VA retaliated against employees who did not comply with denials

CREW and VoteVets to VA Inspector General: Investigate PTSD Misdiagnoses; "This practice is widespread and systemic."
Submitted by crew on 28 May 2008 - 11:42am. PTSD Veterans Affairs
CREW and VoteVets.org requested that the Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) open an investigation into the process and manner by which the VA makes a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans. The letter to the VA, which we sent today, can be found here.

In the wake of the disclosure by CREW and VoteVets.org of an internal VA e-mail advising VA mental health staff in Texas to consider a diagnosis of adjustment disorder in place of a PTSD diagnosis as a cost-cutting measure, both organizations have received new information from VA employees and veterans attesting to the fact that this practice is widespread and systemic. VA Secretary James Peake has repudiated the email as not reflecting VA policy.

The VA has adopted incentive programs that, by rewarding those employees and hospitals that distribute lower levels of compensation to veterans, encourage adjustment disorder diagnoses rather than the most appropriate but also more costly diagnosis of PTSD.

In addition, the VA's internal computer system permits medical files to be changed by health professionals who did not conduct the initial examinations, a practice that appears to have resulted in changed diagnoses from PTSD to adjustment disorder, even where there is no additional medical evidence to support the downgraded diagnoses.

CREW and VoteVets.org also heard from VA employees who suffered retaliation for their failure to support these practices.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said:

It is unconscionable that the VA would actively encourage its staff, through monetary incentives, to misdiagnose our veterans’ mental health. Add to that the mind-boggling disclosure that medical files can be altered to downgrade service members’ conditions, and we have a VA that is betraying those it is supposed to serve. The VA Inspector General must spearhead an investigation into these abhorrent practices immediately.

Jon Soltz, Iraq War vet and Chair of VoteVets.org, added this statement:

Despite what Secretary Peake said, the misdiagnoses being encouraged at the Temple, TX VA Center were not an isolated incident. The only question now is: How widespread is this, and how high up does the problem go? Those of us who served this nation in war deserve to have full confidence in the programs set up to help transition us back to civilian life. These new revelations personally give me zero confidence in the mental health screening and care system the VA oversees.

On May 14th, CREW also sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the VA asking for all records pertaining to any guidance given regarding the diagnosis of PTSD.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/31847

While it sickens me greatly reading this from CREW and Vote Vets, I have to admit it does not shock me. How could it? Given the fact the DOD is still using Battlemind, which has been proven to be of little good if at all, along with everything else going on, it appears to have been lip service in support of the wound and then sharpening the knife to stab them in the back.

According to the BBC report, the new arrivals in Iraq and Afghanistan are shown Battlemind for "11 1/2 minutes to learn about the psychological impact" as if that is supposed to prepare them for anything. Why is this not working? Simply because it is no good. The rate of suicides has gone up since they began to use it, not only while actively deployed, but the suicide rate has gone up back home as well. What they are doing is not working. If it was, then the rates would drop, not go higher.

Now we learn from the investigations like this one from CREW and Vote Vets, the law suit filed by Veterans For Common Sense, this has all be a fraudulent claim of care. How dare they not only deceive the American people, but further damage the troops as well?

Female veterans are told they will not receive the treatment they need because "they cannot afford the money" when the senate said they would have funded even more if they had known there was a problem.

Dominic DiNatale did the report for the BBC from Afghanistan. He interviewed Sgt. Bruce Cantral, a medic on his 4th deployment between Iraq and Afghanistan, at Bagram Air Base. The Sgt. has already been diagnosed with PTSD and is on a mix of medication and therapy.

Back to Battlemind, again, while only in country a few hours, the new arrivals have to spend two days worth of briefings, which include a lousy 11 1/2 minutes of Battlemind, to prepare them for the psychological impact of war. A very lame attempt to prepare them for the fact 1 in 5 will develop PTSD in theater and later half of those deployed will develop it later.

There are now combat stress teams being airlifted in to try to face this crisis. Yet there are not enough of them. A case in point comes from Fort Warrior.

At a chapel in Afghanistan's Fort Warrior, Chaplain Hill recounts a unit that had been through a terrible fight and arrived at the chapel still covered in blood.

While many will have to live with PTSD, there is also combat stress that is immediate and happens under extreme stress. How is 11 1/2 minute going to prepare them for any of this?

Physical and psychological conditions do not seem to matter as long as they can get them back into combat. This again will only harm them further. The "relentless deployments" and stop loss add to the development of PTSD. This the Army knew years ago, yet the warning fell on deaf ears.

DiNatale tried to interviews at FOB Warrior, but the commander told him that he thought it would harm the careers of anyone he interviewed. Imagine that a commander still thinks it will harm the careers of his men if they talked about being human. Yes, this still exists and give the above report from CREW, it is alive and well no matter how much reassurance the public is given that this attitude no longer lives in the minds of those in charge.

One last thing came in the last few minutes of this report. Congressman Filner was interviewed. He stated that 1/3 of the already diagnosed have committed felonies and there have been 200 homicides, mostly committed against family members.

Go here and watch the interview for yourself and see how seriously this all needs to be taken.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/7422853.stm

Now you can see that the troops are not getting what they need while deployed and then are greeted with more of the same from the VA afterward. Yet they seem so surprised there is such a huge problem. The right-wing bloggers are attacking the media and Peake is telling them that the problems reported are overblown!

Senior Chaplain 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

PR Campaign Starts to Counter WTU Reports

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 28, 2014

NBC5 and Dallas Morning News did a six month long report on the investigation of how PTSD soldiers were treated in Warrior Transition Units across military bases.

Injured Heroes, Broken Promises: Hundreds of Soldiers Allege Mistreatment at Army Warrior Transition Units Wounded soldiers found harassment and verbal abuse from commanders assigned to care for the injured.

Wounded Times has covered the truth for 7 years and it is far from what the national news will spend time on. Most of the great reporting is done by local news outlets across the country. That is where the reports on No excuse for Fort Hood mistreatment of Soldiers with PTSD came from.

The rest of the media can ignore it all they want but the truth is, while we do have the best military in the world, when it comes to the men and women serving, the leaders are PTSD imbeciles.

To discover how long all of this has been going on, we need to begin with the research the Army did on redeployments in 2006. The Washington Post reported their study showed this.

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds
Washington Post
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006

U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health.

More than 650,000 soldiers have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001 -- including more than 170,000 now in the Army who have served multiple tours -- so the survey's finding of increased risk from repeated exposure to combat has potentially widespread implications for the all-volunteer force. Earlier Army studies have shown that up to 30 percent of troops deployed to Iraq suffer from depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with the latter accounting for about 10 percent.

The findings reflect the fact that some soldiers -- many of whom are now spending only about a year at home between deployments -- are returning to battle while still suffering from the psychological scars of earlier combat tours, the report said.

