It doesn't take a genius to figure out that "resilience" does not work. If it did then the number of suicide would have gone down after all these years for service members as well as in the Veterans Community. It seems that the folks at UCLA are still waiting for one since they haven't figured out much at all.
YEP~ Here we go again!
Military families benefit from UCLA-developed resilience program
FOCUS helps participants cope with the many stresses of multiple deployments and combat-related injuries
UCLA Newsroom
Meg Sullivan
December 15, 2015
Across the U.S., families of troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Uganda and other hot spots are emailing photos of their holiday feasts to their loved ones overseas — and asking them to respond with pictures of their own holiday celebrations.
The strategy is part of a UCLA-developed program aimed at easing the wear and tear on military families who are grappling with challenges of multiple deployments and combat-related injuries, all of which can stir destructive and difficult-to-control emotions.
“It’s really important to somehow keep the deployed parent salient in the minds of their children, and to incorporate the absent parent into holiday rituals,” said Catherine Mogil, a UCLA child psychologist.
A new study about that program shows that it really does help improve people’s ability to bounce back from challenges. The report will be published in the January issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
A team of 12 researchers from UCLA, Harvard University and the military found that the FOCUS program reduced by one-half the number of troops, spouses and children suffering from the most problematic psychological and emotional symptoms. And the improvements actually increased over time.
“We knew we were doing good work at the military bases because we could feel it, but it’s really exciting to have such strong data demonstrating the power of the program,” said Mogil, a co-author of the study and director of training and intervention development at the Nathanson Family Resilience Center at UCLA. read more here
So in other words, after all the money and time has been lost, expect a repeat of the outcomes. It didn't work in 2009 when this happy horseshit started under "Comprehensive Soldier Fitness" was being pushed and oh, by the way, is still being pushed, and it work work now.
The largest of these initiatives is the Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program, which has been disseminated to more than 1 million soldiers.
However, to date, CSF has not been independently and objectively reviewed, and the degree to which it successfully promotes adaptive outcomes and prevents the development of deployment-related mental health disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is uncertain. This paper critically evaluates the theoretic foundation for and evidence supporting the use of CSF.
Combat Stress Among Veterans Is Found to Persist Since Vietnam on the New York Times left me scratching my head. How is this fact about Vietnam veterans living with PTSD a headline news story? After all, they pushed for research back in the 70's. Yes, that is how long major efforts to treat Combat PTSD have been going on.
Then I got my answer.
"The new analysis, financed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, is part of the first effort to track a large, nationally representative sample of service members through their adult lives, and it is likely to have implications for post-traumatic stress treatment and disability-benefit programs for years to come, the authors said. Both issues have been hotly debated during the drawdown from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." NY Times
More money spent by the VA doing more "research" on something that has been done over and over and over again, meaning someone got the money. In this case, it was,
"Members of the research team will present the findings in a series of talks at the American Psychological Association in Washington." NY Times
The largest of these new initiatives is the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program, launched in 2009 and based upon the “positive psychology” framework of psychologist Martin Seligman. And that brings us to the bad news: despite the over-hyped claims of CSF’s leading proponents, at this point there is little evidence to suggest that CSF works.
After decades of living with and researching PTSD it was easy enough for me to figure out if the pushed this program they would make it worse and I was right.
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.
They didn't need to think they were mentally weak but that is what they were left believing. It is also the same message Generals ended up with and we saw that in the increase of bad conduct discharges, which, in most cases, turned out to be troops with PTSD, left with nothing after they were kicked out of the military.
This is what they actually needed to hear. It is from Comprehensive Solider Fitness will make it worse
Ever notice the vast majority of the men and women you command end up carrying out the mission they are given, fighting fiercely and showing great courage even though they are already carrying the wound inside of them? They fulfill their duty despite flashbacks and nightmares draining them because their duty comes first to them. Do you understand how much that takes for them to do that? Yet you think telling them their minds are not tough enough will solve the problem? What kind of a tough mind do you think they needed to have to fight on despite this killing pain inside of them?
There are thousands of articles on what went wrong on Wounded Times. Most of them are about the reports from across the country when the failure produced more suicides, more veterans facing off with police and SWAT teams and more suffering instead of healing.
Here is a flashback to something else the veterans community talks about, The Dark Side of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.
There seems to be reluctance and inconsistency among the CSF promoters in acknowledging that CSF is “research” and therefore should entail certain protections routinely granted to those who participate in research studies. Seligman explained to the APA’s Monitor on Psychology, “This is the largest study — 1.1 million soldiers — psychology has ever been involved in” (a “study” is a common synonym for “research project”). But when asked during an NPR interview whether CSF would be “the largest-ever experiment,” Brig. Gen. Cornum, who oversees the program, responded, “Well, we’re not describing it as an experiment. We’re describing it as training.” Despite the fact that CSF is incontrovertibly a research study, standard and important questions about experimental interventions like CSF are neither asked nor answered in the special issue. This neglect is all the more troubling given that the program is so massive and expensive, and the stakes are so high.
“This study shows us what the road ahead is going to look like,” said an author, Dr. Charles Marmar, chairman of psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center and director of the NYU Cohen Veterans Center. “A significant number of veterans are going to have PTSD for a lifetime unless we do something radically different.” More than 18 percent of those with PTSD had died by retirement age, about twice the percentage of those without the disorder." NY Times
“We have funded lots of projects to improve PTSD treatment, but this study shows that we need to do better,” said F. Alex Chiu, of the office of research and development in the Department of Veterans Affairs. “We need to understand these chronic sufferers, and it’s going to be a learning process on our side.” NY Times
"That original study, an in-depth survey of 2,348 Vietnam veterans, found that about 30 percent of them had had PTSD at some point in the years since the war. By the late 1980s, when the survey ended, about 15 percent still qualified for the diagnosis, said Dr. Marmar, a principal investigator on both the original study and the follow-up." NY Times
More of what was wrong since the studies that had been mostly verified were from the 70's. We're in a worse place than we were back then because we're seeing all the bad numbers increasing faster than after Vietnam.
