An Interview with John Mikelson

I am on the NAMI Veteran's Council, (among other things) and received an email that puzzled me. There was a quote in it about getting veterans into in-patient treatment and that it had a 60% rate. I've heard of all kinds of treatments the DOD and the VA are doing as well as not doing, and I wondered what else this man had to say.

I asked him if he'd be willing to answer a few questions. He responded right away. Behind all the problems posted on this blog, what I fail to do as often as I should, is to show a part we don't see too often. Men and women working with our veterans and our troops, trying to make a difference and hear what they have to say.

Thank you John for taking the time to answer these questions for my readers.



Please tell us about yourself.

Please see attached …I am 49. Have an MA in Higher Education. Spent 25 years in the Army (Active Guard & Active Reserve) My wife and I rescue Greyhounds and 8 of our sixteen dogs are Greyhounds. Small acreage south of Iowa City

This is part of what was attached.

John Mikelson

Army medic became an undergrad at 45, and now helps veterans of all ages make the college transition.

Be Remarkable

During his 26 years in the military, John Mikelson served as a medic for more than 800 soldiers, was cited for recruiting 450 people into the U.S. Army Reserve, and managed supplies, arms, food, fuel, and personnel on a highly regimented schedule.

Regional Director for Distance Education Student Veterans of America Washington, DC
University of Iowa Veterans Center

(Now that you know more about him, read the rest of what he had to say)

How long have you been doing what you do?

The University of Iowa reorganized its Veterans Association in 2005 and we opened the door of the Veterans Center in December 2005

How did you get involved with PTSD veterans?

Many of my peers have had multiple deployments. Returning Veterans tend not to join the traditional Veteran Service Organizations like the American Legion or VFW but; they are going to school…the campus is the place we came reach out to the 526,000 Student Veterans. This led to the founding of the Student Veterans of America in 2008. PTSD is not just a combat related problem…. Any life changing event can trigger this in anybody

There have been many reports over the years about soldier suicides and the claim the DOD is taking all of this seriously. With the report coming out yesterday about the increase in soldier suicides, what is your impression of what the Army has been doing wrong?

Not enough attention is being given to basic NCO Business….Taking care of the troops. Squad leaders should be able to tell when something isn’t right with a squad member. Platoon Sergeants should have visibility on all members of a platoon….no Soldier (Sailor, Marine or Airmen) should have to deal with their problems alone….whatever happened to battle-buddies?

While they have been trying, what do you think they have gotten right and should it be replicated throughout the military?

The Military has recognized the problem….always a good start. Steps are being taken to de-stigmafy Mental Health related treatments…..people are finally allowed to ask for help without jeopardizing their careers. They are also stepping up awareness and prevention of Military Sexual Trauma(MST).

The Montana National Guard came out with a program to address suicides and encourage Guardsmen to seek mental health help. A member of NAMI, Matt Kuntz has been on the forefront of this program. His step-brother, Spc. Chris Dana, committed suicide. Do you know about this program and what is your impression of it?

While I am not aware of the specifics of the Montana program I have seen the evolution of “Enduring Families” and the “Yellow Ribbon” program in Iowa and am pleased with the direction the state has taken with mental health overall

You stated in a recent communication with NAMI Veteran's Council members that;

Now saying that, this gets me to the heart of the reason why I communicated with you originally via phone. We are trying to save the Knoxville VA and there is more than enough capacity to develop programs for female veterans. This is very true when it comes to mental health programs. Female veterans are suffering from PTSD at a substantially higher rate than their male counterparts. Best practices show that for PTSD treatment to be successful the patient must be treated inpatient using a combination of psychotherapy and medication and then the chances of going into full remission rise to around the 60% rate.

Alas, this was not my quote. It was forwarded in a message from Des Moines to friends with NAMI in Iowa City. The Hospital in Knoxville is being closed because it represents excess capitcy in Internal Medicine….but the VA report fails to show the number of Mental Health beds that would be lost and Des Moines, Iowa City and Omaha would have to make up the shortage and do not have the current bed space to do so

What do you think has kept this out of reporting on treating PTSD veterans?

No idea

Why do you think the DOD and the VA has been simply providing medication and very little therapy instead of putting them in for treatment as you stated works best?

My limited experience with the VAMC in Iowa City is that they are doing everything they can and are also reaching into the community for a holistic inpatient/outpatient balance

I do presentations to veterans groups to help them understand what PTSD is and make them more aware of the tragedy we are facing the newer veterans. After the presentation, I hold a question and answer series. The number one question I've been getting has been about this Act and the concern of PTSD veterans regarding gun ownership. Some of the veterans are rated with mild PTSD and are in law enforcement. They are worried about their jobs. Other veterans fear their right to have a gun will be jeopardized. This is keeping them from seeking help.

Are their fears well founded? If so, what can be done to correct this?

Taking away firearms on the grounds of having PTSD would eventually disarm the entire military and law enforcement community. (in my opinion… giving PTSD a stigma) i.e. if I were told that seeking treatment for PTSD would remove me from employment I would refuse to seek treatment or even acknowledge a problem. As stated before…anyone can have a degree of Post Traumatic Stress from any major traumatic event. It only becomes a disorder when we cannot overcome the effects on our own… and it can be treated successfully.

Vietnam veterans were the first veterans to demand PTSD be treated. Their wives have been involved with learning about PTSD and living with them. Many of us have successful marriages and long histories with our husbands. We've made all the mistakes already and found what works along the way. I believe we have a lot to offer the spouses of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families. Many of us have offered our thoughts and living expert testimonies to congress but they will not listen to us. Why do you think congress has not been interested in hearing from any of us when we've already been where they are and can get them to where we are a lot easier than we did with trial and errors?

I do not understand why Congress listens to Celebrities but not the people with boot on the ground.

I participated in many groups for the newer veterans wives. Troubling I discovered they were not interested in learning about PTSD. They said they had enough to worry about with their husbands being deployed and having to be a single parent. Since we know that early intervention is best and the families are usually the first to notice drastic changes, how can we get them to want to learn about it so that vital time is not wasted?

By reducing the Stigma of Mental illness in general and PTSD in particular

Veterans Courts are being set up across the nation due to the efforts of NAMI. Considering the unique issues combat veterans face, why do you think so many counties are not setting up Veteran's Courts to get them treated instead of incarcerated?

It varies from financial constraints to ignorance of military or mental health awareness. Not everybody gets it. Not every county can afford it.

Domestic violence can often be avoided if a wife is aware of PTSD. Something as simple as waking up a husband in the middle of a nightmare can produce a fist, black eyes and bloody noses. If a wife is aware of what the nightmare is all about and removes herself from arms reach, domestic violence can be prevented just as when they are having a flashback. What can be done when police respond following something like this if the wife is not aware?

Awareness training in the Family Readiness groups, Awareness training for the peace officers. Again local concern and monetary levels with drive some of this training or prevent it from occurring

When Vietnam veterans began to be treated for PTSD, especially in the 90's, the VA provided support groups for the spouse. Why hasn't this been repeated across the nation?

We have a spouse Support group at the VA’s Cedar Rapids Veteran Center

How do you think we can get communities involved in helping the National Guardsmen and Reservist's when they are presenting at higher rates for PTSD but do not have the same support as regular military?

The Community VetCens are presenting the programs to those who chose to utilize them. The National Guard is standardizing their Yellow Ribbon Program and sharing with the reserves through Military OneSorce (at least here in Iowa where we have no active military installation)

The backlog of VA claims has reached over 900,000. Within those numbers are many PTSD veterans that can no longer work. Is the stress of this financial burden increasing their PTSD?

Lots of different stressors can aggravate PTSD or Depression . Financial stress has always been a key factor.

Would fast tracking PTSD claims, the way congress has been discussing, renew their faith in the country and the credo "grateful nation" ease PTSD symptoms?

It would help but the VA is simply overworked and underfunded to do everything it is taxed with. Mental Health in general is underfunded nationally

What do you think is the reason behind not doing it?

Increased incidents of fraud waste and abuse

In a perfect world, if you could wave a hand and get it done, what would you do get our troops and veterans the best care possible?