"When we look at combat, we look at some very horrific events," said Col. Ed Crandell, head of the Army's Mental Health Advisory Team, which polled 1,461 soldiers in Iraq in late 2005. "They come back, they know they're going to deploy again," and as a result they don't ever return to normal levels of stress, Crandell said.
read more here

What did the Generals do? Did they make sure no one was sent back? No. As a matter of fact, they ignored their own research. This is an educated assumption simply because as they refused to adapt, they also refused to make sure these redeployed troops were properly cared for in response to what they knew would follow.

They pulled the wool over the public eye with Battlemind.

If BattleMind worked, there would not be more suicides and more attempted suicides than before BattleMind, but do you think they would be able to figure this one out yet? It came out in 2007 and yet again today I hear word of another soldier, a young, newly married soldier, who came back from Iraq and blew his brains out in front of his new bride. Is it because they do not show it to all the troops? Is it because they only show a lousy 11 1/2 minutes to the troops in Afghanistan as the BBC reported? Is it the trainers? Or, is the answer as simple as it does not work?

I don't know but you would think that since some of the finest minds in this country have been put to work on PTSD, they would have reduced suicides and attempted suicides instead of increasing them while they stick their fingers in their ears and hope the problem goes away! If they cannot cope with any of this after all this time, what's it going to be like two or three years from now when most of them have PTSD and they are still doing what does not work? Unit cohesion? Trust? How can they have any when they cannot trust what they are coming back to? How can they when some of them are National Guards and Reservists expected to go back to their civilian lives and jobs?

This was followed by Comprehensive Soldier Fitness

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

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

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

Yet by 2009 it was already followed by a warning that this "program" would increase suicides simply by feeding the stigma.
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness will make it worse

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.

This training was designed as a research project to help school aged kids feel better about themselves but these yahoos decided to treat soldiers like kids on the playground and tell them they could train their brains to be mentally tough. As we've seen from the reports on Warrior Transition Unit leaders telling PTSD soldiers to "man up" they got the wrong message.

This training told the soldiers if you train right you'll be resilient and they heard if they ended up with PTSD, they were mentally weak. Would you want to admit you needed help after that? Would you want to tell you buddy you are falling apart or need to talk with this idea your brain?

Every single OEF-OIF veteran I talked to pointed to this training as part of the problem but the leaders have not been willing to listen to them.

Generals have been delivering the wrong message at the same time they ignore the right ones. When other generals talked about having PTSD, when MOH heroes talked about their own battles, the DOD failed to get their message.

Ok so now you know more of what has been happening. Just as the PR campaign started to blame soldiers for committing suicide making sure the country knew most of them had not been deployed, they failed to address the simple fact that CSF wasn't even good enough to keep them alive but they thought it would work for those redeployed over and over again?

They play another game of selling how great they are with a "success story" on Warrior Transition Units.

VA soldier interns share transition success stories with WTU soldiers
By Gloria Montgomery
Warrior Transition Unit Public Affairs
November 26, 2014

TEMPLE — It gave her goose bumps, she said as she listened to her former Fort Hood Warrior Transition Unit soldiers share stories of their transitioning successes with other WTU soldiers who will soon enter the civilian workforce.

The goose bumps, said Maj. Thelma Nicholls, a WTU nurse case manager, were from witnessing the transformation of her former “broken and worn-down” soldiers into confident and beaming professionals, thanks to the Temple Veterans Affairs’ “intern to hire” philosophy and the Operation Warfighter federal internship program.

“To see how they have transitioned into productive citizens and are now paying it forward is remarkable,” she said, adding how special it was that the WTU interns and VA veteran hires were sharing their positive messaging with Nicholls and nearly 50 other WTU soldiers and family members Nov. 14 at the Olin E. Teague Medical Center in Temple, during a panel discussion on federal internships and employment opportunities.

“It was so uplifting,” Nicholls said. “They are a light for the soldiers who are leaving and thinking there is nothing out there for them. Well, there is something out there, but they have to want it, go for it and be that little light to make things happen.”

It also validated everything about the WTU and the “process” called healing and transitioning, said WTU’s intake company’s 1st Sgt. Renita Garrett.
read more here

Veteran Suicides Apocalypse Now

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 14, 2015

The word Apocalypse has been flooding my brain lately when I read reports about suicides tied to the military. The rate of veterans committing suicide is double the civilian population with the majority of them being over 50. Then there is the other figure of young veterans committing suicide at triple the rate of their civilian peers.

An apocalypse (Ancient Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apocálypsis, from ἀπό and καλύπτω meaning 'un-covering'), translated literally from Greek, is a disclosure of knowledge, i.e., a lifting of the veil or revelation, although this sense did not enter English until the 14th century.  In religious contexts it is usually a disclosure of something hidden. In the Book of Revelation (Greek Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου, Apocalypsis Ioannou), the last book of the New Testament, the revelation which John receives is that of the ultimate victory of good over evil and the end of the present age, and that is the primary meaning of the term, one that dates to 1175. Today, it is commonly used in reference to any prophetic revelation or so-called End Time scenario, or to the end of the world in general.

There are reasons it has gotten this bad but it is almost as if it went from crisis to epidemic to Apocalypse unnoticed by the general public. The Apocalypse for veterans is now.

"In a war there are many moments for compassion and tender action. There are many moments for ruthless action - what is often called ruthless - what may in many circumstances be only clarity, seeing clearly what there is to be done and doing it, directly, quickly, awake, looking at it." Willard, Apocalypse Now

One of the first posts out of over 23,000 of them, I wondered why the press wasn't reporting on the suicides. After all, you'd think they would matter enough to merit some kind of investigation. I was putting together a video on suicides and found over 400 of their stories way back in 2007. Greg Mitchell at least tried to.

Why Isn't the Press on a Suicide Watch?
You'd never know that at least 3% of all American deaths in Iraq are due to self-inflicted wounds. And that doesn't include the many vets who have killed themselves after returning home.
By Greg Mitchell
NEW YORK (August 13, 2007) -- Would it surprise you to learn that according to official Pentagon figures, at least 118 U.S. military personnel in Iraq have committed suicide since April 2003? That number does not include many unconfirmed reports, or those who served in the war and then killed themselves at home (a sizable, if uncharted, number).

While troops who have died in "hostile action" -- and those gravely injured and rehabbing at Walter Reed and other hospitals -- have gained much wider media attention in recent years, the suicides (about 3% of our overall Iraq death toll) remain in the shadows.

The heartache was just as real as when I was researching suicide among Vietnam veterans. It was like a blister swelling, bursting, healing and then surfacing all over again. It was understandable the reports showed between 150,000 and 200,000 Vietnam veterans had committed suicide considering nothing was really being done until they pushed for the research to be done. Chuck Dean played a huge part in investigating that under-reported casualty count of the Vietnam War.