Comprehensive Solider Fitness increased suicide warning ignored
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 26, 2013
Working on The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War, my new book on military suicides and reviewing some research I've done over the years has dropped a bombshell of a reminder of how we got the deadliest year of suicides connected to military service. While suicides within the military made headlines across the country and internationally, the results of a study done trying to figure out how many veterans have committed suicide produced a finding that their suicides are almost one an hour everyday.
What no one seems to be talking about is how did they get there from when nothing was being done? How is it possible with all the Bills Congress has passed and funded, these suicides have been allowed to increase without accountability from them?
In May of 2009, I offered this warning about what they were doing.
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?
With all due respect, because I do believe you care about the men and women you command, this is just one more in a series of mistakes because it seems no one in the Pentagon or the upper rows of the food chain have a clue what causes PTSD.
While adversity does make some stronger, you cannot train them to do it. Life and character does that quite effectively on their own. Some will walk away stronger after traumatic events but one out of three humans will not. Some experts put the rate at one out of five walk away wounded but the best experts I've listened to since 1982 have put it at one out of three.
Do you think that this man could have "trained his brain" as well?
UK:WWII veteran finally diagnosed with PTSD
A D-DAY hero has been told he is suffering a stress related illness picked up in battle — 65 years AFTER he was the first Brit to storm an enemy beach.
WWII vet George McMahon, who was the first soldier on Sword Beach in Normandy, France, had revealed he is still suffering terrifying flashbacks from June 6, 1944.
And Army docs have told the 89-year-old war hero he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) picked up during WWII.
Mr McMahon's family first sought help from docs when the ex-soldier talked vividly about the war in the lead-up to the 65th anniversary of D-Day.
Mr McMahon of Kirk Ella, Hull, was then visited by the Service Personnel and Veterans' Agency — part of the Ministry of Defence — who said he was displaying PTSD symptoms.
The Scotland-born Army vet who served with The King's Regiment Army was awarded the Military Cross for storming two machine-guns.
Back then there were plenty of excuses to use for what happened to veterans but after Vietnam veterans came home and forced the wound to be treated, we ran out of excuses. How can you continue to dismiss what is so obvious? It is the nature of man, what is in their core, their empathy for others that is at the root of PTSD. I've talked to them long enough and enough of them to have understood this over 20 years ago. I also live with one.
I'm sick and tired of reading about what does not work being repeated. In all these years, people like me have already learned from the mistakes we made trying to help our husbands and others. To us, it wasn't a numbers game or a research project. This has meant our lives and the lives of the men we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. Aside from that General Casey, I've spent countless hours attempting to undo the damage done because the troops are not being told what they need to hear in the first place.
I've held Marines in my arms crying because the military told them they were not strong enough and National Guardsmen told they were not cut out for combat. All of this because the military has been telling them it's their fault they didn't work hard enough to toughen their brains.
How many more suicides are you willing to live with? Has it not gotten thru to you yet that you are losing more men and women after combat than you do during it? This is only part of it because I doubt you have considered how many have committed suicide and tried it after they were discharged. You cannot order them to stop caring! You cannot order them to become callous or oblivious to the suffering of others. Between the members of their own unit to the innocent civilians that do end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you cannot seriously expect them to just "get over it" and "toughen" their brains. These men and women walk away with their own pain compounded by the pain of others. This is what opens the door to PTSD and until you understand this is what the difference is, you will never get close enough to finding the best treatment for it and they will continue to pay for it.
Ever notice the vast majority of the men and women you command end up carrying out the mission they are given, fighting fiercely and showing great courage even though they are already carrying the wound inside of them? They fulfill their duty despite flashbacks and nightmares draining them because their duty comes first to them. Do you understand how much that takes for them to do that? Yet you think telling them their minds are not tough enough will solve the problem? What kind of a tough mind do you think they needed to have to fight on despite this killing pain inside of them?
I fully understand to you, I'm no one. I have been ignored by senators and congressmen, doctors and other brass for as long as I've been trying to help, so you are not the first. I've also been listened to by others trying to think outside the box, but more importantly to me, by the men and women seeking my help to understand this and their families. I tell them what you should have been telling them all along so that they know it's not their fault, they did not lack courage and they are not responsible for being wounded any more than they would have been to have been found by a bullet with their name on it.
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.
Army Launching Program To Train Soldiers To Combat Post-Traumatic Stress
Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com HuffPost Reporting
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."
Yet this did little good. Researchers ignored this warning. In June, half way through the worst suicide record in 2012, there did come a warning from psychiatrists but again, most reporters failed to fully understand what this all meant.
Dangerous Ideas
How our core beliefs promote and prevent progressive change
by Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. The Army’s Flawed Resilience-Training Study: A Call for Retraction
Claims about the CSF program’s effectiveness are not supported by the research.
Published on June 4, 2012 by Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. in Dangerous Ideas
Note: My thanks to co-author Stephen Soldz.
Ten years of continuous war, characterized by multiple deployments, elusive guerilla adversaries, and occupied populations seemingly more tilted toward resentment than gratitude — have taken a significant toll on US troops. In addition to those who have been killed, physically maimed, or neurologically impaired by combat, many soldiers have experienced debilitating psychological disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. Large numbers are on antidepressants and other psychotropic medications, while the suicide rate among troops has risen to alarming levels.
