Australia Police Officers: Do Not Have Courage To Ask For Help?

In Australia only 7 police officers out of 1,500 asked for help for PTSD. A survey showed that half of the officers have PTSD.

“There’s more than likely a significant number more that are suffering and don’t have the courage at this point in time to put their hand up and say I need help.” according to the findings. Imagine that! They risk their lives everyday for someone else needing help. That takes courage. So why would it require more courage to ask for help because of it?

Northern Territory police officers struggle to discuss post traumatic stress disorder
NT News Australia
KIERAN BANKS
August 21, 2016

“There’s more than likely a significant number more that are suffering and don’t have the courage at this point in time to put their hand up and say I need help.”

Northern Territory Police Association president Paul McCue

NEARLY every second police officer in the Northern Territory has been touched by post traumatic stress, according to a survey of frontline cops.

Despite the statistic gathered by the NT Police Association, only seven police officers out of the nearly 1500 in the Territory officially reported mental stress to their department in the past two years.

The survey found 41 per cent of police had experienced PTSD personally or with a colleague and 80 per cent said they had received no education or information about the illness.
read more here

Australian Iraq Veteran Winning The PTSD War

Veteran’s battle against PTSD a life-changing fight
NT News
COURTNEY TODD
August 13, 2016

Alex reached out for help through the Army but treatment wasn’t forthcoming. “I thought I was going mentally insane,” he said. “I didn’t believe I had PTSD because the Army told me I didn’t have PTSD.”

Iraq veteran Alex Kaczmarek has suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. PICTURE: Elise Derwin

IRAQ veteran Alex Kaczmarek knows all too well the dark places post traumatic stress disorder can lead people.

For him it was homelessness, alcohol abuse and suicidal thoughts.

“Every day for about eight years I wanted to shoot myself in the head,” he said. “The only thing that stopped me was knowing that someone would have to come retrieve the body.”

There were times when Alex felt he was losing his battle against PTSD but now he is winning the war and he is also helping others to rehabilitate.

When Alex came back to Australia his close friends and family noticed something wasn’t right but it took a year for him to realise, too.

“It began with sleep — lack of sleeping, insomnia and nightmares began to affect my day,” he said.

“I’d go a few days without sleep, which turned into weeks, which turned into months. Before I knew it, I got to a point where I couldn’t remember if I was asleep or awake.

“I had uncontrollable adrenaline from my inner brain reacting to situations that weren’t actually occurring, telling my body to release massive amounts of adrenaline and then I wasn’t sure what to do with it so I’d have a panic attack.

“Probably for about a year I had to stop and vomit every day on the way to work through anxiety.”

Alex reached out for help through the Army but treatment wasn’t forthcoming. “I thought I was going mentally insane,” he said. “I didn’t believe I had PTSD because the Army told me I didn’t have PTSD.”

Alex was eventually sent to an independent civilian psychiatrist who said he had the warning signs of conflict-related PTSD.

Alex discharged from the Army in November 2009 due to the lack of support. By that stage he was drinking heavily every day to numb his feelings and soon found himself on the streets of Sydney and Darwin.

That was Alex’s rock bottom.

“You think back and only a few years previously you were doing protection parties for the Prime Minister of Australia in a foreign country in a war zone and now you’re walking the streets with a bag of clothes,” he said.

“I slept at train stations, car parks, in the bush. I had a ute luckily when I was up here so, when I could afford it, I went and stayed in a caravan park so I could use the shower facilities. I pretty much long-grassed it for a bit.”

All the while Alex was battling PTSD, anxiety, depression, physical injuries and suicidal thoughts.
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Australia Veteran Suicides This Year Equal 13 Years of War Deaths?

Families speak about military loved ones lost and how we failed them
Herald Sun
Ruth Lamperd
August 13, 2016

“The number of suicides and the incidence of despair, depression and broken lives among our veteran community is a national shame,” Retired Lieutenant General Leahy 

Jarrad Brown was in the army and deployed to Iraq in 2007-08 and Afghanistan in 2010. He took his own life in 2015, aged 27.