The thing is, by the time the reports of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans came out, no one was looking back at what had been done, learned and then didn't know what was undone. That pissed me off. Too many people, including Chuck Dean, figured out exactly what worked and they started to do it way back in 1984. Point Man International Ministries was doing peer-support, veteran to veteran in Out Posts and family to family in Home Fronts. No huge donations or commercials whining for more money. They didn't need much money, and frankly, what little they needed, they took out of their own pockets because no one was lining up to write them checks to even cover time and travel.

It was as it is today, side by side peer support from one soul showing another how to make peace and heal so they can live better lives. Nothing fancy but then again, veterans don't need anything fancy or expensive. They just need what works.

Anyway, so I was reading and remembering all the reports, all the cries for help, all the promises made to families and watching more and more suicides each year to the point where I could no longer assure families things were changing for the better. Can you imagine how hard it is to talk to a veteran willing to do whatever he had to do so that he could heal and help other veterans knowing what he'd be up against?

It wasn't a matter of just helping him find peace with what war put him through but I had to help him find peace to live with what the DOD did to him while telling the American people what they were doing for the troops. I figured sooner or later someone would notice that it was all pure bullshit.

They didn't. The military kept telling us that things would change and they were addressing suicides.

Congress did a great performance acting like they understood it as they had family after family telling their stories as the cameras rolled and reporters caught every tear filled testimony. They made their speeches and pushed to have the bills with their names on them, then patted themselves on the back as if they did something worthy of what those families told them.

They didn't.

The DOD came out with Battlemind in 2006 but even though suicides went up, they pushed it.

‘Battlemind’ Prepares Soldiers for Combat, Returning Home
By Susan Huseman
Special to American Forces Press Service
STUTTGART, Germany, Jan. 3, 2008 – Every soldier headed to Iraq and Afghanistan receives “Battlemind” training designed to help them deal with combat experiences, but few know the science behind the program.

Consequently, Dr. Amy Adler, a senior research psychologist with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research’s U.S. Army Medical Research Unit Europe, in Heidelberg, Germany, visited Patch Barracks here, breaking down the program, which is a system of support and intervention.

The Battlemind system includes separate pre-deployment training modules for soldiers, unit leaders, health care providers and spouses. Psychological debriefings are given in theater and upon redeployment. There are also a post-deployment module for spouses and several post-deployment modules for soldiers.

Not every soldier who deploys is at risk for mental health problems; the main risk factor is the level of combat experienced, Adler explained to her audience of medical, mental health and family support professionals.

Army studies show the greater the combat exposure a soldier encounters, the greater the risk for mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anger and relationship problems. When soldiers first return home, they may not notice any problems; sometimes it takes a few months for problems to develop.

They pushed Comprehensive Soldier Fitness after that and by 2009 the DOD announced this.

Army Suicide Rate Increases Five Straight Years
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2009 – The rate of soldier suicides this year exceeded the 2008 total with 147 reports through November, marking the fifth consecutive year the service’s suicide rate has increased. In November, 12 potential suicides were reported among the active-duty Army, all of which still are under investigation. In addition, two potential suicides were reported for November among reserve-component soldiers not serving on active duty. For October, three of the 16 active-duty suicides reported now are confirmed, according to a statement released by the Army yesterday.

For 2009, 45 reports of possible active-duty suicides remain unconfirmed, along with 30 of the 71 reported suicides in the reserve components, the statement said.

The Army is working to combat its rising suicide rate through the recently launched Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, the Suicide Prevention Task Force and its five-year research partnership with the National Institute of Mental Health.

Hmm, did they ever have to explain any of this? Did congress?

Nope the years went by and more and more of the same went on and on.

General Raymond Odierno told the Huffington Post exactly what he thought during Suicide Prevention Month in September of 2013.

"First, inherently what we do is stressful. Why do I think some people are able to deal with stress differently than others? There are a lot of different factors. Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations."

Over the years I've talked to more veterans and heard too many stories to ever believe the General in charge would still be talking like this, but he did. Repulsive as that statement was, it turned out that he also had trouble with families.

"But it also has to do with where you come from. I came from a loving family, one who gave lots of positive reinforcement, who built up psychologically who I was, who I am, what I might want to do. It built confidence in myself, and I believe that enables you to better deal with stress. It enables you to cope more easily than maybe some other people."

The trouble is, this is what I remember. I remember parents like Jason Scheuerman had.

"What the soldier's father, Chris, would learn about his son's final days would lead the retired Special Forces commando, who teaches at Fort Bragg, to take on the very institution he's spent his life serving — and ultimately prompt an investigation by the Army Inspector General's office."

"For Jason Scheuerman, death came on July 30, 2005, around 5:30 p.m., about 45 minutes after his first sergeant told the teary-eyed private that if he was intentionally misbehaving so he could leave the Army, he would go to jail where he would be abused."

He is not alone. At least 152 U.S. troops have taken their own lives in Iraq and Afghanistan since the two wars started, contributing to the Army's highest suicide rate in 26 years of keeping track. For the grieving parents, the answers don't come easily or quickly.

Army Suicides Highest in 26 Years

May 4, 2007
Jan Kemp, a VA associate director for education who works on mental health, has estimated there are up to 1,000 suicides a year among veterans within the VA system, and as many as 5,000 a year among all living veterans.

August 15, 2007
The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release Thursday, found there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest since the 102 suicides in 1991 at the time of the Persian Gulf War.

Then as bad as all that was the belief shared by the General was apparently spread throughout the military as we discovered with the reporting done on Warrior Transition Units and how they treated soldiers being "helped" with PTSD. It was a joint investigation by the Dallas Morning News and NBC called Injured Heroes Broken Promises which you should really read if you want to know why we're seeing more and more surviving combat but not surviving when the DOD no longer has to count them.

We are either determined to repeat history or pretend just enough to let us go to sleep at night feeling as if we did something today. The question is, how does it feel to read another article about another veteran repeating the history we left for them?

If a "dummy" like me knew why didn't the experts?

If a "dummy" like me knew why didn't the experts?

by
Chaplain Kathie

There are many things I just don't understand. No one would ever ask me how to fix a car but I drive one. No one would ask me to do a tax return even though I did accounting for over 20 years I never really understood the tax rules. No one would ask me to do a lot of things most people do on a normal basis but PTSD is what I do know about and it's all normal to me. It's been my life for over 27 years now. I live with it, study it, track it and do my best to share the wealth of knowledge gained along with how to avoid making the same mistakes I made. It is because of this I knew PTSD would get worse, harder to treat because no one was ready for what was coming, had very little understanding of the cause of PTSD even though they were trying to "cure it" and worse, trying to prevent it. So why didn't the experts know?

This is the part that always gets me angry. I am an average person living a very un-average life. Even with the news reports lately on PTSD, most people have not heard a word about what it is. Yesterday I was doing a presentation to a group of women for a college alumni. When I do these for non-veterans, I try to make the presentation fit into their own lives. I explain about traumatic events and how those events never really leave them so they can remember the depth of pain they felt and then begin to understand PTSD when it comes to our military men and women along with the veterans.