In a perfect world we would not have to place the troops in harm’s way.. but since that is unlikely to happen I think we could do a better job of recognizing that mental illness and brain injuries are part and parcel with all the other types of combat injuries and the stigma of treatment would cease to exist

In a perfect world to me, the men and women working with our veterans everyday would be fully involved with coming up with programs for them. Finding what is best for them would come a lot faster if they actually know them and understand them. If the developers of programs are just using some case studies or reading about PTSD in research papers, they will never really understand them.

It's also the most important reason for Congress listening to the families who have been there and done that. Older veterans and their families have been through the fire, made their mistakes and learned from them. So why are they making the same mistakes over and over again? It's one more answer that has eluded me for years. I don't think I'd ever be able to understand how Congress can avoid us. I've written to Senators and Congressmen for years. Either I get back a form letter or no response at all. Why? I'm not alone with this type of response.

The wives of Vietnam veterans live with them everyday and most of us have been married to them for over 20 years. Considering that too many "normal" marriages don't make it that long, you'd think they'd be more than willing to give us the opportunity to discuss how we did it. They don't. PTSD in marriages is complicated, but not impossible to find what works and how to make them successful. As I wrote in my book, For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle, you can find your own kind of normal with all of this. The point is, too many families can't because they don't understand what PTSD is, what it's doing to their veteran spouse or what they can do to help them. It took me years of research, trial and error to learn what I know and I share it because I remember what it was like when no one was talking about PTSD and feeling totally alone.

Families are falling apart, veterans are committing suicide, soldiers and Marines are committing suicide and young widows wonder what could have prevented all this heartache. Knowledge could have but they just didn't know where to find it. It's also one of the reasons why I started these blogs so they could find the most information in one area instead of all over the place. It's the reason I created videos so they could learn easier than I did. It is also what's behind the videos for the veterans so they can learn just how normal they are. This all began because of Vietnam veterans and now it includes our newer generation of veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. They are where my heart is tugged to. They are where you heart is calling you as well or you wouldn't be reading a blog like this. You'd be looking for different information. You also take the words "grateful nation" a lot further than most Americans do. I don't say it often enough but thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read the posts here. We may be living with the problem but because we're fully involved with them, we're going to end up being part of the solution to getting them able to enjoy life again.

Jim Nicholson won't take responsibility still?

This is a shocker. "Former VA secretary: Obama's 'not taking responsibility' for agency's misconduct." Nicholson was in the hot seat a lot. Why is he lying on top of it now?

In an interview on Friday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Nicholson also hit back at Obama's sharp criticism of his tenure leading the VA, calling into question the former senator's commitment to the cause when he severed on the Veterans Affairs Committee. "He was on the committee but he never showed up," Nicholson said, appearing on "The Situation Room." Allegations of crippling delays in care and mismanagement have sparked calls for current Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign. When Nicholson took over as chief of the VA in 2005 during President George W. Bush's administration, he, too, received criticism of his leadership of the agency, notably from then Illinois Sen. Obama.

To explain the processing slowdown from 2005 to 2006, the VA in its recent report to Congress gave three reasons: a concentration on older claims, the training of new staff, and the fact that it had "received a greater-than- expected number of claims in 2006." In fact, the opposite was true. As early as February 2005, the VA anticipated receiving 818,076 claims in fiscal 2006, and Nicholson in February 2006 upped that to 910,000 claims - both above the actual tally of 806,382. (The VA this week told McClatchy Newspapers the report to Congress was in error and shouldn't have used the word "expected.")

Nicholson must have forgotten this from 2006

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) – a key member of the Senate Veterans Affairs (VA) Committee – today sent a letter to Senate VA Committee Chairman Larry Craig (R-ID) and Ranking Member Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), requesting a hearing of the Committee on the status of mental health services provided by the VA."We need real answers from the VA and the Bush Administration. No gimmicks. No games," Murray said. "I am requesting a hearing on the mental health services provided by the VA so we can learn more about the need for mental health care, how to meet that demand, and what changes need to be made to provide our veterans with the care they need and deserve."Murray's call for a hearing follows an article in the May edition of Psychiatric News in which Frances Murphy, M.D., Undersecretary for Health Policy Coordination at the VA, indicates that the agency is ill-prepared to serve the mental health needs of our nation's veterans. In the article, Dr. Murphy notes that some VA clinics don't provide mental health or substance abuse care, or if they do, "waiting lists render that care virtually inaccessible."

The number of vets seeking counseling or treatment for mental health issues more than doubled from 4,467 in October of 2005 to 9,103 in June. And the number needing other forms of help transitioning from military to civilian life more than tripled, jumping from 43,682 to 144,227. Yet, the number of staff positions added to deal with such problems since 2002 is only eight.

The number of initial disability claims rose from 578,773 in 2000 to 788,298 in 2005, a 36 percent increase. The Department of Veterans Affairs takes an average of 129 days to make an initial decision. It hopes to reduce that to 115 days, said Michael Dusenbery, the Veterans Benefits Administration's southern area director. The backlog begins at the regional office, argue many veterans groups. "If they got the decision right in the first place, there would be fewer appeals to the board and less of a backlog," said Roy Spicer, DAV national appeals officer. Last year, 47,136 claims were appealed to the Board of Veterans' Appeals. More than half of regional offices' decisions that are appealed to the board are reversed or sent back to local offices for further action.

This was after Nicholson advised President Bush that claims would go down. Or the cases brought by one attorney where 40 died before their claims were approved.

"We should take care of our veterans, but I don't think they're taking care of me," Bolin said. He filed his original claim seven years ago. It reached the appeals court in March 2005. Bolin has been hospitalized twice this year and fears he may die before his case is settled. That fear is too often realized by veterans. His attorney, Dan Krasnegor, who works for a Richmond law firm that specializes in veterans' appeals, has had about 40 clients die before their cases were decided by the court.

Nicholson must have forgotten about the lawsuit filed by Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth in 2007.

“We won this round against VA. Veterans will have our day in court. The VA must now release documents under discovery about their deliberate attempts to deny and delay medical care and disability benefits for all veterans, especially our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans,” said Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense (VCS), the lead plaintiff organization that filed suit against VA. On July 23, 2007, VCS and Veterans United for Truth (VUFT) filed a class action lawsuit against VA in order to force VA to provide prompt and high-quality medical care and disability benefits to veterans, especially those with mental health conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “Our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are committing suicide while waiting for VA to answer their pleas for medical care. VA must make sure all our veterans receive prompt and high-quality medical care and disability benefits. The long waits at VA must end,” added Sullivan.

The same lawsuit that discovered veterans committing suicide information had been hidden.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's mental health director, deliberately withheld crucial information on the true suicide risk among veterans. "Doctor Katz's irresponsible actions have been a disservice to our veterans, and it is time for him to go," said Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "The number one priority of the VA should be caring for our veterans, not covering up the truth." Murray and other Democratic senators said they were appalled at e-mails showing Katz and other VA officials apparently trying to conceal the number of suicides by veterans. An e-mail message from Katz disclosed this week as part of a lawsuit that went to trial in San Francisco this week starts with "Shh!" and refers to the 12,000 veterans per year who attempt suicide while under department treatment. "Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?" the e-mail asks.

And Nicholson must have forgotten this as well

“Recent incidents indicate a possible trend of system-wide or systemic indifference to the invisible wounds of war. It is shameful, because veterans deserve better, and because it tarnishes the good work of the many VA mental health professionals who help veterans battle PTSD, depression, and other psychological wounds,” said Akaka. “Whatever the reasoning behind the mistakes that were made, VA must work to regain the confidence of veterans who now question whether VA is a friend or enemy.” In their testimony, witnesses denied any systemic or deliberate efforts within VA to deny veterans care or compensation for psychological wounds. While Dr. Norma Perez, the psychologist from Texas, argued that there is little difference between adjustment disorder and PTSD, VA’s chief mental health official Dr. Ira Katz respectfully disagreed.

But it seems as if everyone has forgotten how long they had to do the right thing on PTSD as well.

Congress required the establishment of VA's Special Committee on PTSD in 1984, with the original purpose primarily to aid Vietnam-era veterans diagnosed with PTSD. One of the Special Committee's main charges is to carry out an ongoing assessment of VA's capacity to diagnose and treat PTSD and to make recommendations for improving VA's PTSD services.

