VA "Candy Man" Fired in Wisconsin

Wisconsin VA hospital official dubbed ‘candy man’ fired
Associated Press
By SCOTT BAUER
October 30, 2015

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The chief of staff at a much-criticized Wisconsin Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who was nicknamed “candy man” by some patients for allegedly handing out excess narcotics, was notified Friday that he would be fired.

David Houlihan was placed on leave in January while the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs investigated allegations of over-prescribing narcotic pain medications and retaliatory behavior at the Tomah, Wisconsin, facility.

The VA told Wisconsin’s congressional delegation that based on results of an investigation, Houlihan was notified Friday that he would be fired effective Nov. 9. Houlihan, who is a psychiatrist, also had his clinical privileges revoked.

The decision to fire Houlihan came after the VA investigated his clinical practice as well as his “administrative interactions with subordinates and alleged retaliatory behavior,” said the statement from the VA telling lawmakers of the firing.
read more here

Montana VA Mental Health Center Shut Doors

By October of 2014, 46 veterans in Montana committed suicide. That was just in Montana and just the ones reported so the public could read about them. 9 months, 46 suicides

Within the report was the story of Brandon Slack. His story reflected what was going on all across this country, after all the speeches and bills being signed, after all the claims, and after all the elected officials got angry for the cameras.

Brandon Slack, 29, came from a long line of public service. Many of his family members served in the U.S. Marine Corps, including his mother Kate Slack. For Brandon, being a Marine was not just a career, it was in his blood.

"My son Brandon was one of those larger-than-life type personalities," said Slack. "Brandon did two tours in Iraq. He was every bit of what a Marine should be."

After his first deployment to Fallujah, Brandon began taking medication for PTSD when he came home.

"Something was desperately wrong, his temper was startling," said Slack. "I came into the house one day, he was on the phone with somebody and I didn't even recognize who this person was."

Despite the noticeable change in her son's behavior, Brandon would be deployed for a second tour, this time in Ramadi.

Brandon survived, but suffered the invisible wounds of PTSD from the two combat tours.

After trying for years to find her son help through the Veterans Affairs Hospital and through many other avenues including therapy, he ultimately lost his battle. Brandon committed suicide in October of 2013.

So here they go again, complaining in anger over something the got angry about a very long time ago.

VA Montana temporarily closing mental health center at Fort Harrison
Independent Record
ERIC KILLELEA
February 10, 2015

Tester urges VA to fill state director's job, reconsider third-party vendors

MISSOULA -- U.S. Sen. Jon Tester this week expressed concern over the lack of a permanent VA Montana director, and said morale and staffing co… Read more

Tester calls protracted search for VA director 'unacceptable'

BILLINGS -- The selection process for naming someone to lead Montana’s VA Health Care system is taking “far, far too long,” U.S. Sen. Jon Test… Read more

VA Montana is temporarily closing its acute care mental health unit on the Fort Harrison campus because of “chronic workforce shortages,” said U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines in press releases on Tuesday.

Tester said he raised concerns about the closure during a phone call with VA Montana interim director John Ginnity last week.

Ginnity said on Tuesday that a “perfect storm” recently occurred when two mental health providers retired, and one provider resigned for a position elsewhere. He said the eight-bed, 24/7 acute care unit has been underused compared with the 16-bed residential rehabilitation unit for post-traumatic stress disorder or substance abuse.

“Only about 35 percent of the acute unit is utilized and 65 percent is unused,” Ginnity said. “Most veterans seek inpatient mental health treatment at the hospitals in their local communities.”
read more here

In 2007 2 Wisconsin clinics shut down.

Two recently opened Minneapolis VA clinics in western Wisconsin were abruptly shut down this week by the company under contract to run them. Kentucky-based Corporate Health and Wellness says it lost hundreds of thousands of dollars opening the clinics. It blames the closings on a lack of additional funding from the VA.

St. Paul, Minn. — The two clinics that sit idle now opened to much fanfare this summer and fall. The VA said, and local veterans agreed, the facilities in Hayward and in Rice Lake would make it much easier for area vets to get basic health care. No longer would they have to travel long distances to VA facilities in places like Duluth-Superior or the Twin Cities.

But without warning, the clinics closed this week.

VA spokesman Ralph Heussner says the locked doors are an unexpected disappointment.

"It's an inconvenience and we apologize for that," says Heussner. "The reason we set the clinics in those communities is to provide service so the veterans would not have to travel long distances."