A SHAMEFUL number of Aussie soldiers return from war zones depressed, anxious, in despair but unable to find help.

Grieving families of war veterans who have taken their own lives say their loved ones might still be alive today if they’d received adequate support from authorities.

Thirteen families of service men and veterans have bravely spoken out to highlight the plight of military men and women at risk.

Their call for more support comes as a Sunday Herald Sun investigation reveals 41 military personnel and veterans died this year from suicide, the same as the number of Australians who were killed in Afghanistan during 13 years of war.

Each family which agreed to be part of this special report lost their sons, husbands or fathers in the past two years.

They ranged in age from 21 to 57. Most of them were in their 20s and 30s when they died.

Almost all had been deployed to overseas operations, including Iraq, East Timor, Afghanistan or served on navy ships involved in border patrol.

The concerns were backed by former Chief of Army and Soldier On chairman Peter Leahy, who said the government needed to “step up and own the problem”.
read more here

Australian Veteran Legacy Supports Families After Suicide

How Legacy makes life easier for those left behind
Sun Shine Coast Daily
Janine Hill
25th Jul 2016

"Keeping a promise to a mate is a value ingrained in the Aussie consciousness but, for Legacy, it's not just a belief; it's a solemn duty the organisation has proudly upheld for more than 90 years," Terry Dillon.

LEGACY OF GIVING: Terry Dillon has been giving to Legacy for 37 years.

John McCutcheon

TERRY Dillon might look more like a grandfather than a hero but he is both.

As a volunteer with Legacy, Mr Dillon has made life a little better for the spouses and children of veterans who did not return intact from conflict zones as he did, or who have since passed away.

During 37 years as a Legatee, he has helped "fill the gap" for about 200 of widows and their children whose husbands have died or been incapacitated by post traumatic stress disorder.

He is one of 46 Legatees on the Coast who support 1300 widows,15 children, including five under 10, and 15 dependents with disabilities.

The Vietnam Veteran could have put his energy into the community in any one of ways but was drawn to looking after the dependents of less fortunate diggers.

"Being a returned servicemen, I wanted to look after the widows and children of returned servicemen," he said.
read more here

Australian Army Captain Suicide Between Canada and New York

Behind a mask of despair
Townsville Bulletin
July 23, 2016

Since 2000, data suggests nearly three times as many active Australian soldiers and nearly five times as many veterans have committed suicide as have died in Afghanistan. But before Paul, almost none had been nationally recognised.

ON the second-last day of 2013, a stranger arrived in Saranac Lake, a 5400-person mountain town 112km shy of the Canadian border.

Set amid the patchwork of forest preserves and villages, Saranac Lake is the “Capital of the Adirondacks”, a one-time best small town of New York, and the place where I’m from.

He was a 31-year-old infantry captain in the Australian Army who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Afghanistan two years before. He arrived on the one bus that comes each day: an Adirondack Trailways coach that chugs slowly uphill from Albany.

To get to Albany, he’d travelled more than 17,000km. He was good looking – wholesome and tidy, with intelligent eyes. He’d been a battle captain in Afghanistan’s Oruzgan province, near Kandahar, working as part of Mentoring Task Force 3 with about 700 other Townsville soldiers. But he had a medical review coming up and, his family would later tell the police, he feared he might be discharged.

On New Year’s Eve, he bought a shovel and a blanket at the shopping plaza and set off on foot towards Lake Placid.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Rides To Washington Honoring Lives Lost on USS Frank E Evans

Vietnam veteran cycles to Washington D.C. to get names added to wall
WDBJ 7 News
By Noell Saunders
Jul 22, 2016

SALEM, Va. (WDBJ7) A 74-year old Vietnam War veteran is riding his bicycle all the way from Texas to Washington D.C.

