has been almost seven years since the tragedy of 9/11 and yet it continues to haunt us and affect our lives. I shall never forget that day as I was in New York when the horrendous terrorist attacks took place. I stood in horrified silence as the World Trade Center towers crumbled into the earth unleashing enormous plumes of dust and debris. All I could feel was my heart sinking into deep despair; a sense of helplessness, fear, and frustration. I was not alone. Many people who witnessed the attacks either in person or on the TV felt that incredible shock and anxiety after seeing the country's institutions and symbols of power attacked and destroyed; our notion of American invulnerability shattered.

From that day on, the catastrophic attacks have taken a toll on the health of many individuals. According to several research studies, the psychological trauma of 9/11 and the continued stress and anxiety over false terrorist alarms has led to an increased risk of heart ailments including heart disease, high blood pressure, and strokes.

Dr. E. Alison Holman of the University of California and her team conducted a study, released on Jan. 7, on the mental and physical health of 2,592 individuals (who had either witnessed the terrorist attacks in person, or saw it live on TV, or had not seen any live coverage) three years after 9/11 happened. Her team found that within a few days after the attacks, 10.7% of the individuals suffered from some form of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) including symptoms of edginess, depression, extreme anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and even fear of loud noises. Around 53% of individuals who suffered from extreme anxiety were found to be more susceptible to cardiovascular ailments including heart disease and high blood pressure.

click above for the rest

After 9-11 the reporters took a look at survivors. They looked at the children and they looked at emergency responders.

Paging Dr. Gupta blog

Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Flashing back to 9/11

Today, on this sixth anniversary of 9/11, the country will mourn together. For most of the country, it will be a reminder, an anniversary, but for thousands of others it could be psychologically devastating. It could cause something known as PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder. The symptoms can be awful and the research shows us the reminders don't help.

We know on average 4 percent of the general American public suffers from PTSD, but one in eight 9/11 rescue and recovery workers had PTSD, even years after the attack, according to the World Trade Center Health Registry. We know firefighters developed PTSD at 2 times the rate of police officers, but both groups continue to suffer today. We also know that PTSD is an anxiety disorder that is marked by sudden and intense fear, along with feelings of desperation, hopelessness and outright horror. We know it can be difficult to treat.

During the last six years, there has been a growing body of research on PTSD, looking at the survivors of 9/11 and veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For example, researchers are looking at propranolol, a blood pressure medication, as a possible treatment for PTSD. The idea is that this medication will block the adrenaline surge associated with a traumatic event. If you can block that release of adrenaline, the terrible memories may not be seared into the brain, and that might reduce the risk of future PTSD. There are some emergency rooms that now give the medication immediately after a traumatic event. There also is video game technology used for returning veterans. I tried it out myself and understood the premise that by exposing someone to previously traumatic events in a controlled setting with psychologists standing by, you could learn what is specifically traumatic, and deal with it. (Watch Video)

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/blogs/paging.dr.
gupta/2007/09/flashing-back-to-911.html

New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center

'Virtual 9/11' Brings Ground Zero Survivors Real Healing

By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
Monday, November 20, 2006; 12:00 AM



MONDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Psychologists estimate that hundreds, even thousands, of people directly affected by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, are still crippled by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Could a virtual-reality "revisiting" of that horrific day actually help them?

New York City psychiatrist Judith Cukor believes that it can.

"We are getting tons of calls for 9/11-related post-traumatic stress disorder -- it's five years out, and we are still seeing people who have never had treatment," said Cukor, an instructor in the department of psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "A lot of people have had traditional treatment, too, but it's not helping."

Cukor is supervising a unique clinical trial that uses high-tech virtual reality to help fight the more stubborn cases of 9/11-linked post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. "We're seeing very positive results here, in terms of people finally getting better," she said.

For people who suffer from the emotional numbness, terrifying flashbacks, nightmares and avoidance behaviors of PTSD, "exposure therapy" remains the gold-standard treatment. The therapy involves patients being asked to imagine in detail the past event that caused them such pain.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2006/11/20/AR2006112000316_pf.html

Hispanic Community

Release Date:May 15, 2006, 12:01 AM US Eastern time

PTSD Affected Hispanic Patients in New York for Months After 9/11

By Joel R. Cooper, Contributing Writer
Health Behavior News Service


Low-income, immigrant, primary-care patients in New York City continued to suffer the psychiatric effects of 9/11 long after the original terrorist attack, says a new study.

“Many of these patients, for cultural or economic reasons, shun traditional mental health services, and rely heavily on their primary care doctors for the provision of mental health intervention and treatment,” said lead author Yuval Neria, Ph.D., a professor at Columbia University and co-director of the Center for the Study of Trauma and Resilience, New York State Psychiatric Institute.

In another finding, the study negated the notion that post-traumatic stress disorder may develop among those experiencing terrorist events second-hand, such as while watching media coverage of the attacks on television. PTSD did not show up in individuals only indirectly exposed to the 9/11 attacks — unless they were at increased risk for the disorder to begin with.