Heussner says the VA is looking into several primary care options for more than 900 veterans who've been using the Hayward and Rice Lake clinics.

29 Patients at Marion VA died because of substandard and questionable care That happened in 2008 when the national news didn't care. But what the hell, they didn't care to remind anyone that back then the VA budget was $3 billions short.

VA was losing Care Coordinators

How we treat our veterans is how this nation is measured. If we do not care for the men and women retaining our freedom, that what have we become?

Now here's a flashback to 2012 and Montana VA

In Montana, where veterans wait an average of five weeks to begin counseling, an eight-bed wing of a mental health facility at Fort Harrison has been vacant for nine months because of a lack of psychiatrists, the VA says. The Rocky Mountain VA region needs to fill nearly one of four psychiatrist positions.

The vacancies occur at a time when the number of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is increasing by about 10,000 every three months, what experts say is the cumulative effect of a decade of war, VA data show.

The VA has about a 20% shortfall in psychiatrists at hospitals throughout the Northwest, Deep South and Southern California, according to department data.

ANYONE BOTHER TO ASK TESTER TO EXPLAIN ANY OF THIS?

Iowa Facing Suicide Increase

Suicide Increase In Iowa
IOWA CITY, IA (CBS2/FOX28)-- Suicide in Iowa is up 17 percent. According to the most recent data released by the Department of Public Health, 445 people took their own life in 2013. That is up from 381 deaths by suicide in 2012.

Marines, Left Behind By Psychological Mumbo Jumbo

"New top Marine Corps general releases plan to shake up the service" in the Washington Times report by Dan Lamorthe had this piece of information in it from Marine Corps Commandant General Joseph F. Dunford Jr.

Dunford also calls for changes at home. While attending boot camp “changes a person forever,” he said, the service should explore adopting new psychological testing for recruits to make sure they are capable of not only becoming a Marine, but successfully completing their time in service. “We will quickly assess the efficacy of available psychological screening tools currently used by special operations forces, law enforcement organizations, and industry,” the general said.

“The end state is to enhance the quality and resilience of the force – thereby making us more combat ready.”

There is a PDF of what the General thinks.

"The term Marine is synonymous with young men and women who are disciplined, smart, physically and mentally tough, and who remain always faithful to each other and to our Corps."

RAND Corp did research on this resilience theory and the difference between what the leadership was told would work up against what actually happened.

"An important distinction between approaches to promote resilience, as compared with traditional medical interventions,is the emphasis on prevention as opposed to treatment.

The research on psychological resilience has not been in a form that can be used easily by the military to identify which factors are informed by scientific evidence.

Prior to Department of Defense budget cut talks, the Marine Corps planned to reduce troops from 202,000 to 186,800 to accommodate a post-war Marine Corps. Due to budget changes and the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan, however, that number has been cut to 182,100 Marines, reducing the ranks by 19,900 men and women.

The force reduction will take place over the next four years. The Marine Corps will reduce its active-duty strength by about 5,000 Marines per year from across the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James F. Amos has stressed that the resulting force of 182,100 Marines will retain the capacity and capability to support current and possible crisis response operations through rotational deployments.

Less serving but suicide numbers not down enough to account for the reduction. This came out in June of 2014 on Marine Corps Times

According to the 2014 data, there have been 70 confirmed and suspected suicides by Army soldiers; 34 by airmen, 21 by Marines and 36 by sailors. In the same time frame last year, there were 81 suicides by soldiers, 24 by airmen, 25 by Marines and 24 by sailors.

The total number for 2014 so far — 161 — is still sharply lower than the 200 reported by this time in 2012.

Enough said about "resilience" training? Hardly, because this does not include the veterans who were discharged and no longer counted by the military.

The latest release of information on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is that the rate of them committing suicide is triple their civilian peer rate.

This is nothing more than psychological mumbo jumbo!

Veteran in VA Mental Health "care?" for 8 years with no care

Reminder, none of this is new and that is the part that should get to you the most. Countdown top VA scandals from 2008

Eight years for psych eval a “harmless error,” VA says
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: June 23, 2014
6 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — A veteran admitted to a long-term VA mental health care facility in Massachusetts waited eight years for his first comprehensive psychiatric evaluation by staff.

Another patient with a 100 percent service-connected psychiatric condition was committed at the same Brockton facility for seven years before a single psychiatric note was placed on his medical chart.