Del Francis is on a mission to get his 74 comrades' names added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Francis almost died on a warship 47 years ago after an Australian aircraft carrier cut it in half. The ship sank and all 74 sailors perished that day.

After writing numerous petitions and letters, Francis decided to do something different.
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Dad Survived USS Frank E Evans, Son Did Not

Schumer to 91-year-old Syracuse veteran: Your son belongs on Vietnam Wall (video)
Syracuse.com
Mark Weiner
June 6, 2016

Larry Reilly Sr. survived the accident, but lost his son, Larry Reilly Jr., who served on the Navy ship with him.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- After fighting for decades to have his son's name added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, 91-year-old Larry Reilly Sr. had a chance to make his case in person Monday with one of the nation's most powerful members of Congress.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., stopped to visit Reilly in his Meadowbrook Drive home in Syracuse, and told him that the Navy veteran's efforts may be close to paying off as his 92nd birthday approaches in two weeks.

The Department of Defense agreed last month to review the case of the 74 sailors who died aboard the USS Frank E. Evans when their destroyer collided with an Australian aircraft carrier during a Vietnam War-era training exercise.
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USS Frank E. Evans Families and Survivors Remember

Family of RI sailor lost in Vietnam War fights to have his name listed on wall
Providence Journal
By Donita Naylor
Journal Staff Writer
Posted May. 20, 2016

The dead were not counted as casualties of the Vietnam War, and thus not listed on the wall, because the maneuvers were 127 miles outside the combat zone.

CUMBERLAND, R.I. — A memorial stone was unveiled and a tree dedicated Friday to honor a 20-year-old Cumberland sailor who was among 74 lost at sea in a naval accident in the Vietnam War.

Part of a nationwide effort to get the 74 names added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., the stone was placed by veterans, survivors and relatives of the men aboard the USS Frank E. Evans.

The destroyer was cut in half by an Australian aircraft carrier after a series of navigational mistakes in the South China Sea at about 3 a.m. on June 3, 1969. The front half of the ship sank in less than four minutes, and everyone sleeping in the forward section was lost.
read more here
Linked from Stars and Stripes

Australia "Overwatch" Tracking Social Media to Save Veterans

'Overwatch' group prevents veteran suicides by monitoring social media, sending in the troops
ABC Australia
By Louise Merrillees
Posted Fri April 29, 2016

"I've had my bad moments when I've been pretty low, and they've sent vets to come and find me. From what I can see, they've prevented an awful lot of suicides from happening."

PHOTO: Ex-serviceman Trevor Dineen receives support from veterans at his local RSL. (ABC News: Louise Merrillees)

Trevor Dineen, a 31-year-old ex-serviceman, is talking about Overwatch Australia, a national organisation that intervenes when defence force veterans show mental health warning signs.

Overwatch, a military term that means one unit providing cover or support to another unit, has more than 4,500 volunteers Australia-wide, who have served with the Australia Defence Force.

The organisation describes itself as a "peer-to-peer, boots-on-the-ground, rapid-response organisation formed to assist former ADF members who are at risk or in crisis".

Robert Harris is the national president of Overwatch, while Marc Kirwin is the national coordinator. Both of them served in the Army.

Mr Harris said Overwatch was all about a quick response when warning signs became obvious.

"Once we have someone's address, we can put boots on the ground in 30 minutes," he said.

Overwatch focusing on Rwandan and Somali vets

Mr Kwinan said Overwatch was focusing on veterans from the Rwandan and Somali peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.

"Those guys are wracked with guilt. The rules of engagement were totally different - they couldn't engage unless they were in direct harm's way or fired upon.

"They saw women and children slaughtered in front of them. And the militia are standing there looking at them smiling and knowing they couldn't do anything about it.
read more here

Australian Troops Fear of "Career Suicide" Seeking Outside Care for PTSD

ADF personnel seek PTSD treatment in secrecy to avoid 'career suicide', members say
ABC News Australia
Exclusive by Alexandra Fisher
Updated earlier today at 1:13am

"You're almost alienated from the system ... you can't go to work, you can't drive a vehicle, can't carry a weapon."