Once they understand how memories take hold, they can understand the reality of flashbacks when the response is fully physically involved as the mind travels back in time to the event itself. When the group begin to think of events in their own lives, they end up opening up with their own pain coming closer to understanding the depth of PTSD turmoil. Arriving at this place of awareness, they were shocked to hear about the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides. Common sense told them that since we've been trying to address PTSD since 1978, we should be a lot better at addressing it and the numbers should have gone down instead of up. If the experts really knew what they needed to know, there would be very few active military suicides and even less veteran suicides. All the signs are pointing to a massive failure with no accountability.

Healing the Wounds of War Downtown
“Once you go through an experience like [combat] you are permanently changed,” said Iraq war vet Eduard H.R. Gluck, a Worth Street resident and photojournalist who receives counseling at the Vet Center. “But you don’t have to allow it to change you just in a negative way. You have to work towards trying to find balance and peace.”

The Vet Center program began in 1979, a recognition by the government that Vietnam veterans still faced adjustment problems years after the war had ended.

From Veterans For Common Sense

Suicides: Today the Department of Veterans Affairs released data to the Associated Press indicating that the suicide rate increased 26 percent for veterans aged 18 to 29, an issue first publicized by Veterans for Common Sense and CBS Evening News in November 2007.

We here at VCS extend our condolences to the families of our veterans who completed suicide. VCS calls upon President Obama, Defense Secretary Gates, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki to immediately implement a strategic casualty plan with a significant mental health component.

A long-term casualty care effort must start with quickly hiring more mental health professionals, examining every soldier before and after deployment (as required by law), and providing prompt access to high-quality care. This is critical because multiple deployments to war increase the risk of PTSD (and therefore suicide) by three-fold.

VCS also recommends that VA and DoD expand their anti-stigma efforts and encourage our service members and veterans with mental health symptoms to seek care soon, when treatment is most effective and least expensive.

In addition, Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense, said, "VCS remains deeply concerned about the enormous physical and psychological strain repeated deployments to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are causing our troops. As many as 800,000, or 40 percent, of the two million troops sent to the two conflicts deployed twice or more, according to the Department of Defense."

Sullivan also said, "VCS urges the Department of Defense and the VA to implement a casualty plan for our military and veterans. Such a plan should include hiring more mental health professionals immediately to perform medical exams on all troops before and after deployment to spot medical problems early, when treatment is most effective and least expensive. The Department of Defense and the VA must also expand their anti-stigma efforts, especially with training for both officers and non-commissioned officers so they know how to spot brain injury or other mental health symptoms and then promptly refer soldiers for treatment."

Read more about multiple deployments, PTSD, and suicide plus our VCS advocacy for our soldiers and veterans.

This was what they knew a year ago and we have to ask what they have learned since then when the numbers kept going up.

Soldier Suicides In Afghanistan Rose Sharply Last Year
WAR STRESS
By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN The Hartford Courant
January 14, 2009
Soldiers in Afghanistan committed suicide in record numbers in 2008, in step with a dramatic spike in combat deaths in the country, new military figures show.Seven Army soldiers committed suicide in Afghanistan last year, compared with 15 suicides in total during the previous 75 months of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to figures from the Defense Manpower Data Center.Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a top Army psychiatrist, said military officials during the past several years have tracked an increase in mental health problems among soldiers serving in Afghanistan. In 2004, she said, anxiety and depression were far less common among soldiers in Afghanistan, compared with those in Iraq. But by 2007 and early 2008, soldiers in Afghanistan were suffering depression and anxiety at the same rates as their counterparts in Iraq, she said."In Afghanistan, there are considerable barriers for providers getting to the troops due to the difficulties in travel and weather, compared to Iraq," Ritchie said.click link above for more

We knew about the risk of redeploying them in 2006!

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 20, 2006
U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health.
More than 650,000 soldiers have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001 -- including more than 170,000 now in the Army who have served multiple tours -- so the survey's finding of increased risk from repeated exposure to combat has potentially widespread implications for the all-volunteer force. Earlier Army studies have shown that up to 30 percent of troops deployed to Iraq suffer from depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with the latter accounting for about 10 percent.
The findings reflect the fact that some soldiers -- many of whom are now spending only about a year at home between deployments -- are returning to battle while still suffering from the psychological scars of earlier combat tours, the report said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121901659.html

VA diagnosing higher rates of PTSD
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 16, 2009 16:18:25 EST
More than 44 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have sought treatment at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility have been diagnosed with one or more possible mental disorders, according to the agency’s most recent summary of veteran health care.
click link for more

Then we have the issue of what happened at Fort Hood and the fact a Major did the shooting. Did Major Hasan have anything to do with these deaths? More? What did he tell the soldiers seeking help to heal? Did he give wrong medication? What did he tell the soldiers he treated?

Fort Hood investigating death of another soldier in barracks

Dallas Morning News - Dallas,TX,USA05:47 PM CST on Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The Associated Press
FORT HOOD, Texas – Army officials are investigating the death of a soldier found in his barracks at Fort Hood on New Year's Day.Staff Sgt. Kevin M. Marsh, 41, of Friedens, Pa., was found dead the night of Jan. 1 by officers from his unit after a concerned call from a family member, said Maj. David Shoupe, a Fort Hood spokesman.Marsh was assigned in June to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Rear-Detachment. He served twice in Iraq, in 2003-04 and in 2005-06, as a gunner and vehicle commander.His medals and awards include the Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Army Service Ribbon and the Combat Action Badge.Authorities were already investigating at least five deaths at Fort Hood from late July to September at the sprawling post that's home to about 52,000 troops.
click link above for more

Substance abuse? We knew about this a long time ago too!

Links between PTSD, substance abuse explored,,dah!
I'm really sorry but I can't help myself,,,,,dah! They've had over thirty years to notice this....It's called self-medicating and has been documented since the Vietnam Veterans came home!

Links between PTSD, substance abuse explored

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writerPosted : Wednesday Jan 7, 2009 18:20:34 ESTAt a two-day conference for civilian and military researchers, doctors produced one idea after another for treating and preventing substance abuse in service members with post-traumatic stress disorder.As the ideas bounced from person to person, they tried to tie them together in ways that could make sense in a military setting: They must be accessible to many people at once, they must be cheap, they must be proven, and they must be easy.

Better than nothing does more harm than good but did they learn anything?