The sobering realities of the psychological effects of war pose a serious challenge for the US military tasked with simultaneously fighting multiple wars and anticipating years of “persistent conflict” ahead. The good news is that key sectors within the military have now identified the mental health of our troops as a major issue that must be addressed. Indeed, in addition to treatment for those suffering psychological impairment, the military leadership is pursuing intervention efforts aimed at preventing such adverse outcomes by increasing soldiers’ psychological resilience to combat exposure. The largest of these new initiatives is the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program, launched in 2009 and based upon the “positive psychology” framework of psychologist Martin Seligman. And that brings us to the bad news: despite the over-hyped claims of CSF’s leading proponents, at this point there is little evidence to suggest that CSF works.
I strongly suggest that if you are researcher or member of the media trolling this blog, you go to the link and read what else was in the report. When you do you'll understand what I've been screaming about all this time.
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.
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.
FUBAR results of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 17, 2013
There is a series from The Leaf Chronicle on the problems at Fort Campbell screaming for attention. This latest one proves my point that Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) does not build resilience or enhance performance. The only thing this program prevents is getting soldiers to seek help.
Even when they do finally come to terms with what is going on inside of them, they do not get the right help to heal as soon as possible. Why? Why is all of this still going on rising the number of suicides while enlisted as well as when they become veterans?
Fort Campbell psychiatrist weighs in on PTSD/suicide issue
'Ultimately ... depends on the soldier-patient being willing to accept help'
The Leaf Chronicle
Phillip Grey
Jul. 16, 2013
FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — One of the big concerns about soldier suicides at Fort Campbell is the lack of a PTSD diagnosis. Of the 17 cases from 2011 and 2012 reviewed by The Leaf-Chronicle and news partner WSMV-Channel 4, none included such a diagnosis.
The question of why was addressed in a June interview with Fort Campbell’s chief of Adult Behavioral Health at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, Maj. Joe Wise.
The Leaf-Chronicle: Are some people just really good at hiding PTSD, so much so that their loved ones or even psychiatrists and psychologists don’t diagnosis the condition at first?
Wise: Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition that is recognizable to behavioral health professionals and, sometimes, close friends and relatives.
An individual who is suffering from untreated PTSD is not able to appropriately function in a normal setting. It is not uncommon for soldiers to deal with some level of adjustment upon return from a combat deployment; however, these soldiers are able to continue to function within their normal daily lives with some additional support or by applying other means of stress management. read more here
Last year alone the military suicides outnumbered all confirmed suicides from the Vietnam War. The military suicides for 2012 keep changing. While the Suicide Event Report has not been released the numbers they have released already surpassed 490.
The DOD has been pushing programs that were supposed to encourage seeking help but the way they were designed actually had the troops thinking any issues they had were their fault. If they could become "resilient" they were weak minded and didn't train right. Now they are still scratching their heads over the rise in military suicides when they should have understood what they were doing six years ago.
If you want to know how it got this bad,read THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR to find out how much of a nightmare this has been. Everything in it came from news reports, government reports and families. Much like Wounded Times has been brining you the stories the press has covered across the country, it compiles all of it in one place to give you a better idea of what the national news has not wanted to cover. It is FUBAR and will stay that way unless they change!
Deadly Silence
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 14, 2015
I remember Valentines Day and looking at the 4 day old engagement ring on my finger. That was 31 years ago. My husband couldn't wait and asked me to marry him on the 10th. Ever since then what war does to the people we send has been my vocation.
One of the other gifts he gave me over the years was a ruby ring in the shape of a heart. After all these years the prongs had worn down on both rings, so I took them to be fixed. I was told it would be an easy fix and wouldn't take long.
When I went to pick them up, I noticed the ruby had a mark on it. Considering I never take it off and it wasn't exactly clean, after they cleaned it, I knew something was wrong. I asked the jeweler about it and he said the heart was bruised.
As I drove home I thought about how the jeweler said it was a strong stone but it had been abused and was only showing signs of how it was treated. "A bruised heart" kept popping into my head.
There is a very long history of bruised hearts in this country. As the years go by more and more are showing signs of how they were treated but no one is telling the whole story of how they ended up that way.
Everyday my email box is full of glowing reports about the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act being a "good first step" and how it is vital to reducing suicides.
On the local level, reporters take what the national news reporters say as the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth. They turn around and spread false statements instead of reporting that this bill was stepping backwards to what was already done and failed!
This is a report out of Iowa KWWL News.
Local veterans react to suicide prevention act
Jesse McCunniff has been a soldier in the Iowa National Guard for nearly two decades.
He's been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
He's seen the toll PTSD has taken on his fellow soldiers, including some of who've taken their own lives.
"We've had some in our battalion and some I've served with, real tragic, have ended their own life. It's affected everyone in the unit past or present. It's really a tough time to go through and it lasts for a long time after," said McCunniff.
He says a suicide prevention act signed Thursday is a good first step.
That's also how President Obama characterizes it.
The great national reporters have vanished. The scandal revolving around Brian Williams is just part of the story. For years veterans have been telling a totally different story about Williams but the press wasn't interested in what they had to say about him or what really happened. Stars and Stripes reporters were the first to pay attention and now we are getting a better idea of what they wanted us to hear.
Coburn argued before the Senate late Monday that "almost everything that's in this bill has already been authorized and approved with the $10 billion [Veterans Choice Act] that we sent to the VA."
Actually Colburn was being uncharacteristically kind. This has been going on to the tune of billions a year but suicides went up afterwards and they just repeated the same old bullshit instead of doing something that wasn't simply deadly!
"From that moment, we wanted to find way to honor his memory and not lose any more friends," said Paul Rieckhoff, head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an advocacy group Hunt had worked with extensively after his return to the states.
Rieckhoff said Thursday's signing was a "bittersweet" moment in a journey that he described as "incredibly challenging." The group's members held hundreds of events across the country last year, from NASCAR rallies to visits with lawmakers.
