36 percent of veterans have at least one mental health issue

VA to spend $6.5M reviewing mental health care
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 7, 2007 15:52:32 EDT

The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a $6.5 million contract to evaluate its mental health services to Altarum Institute and The Rand/University of Pittsburgh Health Institute.
The two institutes will look at Veterans Health Administration services throughout the country, concentrating on services to veterans with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major-depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance-abuse issues.
The group will conduct surveys, review medical charts and interview patients to determine what works well and what could be done better — including making sure veterans have timely access to care.
VHA officials say 36 percent of the 1.5 million veterans enrolled in the VA health system have at least one mental health issue. Demands upon the mental health care system have increased greatly as troops have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, overwhelming the administrative system used to process claims as well as the medical staff that provides care.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/military_va_mentalhealth_070907w/

Ohio Cop arrested for shooting himself?

Petition asks court to free officer
By Kelli Wynn
Dayton Daily News

The family of Donald Fink, the Dayton, Ohio, police officer accused of stealing a gun from the department's property room and using it to shoot himself March 13, is asking the community to sign a petition to help get him out of jail.

A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Fink, 32, on charges of grand theft, theft in office, tampering with evidence, inducing panic, making false alarms and misdemeanor falsification. At the time of the incident, Fink was being treated for depression, panic disorder and anxiety disorder, according to attorney Jon Paul Rion.
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Are they more upset he stole the gun or that he stole it to use it on himself? Guess they never heard of PTSD in Ohio. If they did they would know all it takes is trauma and police are one of its targets.

Spc. Virgadamo, wounded to death

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Spc. Travis M. Virgadamo, 19, of Las Vegas, Nev., died Aug. 30 in Taji, Iraq, in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 3d Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2d Brigade Combat Team, 3d Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
The circumstances surrounding the death are under investigation.

This is how the military reports a suicide death. Under investigation. They leave it up to the media to do follow ups. In this case, they did and so did the family. This is what is needed to fully tell their stories. Stories of deaths just as related to combat as a bullet or a bomb.

Sep. 05, 2007 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Soldier from LV dies in Iraq REVIEW-JOURNAL
Operation Iraqi FreedomA special package of news updates, local coverage, multimedia and more.
A soldier from Las Vegas died Thursday in Taji, Iraq, of a non-combat related incident, Department of Defense officials said in a statement.
An Army official told the family that 19-year-old Spc. Travis M. Virgadamo died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that the circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.
The statement posted Monday on the Pentagon's Web site said Virgadamo was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Stewart, Ga.
The family prefers donations be made to the Disabled American Veterans.

PTSD is a wound to the mind. How do they send soldiers back into combat with a wounded mind? What are they thinking? Are they thinking at all?

Rushed back to the front: Experts say depressed soldier on drug needed more time
By Ed Koch and Mary ManningPublished in the Sun on Sept. 6

A Las Vegas Army infantryman who was prescribed Prozac for depression and several weeks later killed himself in Iraq should have undergone at least three months of observation before returning to normal duties, psychiatrists and other medical experts said in interviews Wednesday.

Family and friends of Pfc. Travis Virgadamo say he told them he was prescribed daily doses of 12.5 milligrams of the antidepressant Prozac beginning in July. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound last Thursday outside of Baghdad, the military said.
Medical experts interviewed by the Sun said anyone given prescription antidepressants should be watched carefully and kept out of high-stress duty for at least three months.

Las Vegas psychiatrist Dr. Mark Collins said anyone on Prozac needs to be checked regularly for 90 days before being returned “to combat — the most stressful of all situations.”

Collins said he has treated many firefighters and police officers with Prozac. “I would return them to light duty or partial duty for a three-month period.”

Experts also noted that research has found that the drugs pose a special risk to teenagers. Virgadamo was 19.

Prozac’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly and Company of Indianapolis, says in its warning that clinical studies indicate that antidepressants “increased the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents and young adults with depression and other psychiatric disorders.”

Dr. Andrew Leuchter, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, said young combat soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are often treated with antidepressants and sent back into the field despite the risks.

“Unfortunately, they take kids out of these situations and put them right back in,” Leuchter said. “The major factor for suicide is to have a major depressive episode.”
http://politics.lasvegassun.com/2007/09/rushed-back-to-.html

Early intervention and treatment saves lives. If they simply give them a couple of sessions with a psychologist and prescription, it is as if they gave them the ammunition to kill themselves. Medications need to be monitored. If they wait until the veteran has healed enough and is truly ready to go back to "work" then they put a dedicated solider back to where they can thrive. This should not be sending them back into combat. It will only make the wound deeper and stronger. There are other jobs the military has for those who want to stay and they do not all involve combat. Whatever they are thinking by putting these wounded soldiers into positions where they are traumatized even more is a disgrace. They are not machines!

Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

The killing of Jamie Dean

The killing of Jamie Dean
Police in rural Maryland staged a military stakeout and shot a troubled Army vet. As his family plans to sue, they are asking how a soldier being treated for PTSD could be shipped to Iraq.

By Julia Dahl


Photo: Muriel Dean

Jamie Dean, Dec. 17, 2006.

Sept. 5, 2007 | Jamie Dean had been holed up in his childhood home for six hours when the tear gas canisters came crashing through the windows. It was a little after 4 a.m., the day after Christmas 2006, and Sgt. James Emerick Dean, 29, formerly of the 25th Infantry Division, knew he was surrounded. The white farmhouse was tucked beside a grove of trees in Leonardtown, a rural hamlet in southern Maryland, where Dean's family once raised tobacco. Now, from behind the blinds, Dean could see cops with flashlights creeping around his backyard. He could see police cars on the dirt road outside the house. He could hear the sirens and the shouting and the buzz of the police radios.

It had been a month since Dean had gotten word he'd have to go back to war. He had already served a year in Afghanistan. He'd done and seen things over there he couldn't talk about, and now they were sending him to Iraq. Like tens of thousands of soldiers fighting the post-9/11 wars, Dean was being treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs for post-traumatic stress disorder -- but the Army didn't know that because the Army and the V.A. don't typically share medical records.

Soprano's Gandolfini takes on PTSD and the troops

James Gandolfini's Iraq documentary Sept. 5: Learn more about the HBO documentary that will be featured on tonight's Nightly News broadcast. "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini talks to Brian Williams about taking on a new role -- advocating for the wounded.
Today show

James Gandolfini returns to HBO with new documentary
Posted Jun 30th 2007 11:30AM

by Richard Keller

Filed under: Programming, Celebrities, The Sopranos
Remember that exclusive three-year deal that James Gandolfini signed with HBO last year? Well, it's finally bearing fruit in the form of a documentary that focuses on the wounded soldiers of the Iraq War.

Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq is Gandolfini's first post-Sopranos project for HBO as well as the first project from his new production company, Attaboy Films. The documentary, which will debut on Sunday, September 9, will focus on the new generation of wounded veterans who have returned from Iraq. Gandolfini, the documentary's executive producer, interviews ten of the wounded veterans who reveal their severe disabilities and their plans for the future.

This will be the third HBO Documentary Films production focusing on the Iraq War. The first, Baghdad ER, focused on the personnel of a Combat Support Hospital and won an Emmy and Peabody award. The second, Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops from the Battlefields of Iraq, featured the letters of ten men and women killed in action over in the Middle East.

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From HBO
From Executive Producer James Gandolfini
Alive Day Memories
Home From Iraq
Premieres Sunday, September 9 at 10:30PM
In a war that has left more than 25,000 wounded,
ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ looks at a new generation of veterans. Executive Producer James Gandolfini interviews ten Soldiers and Marines who reveal their feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to America. The documentary surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through memories of their "alive day," the day they narrowly escaped death in Iraq.
Watch the entire ALIVE DAY MEMORIES special on HBO.com beginning Sunday, September 9 at 11:30pm, immediately following the premiere.Watch the Entire Film-->
> Interview with Executive Producer James Gandolfini
READ THEIR STORIES

Veteran good enough to fight, get wounded, but not good enough for congresswoman to meet

Wronged vet fighting for justice here, in D.C.


FORT WAYNE-More than a decade ago, U.S. Army veteran John Evans was trying to alert the nation to a serious healthcare crisis when it came to treating military men who had served their nation admirably in times of war. He largely was ignored. Now with recent startling and embarrassing revelations about conditions and treatment at once-highly regarded military healthcare facilities such as Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., Evans finally is being vindicated by many who once tried to ignore him-including some politicians. But, rather than retiring from the fight, Evans is planning to step up his battle to find justice for veterans. That includes organizing a public protest for Sept. 5 through Sept. 7 in front of the Federal Building, 1300 S. Harrison St.-right here in Fort Wayne, where it all began.

In 1994, Evans, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who said he had been declared 100 percent disabled due to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, woke up to find his world had collapsed around him. His veteran's benefits mysteriously had disappeared leaving him unable to pay his bills and his bank account had been closed. After frantically calling the Veterans Administration and the bank, Evans discovered that he mistakenly had been declared dead by the Social Security Administration, which had confused him with his son, John Patrick Logan, who had passed away. According to Evans, it was two months before he received a letter informing him that he had been-mistakenly-declared dead. During that time, stress began to mount until he suffered a severe heart attack.

The situation went from bad to worse. While having the heart attack, Evans instructed his brother to take him to Parkview Hospital on Randallia Drive-just blocks away from the local Veterans Administration Medical Center on Lake Avenue. Evans said he made the decision to be taken there because he knew the VA didn't have the facilities for critical heart care and credits that decision-along with doctors, he said-with saving his life through emergency bypass surgery. But, not having a fee–based medical card, which allows veterans to seek care from private sources under various circumstances, the Veterans Administration refused to pay his hospital bills, leaving Evans under even more stress.