BATTLEMIND: A Guide to PTSD for Military Members and their Spouses
by: Combat Infantry Bunny
Sat Dec 29, 2007 at 13:48:29 PM EST
.........From my understanding from those deployed, they are already requiring soldiers about to redeploy this, but my friend said it was just lumped in with all the other random redeployment briefings and no one really cared.
In addition, PTSD is a post-deployment thing and a refresher is sometimes necessary. Anyway, reading this brochure and explanations for PTSD really made sense, especially when I realized I pretty much fit every description re: PTSD behavior. Again, it made me realize I had made the right decision to seek help and I hope that everyone that reads this will forward it to any military personnel they know who may have PTSD and/or to their families who may be trying to understand what their soldier is going through, I think the following explains it very well:
Battlemind is the Soldier's inner strength to face fear and adversity with courage. Key components include:
• Self confidence: taking calculated risks and handling challenges.
• Mental toughness: overcoming obstacles or setbacks and maintainingpositive thoughts during times of adversity and challenge.Batttlemind skills helped you survive in combat, but maycause you problems if not adapted when you get home.
Every letter in B-A-T-T-L-E-M-I-N-D, refers to a different behavior, as shown below:
Buddies (Cohesion) vs. Withdrawal
Accountability vs. Controlling
Targeted Aggression vs. Inappropriate Aggression
Tactical Awareness vs. Hypervigilance
Lethally Armed vs. "Locked and Loaded" at Home
Emotional Control vs. Anger/Detachment
Mission Operational Security vs. Secretiveness
Individual Responsibility vs. Guilt
Non-defensive (combat) driving vs. Aggressive Driving
Discipline and Ordering vs. Conflict

While he does say that Battlemind does have some good points the first point made was that it was introduced lumped in with a bunch of other stuff. This was first reported by the BBC that uncovered only 11 1/2 minutes of Battlemind are provided when they arrive "in country" along with the two days of operational briefings they have to get through.They will be left thinking they can toughen their minds enough to not have to face PTSD and that also means that if anyone does, they are not tough enough. This includes their buddies and some of the others in their unit they may not happen to like very much and if they should end up wounded by it, well then, they must not be tough enough either. This is why Battlemind does not work and as a matter of fact very well could contribute to the increase in suicides and attempted suicides.

Army suicides rise as time spent in combat increases
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAYFORT LEWIS, Wash. — Josh Barber, former combat soldier, parked outside the Army hospital here one morning last August armed for war.A cook at the dining facility, Barber sat in his truck wearing battle fatigues, earplugs and a camouflage hood on his head. He had an arsenal: seven loaded guns, nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition, knives in his pockets. On the front seat, an AK-47had a bullet in the chamber.The "smell of death" he experienced in Iraq continued to haunt him, his wife says. He was embittered about the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that crippled him, the Army's failure to treat it, and the strains the disorder put on his marriage.Despite the firepower he brought with him, Barber, 31, took only one life that day. He killed himself with a shot to the head."He went to Fort Lewis to kill himself to prove a point," Kelly Barber says. " 'Here I am. I was a soldier. You guys didn't help me.' "

None of this is new. Because it keeps getting worse, all of it, reports produce nothing much other than a lot of talk and bad results, we should be asking what they have learned and why they still have not learned what was known over 30 years ago.

Losing the Covert War on PTSD

Losing the Covert War on PTSD
Wounded Times Blog
Kathie Costos
July 8, 2013

It is stunning to constantly read claims made by officials soon proven false in another part of the country. It happens all the time. Someone speaking for the DOD will make a claim about addressing suicides in DC yet in another part of the country there is a news report about an emergency standdown because of a rise in suicides. One legislator will tout his latest bill to get the troops into treatment but in another part of the country there are screams coming out of homes when they have found the body of yet another veteran after another legislator pushed their own bill years ago making the same claims. All of this is part of why Wounded Times tracks reports all over the country.

There has been a covert war on PTSD that we have been losing and the American people are paying as much attention to it as they did to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As soon as major combat operations ended and the " in Iraq, they started to watch their regular TV shows.

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," Bush said, the infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner hovering over him. "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

The war, unfortunately, never ended for far too many. They were followed back home by it.

ESCAPING THE NIGHTMARE
Local veteran’s story illustrates struggles of post-traumatic stress
BY FEDERICO MARTINEZ
BLADE STAFF WRITER
July 7, 2013

He held the barrel of the gun steady in his mouth. His finger slowly added pressure to the trigger.

Images of fellow U.S. Marines who had died or killed themselves went through Roget Aouad’s mind. He closed his eyes, tightened the grip on the gun, and prepared to join the ghosts dancing in his head.

But three more images stared back at him — Christian, 3, Nikolas 2, and Elodie, 1.

“I didn’t bring three children into this world so that they would have to grow up without a father,” Mr. Aouad, now 26, remembers telling himself during that difficult time last year. “I didn’t know how I was going to do it. But I decided at that moment that I would beat this. I wanted to be there for them.”

The story of Lance Corporal Aouad of Sylvania, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, isn’t unique.

At least 20 percent — one out of every five — of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have post-traumatic stress and/​or depression. That’s nearly 300,000 veterans, according to recent studies conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research.

That number is even higher when traumatic brain injury is included.

Suicide among U.S. troops overall is up, averaging nearly one per day, the highest rate since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began a decade ago, according to the military studies.

“The good news is that there is good treatment for them,” said Sheila A.M. Rauch, director of the Serving Returning Veterans’ Mental Health Program for the Department of Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

“The problem is great, [but] with weekly treatment we can see a significant reduction in problems.”
read more here

The first thing to point out is the number of suicides per day within the military. It is over one a day. When you factor in National Guards and Reservists it is well over 500 for last year alone. The other thing to point out is the percentage used is also wrong according to experts studying PTSD since the Vietnam War. It is actually one out of three. The fact that 57% of the suicides came after they sought treatment also shows how wrong the information being told to reporters trying to tell their stories is all too often not based on facts.

While the story above is about the new generation of veterans suffering, the truth is a lot harder to take when you understand the suffering was just as great when Vietnam veterans came home. Why is it harder? Because one of the first bills Congress did to address suicides was done in 2007. S. 479 (110th): Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act. On November 5th President Bush signed a different version of it H.R. 327

To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop and implement a comprehensive program designed to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans.

The number of veterans committing suicide went up, not down. This isn't just about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans committing suicide even though they were the groups getting the attention of the press. Vietnam veterans were still taking their own lives as the highest percentage.

Minority veterans face additional post-service issues
Area servicemen cite challenges reintegrating after war’s horrors
BY FEDERICO MARTINEZ
BLADE STAFF WRITER
July 8, 2013

He still hears the screams, sees the agonizing facial expressions on his friends as they die, feels the blood splattering across his face. Absentmindedly, he starts to wipe away at the lenses of his glasses.

“We were walking in single file toward a large hill, or mountain,” recalls Manuel Caro, 66, of Toledo as he slowly begins his story. “The jungle was so thick you couldn’t see anything above or next to you. That’s when all hell broke loose.”

Corporal Caro, then 19, was a part of the 5th U.S. Marines, 3rd Battalion, India Company. They had been in Vietnam less than a week and had been ambushed by the Viet Cong twice.

“They started mortaring us; 50-caliber machine guns,” Mr. Caro says, as his voice begins to quiver. “People were falling left and right. People were screaming and dying.

“We had a lot of wounded but couldn’t get them out because they were shooting the helicopters.”

The 3rd Battalion couldn’t see where they were shooting; their ammunition was unable to penetrate the thick jungle brush.