As you've seen over and over again nothing is new here and nothing was fixed. For Nicholson to forget everything that went on including the fact with two wars on, he advised President Bush that there would be less need for VA staff.

Last week proved the twisted reality families like mine live in

Rant coming. Have to get it out of my system before Christmas.

I always just assumed the American people supported the troops and valued veterans. After all, my Dad was a Korean vet and my uncles were WWII veterans. There was always a party at the DAV, VFW or American Legion, ceremonies for Memorial Day and parades. My Dad was 100% and the VA took good care of him and us. I never really thought about them being forsaken, ignored or no longer worth the price of us at least paying attention to them. It was not until I met my husband, a veteran of Vietnam, that I understood how little we really do matter. Our reception was at an American Legion Post.

I want to go back to the innocent days when I simply assumed the talk of supporting the troops and honoring veterans was real from the majority of the American public. Running Wounded Times and tracking reports across the country has left me living in two totally different worlds. Groups do show up to build homes for the wounded, help the homeless veterans, reach out to families of the fallen and line the streets as their bodies are laid to rest. The rest of the country moves on as if nothing else mattered but their own lives.

People wonder why I don't post on my personal Facebook page anymore. I put up about 60 videos since last year. The events were well attended but the rest of the people I know had no clue they were happening. What made it worse is, they didn't care. They didn't watch the videos and they don't read the reports on Wounded Times. It hurts. I wrote two books but few of my "friends" read them.

Last week proved the twisted reality families like mine live in.

Duck Dynasty rant by Phil Robertson has been consuming the time of reporters and shows no sign of ending. While I think what he said was hurtful, he has the right to say it. The right to use his free speech does not entitle him to silence anyone that does not agree with him. Robertson didn't try to but the media has taken sides and seem to believe that opposing views are trying to silence someone else.

Why? Why would they keep so much focus on this? Because it is causing anger on both sides and the press lives off turmoil. "If it bleeds it leads" so they make sure people get all hot under the collar.

On Facebook a friend shared this picture from No Lapdog Media and friends on both sides agree with this more that what the press wants us focused on.

I have straight friends who believe the same way Robertson does. I have friends who believe it is not up to us to judge anyone and they value how others treat someone else. Then I have friends dealing with being hated for being gay. Then I think of all the LGB members of the military putting their lives on the line everyday. The same people the press shove out of the way as soon as a celebrity opens their mouth.

It is never all or nothing in life. It should never be all or nothing in a news report unless they are just trying to make their own thoughts be known in a sneaky way.

On December 18, Wounded Times reported that for in Afghanistan. two years in a row, Army suicides topped all combat deaths In 2012 there were 310 KIA but 325 Army suicides. In 2013, up to December 18, there were 125 KIA but 251 Army suicides only up until October. The press has just been parroting that suicides this year are down instead of reporting the simple fact there are also less deployed and less serving than there were last year.

Gunnery Sgt. Brandon McGraw home on his 3rd tour was given a trip by Ellen Degeneres to Australia to go skydiving. He died on the trip in an accident.

There was a standoff with a veteran suffering from PTSD military being screwed by budget deal a Marine Dad pleading for help for his son with PTSD on trial six soldiers killed in a crash a Fort Bragg soldier was donating stem cells to save a child with Leukemia, Home Depot employees donated their times to rebuild a home for veterans and the list of others stories go on and on that the major news sources didn't have time for because they made sure Duck Dynasty story kept going.

That is the way it is so no matter what you think about what Robertson said last week, he is right about what he said regarding the attention it has gotten.

PTSD on trial: When they can't just use it

PTSD is not the new "get out of jail free card" and this is an example of it.This came out before the trial.

Pardun was not a combat veteran.

Eugene murder suspect to use insanity defense By Assocaited Press and Eugene Register-Guard

Pardun's sister told The Register-Guard last summer that her brother never saw combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, but was traumatized by video images of a mortar attack on a helicopter that killed members of his brigade while he was recovering from an injury in the United States.

Yet he was treated for PTSD. The question is, since PTSD is only caused after trauma, how did he get it? Did he really have it? It seems as if he didn't.

Pardun told investigators the day of the shooting that he was under treatment for extreme post-traumatic stress disorder related to his Army service five years earlier.

The man he killed, was a Vietnam veteran with PTSD trying to help other veterans heal.

Thurston was a fellow veteran who had also battled PTSD following his service in the Vietnam War. Thurston later spent his career counseling troubled former soldiers at the same Eugene clinic where Pardun received medical and psychiatric care.

His life was taken and now his family has to live with the memory of this violent act. Pardun pleaded guilty. A medical exam showed he did not have PTSD.

Creswell man pleads guilty to killing neighbor
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — An Army veteran who claimed he suffered from post-traumatic stress despite never seeing combat has pleaded guilty to murder for shooting a neighbor in front of the man's wife and 3-year-old child.

Jarrod William Pardun of Creswell entered the plea Wednesday in Lane County Circuit Court in Eugene.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Patty Perlow says Pardun pleaded guilty after a mental examination found he was not suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
go here for more

Creswell man pleads guilty to killing neighbor

When veterans have PTSD, there is something called a flashback which takes them back to when their lives were in danger. This can also come when under stress. There are times when anger pushes out everything else, except one thing. They need to be held accountable for their actions. Yes, real PTSD needs to be taken into account when determining what true justice will be. In this case, the system seems to have worked well considering he admitted guilt after tests showed he did not have PTSD.

The aftermath of what he decided to do left a Vietnam veteran dead after trying to help real combat veterans with PTSD, a wife and a young child to not only grieve for the loss but try to recover with the trauma they went through because of Pardun. This also ends up hurting PTSD veterans the next time a judge has to consider PTSD as a factor or not.

PTSD On Trial: Montana Iraq Veteran

A Montana Iraq veteran says he has PTSD and a psychologist agreed but another did not. There are times when someone will use PTSD to get different "justice" from the system and then there are times when they are really suffering. The question is how do we know for sure? More and more times PTSD will be used during a trial but with all the years of research on PTSD, these trials show we are a long way from helping all of them come home from combat.

Little sentenced to 50 years deadly shooting
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
By Whitney Bermes Staff Writer
9 hrs ago

Little was convicted of shooting 24-year-old Larry “LJ” Clayton and James Armstrong with a shotgun during the early morning hours of Sept. 20, 2013. Clayton died the following day at a Seattle hospital. And Armstrong lost the lower part of his left leg due to injuries suffered in the shooting.

Little, who served in the U.S. Army for about two years, suffered from severe PTSD and he was acting under extreme stress when he shot the men, he defense argued when asking for a 10-year prison sentence to be followed by 15 years probation.

“PTSD in this case has been referred to by the state as an excuse,” defense attorney Diana Copeland said. “He has PTSD. He’s had it since Iraq.” And with the jury convicting Little of the lesser offense of mitigated deliberate homicide, they decided it was a “determining factor” in what happened that night.

Little needs specialized PTSD treatment. “He will not receive this treatment at the prison,” Copeland said.

But Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert said that Little did not actually suffer from PTSD, a determination an expert psychologist hired by the state determined after evaluating Little.

“The harm done by this defendant is great. The defendant was on Sept. 20, 2013, and still continues to be a threat to public safety, and the defendant must be held accountable,” said Lambert, who requested that Brown sentence Little the maximum of 80 years in prison. “That’s the price he ought to have to pay.”
read more here

PTSD On Trial:Doctors' testimony differs in Cortez murder trial

I'm not sure what to make out of this. Is it possible Ricardo Cortez does have PTSD? Absolutely. There is also the chance after reading this report that he could be faking. The only people who would know for sure are his family members and friends. They would know what he was like before going and what he was like when he came home.

While we need to get out as much information as possible about PTSD so the people suffering with it understand, the information can also be used to fake a wound. Keep an open mind when you read this because we really don't have a complete understanding of all that is involved in this case. kc

Doctors' testimony differs in Cortez murder trial

David Young

An out-of-body experience that felt like a commando raid in Iraq.

That is how one doctor on Friday described a Greeley Iraq war veteran’s actions the night he burst into a home with a shotgun and killed his estranged wife.