The cases are among dozens of incidents whistleblowers in the Department of Veterans Affairs have reported out of concern for patients’ safety but the VA has failed to take the incidents seriously, or admit they might affect the quality of treatment in its nationwide system of hospitals and clinics, according to a letter sent to President Barack Obama on Monday by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

The VA has instead claimed such incidents were “harmless errors,” according to the OSC, an independent federal watchdog charged with protecting whistleblowers and fielding complaints.
read more here

Now consider this. The House Veterans Affairs Committee has been in operation since 1946. They have had that long to fix the VA and take care of our veterans. Anyone ask why they didn't?

Fort Hood confirms Lopez snapped over denied leave

Fort Hood shooter snapped over denial of request for leave, Army confirms
FoxNews.com
Published April 07, 2014

Fort Hood shooter Ivan Lopez's rampage followed an argument over the denial of his request for leave and did not appear to be due to some ongoing mental problem, an Army official said Monday.

The word came as officials announced findings of their ongoing investigation, which included interviews with more than 1,100 people and a recreation of the shooting last Wednesday, which left four dead including Lopez, and 16 injured.

“We only have one suspect,” said Chris Grey, spokesman for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command. “We are fully committed to this investigation and we will continue to pursue investigatively all leads."

Grey, who was flanked by other law enforcement officials, did not take questions at the brief Monday news conference, and said he would not divulge any information that could jeopardize the investigation. But confirmation that an argument of a request for leave had immediately preceded the shooting seemed to further put to rest prior speculation that the 34-year-old Army specialist's Lopez's spree may have been related to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
read more here

‘We Have to Consider These Wounds of War’

We have lots of soldiers in treatment, but that doesn't mean we can take care of the problems they have. General Peter Chiarelli. He went on to say they still don't know enough about PTSD. That stunning statement came after 5 years of the Army pushing "resilience training."

Retired General on Fort Hood: ‘We Have to Consider These Wounds of War’
By ABC News
Apr 6, 2014 1:04pm

ABC News’ Haley Muse reports:
Ivan Lopez, the man who opened fire at Fort Hood, killing three of his fellow soldiers and wounding 16 others, should be considered a wounded warrior himself, former Army Vice Chief of Staff retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli said today on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I think you have to,” Chiarelli, who is also an ABC News consultant, said when asked whether Lopez should be thought of as a soldier who was wounded himself. “If you really want to get the stigma associated with these problems, we have got to consider these wounds of war.”

Chiarelli, along with Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, and The New Yorker staff writer Nicholas Schmidle discussed the shooting and the lasting effects of post-traumatic stress disorder with Martha Raddatz on “This Week.”

FBI and U.S. military officials continue to investigate Ivan Lopez’ state of mind prior to Wednesday’s shooting. Lopez was in the process of being evaluated for PTSD.

There were 130,000 reported cases of PTSD among veterans last year. Schmidle argued Americans are not paying enough attention to the lasting effects of war on veterans.
read more here

Fort Hood Gunman in Crisis Long Before Shooting

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 6, 2014

Since last week there has been a flood of online articles about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder related to combat. The problem is, most of them are missing a lot of details. People are doing a hell of a lot of guessing, in the process, they slam soldiers because the only people they are talking to are leaders in the military. Taking responsibility for suicides and attempted suicides by enlisted personnel is not something they have been forced to do. As for veterans, no one even asks leaders how they could have failed the troops so miserably they ended up with a higher risk to their lives out of combat than during it.

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."

That is a problem because it was not "scientifically proven" when the Army started to push it. It was based on a research project for school-aged kids to give them a better sense of self-worth. Rand Corp took a good hard look at this and found that it did not fit with military culture and even if it did, there was no evidence that anyone could be taught to be resilient. All of this is in THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR.

While it may seem that this report was a recent one, the appalling thing is that it was from a 2009 report about Comprehensive Soldier Fitness and every soldier has been exposed to this training that was suppose to make them "resilient" to the point where leaders never thought of how this has failed. The evidence is in the deplorable results.

When brass says that most of the soldiers committing suicide had not been deployed, they don't seem willing to mention the fact that even those soldiers had been "trained" to be resilient. Given that it didn't work on them, how could they ever think it would work on deployed soldiers facing combat traumas over and over again?

Reporters have been so lazy on all of this that when this "program" was announced all I did was take the data we already knew from other news reports released over the years to know that they were heading in a very dangerous direction. I posted this warning that if they pushed CSF they would increase suicides.

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.

Fort Hood Shooter’s Psychiatric Breakdown began before the shootings but as the military brass avoids mentioning the failures of their mental health efforts, Lopez is only one more case of what went wrong.