The U.S. troops would learn later that the North Vietnamese soldiers were perched higher, shooting down at them.

The survivors spent the night surrounded by the dead bodies of their fellow Marines as the Viet Cong continued to fire at them, says Mr. Caro, his voice rising as he proceeds with the story.

He and another survivor attempted to dig trenches to bury the dead.

“We couldn’t dig enough holes, we couldn’t dig them deep enough,” Mr. Caro says, as he begins to sob, his whole body trembling with grief. “There were too many of them. They wouldn’t all fit. They were all dead.”
read more here

Veterans committing suicide were all tied back to military life by families across the country. For OEF and OIF veterans they received "prevention" training starting in 2006 with Battlemind.
These are the numbers from just the Army before Battlemind took over.

2003 Army 79 26 while deployed
2004 Army 67 13 while deployed
2005 Army 87 25 while deployed
2006 Army 99 30 while deployed
(Army Suicide Prevention Program Fact Sheet, Army Public Affairs, August 17, 2007)
2007 Army 115 36 while deployed (50 deployed prior to suicide and 29 not deployed)

Definition: Battlemind is defined as the Warrior’s inner strength to face the realities of the environment with courage, confidence, and resilience. This means meeting the mental challenges of training, operations, combat, and transitioning home. Warriors with Battlemind take care of themselves, their buddies, and those they lead.
(From THE WARRIOR SAW SUICIDES AFTER WAR)

This is what started the bulk of the increased suicides. Hearing those words telling them they had the mental strength to meet the mental challenges meant if they had trouble, they were mentally weak and didn't train right.

These are the numbers from the Army afterwards

Army Confirmed and Pending Suicides (2011 page 128)
2008 140
Suicide attempts 570
Of the 140 suicides, 34 (24%) occurred in OIF-OEF. One hundred sixteen suicide attempts (12%) were reported to have occurred in OIF-OEF. Nineteen percent of Soldiers with completed suicides, and 14% of Soldiers with suicide attempts, had a history of multiple deployments to Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Of suicide events reported as occurring in theater, the majority was reported to have occurred in Iraq.
2009 164
Army DoDSERs Submitted for Non-Fatal Events 2,047 Army DoDSERs for non-fatal events were submitted for 2009. Of these, 502 (25%) were submitted for suicide attempts, 347 (17%) for instances of self-harm without intent to die, and 1198 (59%) for suicidal ideation only
2010 160
DoDSERs provide data on suicide attempts for 400 individuals. Two attempts were reported (DoDSERs submitted) for 11 (2.75%) individuals, and three for one individual (0.25%). Additionally, four Soldiers with a 2010 suicide attempt DoDSER subsequently died by suicide in 2010 and were also included in the preceding section.
2011 167
440 DoDSERs for 2011 Army suicide attempts. As indicated in Table 5.29, these DoDSERs provide data on suicide attempts for 432 individuals. Two suicide attempt DoDSERs were submitted for 8 (1.85%) individuals 2011 Army suicide attempts 432 individuals with 440 attempts

The full Suicide Event Report for 2012 has still not been released.

As you can see what they have been doing has not worked after spending billions a year on prevention. This covert war has been funded without any accountability. It has gone on longer than any other war in our history but few knew about the price paid by those we sent. We will keep losing this war until people open their eyes and understand healing is possible but we can't get there from where we are unless things change right now.

Is Camp Liberty the tragedy that will end the excuses?

by
Chaplain Kathie

Is this the tragedy that will end the excuses? Is this the moment in time when the military invests the same kind of training and time they put into sending soldiers into combat to make sure they are sending them home with the help they need to heal from it?

The military has finally come a long way from the days of chain of command not only ignoring this wound but taking it out on the wounded. Sadly, there are still too many either dismissing it or still taking it out on the men and women serving. You'd think they would all open their minds to learn about this wound they cannot see as they do when it comes to learning how to use weapons but too many still don't.

Some of the programs the military has are not working and in some cases making things worse, but they still use them. Battlemind training tells the troops they can train their brain to be "toughened" and in the process telling them anyone wounded by PTSD is wounded because they are just not tough enough, didn't prepare for battle and it's their fault. This is the beginning of the program and then they address what PTSD is but it's too late. The message has already been delivered. The only message that will sink in has been implanted. This adds to the stigma and brings a sense of shame onto their shoulders. They actually believe they can train their brains.

Instead of seeking help to heal as soon as they begin to experience the symptoms of PTSD, they try to fight it off. They have the ammunition to support this because of Battlemind and they go into denial. Anger comes out while pain sets in. They are wounded and feeling guilty because they are. Then they feel as if they are just not good enough, strong enough, tough enough to be able to stand next to the others not touched by what they also witnessed. They look at the men and women they serve with and wonder why the others are better than them. After all, the military can't be wrong about PTSD and they just must have not done a good enough job to prevent this. The problem is, the military has been totally wrong about PTSD for all these years. They have a lot to make up for.

What about today? What about the soldiers still thinking it's their fault? What about the families without a clue what PTSD is and what they can come home with? Military spouses will be the first to tell you they don't want to even think about this as they have so many other things to worry about. Yet this "worry" is something they can do something about if only they would learn what it is. Some units have begun to set up programs so that the soldiers and the spouses become fully aware of it but time will tell if these programs are any better than Battlemind training or not. How much time do we have? How many more will commit suicide because they were not trained to heal properly? How many more families will be left to grieve over needless deaths? This happened at a crisis center and there are more things coming out about this offering some clue as to why. Sgt. Russell will be able to speak on what was going on and what was behind this but there seems to be he had a sense of denial about what was going on with him. If this career solider had the wrong idea about PTSD, could that have been so embedded within him that he was willing to do anything to prove the doctors wrong and stop them from "insulting him" because of this denial? We'll have to wait to hear what he has to say as the investigation goes on but the five dead were either seeking help or trying to help, so clearly, they understood the need to seek help, but Russell still didn't.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUENO-GALDOS FAMILY
Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, Grafenwoehr, Germany. He was a Paterson resident and one of the victims of the deadly Monday soldier-on-soldier shooting.

Paterson soldier slain at Camp Liberty shooting wanted to study medicine
by Tomas Dinges/For The Star-Ledger
Wednesday May 13, 2009, 1:44 PM




The Department of Defense today identified Paterson resident Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos as one of the five victims of the deadly shooting Monday at Camp Liberty in Iraq.

Bueno-Galdos is survived by his wife, Greisyn Bueno, his mother, Eugenia Galdos, his father, Carlos Bueno, two brothers and a sister.

"We will never forget him," said his mother. "He was always a very good kid, and we love him a lot."

Bueno-Galdos, 25, the second youngest of four children, emigrated from Mollendo, Peru when he was about 7 years old.

"He was a great kid, very studious," said Carlos Bueno, his father. "Almost everything that he wanted, he achieved."

Bueno-Galdos was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, Grafenwoehr, Germany; this was his second tour in Iraq.