Friday was the fourth day of testimony in the first-degree murder trial of Ricardo Cortez. The 25-year-old is accused of killing his estranged pregnant wife, Nikki Fix-Cortez, 21, on Sept. 16, 2007, with a shotgun because she was leaving him. Cortez also injured Fix-Cortez’s friend Sam Jantz, according to prosecutors. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.



Dr. James Waters, a psychologist in private practice in Boulder who was hired by the defense, testified that Cortez suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Waters said Cortez’s PTSD stems from a number of issues, including being molested by his father and serving as a medic for two tours of duty in Iraq, where he saw ghastly images of people dying.
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Wounded Times Sixth Year of Putting Veterans First

Wounded Times Sixth Year of Putting Veterans First
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 10, 2013

Six years ago today, Wounded Times was "born" because of a Marine. He wrote that while he turned to my older site for information on PTSD, he didn't want to read, as he put it, "political bullshit" I wrote. I got defensive and defended my right to post what I wanted to in a rather lengthy email. He responded back with only one question. "Are you doing this for us or yourself?" I cried. He was right.

When I was done crying about the question and the ugly truth about what I was doing to the very people I was trying to help, I made the Marine a promise. From that moment on, I would start a new blog just for them. The only time he would have to read anything political was when a politician did something for them or to them. Wounded Times started that very day.

The political divide sucked me in. I fell into the same trap I complained about the most. The truth is no political party has it all right or all wrong. I had forgotten that. Republicans have been able to claim they are strong on military matters because they are strong supporters of defense contractors. Their spending bills usually involve their issues. They are needed to supply the troops with what they need to defend the country. Democrats have been able to say they are strong on military matters because they tend to do bills for the troops and veterans. Both are necessary but neither of these groups are right on every issue or wrong on them. They just have different views. If they work together a lot can be accomplished but when they are too busy fighting against the other side, things go to hell.

There was a time when I believed that everyone was divided because of what I was watching on TV. I watched FOX after 9-11 because I thought they had the best coverage of it and the wars we were getting into. Then they started talking about how evil it was to think the way I did on too many subjects. I turned to MSNBC and heard a lot about what I agreed with but they were slamming too many of what my friends believed in. I turned to CNN thinking I would hear the middle of the road politically blended with the news but soon I discovered they were not really interested in reporting on what used to matter to the country as a whole with national news coverage. They got political too only they were pushing the divide deeper. Aa the years went on the Marine was proven right. It was all political bullshit.

If we were viewed truthfully, the American people are not all about politics. We don't show up at a neighbors house to help them out only if they belong to the party we do. We don't stand in line at the grocery store talking about politics. We don't offer our blood to help others only if it goes to save the lives of another Republican or Democrat. We work together as Americans.

Our proudest moments have come after tragedy. We proved that after 9-11 and our broken hearts turned to gratefulness for the first responders and construction crews showing up to recover the bodies without giving up. Time and time again, we marveled at the dedication and love they had for each other as well as us total strangers they were willing to die for. They do it all the time but what do we do? When it comes time for budget cuts, they are an easy way out. Cut their jobs and their pensions and then wonder why they don't show up when we need them. Both sides let it happen all the time.

Then we do the same thing to the men and women serving in the military. We cheer them when they go off to war but they better end it fast or we not only lose interest, we want them pulled out because it is taking too long and costing too much money. We never seem to have the ability to demand the leaders come up with the proper plans to accomplish what the troops were sent to do.

We stop paying attention to what is going on, what is happening to them when they come home and only manage to remember them on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. It never really dawns on us they are veterans every day of the year and for the rest of their lives they will live with the wounds born out of battle in our name.

After six years I've heard some pretty lousy things like people complaining about gays in the military even though they have always served including friends of mine. Some of them have PTSD because of the way they were treated by others but they don't give up. They fight to stay in. If they are discharged, they turn around and fight for veterans rights as well as needs.

Patriot Guard Riders began because Westboro Baptist hate group started stalking families with signs thanking God for soldier dying because some of military folks were gay. They are so filled with hate they have corrupted Christianity.

John 3:6-8
New International Version (NIV)
6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

In other words, God doesn't have much to do with biology after He started all of life but He has a lot to do with the soul He not only created but remembers. There was a time when people thought that if someone was suffering physically, it was punishment from God and if they lived a long life they were blessed. What is worse is when a baby was born with birth defects, God judged the sins of the parents. Now we know better. Most of us believe our job is to love and not judge but folks like Westboro get more attention than the majority of Christians.

This brings us back to the reason for this site. Veterans are only 7% of the population and less than 1% serve in the military today. Pretty small demographic and even smaller when you consider there are even less disabled veterans. There are only 3.61 million veterans receiving VA Compensation. Even smaller demographic to focus on and that is the part that gets to me the most. We have allowed the national broadcast news to forget all about them.

Their stories are out there and you've read them everyday on the over 19,000 posts on Wounded Times. Could you imagine if CNN, FOX and MSNBC spent a quarter of the time on them as they did on George Zimmerman? What would happen if they reported on the fact that two Medal of Honor Heros have come out talking about having PTSD as much as they covered the Zimmerman trial or Jodi Arias? Dakota Meyer tried to kill himself and the newest veteran receiving the Medal of Honor Ty Carter has been very open about his own PTSD struggle. They haven't gotten nearly enough attention on the courage they showed after combat so that others may find the strength to live and fight the enemy inside of them as much as they fought the ones they could see.

Marine Maj. Gen. James Livingston who wears the Medal of Honor from Vietnam.

"Now I'm a believer in early intervention" by therapists in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, the diagnosis for what was called battle fatigue or shell shock in wars gone by, Livingston said.

He was with 12 other decorated heroes appointed to the special Veterans Disability Benefits Commission as they presented the findings of their two-year study to the House Veterans Committee.

The commission had 113 recommendations for reforming how the military and Veterans Administration cope with disabled troops. They called for hikes of up to 25% in disability payments, and increased funding and programs for PTSD treatment."

Livingston didn't get enough attention or Brig. General Gary S. Patton and Gen. Carter Ham Maj. Gen. David Blackledge and the list goes on but the national news forgets about national heros.

One of my friends told me I was insane to do what I do getting nothing back. I don't get financial support and very little emotional support. It just doesn't make sense to do this much work when I could get so much more attention by falling in line with the political crap or covering another subject. He's right but this is what I made the choice to do over 30 years ago when my life changed and I fell in love with yet another member of a forgotten demographic. A Vietnam veteran with PTSD.

So now after six years of reading Wounded Times, I'll leave it up to you if I go on or not. You keep reading and I'll keep telling the truth about what is going on. This has been six years of insanity for me most of the time but whatever price I paid financially and emotionally has been worth it.

PTSD on Trial: Private John Needham

UPDATE
Tuesday's "48 Hours Mystery" Was #1 in Households and Viewers
CBS spins the numbers for Tuesday, June 26.
[via press release from CBS]
"48 HOURS MYSTERY" TUESDAY'S EXAMINATION OF THE ROLE PLAYED BY POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN PVT. JOHN NEEDHAM'S KILLING OF HIS GIRLFRIEND WAS #1 IN HOUSEHOLDS AND VIEWERS

CBS News' 48 HOURS MYSTERY TUESDAY (R) was first in households (4.0/07) and viewers (5.66m), while delivering a 1.5/04 in adults 25-54, according to preliminary Nielsen same day ratings for June 26. Compared to last week, 48 HOURS MYSTERY TUESDAY was even in both adults 25-54 and adults 18-49.

The broadcast, which aired on the eve of National PTSD Awareness Day, featured Troy Roberts' emotional report on Pvt. John Needham, who beat to death the woman he loved, 19-year-old Jacque Villagomez. Needham's story started in Iraq where he was severely injured in combat and exposed to multiple IED and grenade attacks. He was later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Needham's father says the war took a heavy toll on his son, and ravaged his mind and body. From the beginning, Needham took responsibility for Villagomez's death but said he remembered little of the incident. He said that as they argued one night, something inside him snapped. He blamed his brain injury and PTSD for the beating that came next.
Read more At first I thought it took 48 Hours way too long to do a story like this since it happened in 2008.