A month before opening fire on other soldiers Ivan Lopez made a Facebook post showing he was a man in crisis. KTRH report this on April 4, 2014

Ivan Lopez was a man about to snap on March 1 when he posted on his Facebook page, “I have just lost my inner peace, full of hatred, I think this time the devil will take me. I was robbed last night and I am sure it was 2 ‘flacos’. Green light and finger ready. As easy as that.”

Reporters are doing the same thing. The Washington Post has another story about the lack of mental health providers with this quote.

None of Lopez’s known issues suggest he was at risk for committing violence, and military leaders have said there were no warning signs.

There were warning signs. How could mental health professionals miss something like this? Are they supposed to read every Facebook post written by soldiers seeking psychiatric care? No but if they are in crisis shouldn't their evaluations have found the state of his mind? Shouldn't they have actually known what they were treating him for when they put him on medications?

The military brass seem to be confused on a lot of things. They say Lopez "self reported" PTSD. That in itself is a problem since he was given medication before being diagnosed with it. What was he on medication for? Do they make it a habit of giving medications without knowing what condition the soldier has?

We know that PTSD comes after traumatic events and there is a long list of them so it is possible that Lopez did in fact have PTSD from life itself and the loss of two family members. It happens. He could have had it from his years in the National Guards and it could have been caused by being a truck driver in Iraq with IEDs blowing up other truck drivers. There are so many possibilities but none of them have really been ruled out.

As military leaders back away from any responsibility, reporters have been even worse. They end up making all veterans with PTSD appear to be dangerous when the fact is, they are more apt to take their own lives than harm anyone else. With about 23 million veterans in this country there are relatively few reports of them committing crimes but far too many reports of them taking their own lives. While attempted suicides are a lot higher than completed ones, reporters have failed to provide proper attention to them even though reports of 1,000 a month in the VA system alone have been screaming for attention since Veterans for Common Sense filed a lawsuit. They had to do that because Dr. Iraq Katz was denying a crisis in the VA at the same time Norma Perez sent an email suggesting that counselors diagnose fewer post-traumatic stress disorder cases in soldiers.

In most cases, it isn't PTSD that makes soliders/veterans dangerous, it is some mental health "professionals" mistreating them with medications they had been warned to not use, using medications when they don't know what they are really treating, as in the case of Lopez being given medications but not diagnosed with PTSD. It is also due to reporters lacking the ability to actually read what other reporters have done in the past.

Veterans have been doomed to suffer history being repeated because no one has been held accountable for any of this. Now we read there is a still a lack of mental health providers in the military. Pretty pathetic but they just didn't notice.

Military’s mental-health system faces shortage of providers, lack of good diagnostic tools
Washington Post
By Sandhya Somashekhar and Ellen Nakashima
Published: April 5, 2014

The shooting rampage at Fort Hood has once again focused attention on the military’s ­mental-health system, which, despite improvement efforts, has struggled to address a tide of psychological problems brought on by more than a decade of war.

Military leaders have tried to understand and deal with mounting troop suicides, worrying psychological disorders among returning soldiers, and high-profile violent incidents on military installations such as the one that left four people dead and more than 16 injured at the Army post in Texas on Wednesday.

But experts say problems persist. A nationwide shortage of mental-health providers has made it difficult for the military to hire enough psychiatrists and counselors. The technology and science for reliably identifying people at risk of doing harm to themselves or others are lacking.

Officials have yet to identify a motive behind the actions of the Fort Hood shooter, Army Spec. Ivan A. Lopez, who took his own life. But they have said he was taking medications for anxiety and depression.

Lopez had reported sustaining a traumatic brain injury and was being screened for post-traumatic stress disorder, which is thought to affect as many as 20 percent of veterans of recent wars.

Vietnam veteran killed by police in San Diego

Man Killed by Police Had Rifle-Replica Pellet Gun
John Edward Chesney, 62, was shot after about an hour-long standoff with police in the 900 block of Broadway
By Paul Kruger and Andie Adams
Thursday, Feb 27, 2014

San Diego police confirm that a Vietnam veteran killed by police sergeant in a downtown stand-off was holding a plastic pellet gun.

John Edward Chesney, 62, was shot after about an hour-long standoff with police in the 900 block of Broadway.

The dead man’s friends told NBC 7 they do not blame officers for Wednesday's deadly shooting, but still think that terrible outcome could have been avoided.

Those friends and Chesney’s landlord, David Reichbart, said Chesney had been in poor health and had significant mental health issues.