For the study, published in the latest issue of General Hospital Psychiatry, researchers screened adult primary care patients for PTSD in the months following the 9/11 attacks. The patients — 930 men and women ages 18 to 70 — were seen at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center. The majority were low-income immigrants — primarily Hispanic.

“Many in the population under study would be reluctant to seek psychiatric help for fear of being stigmatized within their communities, even though they are, in fact, at increased risk for PTSD and its associated illnesses,” Ng said.

http://hbns.org/getDocument.cfm?documentID=1269

If you look back you will find the news reports for the earlier studies done. Most of the time the emergency responders have a higher level of PTSD because of how often they come into traumatic situations. Police have a higher level. Combat forces even a great level than that. As with all wounds there are degrees of how much damage is done.

With all traumatic survivors there is a time difference between when the event happens and the trauma hits. Some will have mild PTSD, be able to more or less cope with it. Some will spiral into full blown PTSD symptoms right away. Others will experience a slow progression of it. Others will not experience the problems until many years later when a "secondary stressor" hits.

We need to look at all causes of trauma to understand what the combat forces are going through because for them it is not just one incident but many of them, more horrific and compounded for the term of deployment.

After trauma touches life

Several veterans told me that if they ever opened up with what is going on in their heads, they would be locked up in the "loony bin" for the rest of their lives. They talk about feeling as if they let everyone down. They talk about a lot of things but hope. As they try to understand what PTSD is, hope is the furthest thing from their reach. Once they understand what it is and what caused it, hope is within reach. They realize they can be happy, or at least happier again. To live out days with life being sucked out of them is a slow, torturous death. Medication and therapy bring them back to living a life again instead of just existing.


After trauma comes stress that will not let go. It is not just participants in combat.
It is when you watch someone you love die.

Improving Communication With Families Of Dying Patients Reduces ...
By admin Hospitals that use a simple strategy of enhancing communication with family members of patients dying in the intensive care unit can greatly reduce post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression after their loved one dies,

It is being a police officer with your life on the line.

The Effects of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the officer and the family
© 2003, 1998 by Hal Brown, LICSW
The following letter is from an officer who wrote it in the Guestbook and kindly gave me permission to use it in an article in the hope that his experience will help others. He describes many of the classic symptoms of police PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder. In fact, every distressing thought, feeling and behavior he relates below is a symptom of PTSD.
I am a (10 plus)-- year police veteran and (30 plus)-- years of age. I have become seriously concerned with some of the events that have been taking place in my life for the past two years. I have started having nightmares frequently and have great difficulty going to sleep at night. There is always a feeling of uneasiness at night and I have started to develop some unnatural habits associated with these uneasy feelings. At the slightest sound, I have to get out of the bed and check every room in the house.
http://www.geocities.com/stressline_com/ptsd-family.html

Arizona State Trooper WinsPrecedent-Setting Court Caseon PTSD Claim
An Arizona state trooper has won a precedent-setting court case that affects police officers, firefighters, and other emergency services workers throughout the United States.On January 20, 2000, Department of Public Safety Officer David D. Mogel killed a shotgun-toting car thief wanted for bank robbery after the suspect attempted to shoot him.Because of the trauma in taking a human life, Mr. Mogel was diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and could no longer function as a police officer. When he applied for Workers' Compensation benefits, he was denied. The Arizona Department of Public Safety and Workers' Compensation (State of Arizona, DOA Risk Management) claimed that shooting suspects was part of the job, and not an "unexpected" event as required by Arizona law.Mr. Mogel's attorney, Robert E. Wisniewski, says, "The state raised the defense that working in police work everyday was not a substantial contributing cause of my client's post traumatic stress disorder because police are exposed to such hazards everyday so that is routine."In her Findings and Award of December 19, 2002 awarding Mr. Mogel Workers' Compensation benefits, Administrative Law Judge Karen Calderon states, "I find that shooting and killing another human being in the line of duty is an extraordinary stress related to the employment."
http://www.copshock.com/lawsuit.html

Police, fireman and emergency responders

A number of research articles have looked at the rates of PTSD in high-risk occupations. They found:
Law Enforcement Officers who agreed to be in these studies had rates of PTSD ranging between 3% - 17%. A recent research study found that 45% of officers were having sleep difficulties typical of patients seen in insomnia clinics. In this study, stresses related to their work environment were strongly associated with sleep quality; sleep disturbances were associated with symptoms of PTSD. "These high rates of insomnia are particularly alarming, because sleep deprivation can drastically hinder mental and physical performance" (Thomas Neylan, MD, 2002).
In a study by Corneil, et. al., (1999), which compared 203 U.S. Fire Fighters in urban departments with 625 Canadian fire fighters, twenty-two percent of fire fighters in U.S. urban departments were experiencing PTSD compared to 17% of Canadian fire fighters. (The U.S. sample had 9% women and 13% paramedics, not found in the Canadian sample). Other researchers have found 33-41 % of fire fighters were experiencing emotional distress. Rates of PTSD in U.S. fire fighters are similar to those found in a study of German fire fighters, 18.2% and are higher than those generally found in wounded combat veterans, i.e., 20%. These researchers concluded that the high level of PTSD A suggests that this is a serious mental health problem of epidemic proportions in urban professional firefighters in the U.S."
Twenty percent of Emergency Ambulance Personnel have been found to have PTSD. Rates of symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, sleep problems and undue worry rage from 20% - 60%.
Nineteen percent of Rescue Workers serving 9-11 sites have been diagnosed with PTSD in the two years following this tragedy.
http://www.rescue-workers.com/1.html