Original story from 2008
Iraq Vet John Wylie Needham charged with murder

But considering how many more stories this blog has covered in the last 4 years, I'm grateful they reported on it finally.

What should jump out at you is a simple fact. When war comes home inside of them and we don't take care of them, they suffer, so do their families, friends, communities and in the end, this entire nation.


War damaged vet kills girlfriend; PTSD to blame?

Private John Needham and Jacque Villagomez

November 12, 2011 10:50 PM
(CBS News) Produced by Chris Young Ritzen
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. -- "That day and what happened that day is gonna be with me until the day I die. It's something I carry on my conscience every day," John Needham explained. "I just can't believe that this is where my life is right now. When I look back when I was younger, I never see myself at 26 years old being called a murderer."

"I was trained to kill. ...I come home. I can't adjust to regular civilian lifestyle," Needham continued. "I spun out of control. I needed help."

"Unfortunately with the way I was trained, you know to react to threats is to neutralize threats. ...Even with someone I love."

In July of 2009, John Needham was out on bail... but far from a free man.

"I feel like a tagged animal," he said looking down at his ankle bracelet. "This is a constant reminder of what has happened and what is true reality no matter how much I try to hide from it or try and escape from it."

Needham was awaiting trial for a crime he found difficult to comprehend - killing a woman he says he loved.

"You know she was absolutely precious to me. She still is," he said.

Jacqwelyn Villagomez was 19 when she died and had only known John Needham for a few months. She'd been a track star in high school - and was hoping to break into modeling and acting.
read more here


Extra: John Needham interrogation
November 12, 2011 7:30 PM

On Sept. 2, 2008, homicide detectives with the Orange County Sheriff's Department questioned John Needham in the beating death of his girlfriend, Jacqwelyn Villagomez.

Private Needham's war
November 12, 2011 7:45 PM

A young soldier is accused of killing the woman he loves. Was she a casualty of war? Troy Roberts reports.


Extra: A father's mission
November 12, 2011 7:46 PM

Since the death of his son, Michael Needham Sr. has been speaking to audiences throughout the country to promote the John Needham Media Center, a non-profit organization associated with The Veterans Project.

PTSD Researchers Need More Money To Figure Out What Didn't Work?

Can we get serious? Seriously, isn't over 4 decades long enough to wait for these yahoo researchers to get their act together? After all, you'd think they would want to help ease the suffering of 8 million Americans with PTSD. That is what we're talking about. Isn't it?

For all the old researchers found treating veterans after combat trauma, they ended up helping regular folks with PTSD from other causes instead of just ignoring their pain while prescribing "get over it" and call them when there was a real problem.

This is what got me started, Cures for PTSD often remain elusive for war veterans on MedicalXPress August 4, 2015

In a review of medical literature over a 35-year period, researchers from the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury—a program in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center—and other institutions found that non-medical approaches to treat PTSD were effective in some patients but not in others, suggesting a need for broader, more personalized approaches to care.

OK, how about we start with what kind they are talking about? If the "non-medical" means they are doing talk therapy to address the real issues behind most of the suffering, like survivor guilt, forgiveness along with every other aspect of the spiritual part of the veteran, then they have a lot of success provided the practitioner actually understands the difference between "spiritual" and "religious" approaches. Two totally different disciplines.

Then add in the question of if the practitioner incorporates physical activities to help bring the body's reaction back to relative calmness instead of allowing PTSD to fuel the rush of adrenaline?

The folks doing this rehash of research must have skipped those parts. But what can we expect from these folks when they come up with a great way to get funding to do a study like this one? Scientists find why bad memories stay with us while not studying humans,,,,,,

"The protein, called beta-catenin, transmits early signals in species ranging from flies to frogs to mice that separate an embryo into front and back or top and bottom. It also acts like Velcro, fastening a cell's internal skeleton to proteins on its external membranes that in turn connect them to other cells."

Back to the MedicalXPress article

Understanding the underlying mechanisms that occur in specific patients is key. A novel five-year multicenter study led by NYU Langone's Cohen Veterans Center is looking into objective biological markers of PTSD and TBI in returning soldiers of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal is to transform the way mental health disorders are diagnosed by identifying specific brain imaging and blood and other biological markers that can tell clinicians definitively that a person is suffering from PTSD or TBI or a combination. Presently, there is no single valid diagnostic test that can independently confirm either diagnosis. Stanford University, Emory University and the U.S. Department of Defense Systems Biology Program at Fort Detrick, Maryland are partners in this research.

God these studies really frosts my cookies but it all comes down to funding for research into what boils down to studying why something isn't working instead of taking a look at what worked and then coming up with another study to figure out how they can get more money for more research. Like this one

University of Cincinnati expert on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will play a leading role in a 17-site, $9 million study that will compare the two leading evidence-based treatments for PTSD.

Kathleen Chard, PhD, will be one of three co-principal investigators for the trial, which is expected to launch later this year. She is an associate professor of clinical psychiatry in the UC Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience and director of the department’s PTSD division, based at the Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center facility in Ft. Thomas, Ky.

The grant is sponsored by the VA’s Cooperative Studies Program, the division of the VA’s Office of Research and Development that is responsible for the planning and conduct of large multicenter clinical trials and epidemiological studies.

Hey, the money keeps coming and veterans keep dying so they end up getting more money to study what they studied for 4 decades. This makes sense to member of Congress? It must considering they just keep writing the checks.

Ok, so moving on to another study they forgot was already done in 2008 and found they still didn't know which came first like the chicken or the egg.

“The size reduction in the hippocampus seems to occur sometime after the initial exposure to stress or trauma in childhood, strengthening the argument that it has something to do with PTSD itself or the stress exposure,” said Dawson Hedges, an author in the study and a BYU neuroscientist.

Previous studies have shown adults who suffered maltreatment as children had volume deficits in the hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with memory, but had not determined if the PTSD caused the deficit or if people born with such a deficit were more at risk for PTSD.

Back to the article

In fact, recently released findings from another study led by Dr. Marmar and published July 22, 2015 in JAMA Psychiatry —the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study—found that over 270,000 Vietnam veterans—40 years since the end of that war—are still suffering from clinically important levels of PTSD symptoms, and one-third of those have a current, major depressive disorder.

This article came out last month

Brain Scan Can Tell PTSD Apart from Traumatic Brain Injury
Healthline Written by R. Sam Barclay Published on July 11, 2015
When it comes to treating TBI and PTSD, it’s important to be able to tell the two apart. The treatments for one can be harmful for people with the other.

But in 2012, UCLA researchers thought they were right when it turned out they were wrong and millions of veterans ended by being mistreated as if TBI and PTSD were the same.

UCLA scientists report link between traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder
15/02/2012

By Stuart Wolpert - UCLA life scientists and their colleagues have provided the first evidence of a causal link between traumatic brain injury and an increased susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Their new study, published Feb. 15 in the in the journal Biological Psychology, also suggests that people who suffer even a mild traumatic brain injury are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder and should take precautions to avoid stressful situations for at least some period of time.

The motivation behind the study, which was conducted in rats, was the observed correlation of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and PTSD, particularly in military veterans returning from service overseas, said Michael Fanselow, a UCLA professor of psychology and the senior author of the study.

The reasons for this correlation are unknown. It could be simply that the events that cause brain injury are also very frightening and that the link between TBI and PTSD could be merely incidental. Fanselow and his colleagues, however, hypothesized that the two "could be linked in a more mechanistic way."

The motivation behind the study, which was conducted in rats, was the observed correlation of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and PTSD, particularly in military veterans returning from service overseas, said Michael Fanselow, a UCLA professor of psychology and the senior author of the study.

And back to the article again,,,,,

"There is a pressing need for innovation in treatments for PTSD and TBI to protect a new generation of veterans," adds Dr. Marmar.

NEW GENERATION OF VETERANS? WTF? They haven't figured out how to take care of the older veterans yet!

NAMI giving award to Dr. Katz for being forced to change?

I am on the NAMI Veteran's Council, or should I say, I have been. After the decision of NAMI to give an award to Dr. Katz, I am struggling finding a reason to participate at all.

When news of Dr. Katz came out during a conference call a few months ago, I was shocked. I respected the other members on the call and managed to keep my mouth shut. I did fire off an angry email, that was never responded to.