Key points:
ADF members say they speak to mental health professionals outside the Department
Talking about mental illness could jeopardise worker's career, members say
ADF says reporting mental illness ensures members are provided with proper support

Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel are being treated in secret for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health conditions to avoid jeopardising their careers, according to serving and former members.

James (not his real name) has just recently retired from a 25-year career in the Australian Army and said he never told the ADF he had PTSD.

"I'd go and speak to professionals outside of Defence," he said.

"I'd go see a psychologist and talk to them about what was wrong."

The ADF told the ABC in a statement that members were required to tell them if they were being treated outside the ADF system.

But James said if he spoke up about his mental illness, he risked his career.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Proud To Be a Digger

Anzac Day 2016: Vietnam veteran David Everitt says he’s proud to call himself a Digger
The Advertiser
Craig Cook
April 24, 2016

“It wasn’t my choice, but I have a lot of respect for the military — it’s a dirty job but they do it well. I’m very proud to be part of a group called the Diggers.” David Everitt

Vietnam vet David Everitt at the Brighton Arch of Remembrance with his grandson Brodie, 3. Pic: Tricia Watkinson.

VIETNAM veteran David Everitt says he’s just an ordinary man who did his duty but is proud to call himself a Digger.

The RSL Board director and Veterans Advisory Council member was a founding member of the Australian Psychological Operations unit (PSYOP) — colloquially known as the “Bulls. t Bombers” — during 13 months of service in Vietnam between 1969-70.

“It was our job to conduct psychological warfare on the enemy by dropping pamphlets from the sky by day and playing loud music at night to encourage them to surrender,” said the 67-year-old, who also served with 9th Battalion, formed in Adelaide in 1967.

“We were in these light aircraft, at 2000 feet (65m), lights out, playing eerie, ghostly music in the middle of the night. It certainly scared me.

“Nobody knew we were up there and I reckon our own side took a few pot shots sometimes.

“It was a great time in some ways and a horrific time in more ways.”
read more here

Australia Looks for New Ways to Help PTSD Veterans

More must be done to help veterans suffering PTSD
The Sydney Morning Herald
David Forbes
April 22, 2016

"Moral injury" is a term used to describe the potential impact of experiences in battle that challenge or transgress a person's deeply-held moral beliefs. The consequences of such an experience may extend beyond PTSD into guilt, shame, anger and aggression, and at times, self-destructive thoughts and behaviour.

Research is being undertaken to find better ways of treating PTSD suffered by service men and women.

This Anzac Day, we salute the contribution and sacrifice of the men and women who have served Australia in the armed forces for the past 100 years.

For some, that sacrifice results in the devastating invisible wounds of poor mental health - posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, anger, aggression, alcohol and drug abuse, and thoughts of suicide.

This Anzac Day, let us make a commitment to those who are currently suffering, a commitment to improve the availability and effectiveness of interventions to help their recovery.

The majority of service men and women come through their military experiences with little or no long-term psychological problems. However, a substantial minority do develop devastating mental health problems which have a profound impact on the individual and their family.

We know that PTSD, the most common mental health disorder in veterans, is a serious and debilitating disorder. Symptoms include frequent flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, being constantly on the alert,and feeling emotionally numb. Other issues often occur alongside it, such as anger, aggression, depression, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts.
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Afghanistan Veteran Takes On Challenge With Tenacity and Titanium

Soldier who lost both legs and his eyesight in while serving Afghanistan takes on huge challenge for charity
Wales Online
BY ABBIE WIGHTWICK
21 APR 2016

In 2014 the former Ysgol Clywedog pupil flew to Australia for pioneering surgery. In an operation called osseointegration, titanium rods were implanted into his stumps.

A soldier who was blinded and lost both legs and his reproductive organs when he was blown up in Afghanistan is asking people to join him on a fundraising walk in Wales.