And it is kids

Bereaved Children of 9/11 Victims Suffered High Rates of Psychiatric Illness
Children's Neurological "Stress-Response System" Also Stayed Highly Active Long After They Lost a Parent, Study Finds
White Plains, NY (Mar 19, 2007)
The rate of psychiatric illness among children who lost a parent in the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack doubled – from about 32 to nearly 73 percent – in the years following the event, according to a new study from researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
More than half (56.8 percent) of the young children studied suffered from some sort of anxiety disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which affected nearly three in 10 bereaved children.

http://www.nyp.org/news/hospital/1107.html

PTSD comes at different levels. From mild cases where they are able to function or "deal with it" to the point where every part of their life is consumed by it.

Understanding, educating the public is life to them and their futures.

To put a monetary price on this we need only look at "success" stories to gauge what the outcome of early intervention would look like.

Instead of being unable to work but receiving therapy and medication, it saves workman's comp and VA disability payments. If they are able to work, even on a part-time basis, they are holding down a job, receiving pay for that job, paying taxes on that income and paying into the Social Security System.

But it does not stop there. Early intervention can prevent a lot of divorces. Living with someone who has PTSD is one of the hardest types of marriages. (I can testify to that personally.) The emotional roller-coaster ride with mood swings, isolation, ambivalence, emotional numbing, short term memory loss, irrational thinking and reactions along with the flashbacks they have and the nightmares, puts an even greater strain on a marriage than what is considered normal. Two incomes in one household contribute to the economy. If you have separation and divorce, you have two people struggling to support themselves. That leaves less extra money to spend on non-essential items.

But it does not stop there either. When you intervene early and eliminate PTSD divorces, you also have people watching over each other. They eat better, see the doctor more often for check ups and enjoy a support structure with people they trust.

It does not even stop there. Then you have the children of a PTSD parent. They grow up knowing that the PTSD parent is acting or reacting the way they are because of PTSD and not because of them. They learn to adapt to things they learn will cause a "strange" reaction from their parent. Like, as most kids do, hiding and popping out to scare their parent or sneaking up on them from behind.

With all of this, please tell me why anyone in this country or other nations, would not be doing everything possible to treat PTSD as soon as symptoms present themselves? Why would anyone not be doing everything humanly possible to educate the public on PTSD so that no one would ever say "what's that" when they hear the term? Public education made everyone aware of AIDS, cancer, ADD. So why is it people still don't know what PTSD is? They surely know what trauma is. Why isn't there a massive TV campaign about PTSD? Why isn't every news station doing documentaries on this?

As you read in the previous post today, a five year old came out with "they forget to be happy" when asked what he thought PTSD was. So why is it a five year old can come to grips with this but the adults of this country are still not understanding this?

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

For a psychotherapist specializing in PTSD, that’s a good thing

Professionals working to destigmatize PTSD
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record - 10/27/07
When Carroll Jenkins looks back over the past six years, he can’t help but credit the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for creating a broader understanding of post traumatic stress disorder.

For a psychotherapist specializing in PTSD, that’s a good thing.

“It seems like our society has to get hit right upside the head, pretty hard, to get it,” Jenkins said Friday. “I think we’ve got it this time. I’ve been battling this sucker for years. To see people sit around talking about PTSD the way they are now — we’re destigmatizing it.”

Jenkins was recently contracted by the Montana National Guard to help train therapists across the state in recognizing and dealing with PTSD.

Now, nearly a month later, he’ll help the Montana Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers in a related conference to be held in Helena next month.

John Wilkinson, executive director of NASW-MT, said the organization will host what’s believed to be the largest conference ever held in the state dedicated entirely to post-combat stress and veteran care.
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Study: 1 in 8 Ground Zero workers had post-traumatic stress

Study: 1 in 8 Ground Zero workers had post-traumatic stress
BY CARL MACGOWAN carl.macgowan@newsday.com
7:27 PM EDT, August 29, 2007

One in eight recovery and rescue workers who helped with the months-long cleanup at the World Trade Center showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a study has found.Workers with little or no prior experience with disasters showed the highest frequency of PTSD, said the study, published Wednesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The data come from the World Trade Center Health Registry's survey of 28,000 workers in 2003 and 2004.The survey found that 12.4 percent of workers likely had PTSD, an anxiety disorder caused by traumatic events such as war, terrorism or assault. Nationally, about 4 percent of the population has PTSD, the report said.

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