"I think we're finally seeing a tone change we needed to see a decade ago," he said, explaining that attitudes about combats veterans and dealing with their mental health finally seem to be changing.
But Stars and Stripes didn't to that report. They simply posted what the Houston Chronicle reported, "Signing of Clay Hunt act ends long, painful journey for mother and father."
What we know is a totally different story. We know about all the other bills that have come out and all the abuses that came with all the "reform" and first steps to reduce suicides. We know these "efforts" started after WWI and began in the proper step down the ladder.
They began within the military when a psychiatrist went to be with the troops and study them. It was carried on into WWII when psychiatric evacuations went up 300% from WWI and then into the Korean War when they tried something new. They sent clinicians to remove soldiers in psychological distress, removed them from combat, treated them and then sent them back to duty. Psychological evacations went down to 3%. Then we knew what they did during Vietnam with their nasty little trick of 12 month deployments so that by the time they knew they had problems, they were already on their magical honeymoon readjustment back to civilian life when everything was brewing but they were too busy "adapting" to notice the war came home with them.
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."
There were a lot of speeches that should have inspired a lot of questions, follow-up and then investigations.
MAY 1, 2008 Defense Department Health Issues
Defense Department officials spoke to reporters and answered questions about mental health programs for personnel exposed to combat and recent calls by the Defense Secretary Gates for soldiers to use the program.
Transcript
WITH 56 NEW POSITIONS ADDED SINCE JANUARY OF 2003 -- SEVEN -- 2007. 30 ARE ON BOARD AND 19 OTHERS ARE SELECTED AND WE ARE HIT RECRUITING FOR THE OTHER SEVEN POSITIONS. THIS IS AN INCREASE OF 34% OVER THE STAFF PRIOR TO JANUARY OF 2007. WE HAVE ALSO DEPLOYED SOME OF OUR MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDERS TO INSTALLATIONS EXPERIENCING INCREASED DEMANDS FOR THOSE SERVICES AS UNITS RETURN FROM DEPLOYMENT TO OIF AND OEF. OUTPATIENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ARE CRITICAL CARE AND A CRITICAL PART OF SUPPORT FOR WARRIORS IN TRANSITION.
MANY WARRIORS ASSIGNED TO WALTER REED'S TRANSITION UNIT RECEIVED TREATMENT FOR PTSD AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SYSTEM -- SYMPTOMS ASSOCIATED WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY. AS COMMANDER OF THE WALTER REED HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, I AM PROUD OF THE SOLDIERS WHO PROVIDE ALL ASPECTS OF HEALTH CARE TO ALL THOSE ENTRUSTED TO OUR CARE AND EQUALLY PROUD OF THOSE WHO HAVE DEPLOYED AND RECOGNIZE THE NEED AND SAW OUT BELOW HEALTH TREATMENT AS PART OF THEIR HEALING.
Col. Chris Toner, the head of the Army's Transitional Command, last week at a congressional hearing in Washington.
Toner replied: "There were challenges at Fort Bliss, beyond a shadow of a doubt."
According to reports, some warrior transition unit soldiers were called "slackers" and told to "man-up and move on."
"Was it leadership, was it processes, was it procedures, a lack there of?" O'Rourke inquired.
"All of the above," Toner responded. "We're talking about a period of time from 2009 to 2013. We had multiple issues over that time, everything from cadre members that did not have the right approach to the soldiers and the family members to failure to implement procedures and policies that created some issues in the program down there."
Patricia D. Horoho Commander Walter Reed Health Care System
Major General Horoho’s most recent assignment as Commander of Walter Reed Health Care Systems began 24 May 2007.
In February of 2007, the Washington Post released the report on the Walter Reed scandal.
Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility
By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.
This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely -- a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients. Almost 700 of them -- the majority soldiers, with some Marines -- have been released from hospital beds but still need treatment or are awaiting bureaucratic decisions before being discharged or returned to active duty. read more here
For a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper through the use of its journalistic resources which, as well as reporting, may include editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics and online material, a gold medal.
Awarded to The Washington Post for the work of Dana Priest, Anne Hull and photographer Michel du Cille in exposing mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital, evoking a national outcry and producing reforms by federal officials.
We read all these reports but we don't forget what we read last year, or the year before that or decades before that. So now, full circle. Spin, spin and more spin and the reporters let them just get away with it. So where have all the good national reporters gone? Why haven't they been on suicide watch as if these lives actually mattered enough?
JUNE 04, 2012
A Call for Retraction
The Army’s Flawed Resilience-Training Study
by STEPHEN SOLDZ and ROY EIDELSON
Ten years of continuous war — characterized by multiple deployments, elusive guerilla adversaries, and occupied populations seemingly more tilted toward resentment than gratitude — have taken a significant toll on US troops. In addition to those who have been killed, physically maimed, or neurologically impaired by combat, many soldiers have experienced debilitating psychological disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. Large numbers are on antidepressants and other psychotropic medications, while the suicide rate among troops has risen to alarming levels.
The sobering realities of the psychological effects of war pose a serious challenge for the US military tasked with simultaneously fighting multiple wars and anticipating years of “persistent conflict” ahead. The good news is that key sectors within the military have now identified the mental health of our troops as a major issue that must be addressed. Indeed, in addition to treatment for those suffering psychological impairment, the military leadership is pursuing intervention efforts aimed at preventing such adverse outcomes by increasing soldiers’ psychological resilience to combat exposure. The largest of these new initiatives is the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program, launched in 2009 and based upon the “positive psychology” framework of psychologist Martin Seligman. And that brings us to the bad news: despite the over-hyped claims of CSF’s leading proponents, at this point there is little evidence to suggest that CSF works. read more here
Since 2008 I've been coming out against this program because it does not work, has reduced the survival rate of the men and women after they survived combat and has left servicemen/women thinking they are mentally weak, thus leaving them with the notion PTSD is their fault! Now it looks like there have been brilliant minds looking at this even longer.
