Helping veterans heal, grow after war

August 25th, 2007 9:31 pm
Helping veterans heal, grow after war


By Guy Kovner / Press Democrat

Nadia McCaffrey knows the sorrow of war firsthand.

Her son, Army Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey of Tracy, was killed in Iraq in June 2004, and a year later the Pentagon admitted he and another California National Guardsman, 1st Lt. Andre Tyson of Riverside, had been killed by Iraqi civil defense officers attached to their patrol.

They served in Iraq with Petaluma-based A Company of the Guard's 579th Engineer Battalion, which suffered a third casualty -- Sgt. 1st Class Michael Ottolini, a Sebastopol hay truck driver, killed by a roadside bomb.

About 20 North Bay members of the 579th Engineers are about to leave for a year-long tour in Iraq, following a farewell ceremony Thursday at New Jersey's Fort Dix.

McCaffrey, a French-born hospice caregiver-turned-antiwar-activist, wants to make sure they have help and good care when they get back.

On Sunday, McCaffrey, will unveil her latest initiative at a public meeting in Petaluma. It's a campaign to place psychologically scarred veterans in jobs and the healing environments of small farms.

The Farmer-Veteran Coalition, backed by about 20 agricultural and veterans organizations, will be described at a meeting from noon to 3 p.m. at Elim Lutheran Church, 504 Baker St., Petaluma.

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Researchers Examine Most Resilient Soldiers

Facing Combat Without Stress?
Researchers Examine Most Resilient Soldiers

By LISA CHEDEKEL | Courant Staff Writer
August 25, 2007

No one's trying to engineer the perfect soldier.

Yet.

But if a network of researchers that includes clinicians at the veterans hospital in West Haven continues down the track they've set out on, troops heading off to war could someday be inoculated against combat stress.

"Are there ways to emotionally inoculate people? It's a new area of research," said Dr. Steven Southwick, deputy director of the Clinical Neurosciences Division of the National Center for PTSD, an arm of the Department of Veterans Affairs that is housed at the West Haven campus. "We do know there are factors that make some people resilient. There are genetic components to it, but there's a huge learning component. People can train themselves to be more resilient."

Nearly a decade ago, Southwick and his colleagues began studying the chemical and psychosocial factors that make some trauma survivors more resilient than others. Through extensive studies of Vietnam POWs and other trauma survivors, and U.S. special forces and Navy SEALs, the researchers have identified a dozen behavioral traits - and two stress-related hormones - that appear to buffer the effects of psychological trauma.

The findings could have implications for future training, screening and even medication of troops preparing for combat.

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This would be good but in the process, what else will they give up? If they no long feel stress, what else will they not feel? If they no long have fear, then what else will this lead to?

Wounded and Waiting video, Why do wounded veterans have to wait

Here are some facts. Not spin. Not what the reporters feel like repeating when they use figures that the DOD claims from time to time, but the cold, hard facts. From burns, to amputations, to suicides and PTSD. Why do they have to fight the wars we send them to fight and then fight us to have those wounds taken care of? It's my latest video. I just got tired of screaming that while the media seems so focused on the reported 99 suicides last year, they failed to mention what the VA said was really happening when they come home. We talk a good game of "supporting" them but when we allow any of this to happen to them, we prove we only talk about support.

Go to the bottom of this blog for Wounded And Waiting and ask yourself if you would wait or if you would be fine with being one of the 600,000 backlogged claims, or one of the discharged under "personality disorder" because you had PTSD and a combat wound? Would you be fine with the media putting out figures that are false and do not include a family member who committed suicide because they couldn't get the care they were promised? Would you be ok with any of this? Then why do we expect them to be?

Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com

www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research dumped personal info into trash

Army Lab Documents Found in Trash Bin
By Associated Press
9:40 AM EDT, August 21, 2007

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Boxes of documents containing personal information from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research were supposed to be shredded but instead turned up last week in a trash bin, police said.

A resident of a suburban Washington neighborhood near the Army medical research's campus found the boxes Friday and alerted Montgomery County police.

The files were research study records, said Cynthia Vaughn, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Medical Command. An investigation is under way to determine precisely what information they held and why they appeared off base, Vaughn said Monday. Police said most were from the late 1990s and were likely placed in the bin on the same day they were discovered.

Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention bill blocked by Coburn

The actual title of this post should be "Coburn would rather see vets commit suicide because they buy guns to do it." What the hell is wrong with this man? Does the NRA have such a tie to him that he would rather let combat wounded die because it may give other veterans a problem buying guns? Does he know how many of them commit suicide every year and most of them use a gun to do it?

I have no problem with people owning guns if they do it legally but I do have a problem with putting a loaded gun into the hands of a PTSD veteran who is on the verge of wanting to die and putting the gun into their hands. I do have a problem with unstable veterans with PTSD having guns because if they have a flashback that goes really bad, they can and do use those guns on their family members. I wonder if Coburn ever read the post I did on non-combat deaths so that he could see how many of them killed their family member before they committed suicide? I doubt he would ever read anything that didn't have a big fat donation attached to it.

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

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

August 24, 2007
Suicide Bill Blocked
Filed under: PTSD, Legislation, Iraq, Mental Health, Suicide, Readjustment — Patrick Campbell @ 7:44 pm
Right before Congress broke for recess, both parties in the Senate agreed to pass the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention bill (S.479) with unanimous consent. The bill has passed unanimously in House in March. Unfortunately, one unnamed Senator (Coburn - OK) put a hold on it, essentially blocking passage, because this Senator worried that somehow increasing the number of veterans getting treated for PTSD and suicidal thoughts might prevent them later buying guns.

In a recent article in Congressional Quarterly (CQ) I called Coburn’s argument “ludicrous… a red herring.” I further elaborated that Coburn’s concerns more focused on gun control legislation then this suicide prevention bill.
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“I saw his life fall off the face of the earth,”

For a friend, a special way to ask for help

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 22, 2007


The guy has been a friend of John Powers since their middle school days in Cumberland. When Powers headed for the University of Rhode Island, his friend headed for the Marine Corps.

His friend came back from Afghanistan in 2005.

“I saw his life fall off the face of the earth,” says Powers. “He couldn’t get a job.”

It has been two years, and still Powers worries. His friend will be OK for a couple of months, then get caught in that dark, frightening confusion that the Marines never prepared him for. He’ll stop calling.

So Powers did something. He is 23 and he did something extraordinary. He looked at his friend and saw hundreds and thousands of others lined up behind him with the same terrible uncertainty about what’s going wrong and what should be done about it.

“I started reading and writing,” he says.

Home From War by Patience Mason

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

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

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

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Outward Bound program helps veterans heal their emotional scars

Outward Bound program helps veterans heal their emotional scars
By Conrad Mulcahy Published: August 24, 2007

THE nine men who climbed to the summit of the Colorado mountain were combat veterans who had fought in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

Several knew the pain of bullets tearing through flesh. Others couldn't gather memories blown away by an explosion. Some had seen combat so close they killed with their knives.

They were a wary group of strangers, guarded and slow to trust, who had arrived at the Outward Bound Wilderness school in Leadville, Colorado, a few days before, wondering how a one-week course in the wilderness could help them heal. But on the fourth day of their five-day journey in mid-July, after more than three hours of tough climbing up steep, moss-covered scree fields and beyond the tree line, these hard military men, ranging in age from 23 to 52, mourned in silence, 13,000 feet above sea level on the summit of Virginia Peak. Stripped of life's routines, they stood under an iron-gray early morning sky and finally allowed the tears to fall for friends who would never see this place.

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America Supports You: Group Lets Troops Know It's 'Hear 4 You'

23. August 2007
America Supports You: Group Lets Troops Know It's 'Hear 4 You'
By Samantha L. Quigley American Forces Press Service
America Supports You: Group Lets Troops Know It's 'Hear 4 You'
WASHINGTON, Aug. 23, 2007 - A group that supports wounded servicemembers and their families is offering troops a friendly ear with its newest program, "Hear 4 You." The no-cost program that launched Aug. 1 aims to develop a network of volunteers to listen to military personnel and their families affected by post-deployment stress and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The program is one of many services offered by Silver Star Families of America, which supports families of wounded servicemembers. The group is a supporter of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.

"We are just there to listen," Janie Orman, Silver Star Families of America's vice president, said. "We are not counseling. We want everyone to know that. We don't take the place of a (mental health) professional in any way."