This is part of the email

I finally had some time to call in and listen. I am now thoroughly disappointed. The award the council is giving to Dr. Katz is wrong beyond belief. If NAMI wants to award someone for lying about PTSD suicides and attempted suicides then clearly NAMI does not know the facts. I'm involved with a lot of groups, several of which ended up filing law suits because of Dr. Katz and his abysmal record while the troops and veterans were killing themselves. The members that made the choice of Dr. Katz would have known what he's done if they read one tenth of the reports I do. How could you award him anything when he denied the enormous problem with the VA and suicides for the suicide prevention line he was forced to do? Do you know what this will do to NAMI's reputation? The stories have been all over the news for a couple of years and the organizations I'm involved with have massive lists of memberships they will notify of NAMI's award to Dr. Katz. Plan on a massive backlash against NAMI by these organizations because the fury this will cause.

Later in another conference call, someone said that Dr. Katz was vilified by the media. Seems he did a good enough job doing that himself. He was denying the suicides and attempted suicides were as high as they were trying to paint a picture of everything humanly possible being done to address the devastation our troops and veterans were going thru. A lawsuit filed by Veterans for Common Sense followed by another lawsuit on the delay in processing claims.

Arguments in the lawsuit, which pushes for better care for veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, started April 21 in U.S. District Court. Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, say unless the U.S. institutes systemic and drastic measures to care for injured veterans, the numbers of broken families, unemployed and homeless veterans, cases of drug abuse and alcoholism, and the burdens on health care and social services systems will be incalculable. That includes the impact of poor care for Black soldiers with PTSD, they add.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs denied charges that discrimination and racism exacerbate the stress of wartime service and contributes to PTSD, in a written response to Veterans for Common Sense et al vs. Peake. When psychiatrists treat Blacks for PTSD, they are “much less likely to attribute the PTSD to combat than when they treat Whites, leading to a denial of services at the VA,” the lawsuit charges.

Veterans also say that over the last six years, the Bush administration has systematically denied veterans the health care they were promised and that they went to court as a last resort.

Suicide rates alarming
“We are here because veterans are committing suicide at an alarming rate,” Atty. Arturo Gonzalez told U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti, citing government documents showing that 18 U.S. war veterans kill themselves every day. “More of these veterans are dying in the United States than in combat—that’s wrong.”

“There is only one person on Earth who can do anything to help these men and women,” he told the judge, “Your honor, these veterans need help. The VA has demonstrated that they won’t do it on their own.”

The veterans’ groups are asking the judge to order the Department of Veterans Affairs to fully implement its own mental health strategic plan, which they argue has been left to wither on the vine; to comply with an internal VA memo setting out “specific programs intended to stop the suicides;” and to shorten claim times.

In his early May closing argument, Justice Department attorney Daniel Bensing countered that “the VA is providing world-class health care across the board” and dismissed as “immaterial” the fact that 18 veterans commit suicide every day.

“We don’t dispute that suicide is a major issue among veterans,” he said, but “there is no evidence that suicidal veterans have been turned away.”

“Extensive care is being provided,” he said.

But internal VA documents made public at the trial appeared to paint a different picture.

Hiding serious problems?

In one e-mail made public during the trial, the head of the VA’s Mental Health division, Dr. Ira Katz, advised a media representative not to tell reporters that 1,000 veterans receiving care at the VA try to kill themselves every month.

“Shh!” the e-mail begins.

“Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?” the e-mail concludes. Leading Democrats on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee have since called for Dr. Katz’s resignation.

Another set of documents showed that in the six months leading up to March 31, 2008, 1,467 veterans died waiting to learn if their disability claims would be approved by the government. A third set of documents showed that veterans who appeal a VA decision to deny their disability claim have to wait an average of 1,608 days, or nearly four and a half years, for their answer.

These documents, which contained information that journalists and veterans’ groups had been trying to obtain for months, only came to light because of the discovery process of the trial, which required high-ranking government officials to give depositions under oath.

“No matter how this trial turns out, it has given us a wealth of information,” said Amy Fairweather of the nonprofit group Swords to Plowshares, which provides counseling, employment and housing to returning veterans. “We can use the information that’s been discovered to show how to do things better.”

Ms. Fairweather said she hopes Judge Samuel Conti will grant the veterans’ groups request for a Special Master to monitor the Department of Veterans Affairs’ compliance with its mental health strategic plan.

“When someone’s watching over you it’s an incentive to do your job,” she said. “Right now, there’s no accountability.”

As the trial wrapped up, Judge Conti appeared to be friendly to the arguments of the veterans groups, but the judge, an 86-year-old World War II veteran who was originally appointed to the bench by Richard Nixon, expressed a concern that he not overreach his authority.

“This court is restricted by statutes and case law,” he said, asking both sides to file legal arguments on his jurisdiction.

“Whatever I do, one side or the other is going to appeal,” he noted, expressing a desire that his decision not be overturned by a higher court.

Speaking with reporters afterwards, representatives for the veterans and the government both agreed that the losing side will likely appeal the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_4730.shtml

Yet NAMI seems to think that it was the media's fault that Dr. Katz was attacked while our veterans were dying. How many posts are on this blog about the suicides? How many do you think it would have taken NAMI to understand that this was not some kind of political game or media witch hunt going on?

We were reading their stories! We knew what was going on at the same time Dr. Katz among others were denying it was going on.

From VA Watchdog

Yesterday we learned that Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's mental health chief, covered up statistics about veteran suicides. That story here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfAPR08/nf042208-6.htm
Video of that story is here... http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfAPR08/nf042208-7.htm
Now, Sen. Patty Murray wants his head on a platter...and, it couldn't happen to a more deserving fellow. Katz should be fired and ostracized from the medical community for his actions.
Murray press release is here... http://murray.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=296526
For more about CBS News reports on veterans and suicide, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here... http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=cbs+suicide&op=and
Today's story here... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/22/cbsnews_investigates/main4035255.shtml
stories/2008/04/22/cbsnews_investigates/main4035255.shtml

Advocacy Groups File Lawsuit Against VA Over Disability Claims Delays
Main Category: Veterans / Ex-Servicemen
Also Included In: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 12 Nov 2008 - 11:00 PST

Two veterans' advocacy groups on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs alleging that its failure to process disability claims in a timely manner has resulted in economic and other problems for hundreds of thousands of military personnel, the Cox/Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Vietnam Veterans for America and Veterans of Modern Warfare, which represent about 60,000 veterans.

According to the lawsuit, "The VA's failure to provide timely benefits decisions often leads to financial crises, homelessness, addiction and suicide." The suit calls on VA to provide waiting veterans with interim benefits for claims that take at least 90 days to process or more than six months to appeal.

Robert Cattanach, a Minneapolis-based attorney for the veterans, said there currently are about 600,000 service members who are awaiting the outcomes of their disability claims, which can take six months to one year to be processed. Appeals can take up to four years to be processed. Cattanach said that as more veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan return to the U.S., VA likely will see an increase of hundreds of thousands of additional disability claims. Phil Budahn, a VA spokesperson, declined to comment on the lawsuit (Deans, Cox /Memphis Commercial Appeal, 11/11).

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/129023.php

During the Bush Administration, with two military campaigns producing more wounded everyday, the VA was in denial mode at the same time the people on the lower tiers were struggling to help the veterans, process mountains of claims and get them diagnosed properly. What the top of the food chain was doing was quite different. There were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than there were after the Gulf War. IT workers were cut back at the same time people like Sally Satel were being allowed to dismiss the suffering of our veterans with PTSD as if they were just looking for a free ride. Still wonder why nothing was done to the help these veterans during the Bush Administration? Dr. Katz, very well could have been a fall guy for the administration but he was given a chance do decide if he cared more about his job and protecting the administration or cared about the veterans more. He decided to cover up what was going on.

Subject: Dr. Katz to receive top award from National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)



Dr. Ira Katz, Deputy Chief PCS Officer for Mental Health, has been named recipient of NAMI’s Veterans Council Dedication to Veterans Mental Health Care Award. Dr. Katz will receive his award at NAMI’s national conference in San Francisco, July 6-9.

NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots organizations for people with mental illness and their families whose mission is to be an advocate to ensure that all persons affected by mental illness receive the services they need and deserve, in a timely fashion. In announcing the prestigious award, NAMI noted that despite criticism in the media following reports of increased suicides among veterans, Dr. Katz worked tirelessly behind the scenes to launch the VA’s first-ever suicide presentation initiative, including a nationwide crisis call line that has intervened in thousands of potential suicides by veterans. NAMI noted that Dr. Katz spearheaded VA-wide approval of dramatic reform of its mental health programs to embrace recovery principles. “All Veterans receiving mental health care in the VA are better served today because of the work of Dr. Ira Katz,” NAMI said in its statement about the award.

That's the most appalling part in all of this. If Katz believed the crap the administration was putting out, then he was not paying attention enough to know better. If he didn't believe what he was saying then he was provided with enough opportunities to tell the truth. Either way, the veterans kept dying for attention and the truth to come out.

Another conversation during the conference call it was said that Dr. Katz had come a long way and deserved to be recognized for his work on suicide prevention. This stunning statement came after the law suits were filed, after congress and the senate Veterans Affairs Committees decided to figure out what was going on and do something about it. After Nicholson was finally replaced. After families of veterans that committed suicide told their stories to congress and after the needless military burials had already happened. Today, we still see the rise in suicides and attempted suicides but NAMI, well, NAMI decided that Katz deserves this award because he was forced to do something!

There is a lot of great work NAMI has been doing to address PTSD, from Peer To Peer and Family to Family, to other groups forming partnership with the VA and the DOD. All their work should be applauded but when they are wrong, they are wrong and I refuse to dismiss it.

I got into all of this because the veterans came first, not the people with the power. The veterans were and still are suffering, but the people with the power will not do what it takes, whatever it takes or how much money it will take to really take care of them. If I remain silent on this, I will be betraying the veterans I've fought so hard for since 1982. If I leave NAMI over this, it's no great loss to them because they never listen to me anyway. I am no one in their organization. In giving this award to Dr. Katz after his history it is a slap in the face to all the other groups around the country that tried so hard to bring accountability for the sake of the veterans, make the changes necessary to save their lives and provide them with a better quality of life.

I am torn up over this. If I did not believe in NAMI, know what good they are doing, I would not hesitate to stop supporting them. Thinking about what they are preparing to do makes me wonder how much they have really been paying attention to what has been happening to our veterans. It makes me sick thinking they could possibly be so unaware of any of this they reward someone responsible for it.

I think I just made up my mind. All the years and all the experience I have has meant nothing to NAMI Veterans Council in the past year so I'm done wasting my time. I'm done trying to get them to pay attention. I'm done reading emails sent with the "latest news" days after I've already posted it on the blog. This is the last straw on this overburdened back of mine. If they want to do something like this, after all the harm done, I can no longer support them.

Ecstasy may help PTSD

You need to see this video, especially if you are under the delusion scientist are not sure about PTSD. It is real. They have the test and research to prove it!

Ecstasy may help PTSD 2:02
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on research showing ecstasy might help those suffering from PTSD.

For more on this on this blog

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Tom Shroder wants questions from you on ecstasy trials for PTSD

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Ecstasy Trials Was it a fluke -- or the future?

Monday, February 11, 2008

A New Look At Ecstasy To Treat PTSD

Monday, February 18, 2008

Breaking the Drug Taboo:PTSD Veterans Get Ecstasy Treatment

Monday, April 7, 2008

UK:Welsh soldier dies from Ecstasy use

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Australia tackles Ecstasy treatment for PTSD

Monday, June 23, 2008

Ecstasy for PTSD in Australia battle for minds

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Drug trials:Had a nice trip. Wish you could, too.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

From Marijuana to Ecstasy, Scientists Fight to Study Illicit Drugs

But, this study is not new. This is from my other blog


Ecstasy trials for combat stress
David Adam,
science correspondent
Thursday February 17, 2005
The Guardian
American soldiers traumatised by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares.

The US food and drug administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be included in an experiment to see if MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, can treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

Scientists behind the trial in South Carolina think the feelings of emotional closeness reported by those taking the drug could help the soldiers talk about their experiences to therapists. Several victims of rape and sexual abuse with post-traumatic stress disorder, for whom existing treatments are ineffective, have been given MDMA since the research began last year.............................
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1416073,00.html



TWO QUESTIONS ON THIS LITTLE KNOWN REPORT. ARE THEY STILL DOING THIS? ARE THE TROOPS BEING SENT BACK TO IRAQ TAKING IT? WE KNOW THEY ARE SENDING TROOPS DIAGNONSED WITH PTSD BACK TO IRAQ ON MEDS. IS THIS ONE OF THEM? COULD THIS BE THE CAUSE OF SOME OF THEM GOING OVER THE EDGE?
http://namguardianangel.blogspot.com/search?q=ecstacy+trails

Suicide story of Sgt. Justin Junkin has all the reasons

If you want to know why there are so many suicides, you need to read this. It has it all. Sgt. Justin Junkin had survivors guilt, suffered from the lingering stigma of PTSD even though he was helping other soldiers, plus medication issues with Zoloft and Klonopin. He knew the basics of PTSD and so did his wife. Justin ended his pain not by healing, not by getting what he needed to fight this destroyer inside of him. He ended his pain by ending his own life. All of us need to pay attention to this whole story.

Soldier took up family life, but with subtle signs of trouble
Sgt. Junkin seemed to be 'grieving well' after his best friend's death
Oct 7, 2012
Written by
Philip Grey
Leaf-Chronicle

Justin had two soldiers working for him at the time, including one who had severe post-traumatic stress problems and suicidal thoughts. Justin shielded the soldier from ridicule, which Heather said was prevalent in the unit for soldiers who were open about their psychological issues.

In the Army’s official report on Justin’s death, a sworn statement from a soldier in Justin’s battery reads, “Unit has a stigma about soldiers getting help, making soldiers not wanting to get help. (Redacted) felt he had to be close to suicide to get help.”

“Justin actually spoke out against suicide at one of their meetings when they were touching on that subject and PTSD,” Heather remembered. “That was maybe less than a month before he died.”

CLARKSVILLE, TENN. — After the death of his best friend from an improvised explosive device during a 2010 deployment to Afghanistan, Sgt. Justin Junkin had been placed on suicide watch. However, by the time he came back to Fort Campbell just over nine months later, he appeared to be doing fine and seemed more focused on the future than the past.

His friend’s death had hit him hard, and for a reason that went beyond the understandable grief over losing someone he had been close to since before their previous deployment together in Iraq.

The friend, who had taken over Justin’s team after Justin was pulled out over problems with his hearing, was killed in action just two missions later.
read more here
also
Soldier's path to suicide

This is why it all keeps happening to too many families across this country as we read the numbers released by the DOD and the VA. Average one a day military suicides information is usually followed by a subcategory of attempted suicides. These releases always have claims by the Marines and the Army they are doing this and that to prevent them. This information is always more of the same thing they have been doing only they do more of it. In other words, they do more of the same things that failed all of these years.

Links to medications suspected with non-combat deaths

Medicating the military

This is from my old blog going back to 2007. I doubt the links still work but they give you an idea how long these medications have been studied but they are still being used on the troops no matter what the side effects are.

FDA Approves Zoloft For Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

NEW YORK -- December 8, 1999 -- Pfizer Inc. has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its anti-depressant, Zoloft® (sertraline hydrochloride), for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor discovered and developed by Pfizer, Zoloft is the first medicine to receive a FDA approval for the treatment of PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD may develop following any extreme traumatic event in which there was threatened death or serious injury, and the individual’s response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror. Such events may include physical and sexual abuse and natural disasters.