This pretty much sums up what veterans have been telling me since 2008.
Program participants may subsequently take greater risks if they think they have received some form of preventative protection. Participants may suffer from even greater stigma and shame perhaps interfering with help-seeking if after training they fail to effectively handle an adverse event. And the strategies taught may disrupt the participants prior effective coping strategies.
Most people "naturally" respond in a resilient manner when exposed to potentially traumatic events. It cannot be assumed that resilience training will be more helpful than harmful to these individuals.
Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A19
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........
Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Bill is on hold and I am glad. When I read that Tom Coburn is holding it up, I had to leave the computer to fight the gag reflex. It isn't about what Coburn said but the simple fact I found myself agreeing with him and that left a lousy taste in my mouth. I just don't like politicians in general.
But Mr. Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican serving out his final days in the Senate before his retirement, said the bill wouldn’t accomplish much new.
“In almost every case, VA already has the tools and authorities it needs to address these problems,” he said in a statement listing his objections. “The department needs leadership, not another piece of ineffective legislation. Congress should be holding the VA accountable rather than adding to its list of poorly managed programs.”
The bill, largely driven by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, would require an annual outside review of suicide prevention programs to expand what works best for veterans and do away with ineffective programs. The bill also allows the VA to partner with mental health nonprofits, create a website to consolidate the VA’s mental health resources, and expand peer support networks.
Had this bill, or any of the others, come close to actually reducing suicides tied to the military, I'd be screaming "No amount of money is too much" to save their lives. But it isn't even going to come close to solving anything. We've had 40 years to learn that what works best is peer support but if their peers think PTSD is a sign of weakness, that support goes out the fucking door. Therapy works great but if they are not trained on trauma, especially combat trauma, that won't work as well. Drugs only numb but they are used all the time. Spiritual help works, especially with survivor guilt but then they turn around and shut up Chaplains sharing their own struggles with PTSD.
Here's a thought. How about "Stop Passing PTSD-Suicide Bills Without Knowing Cost" since all that billions a year have produced are higher suicides in the military and among the veteran population? How much time are they supposed to get to figure that out? How many more lives have to be lost after a decade of attempts to prevent suicides?
This part really got to me and actually proves the point of a clueless congress.
Saul Levin, CEO of the American Psychiatric Association, said, “Hundreds of additional lives will be lost” if lawmakers wait until the next Congress to put these reforms into place.
There seems to be reluctance and inconsistency among the CSF promoters in acknowledging that CSF is "research" and therefore should entail certain protections routinely granted to those who participate in research studies. Seligman explained to the APA's Monitor on Psychology, "This is the largest study - 1.1 million soldiers - psychology has ever been involved in" (a "study" is a common synonym for "research project"). But when asked during an NPR interview whether CSF would be "the largest-ever experiment," Brig. Gen. Cornum, who oversees the program, responded, "Well, we're not describing it as an experiment. We're describing it as training." Despite the fact that CSF is incontrovertibly a research study, standard and important questions about experimental interventions like CSF are neither asked nor answered in the special issue. This neglect is all the more troubling given that the program is so massive and expensive, and the stakes are so high.
The biggest part of the problem rests on this same group backing up Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. It was a research project sold to the military for soldiers even though they were just studying kids and their sense of self worth. How did they actually expect it to work on soldiers in combat?
"Regardless of how one evaluates prior PRP research, PRP's effects when targeting middle-school students, college students, and adult groups can hardly be considered generalizable to the challenges and experiences that routinely face our soldiers in combat, including those that regularly trigger PTSD."
In 2009, the evidence was already gathered to the point where this was predicted to increase suicides if it was pushed on soldiers. It was easy to see it. It was more of the same the soldiers were already complaining about. It was yet one more way of feeding the stigma by telling them they would be able to train their brains to be resilient. It was obvious that they would translate this into not training right and being mentally weak. Who predicted it? I did. That was just from talking to them and reading the reports. Members of congress could have done the same basic research before they shoved it down the throats of the troops.
Congress had the same ability to take the data coming in after this clusterfuck was pushed and suicides went up at the same time the number of enlisted went down.
What makes all of this even worse is when troops become veterans, the military stops counting them even though they are paying the price for what the military failed to do.
Top that off with the fact that this program isn't even good enough to keep "non-deployed" from committing suicide and you get the drift of what is behind all of this.
How the Army Killed Off Hope
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 30, 2015
This question came from an article on the New York Times about the 2/7 Battalion. They lost 20 to war but so far 13 more to suicide.
Q. Are multiple combat deployments a contributing factor to suicide?
Dave Philipps: The data suggest there is little or no added suicide risk associated with multiple deployments, but those studies have been unable to address the amount of combat seen. Second, no study has looked at this question after active duty. We simply don’t know. Anecdotally, nine of 13 members of the 2/7 who killed themselves did multiple tours. And I think it is important to note the quick succession of these tours, with less than a year between.
The answer is, redeployments have a lot to do with the suicides and the Army knew it back in 2006
The report also found a doubling of suicides among soldiers serving in the Iraq war from 2004 to 2005, the latest period for which data are available. Twenty-two soldiers took their own lives in Iraq and Kuwait in 2005, compared with 11 in 2004 and 25 in 2003, Army officials said.
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.
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.
If you are serious about understanding any of this, I strongly suggest you go and read the whole report that is still active online. All the answers came from what the Army started and the Marines paid for along with the Airmen and Sailors.