They also said he abused alcohol and became despondent and upset when he drank. “He would get kind of melancholy, kind of sad, thinking about his family, people that he’d lost, and just very emotional,” Reichbart told NBC 7 News.

Michael Michaud, who had known Chesney for seven years, thinks his friend was suicidal and recalls how Chesney recently told another friend that he “wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.”
read more here

Blaming the troops is easy way out

Blaming the troops is easy way out
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 6, 2014

How did this headline "Nearly 1 in 5 had mental illness before enlisting in Army, study says The study raises questions about the military's screening of recruits. Another study looks at rising suicide rates among soldiers" end up being all that is reported? Because they didn't care about what the rest of the story was. It was just a lot easier to leave people thinking a large percentage of the troops were already mentally ill than it was to discover the truth.

Description
The Pre-Deployment Health Assessment (Pre-DHA), DD 2795, is a two-part comprehensive health screening required by all Soldiers and Department of the Army (DA) Civilians deploying in support of any contingency operation to a location outside the Continental United States (OCONUS) without a fixed Medical Treatment Facility (MTF) for a period of 30 days or more. This assessment is comprised of physical and mental health questions aimed at determining the medical readiness of any individual scheduled for an upcoming deployment.

The Pre-DHA must be completed within 60 days prior to deployment. Part 1 of the Pre-DHA consists of a self-assessment questionnaire and can be accessed online through the My Medical portion of AKO under the Self Service tab. Part 2 is completed through a one-on-one confidential interview with a qualified health care provider. The Pre-DHA is not complete until it is signed by a health care provider.

For OCONUS deployments of less than 30 days, OCONUS deployments to areas with fixed U.S. MTFs, and CONUS deployments, it is the operational commander’s decision whether a DD 2795 is required. USCENTCOM encourages personnel traveling to the theater for 15 or more days to complete a DD 2795 and those who travel frequently to complete at least one DD 2795 each year.

DD 2795, Pre-Deployment Health Assessment, May 1999

Department of Defense
INSTRUCTION
NUMBER 6490.12 February 26, 2013 Incorporating Change 1, Effective October 2, 2013 USD(P and R)
Mental Health Assessments for Service Members Deployed in Connection with a Contingency Operation See Enclosure 1

1. PURPOSE. This instruction, in accordance with the authority in DoD Directive 5124.02 (Reference (a)):

a. Establishes the policy for person-to-person deployment mental health assessments for each member of the Military Services deployed in connection with a contingency operation according to Section 1074m of Title 10, United States Code (Reference (b)).
b. Implements policy for serial deployment mental health assessments in accordance with the Secretary of Defense Memorandum (Reference (c)).
c. Incorporates and cancels Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (ASD(HA)) Memorandum (Reference (d)) and Directive-type Memorandum 11-011 (Reference (e)).

2. APPLICABILITY. This instruction applies to OSD, the Military Departments, (including the Coast Guard at all times, including when it is a Service in the Department of Homeland Security by agreement with that Department), the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Joint Staff, the combatant commands, the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense, the Defense Agencies, the DoD Field Activities, and all other organizational entities within the DoD.

3. POLICY. It is DoD policy that person-to-person deployment mental health assessments be conducted for each Service member deployed in connection with a contingency operation, subject to the limited exceptions provided in this instruction. The mental health assessments will be conducted during four time frames in a consistent manner across the Military Services and will be administered at least 90 days apart:

a. Within 120 days before the estimated date of deployment.
b. Between 90 and 180 days after return from deployment.
c. Between 181 days and 18 months after return from deployment.
d. Between 18 and 30 months after return from deployment.

4. RESPONSIBILITIES. See Enclosure 2. 5. PROCEDURES. See Enclosure 3.
6. RELEASABILITY. Unlimited. This instruction is approved for public release and is available on the Internet from the DoD Issuances Website at http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives.
7. EFFECTIVE DATE. This instruction:

a. Is effective February 26, 2013.
b. Must be reissued, cancelled, or certified current within 5 years of its publication to be considered current in accordance with DoD Instruction (DoDI) 5025.01 (Reference (f)).
c. If not, it wWill expire effective February 26, 2023 and be removed from the DoD Issuances Website if it hasn’t been reissued or cancelled in accordance with Reference (f).

The truth is, they were tested and retested and retested. The truth is billions have been spent on "prevention" "mental health" and the list goes on but in the end, suicides increased and they can't explain any of this because they will hold no one accountable for any of this. Blaming the troops is just easier than investigating what the truth is.

