VA Suicide Hotline, 720 rescues and 37,200 calls

Growing Public Health Crisis of Domestic Violence and Suicides by Returning Veterans
By Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology

WEST ROXBURY, Mass., June 5 --"We are greatly concerned in this state about the 'invisible wounds of war' - the mental health of our returning veterans, the stress, depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - which raise the specter of rising levels of domestic violence and suicide. We need to begin focusing on their recuperation as well as building awareness and support programs with their families about what to expect when the veterans return," says Senator Richard T. Moore, State Senator and Chairman of the Massachusetts Health Care Financing Committee.

Moore is one of three experts offering guidance at a free public forum exploring solutions to an impending mental health crisis among returning veterans.

-- WHAT: "Returning War Veterans: Meeting Health Needs of Veterans, Families and Communities"

-- WHEN: Friday, June 13, 2008, 2:30 pm. to 5 pm

-- WHERE: Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, (MSPP), 221 Rivermoor Street, West Roxbury, MA

Joining Moore will be Dr. Jaine Darwin, Co-Chairman of the SOFAR Project (Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists), who will speak of essential outreach efforts to veterans, families and community, and Dr. Jonathan Shay, Staff Psychiatrist at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Boston and author of "Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming."

A recent RAND Corporation report stated that 300,000 veterans have mental health problems and 320,000 have brain injuries and that nearly 50 percent of those in need do not seek mental health services. The reasons: career stigma, worry about medication side effects and the belief that family and friends could help them instead.

Each day 18 veterans commit suicide. And since last August, a Department of Veterans Affairs hotline has made more than 720 suicide rescues and responded to more than 37,200 calls for help.
In February, a community in Port Charlotte, Florida searched for weeks for 24-year-old Eric Hall, a missing veteran who suffered Iraq combat flashbacks. Hall's body was later found in a hillside pipeline.

Dr. David Satin, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at HMSS and Chairman of the Erich Lindemann Memorial Lecture Committee at MSPP will moderate.

The forum is 31st annual program dedicated to the legacy of the late Dr. Erich Lindemann.

SOURCE Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology


Elinor Stout of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology,
1-978-369-3588, Estout2000@hotmail.com
http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/606464.html

Jonathan Shay wins Genius Grant for PTSD

Hear Jonathan Shay talk about a scene in the Odyssey and how it relates to soldiers back from Iraq today.
Health Care
Psychiatrist Who Counsels Vets Wins Genius Grant
by Joseph Shapiro




Morning Edition, September 25, 2007 · Among this year's MacArthur fellowships — sometimes called the "genius grant" — is a half-million dollar award to a psychiatrist who helps heal combat veterans with post traumatic stress disorder by talking about the mythological Greek warriors Achilles and Odysseus.



Soldiers, and generals, too, listen to Dr. Jonathan Shay, of the Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Boston. They listen especially when he talks about why it's crucial to soldiers' mental health to keep them together in the same unit over time, so they truly come to know and rely upon each other. This wasn't the practice in Vietnam. But it is again, today, thanks in part to Shay.



A lot of Shay's insight about how to prevent the mental health problems of war comes from reading the Iliad and the Odyssey. He first picked up the books while recovering from a stroke some 25 years ago. He was just 40.



As he slowly recovered, he took what he figured would be a temporary gig counseling Vietnam veterans at the Boston VA. He told them stories of Achilles and Odysseus — and those tales of betrayal by leaders and of guilt and loss among soldiers resonated with the Vietnam veterans.
"One of the things they appreciate," Shay says, "is the sense that they're part of a long historical context — that they are not personally deficient for having become injured in war."


go here for the rest


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14682035

I read a lot of books about Vietnam and PTSD in a lot of years. This was the first one I read that made me want to contact the author. I was crying when I emailed Jonathan because this book was the first one that looked at PTSD as something personal. I didn't know very much about emailing or the web back then. I had the email blocking people not in my address book, without knowing it. Jonathan tried to email me back, but when he found it wouldn't go, he didn't give up. He searched until he found me. I was shocked. I didn't imagine him wanting to even email me back at all. I just wanted to let him know how much his book touched me.
Over the years, we emailed back and forth. He read my book when I was still working on it and helped me to keep pushing to have it published. It didn't work out and I went the self-publishing route but I will never forget his kindness. If anyone should be awarded for the work they do on PTSD and for our veterans, it's Jonathan Shay. He writes books so that everyone can understand and writes them from his heart.
If you want to read some of the best writing on PTSD and combat, go to the book store and find his name. He has several great ones but Achilles in Vietnam will always be my favorite.

Home From War by Patience Mason

Home from War
By patience mason(patience mason)
Shrinks and family members tend to see the symptoms of PTSD as the problem. Not me. I see war as the problem and the symptoms of PTSD as solutions to the problem of war, something right with you, not something wrong with you. ...
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog - http://patiencemason.blogspot.com/

I remember when very few of us were working on ending the stigma of PTSD because of Vietnam Vets, Patience was one of the few voices being heard. This was when most of us were still dealing with what was happening to our husbands and in turn, our families as well. While I was writing local newspapers, Patience was already on the net doing everything she could to catch the veteran's falling through the cracks. Back then I was still trying to figure out how to use a mouse. She already had a web page and a very large readership.

The early writers were Patience Mason, Mary Beth Williams, Aphrodite Matsakis and Jonathan Shay. In all the years I was researching PTSD, their's were among the best written on the subject. They were easy to understand and got into the personal side of PTSD along with how the families were also paying the price. I suggest reading all their works. Most of what I've learned came from them and heavy research into clinical books but left me feeling as if I were chewing on an emery board trying to get through those. If you really want to understand PTSD there is a wealth of knowledge out there from people who have been dealing with it since the term was coined following the Vietnam war.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
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