Fusilier Shaun Stocker was 19 when he suffered life-threatening injuries stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) in Helmand serving with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, the Royal Welsh in Afghanistan.

Six years since the blast Shaun, 25, from Wrexham is on the way to completing a 100km walk in stages – a feat he never thought possible.

On May 14 he aims to walk 27km from Llanberis to Llyn Padarn and along local footpaths, and is asking people to join him and donate for his fundraising for Blind Veterans UK.
read more here

Will Female Homeless Veteran in Australia Cause Real Change?

Female war veteran living in her car spurs Hastings village plan
Herald Sun
Kathryn Powley
and Paul Toohey
April 16, 2016

A FEMALE Victorian war veteran living out of her car in Frankston is one of the stories that has spurred a radical plan to house homeless veterans at campground village in Hastings.

Welfare agencies want more support for returned services people, saying some are living in tents in the bush, garages and on mates’ couches.

Mornington Peninsula-based welfare officer with Carry on Victoria Karl Williams said the woman was one of half a dozen veterans he had helped.

He will today join a protest on the steps of State Parliament in Spring St to call for a royal commission into the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

“She served in Afghanistan as a drone operator and was affected by post traumatic stress disorder,” he said.

She had run out of money and was sleeping in her car.

He helped get her into an apartment. She and other veterans had gone from being “top of the mountain” to thinking nobody cared, he said. There were former soldiers sleeping under one-man “hoochie” tarps in the bush.

Most of the homeless were unemployed suffering PTSD and some had tried suicide, Mr Williams said.
read more here

Young New Zealand Veterans Unaware of Help Ending Up Homeless

Young New Zealand veterans homeless and living on the street
Stuff New Zealand
SHANE COWLISHAW
April 10 2016

While many of the younger soldiers suffer from issues including post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), they do not consider themselves veterans and are often unaware of the help available to them.

LAWRENCE SMITH / FAIRFAX NZ

Tina Grant says some young soldiers returning home are left out of the system.

Since the Vietnam War, New Zealand soldiers have been deployed on 41 operations to places including Bosnia, East Timor and Afghanistan.

Young New Zealand war veterans are homeless and living on the street as some struggle silently with the trauma of their service.

With Anzac Day approaching many think of older veterans who served during World War II and the Vietnam War, but the bulk of veterans are much younger.

There are about 31,000 veterans in the country, with 20,000 having served in conflicts after Vietnam.

A review of the Veterans Support Act in December could bring changes, with the RSA hoping it could allow New Zealand veterans suffering from chronic PTSD access to specialist care facilities in Australia.
read more here

Mt Warning ‘unfit’ hiker was actually two-tour Afghanistan war hero

Mt Warning ‘unfit’ hiker was actually two-tour Afghanistan war hero who suffers from PTSD
Gold Coast Bulletin
Jack Houghton
March 29, 2016

“Once I hit the top that’s when my PTSD really took over and it took all my strength not to take the easy way out and leave it all ­behind me,” he said.

A HIKER slammed as “unfit” after being winched by helicopter from Mt Warning is a two-tour Afghanistan war hero who says he froze because of a post traumatic stress disorder meltdown.

The 38-year-old, 115kg army veteran, who did two tours for the Australian ­Defence Force in the Middle East, said he was crippled by a wave of “anxiety” when he reached the mountain’s 1159m peak around 4.30pm on Easter Monday.

Rescue crews were called and 20 men were deployed to get Aaron “Dogga” to safety.
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Australia: Need for Annual Mental Health Screenings Pushed

Here in the US there is already a law requiring it however, when asked by our Senate, they said they didn't do post-deployment screenings. 

ADF members should have annual mental health screenings, Senate inquiry recommends 
ABC News Australia 
By Kristy O'Brien 
March 22, 2016

Since 2000, 96 serving members have killed themselves and a further 13 veterans have taken their own life.

Alex Kasmarek struggled with mental illness for eight years after returning from Iraq. ABC News

An Iraq veteran has spoken out about his experience with mental illness following his service abroad, saying he felt suicidal every day for eight years.