Military Mental Health Exams Fail

Military Mental Health Exams Fail
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 5, 2014

When Military Brass talks about how most of the suicides in the military had nothing to do with deployments, that should have sent a huge red flare up regarding mental health screenings. After all, if they were suffering so much they wanted to die, mental health evaluations should have discovered it. Right? After all, they should care about the mental health state of those they hand weapons to as much as they care about the soldiers serving next to them. At least that is what is we assume.

Either the military is trying to cover up for the fact suicides went up after they spent billions on preventing them or they are still trying to blame the soldiers.

This may have seemed like a new story, "Nearly 1 in 5 had mental illness before enlisting in Army, study says The study raises questions about the military's screening of recruits. Another study looks at rising suicide rates among soldiers." As it is, it is a warning that the mental health screenings done by the military are inadequate. What makes it worse is the simple fact that none of this is new.

"The results of this study provide strong evidence that relying on self-report alone may be insufficient policy for screening for disqualifying or significant mental health conditions," wrote Army Maj. Remington L. Nevin, the study's author.

But the report found that military health officials relied heavily on those self-reported answers, with soldiers rarely referred for a professional evaluation if they failed to acknowledge seeking mental health care.

At least 230 service members have committed suicide in Iraq and Afghanistan since the U.S. launched the first offensive eight years ago this month. As the wars continue, the study said, valid information on mental health is particularly important as the military faces challenges maintaining troop strength.

Matthew Kauffman of the Courant reported that in 2009 along with this,

The Pentagon maintains detailed electronic health information on all service members. The study released last week marked the first time military officials matched the answers on the pre-deployment form to actual medical records.

The study looked at a sample of more than 11,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan in 2007 and found that 4.2 percent had been formally diagnosed in the previous year with a serious mental health disorder. But of those, only 48 percent answered "yes" to the question: "During the past year, have you sought care or counseling for your mental health?"

How do they explain the simple fact that this is all happening after they started addressing mental health and suicides? How do they account for the fact that the Army had over 11,000 misconduct discharges last year but the drop in suicides did not reflect enough of a drop to account for them? Then they would have to explain the number of enlisted personnel also gong down with less deployed into Afghanistan.

So much they have to account for but no one is making sure they answer for what has happened.

Virginia Mental Health Inspector resigned

Va. mental health inspector quits over Deeds report
The Virginian-Pilot
By Julian Walker
March 5, 2014
RICHMOND

State Sen. Creigh Deeds reacted with dismay Tuesday to news that the state investigator probing the circumstances preceding his son's death has resigned.

In his resignation letter, G. Douglas Bevelacqua said he was quitting because of officials meddling with his work.

"It would be a grave disappointment to me if the investigation were sanitized," Deeds told reporters during a brief interview, in which he complimented Bevelacqua.

Since 2010, Bevelacqua had served as inspector general for behavioral health and developmental services, a unit of state government now under the Office of the State Inspector General.

Bevelacqua remained with that agency, keeping his focus on mental health issues. As such, he oversaw the inquiry into the Nov. 19 death of Deeds' son, 24-year-old Austin "Gus" Deeds, who stabbed his father at their Bath County home before taking his own life hours after undergoing a mental health evaluation.
read more here

UK Deploying Mental Health Nurses to Police Stations

Mental health nurses to be posted in police stations
The Guardian
Haroon Siddique
January 3, 2014

£25m pilot scheme to ensure people get the treatment they need and cut reoffending will initially run in 10 areas

Mental health nurses are to be posted in police stations and courts in a £25m pilot scheme designed to ensure people receive the treatment they need and cut reoffending rates.

The government scheme, which will initially run in 10 areas and be rolled out across the rest of the country by 2017 if successful, was welcomed by mental health campaigners, confident that it would prove its worth.

The majority of people who end up in prison have a mental health condition, a substance misuse problem or a learning disability and one in four has a severe mental health illness, such as chronic depression or psychosis.

"Too often people with mental health illnesses who come into contact with the criminal justice system are only diagnosed when they reach prison," said care and support minister Norman Lamb. "We want to help them get the right support and treatment as early as possible. Diverting the individual away from offending and helping to reduce the risk of more victims suffering due to further offences benefits everyone."
read more here

90% of firefighters suffer psychological trauma

While the research was done in Israel, think about our firefighters in the US.

90% of firefighters suffer psychological trauma, expert tells Knesset committee
Jerusalem Post
By JUDY SIEGEL
01/01/2014

Safety engineer Dr. Mark Lugasi presented research into the situation of firefighters: More than 43 percent have been hurt in work accidents.