How a Marine Unit’s High Suicide Rate Got That Way
New York Times
By DAVE PHILIPPS
OCT. 29, 2015
The funeral for Eduardo Bojorquez, a member of the Second Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, who committed suicide in June. Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Since coming back from Afghanistan in 2008, the hard-hit Second Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment has struggled to adjust. The battalion, known as the 2/7, lost 20 men in war. In the years since, it has lost 13 more to suicide. The battalion now has a suicide rate 14 times that for all Americans.
The New York Times asked Dr. Charles Engel, of the RAND Corporation, and two Marines who served with the battalion in Afghanistan, Arthur Karell and Keith Branch, to answer readers’ questions about the devastating effects of combat and the high suicide rate among veterans. The conversation took place on Facebook in October, moderated by Dave Philipps, a reporter for The Times who covers veterans’ affairs. Here are some of the questions and answers, which have been condensed and edited.
read more here
This is another important piece on the report
A.K.: The events of the past inform the outlook for the future. When the events of the past repeatedly trigger an anguish that doesn’t abate, it may cause a veteran to question what kind of future they have in store. I’ve heard of post-combat stress described as a response to deep moral trauma, as war is just about the most intense and certainly the largest-scale moral trauma humans inflict on one another. For veterans, post-military activities, pursuits and/or careers that involve or embody a shared purpose, go a long way toward recovery from that moral trauma.
That stigma is due to the program that had been sold as the answer to not just to preventing suicides, but in preventing PTSD. It is called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.
OVERVIEW
Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness (CSF2) is designed to build resilience and enhance performance of the Army Family — Soldiers, their Families, and Army Civilians. CSF2 does this by providing hands-on training and self-development tools so that members of the Army Family are better able to cope with adversity, perform better in stressful situations, and thrive in life.
It didn't take long to understand this program has in fact fed the stigma and should have been ended as soon as suicides increased after its implementation in 2009. Even I knew it would and predicted the inevitable outcome of increasing suicides. Telling them they could take this training to become resilient managed to translate into their thinking that if they ended up with PTSD, they were mentally weak and didn't train right.
Instead of ending this fubar farce, they pushed it harder. It didn't matter it was an unproven research project.
The Dark Side of “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness”
Mandatory "resilience training" program for all U.S. soldiers raises concerns.
Psychology Today
Roy Eidelson Ph.D. Roy Eidelson Ph.D.
Dangerous Ideas
Posted Mar 25, 2011
Although its advocates prefer to describe Comprehensive Soldier Fitness as a training program, it is indisputably a research project of enormous size and scope, one in which a million soldiers are required to participate. Reivich, Seligman, and McBride write in one of the special issue articles, "We hypothesize that these skills will enhance soldiers' ability to handle adversity, prevent depression and anxiety, prevent PTSD, and enhance overall well-being and performance" (p. 26, emphasis added). This is the very core of the entire CSF program, yet it is merely a hypothesis - a tentative explanation or prediction that can only be confirmed through further research.
This is yet another good place to learn some facts because as the Army tends to point toward the high number of non-deployed soldiers committing suicide, they fail to mention this program was so insufficient that it could even keep them alive, refusing to even consider the fact they expected it to work on those with multiple deployments.
Top that off with the other factor of the high number of young veterans receiving this training only to commit suicide stateside after surviving combat overseas and you get the idea they failed to see.
When you hear someone saying they are "raising awareness" make sure they are made aware of this since so far few have a clue of what I knew would happen after listening to them complain about Battlemind, the predecessor to CSF. As for Congress, they just kept paying for it, over and over and over again along with all the other money they have spent over the years to produce more deaths after combat than during it. It should have been called Contagious Stigma Feeder because that is exactly what it did!
The Army managed to explain less about the facts on PTSD. They don't know what PTSD is, why they have it or the simple fact that it does not mean they are stuck suffering the way they are today.
PTSD is set of by trauma, not them. They are not weak. As a matter of fact it is the strength of their emotional core that causes them to feel everything more deeply than others. Feel more love and feel a lot more pain.
They can heal and the sooner they get it the better when it is mild and most can be reversed.
None of this is new and Vietnam veterans pushed for all the research going back to the 70"s.
"Stigma, mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation."
That is the definition of a stigma. The DOD said years ago they understood that and had changed how they respond to the troops in need of help. The problem is, they came up with a program that does not work because they did not understand it any more than they understood the men and women suffering from it.
Local veteran discusses PTSD problems
KOAA News
Posted: Mar 18, 2013
by Matt Stafford
"I'd die for my country, and in a heartbeat," says George Barnes, an Iraq War veteran who spent the end of his career at Fort Carson before being medically discharged from the Army.
Barnes did nearly die for his country. While in Iraq, a rocket-propelled grenade hit the door of his vehicle. After that incident is when he says that he first started noticing symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
PTSD is something Barnes feels daily.
"Scared, very scared," Barnes describes. "Ashamed; people look at you differently."
"It cost me my career," says Barnes. "The Army didn't know what to do with me."
Now he's afraid it may soon cost him more. Now that Barnes is medically retired, he's in the Department of Veterans Affairs, but he says assistance is barely letting him get by -- bills are piling up and he doesn't feel stable enough to hold a job.
"I don't know where I'm going to be in the next year," says Barnes. "I could be out on the street; i just don't know."
Unfortunately Barnes' story isn't unique. After more than a decade of war, suicides now outpace combat deaths for the Army; that's despite the doubling of their behavioral health staff over the last five years. read more here
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.
Want to know why suicides went up? Start here. This training tells them that they can train their brains to be mentally tough. In other words, if they end up with PTSD, it is their fault for being weak. Spiritual training only works if you do it right. The proof is in the numbers and in 2009 I warned if this program was pushed, suicides would go up.