Alex Kasmarek has told the ABC his life spiralled out of control after he returned from an eight-month rotation of Iraq, left the military and found himself homeless.

His comments come after a Senate inquiry found nearly one in four returned soldiers had experienced a mental disorder in the previous 12 months, and the rate of suicidality - which the Federal Government defines as serious thoughts about taking one's own life, suicide plans and suicide attempts - was double those of the general population.

"Every day of my life for eight years I had an undesirable will to shoot myself. Every single day. And I just didn't know why," Mr Kasmarek said.

"I didn't know what PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] was exactly, and Army doctors told me I was fine. I just thought I was going mentally insane."
read more here

When you watch this clip, you'll hear how low the suicides were back then, so please remember, they were important enough to hold a hearing like this back then but things got worse and we received no accountability from anyone. Their answer was a half day course for "non-commissioned officers" to take.

Australian Defence Force Face Off With Soldiers Over Lariam

Former soldiers, families face military officials in Townsville over anti-malaria drug side effects
ABC Australia
By Jesse Dorsett
Updated yesterday at 7:28pm

PHOTO: Mefloquine, also known as Lariam, is known to cause mental health problems.

(Flickr: David Davies)

The military's top brass has come face to face with former soldiers and their families suffering depression and anxiety after being given controversial anti-malaria drugs on deployment.

Key points: 2,000 ADF personnel given anti-malaria drug in East Timor over five years
Drug side effects include mood swings and suicidal thoughts
ADF says they did not know drugs would produce chronic problems
A forum has been held in Townsville, in north Queensland, to give former soldiers, ex-service organisations and health professional the chance to discuss the effects of anti-malaria medication Mefloquine, as well as the drug Tafenoquine.

Nearly 2,000 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel were prescribed Mefloquine, also known as Lariam, primarily in East Timor, between July 2000 and June 2015.

The drug is known to cause agitation, mood swings, panic attacks, confusion, hallucinations, aggression, psychosis and suicidal thoughts in a small number of patients.

Another 492 took Tafenoquine as part of a trial in 2000 and 2001.
read more here and remember US soldiers took it too!

Vietnam Veteran Died Trying to Save Stranger in Australia

Norman Olsen dies after bid to stop alleged domestic dispute in Toowoomba
ABC Australia
Updated February 24, 2016

A 65-year-old good Samaritan has died in hospital after he was allegedly assaulted trying to help a woman in Toowoomba.

Norman Olsen was driving with his partner in the suburb of Wilsonton on Monday when police say he saw a woman being attacked by a young man in an alleged domestic dispute.

The Vietnam veteran tried to intervene but was allegedly pushed to the ground by 22-year-old James Callow, who has since been charged with manslaughter.

Mr Olsen hit his head on the road.

He was taken to Toowoomba Hospital with a serious head injury before being taken to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital, where he died late on Tuesday.

Detective Inspector Paul McCusker said Mr Olsen should be commended for his actions.
read more here

So Many Casualties Beyond Suicide of Australian Police Officer

Husband of policewoman who took her own life slams police, says death was avoidable 
ABC Australia 
By the National Reporting Team's Lorna Knowles 
February 23, 2016

"There are so many casualties in this story. It goes beyond [her] death."

The husband of a policewoman who took her own life has spoken out about the way his wife was treated by the New South Wales police service.

An inquest has heard the sergeant, known as "Officer A", had an affair with a senior ranking officer the year before she died.

New South Wales Deputy Coroner Hugh Dillon has criticised the police service over its handling of her case but has suppressed the names of all those involved, including a senior ranking officer who had a brief affair with the woman in 2012.

Her husband, who can only be known as "F", said the police service mismanaged her depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which were diagnosed as work-related injuries.

"There are so many casualties in this story. It goes beyond [her] death," he told the ABC.
read more here

Demand for mental health support for police officers is on the rise