Nine out of 10 firemen suffer from symptoms of psychological trauma, according to an expert who spoke before a session of the Knesset Labor, Social Welfare and Health Committee on Tuesday.

The meeting was part of a day to honor the Israel Fire Service and its personnel.

Safety engineer Dr. Mark Lugasi presented research into the situation of firefighters: More than 43 percent have been hurt in work accidents.

Fully 24% of those who actually fight fires suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and 67% suffer from partial trauma – compared to 5% and 45%, respectively, in the general population.

According to Lugasi, firemen who undergo blood tests have significantly higher cholesterol and glucose levels than the general population.

“They are exposed to a wide variety of dangers, including collapsed buildings, dangerous chemicals, missiles and rockets, accidents, terrorism, natural disasters and more,” he continued.

The chief of the Fire Service, Shahar Ayalon, added firemen have poor lifestyles and quality of life. “There is inadequate information and research into the field. Quite a few firemen suffer from cancer and are being treatment. Much needs to be done in this field,” he said.
read more here

Mental Health Measures Removed From New Military Spending Bill

Mental Health Measures Removed From New Military Spending Bill
Forbes
Rebecca Ruiz
December 20, 2013

When the House of Representatives recently passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, it contained measures to address serious concerns about the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in the military.

Most importantly, it included an amendment for the creation of a commission to evaluate claims that soldiers with combat-related psychological distress and traumatic brain injuries are being kicked out of the military due to minor infractions. I wrote about that a few months in a post that looked at the Colorado Springs Gazette’s investigative series on this topic.

The commission would have evaluated those charges and determined what, if any, policy changes need to be made in order to account for the role of combat-related mental or physical illness in a soldier’s misconduct.

But when the Senate passed its version of the bill on Thursday night, that amendment had been scrubbed. Two other mental health amendments had been stripped as well:

Mental health assessments
The law would have provided regular mental health screenings for all active-duty service members. Currently, the focus is on giving these assessments to service members who deploy, and even then, the requirement can be waived if an individual isn’t exposed to “operational risk factors.”

Mental health support for personnel and families
This provision is vague, but it would have permitted the Secretary of Defense to create initiatives that “respond to the escalating suicide rates and combat stress related arrest rates” of service members; train soldiers to recognize and respond to combat stress disorder, suicide risk, substance addiction, risk-taking behaviors, and family violence; and determine the effectiveness of the military’s efforts to reduce suicide rates.
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Depression claims life of gifted author Ned Vizzini

Popular young adult author Ned Vizzini, 32, dies in New York
By HILELL ITALIE
Dec 21st 2013

NEW YORK (AP) - Ned Vizzini, a popular young adult author and television writer who wrote candidly and humorously about his struggles with depression, has committed suicide. He was 32.

Vizzini jumped off the roof of his parents' home in Brooklyn on Thursday, said his brother, Daniel Vizzini. New York City's medical examiner's office confirmed Friday that Vizzini took his own life and had sustained blunt impact injuries consistent with a fall. Daniel Vizzini said his brother had battled mental illness for much of his life and had "taken a turn for the worse" in recent weeks.

Ned Vizzini's autobiographical novel "It's Kind of a Funny Story" was adapted into a feature film of the same name. A resident of Los Angeles in recent years, he was a prolific author of fiction and nonfiction and spoke around the country about mental health and the healing effects of writing. On his website, he recommended Andrew Solomon's "The Noonday Demon" and the Dalai Lama's "The Art of Happiness" to readers coping with depression.

"At his signings, countless kids would approach him to say that he changed their lives - he gave them hope," his longtime publisher, Alessandra Balzer of Balzer + Bray, said in a statement Friday. Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins.

John Green, Megan McCafferty and Sarah Dessen were among the authors mourning him on Twitter. In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, an emotional Judy Blume called him one of those people "who just touch your life in a certain way."
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VA's mental health efforts fall short now, won't keep pace in the future

Report: VA's mental health efforts fall short now, won't keep pace in the future
Stars and Stripes
By Leo Shane III
Published: November 11, 2013

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs officials will spend more than $7 billion and tens of thousands of hours of clinical time on mental health care this fiscal year, and that won’t be nearly enough, a new report argues.

A new policy brief from the Center for New American Security says that VA mental health efforts do not meet the needs of veterans today and are not enough to keep pace with the wave of veterans expected to hit the health care system in the next decade.