"SSG Bueno-Galdos was an excellent leader," said Bruce Anderson, a spokesman for the U.S. Army, in an e-mail. "His dedication to duty, to his family and to his faith was an inspiration to us all. His love for country and friends were a model for all of us to follow. His presence will be missed by all the soldiers of the Task Force Black Knights."

Bueno-Galdos's awards include: Army Commendation Medal (Two Oak Leave Cluster), Army Good Conduct medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and Overseas Service Ribbon.

Camp Liberty, where the deadly shooting took place in Baghdad, is operated by the 55th Medical Company, a Reserve unit headquartered in Indianapolis.
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Paterson soldier slain at Camp Liberty shooting wanted to study ...

Spc. Jordan Phillips had to go AWOL for help with PTSD

For all the talk about getting this right someone needs to be talking about what is still being done wrong. If you ask someone who works for the VA, they think everyone is being taken care of, but the point is, the VA isn't telling them they are not even close to keeping up. The DOD is not doing much better. While they talk about BattleMind training to prepare them for what may come, the truth on that is, they get very little of that training. Even if they received more, the evidence points to BattleMind not working. If it worked, would we see a rise in suicides and attempted suicides? The answer is obvious.

Considering the BBC did a report with some of our troops in Afghanistan focusing on PTSD, it also addressed that as the troops arrive in Afghanistan, they are attending two days of briefings while they are tired from the trip. In those two days, 11 1/2 minutes are about PTSD showing BattleMind. That's it. If you want to know why our troops still have to go AWOL just to get help or why so many veterans are still taking their own lives, don't ask anyone in the DOD or the VA. They won't be able to tell you and the people at the top of the food chain won't tell you. Just ask Paul Sullivan of Veterans For Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth. They had to file a law suit, which was kicked out but have since filed and appeal to have the case heard again with newer evidence. KC

Local Veteran Suffers Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
LocalNews8.com - Idaho Falls,ID,USA

Posted: Aug 6, 2008 12:32 AM EDT
Reported by: Danielle Grant

It's a disease that haunts our country's heroes.

One in three war veterans suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, when they return from the battlegrounds.

One local soldier escapes his post, makes a run from the government, all in an attempt he says to get the help he needs.

"I do want to be the same as I was before Iraq. I want to so bad but I know it'll never happen," said Specialist Jordan Phillips.

Meet Specialist Jordan Phillips with the 101st Airborne Division out of Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. He spent his early days growing up in Rigby, Idaho.

But at only 19-years-old, Phillips dedicated his life to serving our country and joined the U.S. Army.

After a year battling on the front lines in Iraq, Phillips returned and knew something was different about himself.

"I realized I was pushing away a lot of people that I loved and who loved me," he admitted.

He didn't want to believe he was suffering but deep down the traumatic experiences haunted him at night.

He felt like his unit wasn't giving him the help he needed.
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Wounded Times proven right by new research on Resilience

Wounded Times proven right by new research on Resilience
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
June 3, 2013

I get it and that should freak everyone out. I am an average person. I don't have a PHD. I do not get millions in research grants. As a matter of fact I am so average I still haven't figured out how to get enough donations to keep my head above water while working 70 hours a week 365 days a year. The real frightening thing is, I got it back in 2008 when I came out and said the training the military was doing was harmful. I got it even more when the next year I wrote that if the military pushed "resilience training" they would see an increase in suicides.

After tragedy, who bounces back? Keys to resiliency may lie in childhood
By Rebecca Ruiz, contributor
NBC News
June 2, 2013

After a tornado hit the Henryville, Ind., home of Stephanie Decker last year, injuring her so badly that both her legs had to be amputated, the 38-year-old mother of two knew she had to "push forward and thrive," she told NBC News. “If not only for myself, but also to show other amputees who have struggles of their own that the impossible is possible.”

Since that day in March 2012, Decker, known as "Tornado Mom," has become famous for her resiliency and spirit. She's now a motivational speaker and has created a foundation to help other amputees.

As the nation recovers from recent tragedies in Boston and Oklahoma, "resiliency" has become the buzzword for recovery, a promise to rebound made almost before the full emotional impact of a disaster has been absorbed. Studies have shown that the majority of trauma survivors do go on to lead happy, productive lives -- but not everyone.

Emerging research on the biology of resilience suggests a person’s ability to recover – or risk of spiraling into depression -- may depend on an elusive combination of early life experiences, genetics and brain chemistry. In fact, recovering from trauma or heartbreak is a far more complicated response than scientists once thought, says Dr. Farris Tuma, chief of the Traumatic Stress Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health.

“This is the Holy Grail – to understand what makes people resilient,” Tuma said.

Social relationships, faith, health and financial stability are factors in resilience, while negative childhood experiences, such as trauma, abuse and chronic stress, can prime the body to react to both major hardship and everyday setbacks with the same degree of fear and panic.

But not all victims of trauma are able to bounce back as Decker has.

read more here

This is from 2008 and posted with the question, "Is Battlemind better than nothing?"

Battlemind skills helped you survive in combat, but may cause you problems if not adapted when you get home.

Although 89% of Soldiers report receiving suicide prevention training, only 52% of Soldiers reported the training to be sufficient, indicating the need to revise the suicide prevention training so that it is applicable in a combat environment.

It was followed up by this Excuse my language but BattleMind is Bullshit! Everything I was seeing and hearing from the veterans given this training told a much different story than what the military was saying and it was obvious for one simple reason. This average person paid attention.

Last year after spending many years working with families after it was too late to help their veteran heal, I agreed to write THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR. They wanted their stories told but above that, they wanted someone to finally tell the truth about what was going on with this training. What I discovered was sickening. Billions spent every year by multiple government agencies and no one held accountable for any of it. Parents were visiting graves of soldiers who were supposed to have been safely back home and not being in more danger than during war.

They were reading what research was contained on Wounded Times and they knew why their lives turned out the way they did. They also discovered they were not responsible for the suicide. We were. They could finally stop blaming themselves and start blaming people defending resilience training.

As part of Point Man International Ministries we address the spiritual healing in small groups. There you have the spiritual and social support. We cannot help with the financial needs because most of us are operating out of our pockets. We don't have a powerful PR agency behind us. The kicker is, this approach was understood in 1984 when Vietnam Veterans were back home and in a lot of pain. The same pain we see in the eyes of the OEF and OIF veterans. Nothing has changed. War is still war and basic human needs are the same. PTSD has been researched since the 70's but it is almost as if nothing was learned if you read the press reports. Again, leaders of Point Man are average people but we have above average understanding of what it takes to heal.

When will the military stop pretending CSF is working?

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

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

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

Here are the basic facts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is the claim made about CSF

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

If it worked we would have seen a lot less suicides. We would not have seen a 44% increase in young veterans committing suicide.

Suicides Among Young Male Vets Jumped 44 Percent From 2009-2011

That was the headline from NewsMax

New data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows the number of young male vets committing suicide jumped 44 percent from 2009 to 2011, or roughly two young men a day, reports say.

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

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

May 29, 2009
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness will make it worse

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

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

The Brains Behind Battle Mind

The Brains Behind Battle Mind
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 8, 2017

A friend sent me a link to someone that has not been written about lately and that link (seen below about Pulitzer Prize) took me on a 4 hour hunt. What you will read, hopefully, will open your eyes to some very important details. The first one is, just because someone get attention, it does not mean they deserve it. It just means they know how to get as much as possible for themselves.

The "brains" behind the lost battle for minds caused this landmine for our service members and first responders. There is another way to put it but I'd end up with an "adults only" rating if I used what I am thinking.

Valvincent Reyes and Dave Grossman are among the "brains" responsible for telling the most courageous among us that they must be weak minded if they end up with PTSD or think of suicide.

Demographic characteristics and their associations with suicide A total of 255 active duty soldiers committed suicide in 2007 and 2008 (115 in 2007 and 140 in 2008). Table 2 presents the distribution of demographic characteristics for this group of individuals. Suicides were predominantly male (95%), 18e24 years old (45%) and Caucasian (73%), married at the time of death (59%) and lower enlisted (54%). Almost 69% had been deployed at least once to combat theatre.

"Battlemind training before they deploy." 

"As soon as they are approved medically and psychologically, they are sent to war."

Published on Sep 9, 2010 Lt. Colonel Valvincent Reyes, Clinical Assistant Professor at the USC School of Social Work, delivers a lecture at the San Diego Academic Center on November 24th, 2009 about Battlemind, the army's current model for mental health care, with an emphasis on its application before deployment. Lt. Col Reyes illustrates the discussion with his recent experiences debriefing victims and family members of victims in the aftermath of the shooting at Fort Hood.

But this training does not work. The rise in the number of suicides within the military and veterans community prove that one.

While the number of reported veteran suicides is in dispute, the percentages are not. 65% of the veteran suicides are over the age of 50. That is a reflection of the Veteran demographics with the majority of US veterans are in fact, over the age of 50. 

What is even more troubling is that those older veterans did not receive "preventative" training before deployment, nor did they receive any of the "efforts" people like Grossman were pushing.

Every service member has been "trained" yet the results in the OEF and OIF veterans as well as those currently in the military have proven beyond a shadow of doubt, this is not only not working, it has had the opposite result.

The rate of OEF and OIF veterans are triple their peer rate. For female veterans, suicides are six times higher than other females. Training, like Battlemind, followed by the stupidity of Comprehensive Solider Fitness, actually prevents them from seeking help as soon as they acknowledge they need it. How? Because they were all told they were training their brain to be tough enough to take whatever they face. In other words, if they need help, they were weak minded or did not train right. Thus, prevented from opening up to the others they served with so that no one would see them as weak.

In 2009, I had a prediction of this disastrous outcome.

Then again, Grossman does not seem to even get the functioning of the human body. While no human can take a bathroom break during combat, but the body does what it has to even though it is not convenient, Grossman took the opportunity to disparage even that aspect of combat.

Warrior Mindset: Mental Toughness, Skills for a Nation's Peacekeepers."If we look only at the individuals at the tip of the spear and factor out those who didn't experience intense combat, we can estimate that approximately 50 percent of those who did experience it admitted they had wet their pants and nearly 25 percent admitted they had mess themselves."

Ok, sure he must expect them to be able to say "hold your fire I need to take a leak" and then walk away from the action. So why point out something like than unless you figure it matches what you already assume they are? 

Back to the video, Reyes called them "maladaptive" and that is defined as this,

adjective1. of, relating to, or characterized by maladaptation or incomplete, inadequate, or faulty adaptation:

Back to the facts, these are the numbers after they pushed this training. As you look at the numbers remember the size of the military had gone down year after year. Less enlisted equals higher suicide rates.

As you have just seen, the "training" did not work and when the DOD points out that the "majority have never deployed" proves it even more. Think about this training not preventing the "non deployed" from killing themselves, then wonder how they expected it to work on those with multiple deployments. Any reasonable "expert" would have understood this calamity and ended it, but they turned around and planned on just pushing it harder.  

It also seems that Grossman did more than push this training. It seems he has also tried to sell himself as a "Pulitzer Prize Nominee" and was pointed out clearly on thetruthaboutsocnetlies

I’ll leave it to the reader to determine the whys of someone that sells books and training for a living to likely fudge the difference between paying $50 and filling out a form to being an actual Pulitzer Prize nominee. My opinion is if, like John Giduck, Mr. Grossman is knowing lying about his background to sell you books and seminars, what else is he lying about?  See the links below to learn more about the circle around that mutually promote and defend each other.
I still laugh about how cops pay a guy that never killed anyone for advice about killing.  How dumb is that? You may as well be sitting in a Grossman lecture about menstrual cramps. 

That article is from 2014 but his claim goes back even further.

Pulitzer-Nominated Author to Keynote TREXPO West 2007 January 29, 2007  CS StaffLOS ANGELES – Campus Safety Magazine and the organizers of TREXPO announce that Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, one of law enforcement’s most in-demand speakers and trainers, will be one of the charismatic keynote speakers at TREXPO West 2007, March 19-22, in Long Beach, Calif.Grossman has been featured on TV and radio talk shows, in documentaries and in newspaper stories across the United States, Australia and Canada. Wherever Col. Grossman speaks, he draws enormous crowds and standing ovations. The way he energizes and captivates his audience is legendary!Grossman will deliver the opening keynote address on Tuesday, March 20, discussing a sensitive topic he has studied extensively: violent behavior and the ways law enforcement and communities can prevent fatalities. He is the founder of Killology Research Group, a police and military consultancy, and the author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated On Combat and On Killing, which is required reading at the FBI Academy and some of the nation’s top military schools.This talented speaker and trainer combined his experiences as a West Point psychology professor, a professor of military science and an Army Ranger to become the founder of a new field of scientific endeavor, which has been termed “killology.” In this new field the impressive Grossman has made revolutionary new contributions to our understanding of war and violence in our society. 

And yet these "brains" do not seem to be able to explain how the bravest of the brave have not only proven their courage in combat, they have received the Medal of Honor. Many of them talk about their own battles with PTSD as well as how heroes like Dakota Meyer have attempted suicide.

"But triumphant times led to terrible times, with Meyer attempting to kill himself:  "So, I pulled over to the side of the road and I just pulled one of my guns out and I just put it to my head and squeezed the trigger.  And...there wasn't a round in it.  I don't know.  I have no idea, but, obviously somebody had taken it out...and it sobered me up. And it was like, at that point in time, I told myself, I have to figure this out. I have to figure this out because if I would have killed myself, that was the most, you know, selfish thing that I could ever do.""

Maybe folks should stop listening to the "brains" that have contributed to the stigma of PTSD and start listening to the folks actually trying to do something to change the outcome?