He moved to Washington to get things done for veterans, but when it came to his own member of Congress, he was screaming in an empty room (just like most of us have been)

For a time, he lived in Maryland, where he met with congressional representatives there, before moving officially to Washington, D.C., where he's organized protests in front of the White House. But in a bit of bitter irony, Evans said he hasn't gotten any support from his Washington representative-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who like Evans, is black. According to Evans, he's been trying to get a meeting with Norton for about a year and has received no word back.

"I'm good enough to fight for our country and get wounded, but I'm not good enough to meet with my congresswoman," said Evans.

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Bike trip from Seattle to Gloucester to raise awareness of PTSD

Vacation Spent Helping Veterans
Cyclist Rides Across Country

By LORETTA WALDMAN | Courant Staff Writer
September 5, 2007

SIMSBURY - In mid-June, 53-year-old Tariffville resident Wayne Coste began a 4,200-mile coast-to-coast bicycle trip.

The 64-day journey, which took him and 25 other cyclists through 13 states and a Canadian province, began in Seattle and ended Aug. 18 in Gloucester, Mass.

That may seem less than relaxing as vacations go, but Coste wasn't looking to kick back.

He was on a mission to raise awareness about the plight of returning military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, an invisible but devastating psychological wound affecting one in five veterans returning from Iraq.

Coste, an engineer with ISO New England, is not a veteran, nor is he close to anyone diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. His interest in the condition, he said, began with reading articles about how difficult it can be for veterans to get treatment. It solidified in October when he attended a presentation by Dr. Edward Tick, director of Soldier's Heart, an Albany, N.Y.-based nonprofit that promotes community-based efforts helping service personnel and their families heal from the effects of war.
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Traumatised soldier admits hitting wife

TRAUMATISED SOLDIER ADMITS HITTING WIFE
South Wales Evening Post - Swansea,Wales,UK
He said Storey "had come to accept that he is exhibiting the archetypal symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder". Mr Harrett went on to say: "As is usual ...

Colonel draws fire for study on recruit stress

Colonel draws fire for study on recruit stress

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Sep 4, 2007 7:38:20 EDT

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A decorated Army colonel who served as a combat surgeon in Afghanistan is now at odds with the Army over a scientific study aimed at identifying the impact of stress on recruits.

Col. Richard Gonzales earned a Bronze Star and other Army accolades for his service and was recognized for volunteering for an extra year in the Middle East but has since been demoted and is under investigation for arranging a researcher’s no-bid contract and conducting an unapproved study, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday.

Army documents show the research board that first approved the study shares blame for miscommunication and mistakes, and did not explain study requirements or properly supervise Gonzales, who was a first-time researcher. The research board is now investigating Gonzales’ team.

At issue is whether intensely private details shared by recruits — including accounts of childhood abuse and molestation — have been disclosed. In the course of the investigation, the Army removed the recruits’ private files so it could turn Gonzales’ locked study office into an employee break room without his knowledge. The Army wouldn’t tell him where the study’s computer was, according to records.
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Lawmaker Seeks “De-Boot” Camp Following Tour

Lawmaker Seeks “De-Boot” Camp Following Tour
Terri
September 4th, 2007
In The News, Military

When reading this story, I was reminded of the program that the Minnesota National Guard does with their Troops as they return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon their return, they stay in the barracks for 3-6 weeks where they undergo debriefing and decompression time. Their families are an integral part of this process and it appears to be extremely successful; so much so, that it’s being considered as a program that may be used nationwide.

I’m all for anything that will assist our Troops in being able make the transition back into life at home easier for them. The more interventions that are in place and the more preventative programs that are in place from the start, the less problems we’re likely to see. I think the program that Representative Filner describes here would be a wonderful addition to programs that are already in place. I know that it would be tough, having to spend that much more time away from their homes, but having seen some of the problems that can result from suddenly thrusting our Warriors immediately back into life here at home, I think it’s something that should be given some heavy consideration.

In a speech he made on Wednesday, Representative Bob Filner, a Democrat from California announced that he will push a bill in Congress, to open camps that can possibly help prepare veterans for some of the difficulties that they face as they return from the war-torn regions of Iraq and Afghanistan. These camps, called “de-boot camps” or “Heroes Homecoming Camps” could be made a mandatory requirement for active duty Soldiers and could include their family members as well as others in their unit, according to Rep. Filner.

“When you leave the combat zone, you can be in Baghdad yesterday and tomorrow you are taking your kids to a soccer game. There is no time for decompression,” he said, pointing to the high rates of domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, increases in teh diasnosis of PTSD and TBI and a increase in the suicide rate. “We’re releasing a time bomb to the community.”
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