“Historically, veterans’ mental health care needs have risen sharply over time, with peak expenditures occurring 10 to 20 years after the end of war,” the report states. “This was true for the Vietnam War cohort and will likely be true for the post-9/11 combat cohort as well.

“Now is the time for the VA to act decisively to meet these generations’ needs — while it has ample resources to do so, before the demand among post-9/11 veterans spikes.”

The brief comes just a week after VA officials announced they had added more than 1,600 mental health clinicians and 800 peer counselors in the last year.
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Former Veterans Affairs Psychiatrist Pleads Guilty to Medicare Fraud

Former Veterans Affairs Psychiatrist Pleads Guilty to Medicare Fraud
30 October 2013
Written by YNN


Washington, DC - Dr. Mikhail L. Presman, a licensed psychiatrist employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), pleaded guilty today to health care fraud for falsely billing Medicare for home medical treatment to Medicare beneficiaries and agreed to forfeit more than $1.2 million in illegal profits.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch of the Eastern District of New York, and Special Agent in Charge Thomas O’Donnell of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.

According to court documents, from Jan. 1, 2006, through May 10, 2013, Presman submitted approximately $4 million in Medicare claims for home treatment of Medicare beneficiaries notwithstanding his full-time, salaried position as a psychiatrist at the VA hospital in Brooklyn.

Contrary to his representations, Presman did not provide any treatment to a substantial number of the beneficiaries he claimed to have treated. For example, Presman submitted claims to Medicare for home medical visits at locations within New York City even though he was physically located in China at the time of these purported home visits. Additionally, Presman submitted claims to Medicare for 55 home medical visits to beneficiaries who were hospitalized on the date of the purported visits.
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President Kennedy tried to do right for mentally ill 50 years ago

Kennedy's Vision for Mental Health Never Realized
Associated Press
By MICHELLE R. SMITH
PROVIDENCE, R.I. October 20, 2013 (AP)

The last piece of legislation President John F. Kennedy signed turns 50 this month: the Community Mental Health Act, which helped transform the way people with mental illness are treated and cared for in the United States.

Signed on Oct. 31, 1963, weeks before Kennedy was assassinated, the legislation aimed to build mental health centers accessible to all Americans so that those with mental illnesses could be treated while working and living at home, rather than being kept in neglectful and often abusive state institutions, sometimes for years on end.

Kennedy said when he signed the bill that the legislation to build 1,500 centers would mean the population of those living in state mental hospitals — at that time more than 500,000 people — could be cut in half. In a special message to Congress earlier that year, he said the idea was to successfully and quickly treat patients in their own communities and then return them to "a useful place in society."

Recent deadly mass shootings, including at the Washington Navy Yard and a Colorado movie theater, have been perpetrated by men who were apparently not being adequately treated for serious mental illnesses. Those tragedies have focused public attention on the mental health system and made clear that Kennedy's vision was never fully realized.

The legislation did help to usher in positive life-altering changes for people with serious illnesses such as schizophrenia, many of whom now live normal, productive lives with jobs and families. In 1963, the average stay in a state institution for someone with schizophrenia was 11 years. But only half of the proposed centers were ever built, and those were never fully funded.

Meanwhile, about 90 percent of beds have been cut at state hospitals, according to Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia University psychiatry professor and expert in how the law affects the practice of medicine. In many cases, several mental health experts said, that has left nowhere for the sickest people to turn, so they end up homeless, abusing substances or in prison. The three largest mental health providers in the nation today are jails: Cook County in Illinois, Los Angeles County and Rikers Island in New York.
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Marine busted by FBI over Facebook posts goes to court

Judge refuses to dismiss suit against Feds who arrested former Marine for his controversial Facebook posts
Raw Story
By Techdirt
Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Almost exactly a year ago, former Marine Brandon Raub was taken from his home by federal agents and involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward, all because of some controversial postings to his Facebook account, including some 9/11 conspiracy-related articles and violent song lyrics.

On August 16, 2012, Raub was visited by local police, FBI agents and Secret Service personnel who questioned him about his Facebook posts. Raub was cooperative and discussed his activity with the officers, despite their not having a warrant. At some point, one of the agents made a call to Michael Campbell, a psychotherapist retained by the county who decided, despite having never met or observed Raub, that the former Marine was "potentially dangerous" and should be detained.

At that point, the collected officers cuffed Raub and took him to the local jail before having him committed to the mental hospital. Government officials later claimed Raub wasn't arrested, but the video taken of his "not being arrested" looks for all the world to the un-government-trained eye like an arrest.
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