I am sure the highly educated psychologists are laughing at what I posted since I am just a regular person. The thing they miss is, if I knew this would happen as a nobody, why didn't they? After all aren't we supposed to believe they are the best and the brightest? Aren't we supposed to believe they get paid the big bucks and millions in contracts because they know so much more? Isn't that the deal? Money and power go hand in hand but not so much for accountability so I get to spend hours talking to veterans apologizing for not training right and being mentally weak. I get to spend hours and hours undoing the damage this program did. What sickens me the most is I spend even more time with Moms after their sons and daughters committed suicide after this program started and their kids couldn't admit they needed help.
The stigma is on all the people pushing this program when average people figured out a long time ago it makes PTSD 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?
With all due respect, because I do believe you care about the men and women you command, this is just one more in a series of mistakes because it seems no one in the Pentagon or the upper rows of the food chain have a clue what causes PTSD.
While adversity does make some stronger, you cannot train them to do it. Life and character does that quite effectively on their own. Some will walk away stronger after traumatic events but one out of three humans will not. Some experts put the rate at one out of five walk away wounded but the best experts I've listened to since 1982 have put it at one out of three.
Do you think that this man could have "trained his brain" as well?
UK:WWII veteran finally diagnosed with PTSD A D-DAY hero has been told he is suffering a stress related illness picked up in battle — 65 years AFTER he was the first Brit to storm an enemy beach.
WWII vet George McMahon, who was the first soldier on Sword Beach in Normandy, France, had revealed he is still suffering terrifying flashbacks from June 6, 1944.
And Army docs have told the 89-year-old war hero he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) picked up during WWII.
Mr McMahon's family first sought help from docs when the ex-soldier talked vividly about the war in the lead-up to the 65th anniversary of D-Day.
Mr McMahon of Kirk Ella, Hull, was then visited by the Service Personnel and Veterans' Agency — part of the Ministry of Defence — who said he was displaying PTSD symptoms.
The Scotland-born Army vet who served with The King's Regiment Army was awarded the Military Cross for storming two machine-guns.
Back then there were plenty of excuses to use for what happened to veterans but after Vietnam veterans came home and forced the wound to be treated, we ran out of excuses. How can you continue to dismiss what is so obvious? It is the nature of man, what is in their core, their empathy for others that is at the root of PTSD. I've talked to them long enough and enough of them to have understood this over 20 years ago. I also live with one.
I'm sick and tired of reading about what does not work being repeated. In all these years, people like me have already learned from the mistakes we made trying to help our husbands and others. To us, it wasn't a numbers game or a research project. This has meant our lives and the lives of the men we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. Aside from that General Casey, I've spent countless hours attempting to undo the damage done because the troops are not being told what they need to hear in the first place.
I've held Marines in my arms crying because the military told them they were not strong enough and National Guardsmen told they were not cut out for combat. All of this because the military has been telling them it's their fault they didn't work hard enough to toughen their brains.
How many more suicides are you willing to live with? Has it not gotten thru to you yet that you are losing more men and women after combat than you do during it? This is only part of it because I doubt you have considered how many have committed suicide and tried it after they were discharged. You cannot order them to stop caring! You cannot order them to become callous or oblivious to the suffering of others. Between the members of their own unit to the innocent civilians that do end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you cannot seriously expect them to just "get over it" and "toughen" their brains. These men and women walk away with their own pain compounded by the pain of others. This is what opens the door to PTSD and until you understand this is what the difference is, you will never get close enough to finding the best treatment for it and they will continue to pay for it.
Ever notice the vast majority of the men and women you command end up carrying out the mission they are given, fighting fiercely and showing great courage even though they are already carrying the wound inside of them? They fulfill their duty despite flashbacks and nightmares draining them because their duty comes first to them. Do you understand how much that takes for them to do that? Yet you think telling them their minds are not tough enough will solve the problem? What kind of a tough mind do you think they needed to have to fight on despite this killing pain inside of them?
I fully understand to you, I'm no one. I have been ignored by senators and congressmen, doctors and other brass for as long as I've been trying to help, so you are not the first. I've also been listened to by others trying to think outside the box, but more importantly to me, by the men and women seeking my help to understand this and their families. I tell them what you should have been telling them all along so that they know it's not their fault, they did not lack courage and they are not responsible for being wounded any more than they would have been to have been found by a bullet with their name on it.
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.
Army Launching Program To Train Soldiers To Combat Post-Traumatic Stress Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com HuffPost Reporting
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." go here for more Army Launching Program To Train Soldiers To Combat Post-Traumatic Stress
Last year David Wood of Huffington Post interviewed General Ray Odierno on military suicides. The interview told more about why they were committing suicide and it had more to do with his attitude than anything else. Odierno blamed the troops for being mentally weak and not having supportive families.
"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.
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.
Where did he get such an irrational idea? Same place most military leaders did.
Seven years ago today I started Wounded Times keeping a promise to a Marine serving in Iraq. He liked reading my other site because of PTSD but didn't like political posts. Most people don't like politics and I have kept my promise to him ever since then. I don't like politicians. Easy to see if you read Wounded Times with any regularity. None of them live up to what they promise they will do if they get elected. I told the Marine the only time he'd read about a politician was when they did something for or to veterans.
I've been thinking a lot about the day this started. After the post about the new site, it was followed by a post on a Veterans Center healing invisible wounds. East Valley Tribune reported it out of Arizona.
For Mike Saye and Daryl Cox, it was the Iraq War that unearthed the horrors of combat. The Vietnam veterans struggled for nearly 30 years with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, but never sought help until young Americans started fighting, and dying, in the Middle East.
They were gathered Thursday at a new Veterans Readjustment Center near Fiesta Mall in Mesa, getting help for their own demons and hoping to give younger veterans the benefit of their experience.