Approximately 50 percent of the general population are exposed to a traumatic event during their lifetime. Ten to twenty percent of those develop PTSD. The prevalence of PTSD is twice as high in women as in men. go here for the rest http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/14ef56.htm

Study leads first drug for post-traumatic disorder
By LYNNE LANGLEY Of The Post and Courier staff


Thanks to a study led in Charleston, the first medicine anywhere to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, a common and potentially devastating illness, has won approval. Zoloft, a drug widely used to combat depression, proved significantly more effective than an inactive placebo in decreasing symptoms and raising quality of life, explained Charleston psychiatrist Dr. Kathleen Brady."This is one of the more common psychiatric disorders, and now there is a medicine that treats it. It not only improves symptoms, it improves lives," said Brady, professor of psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina Institute of Psychiatry. "This should be a positive message to patients: We've got a drug that is safe, that millions of people have used with success." Brady, the lead author of a study published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, explained that the study is one of two that led to federal Food and Drug Administration approval of Zoloft four months ago as the first treatment in the world for post-traumatic stress disorder. "That makes it a pretty big finding," she said. The disorder affects about 8 percent of Americans at some point in their lives, said Brady, adding it's nearly as widepread as depression.

Of 187 patients in the study, 53 percent of those receiving Zoloft (the brand name of the generic sertraline) were much or very much improved at the end of 12 weeks, Brady said, and some patients showed benefits within two weeks.
go here for the rest of this http://research.musc.edu/news/brady.html

Suicides and Homicides in Patients Taking Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft: Why They Keep Happening -- And Why They Will Continue. Underlying Causes That Continue to Be Ignored by Mainstream Medicine and the Media. From almost the day that they were introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, sudden, unexpected suicides and homicides have been reported in patients taking serotonin-enhancing antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft. I'm not surprised this problem hasn't disappeared, nor will it unless we look deeper. I never hesitate to say that these drugs -- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) -- help millions of people. But any drug that can cause positive changes in people's brains can also cause negative ones unless care is taken to avoid it. We do not take such care. So it was no surprise to me when, in August 2003, more headlines appeared. These were based on reports by British authorities and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about unpublished studies showing an increased risk of suicide in children and teenagers taking Paxil (1-3). Prior reports of suicidal and homicidal acts in adults taking SSRIs have been explained away by drug industry defenders and mainstream doctors, who claim that suicide is common in depression anyway. And that no type of antidepressant helps everyone. Some depressed patients don't get better and choose suicide. That's true sometimes, unfortunately. But these reports describe more impulsive, violent acts than expected. As I said fifteen years ago at the time of the first reports and again in Over Dose in 2001 (4), SSRIs could create a unique combination of side effects that might severely impair judgment and impulse control. This has been described by others as well (5-16).

go here for the rest of this
http://www.medicationsense.com/articles/oct_dec_03/suicides_homicides.html

Friday, May 25, 2007


Convenient Honesty and Zoloft

Recently, a study was published which cast doubt on the efficacy of sertraline (Zoloft) for PTSD, finding that the drug was no better than a placebo.

The kicker is that the patent has expired for Zoloft, which is why the data are now flowing more freely. I’ll make the case here that data were buried until they would no longer hurt sales to any meaningful extent, at which point data were published, at least partially as a public relations move to show just how “honest” the companies are with sharing both positive and negative results with the psychiatric community.

The Research: The latest study, which appears in the May 2007 Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, showed no benefit for drug over a 12-week period. Placebo tended to outperform Zoloft on the majority of outcome measures, though the differences were of a small and statistically insignificant degree. Patients were significantly more likely to drop out of treatment on Zoloft. It was unclear if there were any serious adverse events (e.g., suicide attempts, notable aggression, etc.) because the article did not mention them at all. Patients started this study between May 1994 and September 1996. The original draft of the study was received by the journal in March 2006. Nearly 10 years passed between study completion and writing up the data for publication

go here for the rest of this
http://clinpsyc.blogspot.com/2007/05/convenient-honesty-and-zoloft.html

Pfc. Robert A. Guy 26 Company I, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Willards, Maryland Died due to a non-hostile incident near Karma, Iraq, on April 21, 2005 "Any little thing they do is a help," said Ann Guy of Willards, Md., whose son, Marine Pfc. Robert A. Guy, killed himself in Iraq on April 21, 2005 - a month after he was prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft with no monitoring.
http://www.optruth.org/index.php/images/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=2232&Itemid=116

Robert Guy's story is just one of many. The above studies showed very a limited number of people were in the trial. With 187 in the trial 53% found it of help in twelve weeks. Why so few in a drug that has been given to so many people? Who managed to sell Zolofot to the American people?

We can go back on the net and find report after report on drugs the FDA approved yet produced very bad results from heart problems and other illnesses. If you go back into my blog, type in non-combat deaths in the search field, you will find many other reports of adverse effects from people taking these "wonder drugs" and ended up committing suicide or murders.

The next question is: Why isn't the media tracking these before we lose more people who were supposed to be being helped? Do you own homework and if you are on Zolofot, Google it and find the reports you need to know. If you are counting on the media to tell you on the nightly news, forget about it.

This is just the first Google page when I searched for Zolofot and a gun.

S.C. v. Pittman - Full Trial Coverage on Courttv.com Jurors began deliberations Monday in the murder trial of Christopher Pittman, who claims Zoloft made him gun down his grandparents when he was 12 years old. ...
www.courttv.com/trials/pittman/index.html http://www.courttv.com/trials/pittman/index.html

Can Valium Kill :: US Licensed Pharmacies
Picot a mischief for manners secondly hearthrugs which to expect anthea quite of objects the valium and zoloft interactions hand-gun and valia velyova and ...
adminstaff.vassar.edu/mebrown/FDR/db/?Can-valium-kill/ http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/mebrown/FDR/db/?Can-valium-kill/

Phentermine And Zoloft :: US Licensed Pharmacies
Phentermine and zoloft, Phentermine overnight delivery no prescription, ... Swallowing the yellow-lace courtyards paved hand-gun and earnestness that ties ...
adminstaff.vassar.edu/mebrown/FDR/db/?Phentermine-and-zoloft/ http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/mebrown/FDR/db/?Phentermine-and-zoloft/

Federal Judge Rejects Pfizer's Efforts to Dismiss Zoloft-Suicide .....
Pfizer argued that, since the FDA approved Zoloft and did not, ... The gun represents a drug and the bullets represent a serious safety problem. ...
www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/zoloft/Woody/WitczakPreemptionWin.htm http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/zoloft/Woody/WitczakPreemptionWin.htm

Phentermine Zoloft :: Safe, Secure Online Shopping
Phentermine zoloft, Lysergic acid diethylamide aciphex phentermine pharmacy, ... Otters skins and gun was what thats fort but imogen whispered anthea nudged ...
rescom.uwec.edu/dmdocuments/db/?Phentermine-zoloft/ http://rescom.uwec.edu/dmdocuments/db/?Phentermine-zoloft/

The Reason Behind The Madness - Drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft ...
These and virtually all of the gun-related massacres that have made headlines over the ... THEY WERE PERPETRATED BY PEOPLE TAKING PROZAC, ZOLOFT, LUVOX, ...
www.karinya.com/madness.htm http://www.karinya.com/madness.htm

Military Families Speak Out : Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight ...
"I couldn't believe it - an antidepressant, while he's out there holding a gun? I told him, `Get off the Zoloft because I hear bad things about it.'" ...
www.mfso.org/article.php?id=604 http://www.mfso.org/article.php?id=604

Keep and Bear Arms - Gun Owners Home Page - 2nd Amendment Supporter...
Gun Show On The Net » 2nd Amendment Show » SEMPER FIrearms ... SSRI drugs like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and Luvox--which was apparently prescribed for Eric ...
keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=1433 http://keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=1433

VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE
Ted Kennedy, Rosie O'Nut and Diane Fienstien all promote gun control yet ... A wrongful death court case was filed and settled by the Zoloft manufacturer. ...
forums.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=24&forumPage=39 http://forums.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=24&forumPage=39

Teen Guilty of Murder in 'Zoloft Case'
Teen Guilty of Murder in Zoloft Case, Crime / Punishment, A Charleston, ... Stories of Eastern StateQuiz - Vermont Gun LawsQuiz - Mississippi Gun Laws ...
crime.about.com/b/a/146813.htm

So while the DOD says they have their act together and doing everything possible to address military suicides plus take care of the troops and their families, now maybe you know why stories like Sgt. Justin Junkin keep ending so sadly. They can hold all the Stand Downs for suicide prevention they want, do all the training they want, hold meetings with families even more, but in the end if they are repeating the same messages, we will keep seeing them suffer and families will still have to visit a grave while they blame themselves.