Thirteen Silver Star Families of America volunteers man e-mail or instant-messaging accounts to answer concerns of servicemembers. Military personnel or family members wishing talk to a volunteer through the Hear 4 You program can follow the link from the Silver Star Families of America Web site, http://www.silverstarfamilies.org/. The program's Web site shows which volunteers are online at any given moment.

All volunteers have received training in how to spot signs of post-traumatic stress disorder or suicidal thoughts, Orman said.

"In that particular area, if we feel or get a sense of that in any way, we advise them ... to seek help," she said. "If needed, we'll try to help them find that right then."
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Vets For Freedom, not interested in wounded vets

I would like to know who the hell funds this group?

http://www.votevets.org/

Go there and hear one of them try to deny how serious PTSD is and suicides are in the military.

Go to my other blog for the update on them. This is not a political blog but one of support for veterans with PTSD. When I hear anyone trying to give false information on PTSD, it will be posted here no matter who is doing it. I don't care what side they are on when it comes to Iraq. If they speak the truth on PTSD, they have my support but if they do not, they have my wrath. PTSD does not care what letter comes after their name. Neither do I. Vets come first here, now and always to me. I am the most political when it comes to how our veterans are treated and who is treating them poorly. For those, I'll reserve it for the other blog.

Church will hold combat stress seminar

Church will hold combat stress seminar
BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ Daily Press
9:44 AM EDT, August 23, 2007

On Saturday, Oct. 6, from 1 to 3 p.m., Seaford Baptist Church on Seaford Road will host an educational seminar on post-traumatic stress disorder and spiritual solutions for healing.The event is open to the public.
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PTSD number game still playing at a trauma center near you

Battle Continues Over Vietnam PTSD Numbers
Forbes - NY,USA
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder involving nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks linked to event "triggers" that develop ...

but wait,,,don't believe it. As posted many times, the DAV had a study in 1978 and they placed the number of PTSD Vietnam Vets at 500,000. The number in this release are false. All you have to do is look back at what was found and how the figures were found to know what is or was real. They are forgetting one huge factor. How many we lost because of PTSD and suicide and homelessness causing early deaths.

Soldier sent back to duty three days after suicide attempt

Rising suicide rate among U.S. soldiers hitting close to home
Watch Video
Updated: Aug 22, 2007 6:38pm
The stress of combat is taking its toll on many soldiers.
In fact, according to the U.S. Army, last year there were 99 suicides; 30 of those happened in war zones.
It’s not a new trend, the same happened during wars like Vietnam.

According to the U.S. Army in 2005 there were 12.8 suicides per 100,000 soldiers.

That number increased last year with the army recording 17.3 suicides per 100,000 soldiers.

Staff Sgt. Derrick Degrate said he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress disorder after seeing too much in war.

"[I saw] people getting shot up, people getting blown up," Degrate said.

It took its toll, and while on a tour in Iraq he admits he tried to take his own life.

"So, I attempted suicide and, you know, and I was admitted to the hospital," Degrate added.

He said he was hospitalized for three days and then sent back to duty.

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Civilian clergy get war trauma lesson

Civilian clergy get war trauma lesson
Training focuses on helping troops with combat stress when they return home.
BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ | 247-7821
August 22, 2007

NEWPORT NEWS - Military chaplains are often revered by troops on the front lines. They provide a place where they can go to cry, to vent, to talk about the trauma war has exposed them to - and not feel like they're being judged.

Back home, those troops are likely to reach out to their civilian pastors, Susan Cross, a chaplain with the Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center told roughly 75 clergy members gathered Tuesday at a daylong course on dealing with combat stress.

Some servicemen and servicewomen still fear seeking professional mental health care from the military or the VA.

Real way to support our troops

This editorial is from the Cincinnati Enquirer

Real way to support our troops

In the midst of troops fighting to stay alive in Iraq, it is painful news that 27 American soldiers took their own lives last year in the midst of warfare there. Another three killed themselves while deployed in Afghanistan.

All told, 99 active-duty soldiers committed suicide last year, the highest rate in 26 years of Army record keeping, according to an Army report released Thursday. While mental experts fear rising rates among Iraq veterans, no one can say for sure because the military has no method for tracking such numbers.