“It triggered everything in me. I started dreaming about it again,” Saye, of Mesa, said of the Iraq War.
“I was a candidate for PTSD for years and years, but I thought I could handle it,” he said, even as he struggled through four marriages and some 30 jobs.
“But I can’t, and they can’t either. I don’t want them to wait as long as I did to get help.”
Though a trickle of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are finding their way to the new center, team leader Patrick Ryan knows many more are out there.
“We’re certainly trying to do outreach, but we’d like to see more of them,” Ryan said. “The stigma is not what it used to be, but it’s still there.”
Over the years far too many veterans did not get the care they needed to heal. They committed suicide. The number of suicides among veterans increased dramatically by 2007. A few days after Wounded Times began, I released a post I had done on my older blog Why isn't the press on suicide watch? The press counted, as well as they could, the number of suicides within the military however, never seemed to link veterans committing suicide to those numbers. After all, veterans were in fact created by the military but they were no longer Department of Defense's problem.
Tracking news reports across the country has been heartbreaking. Major national news sources ignored most of these suicides just as much as they ignored veterans facing off with police and SWAT Teams after families called for to get the veteran help. The vast majority ended with the veteran being killed instead of helped.
The other thing the national news reporters ignored was as funds to prevent suicides increased to billions a year, suicides increased as well. The reason became clear in 2009 as the Army announced they would be using a program called "Comprehensive Soldier Fitness."
By 2009, it was clear that if they pushed this program suicides would go up.
It was not a guess on my part. It was already proven when numbers increased after the other failed attempt called "Battlemind" leaving the troops blaming themselves for being mentally weak and not training right. All the military had to do was actually talk to these men and women to discover these attempts were making it worse than it had to be for them.
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness was a research project to give school aged kids a better sense of self worth. It was still in the research stage when it was sold to the Department of Defense as training to prevent PTSD and then decrease suicides. It was pushed throughout the military afterwards with absolutely no proof of the validity of the claims made by the creator, Martin Seligman.
Worse, say members of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, these programs could undermine coping mechanisms developed by troops who already successfully handle stress.
Created in 2008 to address alarming trends in soldier behavior, such as rising suicides, alcohol and drug abuse, and behavioral health problems, CSF is based on the teachings of Martin Seligman, a University of Pennsylvania professor and proponent of positive psychology. He says an optimistic outlook can affect all aspects of life and ward off anxiety and depression.
The training, and the program's annual measurement test, the Global Assessment Tool, is mandatory for all soldiers. Since 2009, 8,000 officers and enlisted personnel have attended master resilience courses. They in turn teach CSF at the unit level.
Eidelson and psychologist Stephen Soldz said they believe the Army's conclusions of success are "deeply flawed" because they are based solely on self-assessment and do not include validated measures of the program's effects on post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicides or psychological disorders.
The Army said its next report, due later this year, will examine the impact of CSF on these behaviors.
"I can understand the desire for a primary prevention program, but the fact that the suicide rate is up this year, after this program has been in place for a while, does suggest it's not producing any miracles," Soldz said.
We were all proven right years later when RAND Corp took a look at these "programs" discovering they did not fit with military culture and people cannot be taught to be resilient.
Most programs have been implemented before evidence of their effectiveness has been established. Programs often are modified for each client or context, making it difficult to design studies that will provide evidence of effectiveness for all military populations and situations. New scientific studies have recently been funded and are in the planning or initial data collection stages, but, as with most quasi-experimental or controlled studies, it will be a number of years before evidence of their effectiveness is fully established. As these studies with evaluative data progress, they should be encouraged to publish their results.
Conduct More Rigorous Program Evaluation
Although there are many programs available to the military and civilian communities, there is very little empirical evidence that these programs effectively build resilience.
Similarly, there are a number of factors related to resilience, but there is almost no evidence that resilience can be taught or produced. Results from both the literature review and the program review echo the need for more program evaluation, as identified as one of the missions of the DCoE. As noted, only 11 documents in the literature review are based on RCT evaluation design, and only five of the programs reviewed have formally evaluated program success, yet programs are often rolled out before evidence of their effectiveness has been established and are modified for each client or context, making it difficult to provide evidence for effectiveness across populations and situations.
Other evidence has proven RAND Corp and other experts right but what we just ended up with is the American Psychological Association releasing another report that blames the troops for having "pre-existing mental health problems.
Suicide risk among soldiers may be rooted in their past
USA TODAY
Sharon Jayson
August 9, 2014
Experiencing child abuse, being sexually victimized and exhibiting suicidal behavior before enlisting are significant risk factors for suicide, according to recent studies from the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah.
WASHINGTON — The high suicide rates among military veterans and current servicemembers may be more likely a result of past traumatic experiences rather than combat and multiple deployments, suggest new findings presented Saturday at the American Psychological Association's annual convention.
Experiencing child abuse, being sexually victimized and exhibiting suicidal behavior before enlisting are significant risk factors for suicide, according to recent studies from the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah.
Findings show that traumatic experiences before military service make current and former military personnel more vulnerable to suicidal behavior.
"Combat exposure and deployment at times may be a risk factor, but it's relatively low in comparison to these other demographic characteristics. That war causes an extreme amount of distress, which leads to suicide -- I believe that's questionable, given some of the results that we have," Griffith says. read more here
They want to blame the troops still no matter how much evidence has come out over the years. While blaming the troops, they ignore all they have done to "prevent" military suicides has failed. They ignore the fact that their mental health evaluations prior to enlistments must have failed if they did not discover mental health issues they now claim to be factors.
If their testing and training have failed, there are no excuses left and blaming the troops feeds the stigma preventing them from seeking help to heal.
Seven years of posting their stories has proven beyond a doubt the military refuses to accept responsibility for what they have done to the men and women they command.