The new report dramatizes the need for stepping up mental health services for military members and their families. A Defense Department task force earlier this year issued a strongly worded report admitting military health services were inadequate and poorly positioned, still not geared up for wartime needs.

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I'm glad people are talking about and reporting on PTSD, especially the suicides linked to it. I just find it really ironic they couldn't pay attention before this. Nothing that has been reported in the this recent series discussing the suicides last year is new. It is not a shocking revaluation to anyone living with this, regarding it with all seriousness.
But where were they all before this?

Jeffrey F. Braun, 19, Stafford Springs CT Pfc. Jeffrey F. Braun 19 Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division Stafford, Connecticut "Died of a non-hostile gunshot wound in Baghdad, Iraq, on December 12, 2003The only confirmed Connecticut suicide is that of Army Pfc. Jeffrey Braun, 19, of Stafford, who died in December 2003. His father, William Braun, told The Courant he still did not have a full explanation of what happened to Jeffrey, but said, ""I've chosen not to pursue it or question it. It's over and done with.""http://www.coalitionmemorial.org/pdf/abraun.pdf
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/7/4000


Jason Cooper - Iraq War Heroes, Fallen Heroes Memorial
One of its victims, she said, was her son, Jason Cooper, 23, who took off his dog tags, fastened a noose, and stepped off a chair. ...July 14, 2005

1st Lt. Debra A. Banaszak 35 1035th Maintenance Company, Missouri Army National Guard Bloomington, Illinois "Died from non-combat related injuries at Camp Victory, Kuwait, on October 28, 2005Barbara Butler, mother of Army National Guard 1st Lt. Debra A. Banaszak, 35, of Bloomington, Ill., said she has trouble understanding why her daughter would have taken her own life in Kuwait last October, as the military has determined. She said that while Banaszak, the single mother of a teenage son, was proud to serve her country and had not complained, the stresses of the deployment may have exacerbated her depression.

Joshua Omvig - Iraq War Heroes, Fallen Heroes Memorial
Joshua Lee Omvig. Gillette, Wyoming. committed suicide at the age of 22. December 22, 2005


"All is not okay or right for those of us who return home alive and supposedly well. What looks like normalcy and readjustment is only an illusion to be revealed by time and torment. Some soldiers come home missing limbs and other parts of their bodies. Still others will live with permanent scars from horrific events that no one other than those who served will ever understand." - Douglas Barber , 2005
On January 16th, (2006)after having talked quite normally on the phone with at least two other people that same day, Douglas Barber, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) living in Lee County, Alabama, changed the answer-message on his telephone.
"If you're looking for Doug," it said in his Alabama drawl, "I'm checking out of this world. I'll see you on the other side."
He then called the police, collected his shotgun, and went out onto his porch to meet them. From the sketchy reports we have now, it seems the police wouldn't oblige him with a "suicide by cop" and tried to talk him down. When it became apparent he wasn't able to commit cop-suicide, 27-year-old Douglas Barber did an about face, rotated the shotgun and killed himself.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/21/6619/03308

Private Gary Boswell, 20, from Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, was found hanging in a playground in July. John and Sarah Boswell said army personnel should be offered counseling when they return from active service.
http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/armed_force/us_soldiers_committing_suicide_vietnam_iraq.html

There were a lot more and even more we still don't know about because they are still listed as "under investigation" by the military. Even they don't know how many committed suicide once they were home. There are too many no one is keeping track of. So where was all this concern back then when all of this started? I'm not talking about 2003 when Iraq was invaded. I'm not talking about 2001 when we invaded Afghanistan. I'm not even talking about the Gulf War but I am talking about Vietnam. Where was all this concern back then when we began to lose more after they came home than we lost in Vietnam?
Naturally I am grateful every time I read a reporter taking the time to bring this all out into the open, but I've seen this "interest" before and they drop it before even attempting to put a human face on the numbers they provide. As it is, the numbers they provide are wrong and far too low against reality. These are men and women we are talking about. They have lives, dreams, families and friends. They mattered to others and they should have their stories told. Until we stop just putting them into containers of expedience we will never end the stigma keeping them from healing and the help they need.

Where is the attention to the 1,000 the VA has committing suicide every year or the other 5,000 committing suicide outside of the VA?

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington