PTSD have you feeling like you can't live with it? Call for help that is waiting for you

VA Suicide Prevention Hotline Flooded with Calls

Joyce Kryszak

BUFFALO, NY (2007-09-17) Thousands of distressed veterans have flooded the the Veterans Affairs new suicide prevention hotline.

The VA opened the new national call center about a month ago to respond to the growing number of returning troops experiencing mental health problems. The 24 hour call center is located in Canandagua, New York but takes calls from veterans anywhere in the country.

About 4,500 people, including some non-veterans, have called the hotline for help. Of those, 100 were admitted to VA hospitals for treatment. Three of those cases were referred to Buffalo's VA Medical Center.

Michael Finegan is Director of the Center. He says they have long provided emergency mental health care at the facility. But he says the hotline adds another level of critical response.

It's estimated that roughly 50,000 returning veterans suffer from some type of combat related mental health stress.

The hotline number is 1-800-273-TALK.
Click the "listen" icon above to hear Joyce Kryszak's story now or use your podcasting software to download it to your computer or iPod.
© Copyright 2007, WBFO

http://publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1149028&sectionID=1

This is wonderful! Think of the lives being saved because there is someone there for them! Veterans risk their lives for us, for a nation sending them into combat. It's our turn to fight for them. It shouldn't be this way. They should all have whatever they need waiting for them to help them heal their wounds, but until that day comes, we have to make sure the same government sending them, takes care of them.

Combat PTSD From violence back to society

From violence back to society
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder conference to be held next week at Eden Resort Inn.

By ANYA LITVAK, Staff
Lancaster New Era

Published: Sep 18, 2007 11:12 AM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Jan Yupcavage, a Vietnam War veteran and a readjustment counselor at the Harrisbug-based Vet Center, recently met with a young veteran of the Iraq War who was traumatized while watching "Monday Night Football."

The former soldier was stunned watching his friends cheer and yell at professional football players, as he had once done.

To muster such emotion for something so meaningless, he thought — comparing the experience to his time in battle — seemed, for the first time, ridiculous.

Now, Yupcavage said, the veteran dreads Monday nights.

That's just one way Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can hinder a soldier's readjustment into civil society, he said.

Yupcavage is scheduled to speak on the issue at a conference sponsored by the YWCA of Lancaster and Samaritan Counseling Center called "The Many Faces of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."

The two-day event, focusing on soldiers and others with PTSD, will be held Thursday and Friday, Sept. 27-28 at Eden Resort Inn.

A keynote speech given by Dr. Sandra Bloom of Community Works will kick off the event at 6:30 p.m on Sept. 27. The following day, lectures and workshops will run from 7:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.

Registration is open until Monday, Sept. 24, at $65 per person, or $75 for those obtaining continuing graduation credits at the event.

Yupcavage's presentation — "When the Soldier Comes Home: The Impact of PTSD on Relationships" — is scheduled for 10:20 a.m. on Sept. 28.

"The experience of war is so intense that you come back altered," Yupcavage said.
go here for the rest
http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/209625

PTSD proof is not just in your head, it's in your brain

Mental Wounds: The world after Lister
9/17/2007 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --
One hundred and thirty years ago, almost 50 percent of the patients undergoing major surgery died from infection. Dr. Joseph Lister was the first to treat wounds with dressings soaked in carbolic acid. Dr. Lister and Dr. Louis Pasteur suggested surgeons wash their hands and sterilize their instruments before operating. The medical community in Britain and the United States initially shunned them. Drs. Lister and Pasteur were personal friends. When his medical peers publicly honored Dr. Pasteur at age 70, he turned and bowed his head towards Dr. Lister, saying: "The future belongs to him who has done the most for suffering humanity."

Sufferers of mental wounds
Today we all understand the importance of keeping wounds clean. Unfortunately our views on "mental illness" are much like those of the peers of Drs. Lister and Pasteur 130 years ago. Recently, startling advances have been made in understanding "mental disease."

J. Douglas Bremner, M.D. of Yale University School of Medicine, Departments of Diagnostic Radiology and Psychiatry was commissioned by a number of organizations including the National Institute of Health to study the long-term effect of trauma on the brain. Dr. Bremner concluded, "Individuals with a history of exposure to childhood abuse or combat had a reduction in volume of a brain area involved in learning and memory called the hippocampus, which is felt to be related to stress, with associated deficits in hippocampal-based learning and memory." In plain English, extreme stressors can have lasting effects on the areas of the brain that are used for memory and emotional control.

These are not chemical changes, but actual reductions the in size of the brain. Dr. Bremner used magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, on combat veterans diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and found them to have an 8-percent reduction in right hippocampal volume and a 12-percent reduction in left hippocampal volume. Two subsequent studies confirmed Dr. Bremner's original findings.

In other studies, patients were provided a stimulus or cue that provoked traumatic memories. Using positron emission tomography, or PET, these studies revealed dysfunction of the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus portions of the brain when traumatic memories were evoked.

Sympathy for those in pain
Forty million women and about one-third that number of men in the United States report rape, attempted rape, or molestation prior to their 18th birthday. Add a myriad of other traumas and it is no wonder we are experiencing an avalanche of problem in today's society, and our military services.

Much of what in the past has been attributed to the lack of ability to "suck it up" is in fact caused by a physical alteration of the brain. Telling a person who has experienced repeated trauma to "get over it" is the equivalent of telling a blind person you could see if you just really tried.

It is time for 21st century people to begin to understand that what has been labeled "mental illness" is in fact often a physical illness, just like diabetes, cancer, or pneumonia.

I posted all of this, which I do not do often, but there was too much that needed to be posted.

Red Lake Indian Reservation shows high suicide rate

Beltrami suicide rate triggers Health Department investigation
by Lorna Benson, Minnesota Public Radio
September 17, 2007
The Minnesota Department of Health has opened an investigation into the causes behind Beltrami County's high suicide rate. New analysis from the department shows that the rate is nearly double the statewide average. Beltrami County is located in north central Minnesota. Its largest city is Bemidji and it's home to the Red Lake Indian Reservation. The new analysis found high numbers of suicides among Indians and white people.

St. Paul, Minn. — Officials in Beltrami County suspected they had a high suicide mortality rate.

They just didn't have the proof. So they asked the Minnesota Department of Health to look into the numbers. The department poured over death certificates from public records and injury details from hospital discharge data.

Epidemiologist Jon Roesler was surprised by what he found.

"Not only does Beltrami County have a problem with suicide, but they have probably one of the worst problems of suicide in the whole state of any of the counties," he says.

When adjusted for age and population, Beltrami County had an average of 19 suicides per year per 100,000 people from 1996 to 2005. That compares to a statewide rate of 10 suicides per 100,000, Roesler says.

"Not only are the rates higher for the county overall, but in particular the rates are higher for the youth ages 15 to 24. That really seemed to be where the problem of suicide was the greatest."

The suicide rate among youth reached 21 in Beltrami County - that's two additional suicides per 100,000 people. For the same age group, the statewide average is 9.
click post title for the rest

Just one more example that this country and the world have a very serious problem with sucides. People don't commit suicide for no reason at all. There are problems all over the world and the numbers seem to be growing.

It's premature to blame FDA for suicide rise
By Scott Allen, Globe Staff September 17, 2007

The front page headline in the Washington Post was alarming: "Youth suicides increased as antidepressant use fell." A new study argued that a record increase in youth suicides in 2004 may have been the unintended consequence of federal warnings that antidepressants such as Prozac can trigger suicidal thoughts in children. Media outlets across the country reported the painful irony that the Food and Drug Administration's attempt to prevent suicides seemed to have increased them by discouraging doctors from properly treating depressed young people.

"We may have inadvertently created a problem," lamented Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, to the Post earlier this month.

But a closer look at the numbers suggests that the suicide fears are at least premature, if not baseless, say people who specialize in health statistics.

Suicide is so rare among young people that even the record increase reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - based on 2004 statistics - represents just 248 extra deaths among 61.5 million youths in the United States ages 5 to 19. And almost half the extra deaths involved 18- and 19-year-olds who were not included in the antidepressant warning. As a result, the suicide rise is so small that statisticians will not be able to say whether it's a real trend or just bad luck - at least until 2005 totals are available later this year.
go here for the rest of this

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_
science/articles/2007/09/17/its_premature_to_blame_fda_for_suicide_rise/

Suicide overwhelmingly remains Oregon's number one violent cause ...By mrollins Of 748 Oregonians who died violently in 2005, suicide accounted for 555, or 74 percent of them, according to a study released this morning by the Oregon Department of Human Services. Far back as a cause of death was homicide,...OregonLive.com: Breaking News Updates - http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/

Wall Walk to aid Guards' children

Sgt Christian Hickey

Wall Walk to aid Guards' children


By Andrew Robinson
A CHARITY set up in memory of a Yorkshire Coldstream Guard killed in Iraq is hoping to raise £20,000 to help the children of needy serving and former Guardsmen.


Twenty supporters of Coldstream Kids, set up following the deaths of two Guardsmen, including Sergeant Christian Hickey, from East Bierley in Bradford, will set off on Thursday to walk the length of Hadrian's Wall.Former Guardsman Franco Gasparotti, 42, has organised the walk but a spinal injury will prevent him from walking more than a few miles of the 84-mile route. He suffered the injury when he was attacked during a riot in Belfast in 1989. His injuries meant he had to retire from the Army and is on a war pension.

Mr Gasparotti, originally from Thornbury in Bradford, spent two years in rehabilitation, learned to walk again and now runs a business offering personalised fitness training.Based in Epsom, Surrey, he works to improve the fitness of clients and draws on his Army experience when he was a keen boxer, runner, swimmer and footballer.Setting up the charity and org-anising the walk was his way of "putting something back", he says."The incident in Belfast ended my career and I spent two years in rehabilitation.

Two vertebrae in my back were crushed and this triggered rheumatic disease of the spine."I felt forgotten about when I came out of rehabilitation and it was a big wrench. I missed out on a career that I really enjoyed."The Ministry of Defence and the way it works didn't do enough for me. I am still being treated for post traumatic stress disorder and am a 50 per cent disabled war pensioner. I wanted to try and put something back.
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Delays, Lost Paperwork Persist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report
Kaiser Health Disparities Report: A Weekly Look At Race, Ethnicity And Health Coverage and Access
Delays, Lost Paperwork Persist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
Washington Post Reports
[Sep 17, 2007]
Patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are continuing to encounter problems with lost paperwork and delays in appointments, months after President Bush and Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates promised to make "swift changes" to improve the care that soldiers were receiving at the military facility, the Washington Post reports (Priest/Hull, Washington Post, 9/15). Earlier this year, a Post series detailed poor conditions for people receiving outpatient care at Walter Reed (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/3). After the series was published, the Army "moved swiftly" to fix the outpatient system and established three panels to examine the "entire overburdened military medical care system" for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Post. Despite these efforts, patients and family members continue to complain about the obstacles facing veterans, including a lack of information and explanation of options given with discharge papers, the long disability process, excessive bureaucracy and rotating staff, all resulting in inadequate care, the Post reports.
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934,925 Veterans being treated by VA for PTSD

VA studies: PTSD care inconsistent
By Chris Adams McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs, which touts its special programs to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in returning soldiers, spends little on those programs in some parts of the country, and some of its efforts fail to meet some of the VA's own goals, according to internal reports obtained by McClatchy Newspapers.

In fiscal year 2006, the reports show, some of the VA's specialized PTSD units spent a fraction of what the average unit did. Five medical centers — in California, Iowa, Louisiana, Tennessee and Wisconsin — spent about $100,000 on their PTSD clinical teams, less than one-fifth the national average.

The documents also show that while the VA's treatment for PTSD is generally effective, nearly a third of the agency's inpatient and other intensive PTSD units failed to meet at least one of the quality goals monitored by a VA health-research organization. The VA medical center in Lexington, Ky., failed to meet four of six quality goals, according to the internal reports.
A top VA mental-health official dismissed the reports' significance, saying veterans receive adequate care, either in specialized PTSD units or from general mental-health providers. In addition, he said, some of the spending differences aren't as extreme as the documents indicate, and the department is working to increase its resources for mental health treatment.
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Do you still think we don't have a serious problem in this country? Not even close. Think of how many are not even counted. Until a claim is approved, they do not count it. Then you also have to consider too many are still not even sure what PTSD and have not gone for help of any sort. Then you have to also add in those who have PTSD but mild right now and do not see it as a problem but they will when the secondary stressor hits them later in life.

The older veterans are going from seeing their doctors once a month to once every three months, if they're lucky. Is any of this serving the veterans who would not need their wounds taken care of if they did not serve?

Forgive me but I'm posting this on the other blog too.

When the trauma gets stuck like a tape

Post-traumatic stress disorder - special report
When 'the trauma gets stuck like a tape'
BY TAMMIE SMITH
The symptoms may show up years after a woman is sexually abused. Or months, even decades, after a soldier has left the battlefield. Exposed to life-threatening trauma, they suffer flashbacks, insomnia and fear so overwhelming at times that each day is a struggle. Mental-health experts call this chronic, sometimes delayed, response to traumatic experiences PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Some trauma seems to overwhelm the ability of the nervous system to undergo the natural healing process," said Deni Horton, a licensed clinical psychologist in Charlottesville who treats PTSD patients. "The trauma gets stuck like a tape, over and over." As thousands of men and women return from Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been increased attention to PTSD. Surveys suggest as many as a third or more of service members returning from the conflicts show signs of psychological problems. Often it is PTSD.

"We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg right now," said Dr. Antony Fernandez, acting chief of mental-health services at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond. Questions have been raised about whether the government is doing enough to help. But while PTSD is most often associated with military service, anyone who faces a life-threatening event can experience it. The disorder is widespread enough that millions in research dollars are going to government centers and universities to study treatment and prevention. New treatment options are being explored, including some at McGuire. And a report by the Institute of Medicine, due out this fall, is expected to shed more light on ways to treat the disorder.
click link for the rest

Native American veterans seen at greater risk for PTSD

Native American veterans seen at risk
Region lags in efforts to help stress-afflicted
By Anna Badkhen, Globe Correspondent September 17, 2007
Mental health workers are looking for new ways to help Native American service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. In some parts of the United States, specialists are combining modern treatments with traditional healing methods, employing medicine men, participating in sweat lodges, and asking tribal elders to encourage veterans to seek professional medical help.

But in New England, the effort to reach out to Native American veterans is lagging, mental health specialists and some Native Americans say. At risk, they say, are thousands of Native American veterans, who historically are more susceptible to combat trauma than other troops, but who also are less likely to seek, and receive, mental health help from government-operated agencies as their non-Indian comrades.

Studies of Native American veterans who fought in Vietnam showed that they were twice as likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as other veterans. Although no one has studied the prevalence of trauma among Native American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mental health workers anticipate that those troops may suffer from similarly high levels of trauma.

At least 18,000 of the 22,000 Native Americans currently in uniform had been deployed at least once to Iraq or Afghanistan as of July, according to the US Department of Defense. Recent Army studies have found that up to 30 percent of soldiers coming home from Iraq suffer from depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. The studies did not include other branches of the military.
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Liberty Spirits Farm accused of fraud in donations for veterans

Web Site That Solicited Donations For Returning War Veterans Home In Phelps County A Fraud, Missouri AG Says
Mon, 09/17/2007 - 12:41 — newsdesk

September 14, 2007 -- Jefferson City, Mo. — The owner of a Web site that solicits donations purportedly for military and veterans related causes - including a supposed rural retreat in Phelps County for war veterans recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder - has been defrauding donors, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon says. Nixon obtained a temporary restraining order today against James Barbee of Carpinteria, Calif., and Liberty Spirit Farm Foundation, who solicit donations for Liberty Spirits Farm and Liberty Spirit Ranch on the Web site. The Attorney General is also seeking injunctions, restitution and civil penalties.

Nixon says that Barbee, who operates www.libertyspiritsfarm.org, began soliciting for charitable contributions on the site for the Liberty Spirits Farm near Lake Spring in April. The Web site describes the location as a rural retreat for military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and states that donations would help pay for the costs associated with operating the farm. At one time the site also featured pictures of the farm, including specific rooms and the 840 acres surrounding it.
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When nightmares followed him home from Iraq

Nightmares, horrors of war follow Bryan man home from Iraq
KVIA - El Paso,TX,USA
09.15.07
Nightmares, horrors of war follow Bryan man home from Iraq

BRYAN, TX. (AP) - For six days, Sgt. Byron Hancock hunched on his belly, motionless in the shallow, soggy trench he and his partner spent eight hours digging under the cover of night - surviving with little food and almost no sleep as he directed his focus through the high-powered scope of his M40A3 sniper rifle.
He tried not to think about the surprisingly cold winter that had hit Iraq's Al Anbar province - a dangerous region teeming with insurgents who had fled the hellish urban warfare of Fallujah a month earlier. At night, it would be cold enough to freeze the rain that seeped into his hole. Go figure, the lifelong hunter thought when he allowed his mind to wander: Stuck in the middle of a desert with water up to my neck and experiencing the most bone-chilling weather of my life.
The decorated police officer had fought in Fallujah, too, scared out of his mind but earning a war hero's reputation when he made a 1,050-yard kill - touted by the military as the longest successful sniper shot of the Iraq war. Now it was the Marine reservist's duty to patrol the countryside, finding suspected insurgents and gathering probable cause just like his days back home on the Bryan police force.
But this was different. It wasn't Texas. The stakes were higher and the judgment - whether someone deserved to live or die - needed to be lightning quick. If he didn't strike, it could mean his own life or the lives of other troops. He'd seen it happen before. It gets to the point where, faced with constant danger, you accept your own potential death. But you never accept letting your fellow troops down. In this case, the suspect was a teenager - 14, 15, 16 ... who knows - who had ridden his motorcycle day after day down a road commonly used by U.S. forces, always pausing suspiciously for a moment at the same spot before moving on.........................

Patriot Guard at service for sailor in Oregon

Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician, Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.
Patriot Guard at a service for a fallen sailor in Oregon
Photo by: Tim King
(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Margie Boulé authored an article in the September 9th edition of the Oregonian about the Patriot Guard and PTSD. She unknowingly pushed the button of PTSD and inadvertently touched the tip of the PTSD iceberg.
The Patriot Guard is a nationwide group of 110,000 “bikers” who ride, some in groups as large as 200 riders, as “Honor Guards” for their dead war comrades and heroes returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a noble tribute by many who have “been there, seen that, done that”. However, when many of them came home, a large portion from Viet Nam, they were spit on and reviled.
The only mission of a soldier, or Marine, in the service is to “kill or be killed”. If anyone thinks their mission is otherwise or that the rifleman has any control what-so-ever as to what happens to him or what he has to do to survive doesn’t know or understand anything about battle.
go here for the rest
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september142007/leveque_ptsd_91407.php


Patriot Guard Riders Mission Statement
The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse amalgamation of riders from across the nation. We have one thing in common besides motorcycles. We have an unwavering respect for those who risk their very lives for America’s freedom and security. If you share this respect, please join us.We don’t care what you ride or if you ride, what your political views are, or whether you’re a hawk or a dove. It is not a requirement that you be a veteran. It doesn't matter where you’re from or what your income is; you don’t even have to ride. The only prerequisite is Respect.Our main mission is to attend the funeral services of fallen American heroes as invited guests of the family. Each mission we undertake has two basic objectives.
1. Show our sincere respect for our fallen heroes, their families, and their communities.
2. Shield the mourning family and their friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors.We accomplish the latter through strictly legal and non-violent means.

To those of you who are currently serving and fighting for the freedoms of others, at home and abroad, please know that we are backing you. We honor and support you with every mission we carry out, and we are praying for a safe return home for all.


Lineage of the Patriot Guard Riders.

Updated
Several people have asked how the Patriot Guard Riders got started. Here’s what we’ve been able to piece together. If anyone can give us more details, it would be greatly appreciated.It all started back in early August of 2005 with the American Legion Riders chapter 136 from Kansas. They were appalled to hear that a fallen hero’s memory was being tarnished by misguided religious zealots who were protesting at funerals.
They decided to do something about it. At the ALR 136 August meeting, Director: Chuck " Pappy " Barshney appointed members, Terry “Darkhorse” Houck, Cregg “Bronco 6” Hansen, Steve “McDaddy” McDonald, and Bill ”Wild Bill” Logan to form a committee to strategize and form a battle plan to combat Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church.When they heard that the WBC was going to protest at the Funeral of Sgt. John Doles in Chelsea, Oklahoma, they established a Mission Statement, which included getting the families permission and contacting Law Enforcement and other Motorcycle Groups in Oklahoma.
They agreed that their ultimate goal was to get veterans and motorcycle organizations involved in every state so that each state could handle the situation internally and not rely on other states to do the job. They were very successful in mustering riders to honor Sgt. Doles and limiting the intrusion by the WBC.
After the Chelsea Mission the Kansas American Legion Riders wanted all Motorcycle Groups/ Organizations to be recognized. On the 18th of October 2005 the Patriot Guard name was established and was announced on the 27th of October 2005 to the 100 + motorcyclists present at the Tonganoxie Mission to Honor Spc Lucas Frantz.Following the missions in South Haven, KS and a later ride in Edmond, OK, Jeff “Twister” Brown, from Broken Arrow, OK, decided to do more than just ride.
He saw a need to get a strong nation-wide communications and recruiting program in place. He contacted the original AL riders in Kansas and told them of his plans. They openly shared their experiences, suggestions, and encouragement. Within a matter of days, Brown had formed the Patriot Guard Riders and began a nation-wide campaign to garner support.Similarly, after a mission ride in Greeley, CO, Hugh Knaus and Jason “Waldo” Wallin answered the call of the newly formed Patriot Guard Riders, becoming the national webmaster and communications director, respectively. Within a matter of days, a mission statement was refined and a website was built, rebuilt, and launched.
A call immediately went out to individual riders and groups across the nation to join and ride with the PGR. State Captains were recruited to work more closely with the members in their area.The growth has been phenomenal. Within a week their membership included many riders from associations like the VFW, American Legion, Rolling Thunder, ABATE, Combat Vets Motorcycle Association, Intruder Alert, Leathernecks Motorcycle Club, and almost five hundred individual riders. To the credit of Hugh and “Waldo”, the PGR website had received almost 566,000 hits in the first two weeks! Patriots from all over America and several foreign countries responded. Emails were pouring in from people wanting to support and join the newly formed PGR.So, that’s a pretty concise picture of where we came from and where we are today.
A great deal of credit goes to that small group of Kansas American Legion Riders, but none of this could have ever been accomplished without the patriot member who takes time out of their life to honor a fallen soldier and their family.

http://www.patriotguard.org/Home/tabid/53/Default.aspx

Beyond Walter Reed Hospital

The Wounded Warrior at Home: Walter Reed and Beyond
The Washington Post's ongoing investigation of the state of medical care and facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the overall military and VA health care systems.

Casualties Without a Scratch
Living with PTSD
The Invisibly Wounded

Support the troops? Then why aren't we taking care of the wounded?

When I hear people on both sides of the debate say "support the troops" I want to scream "THEN DAMN IT TAKE CARE OF THEM WHEN THEY GET WOUNDED" because if we don't we are just a bunch of frauds!

Wounded Soldier's Family Feels Forgotten
NPR - USA
by Howard Berkes
This is the first of a two-part report.

All Things Considered, September 12, 2007 · Two years ago, Army Specialist Ronald Hinkle left a good trucking job, a working ranch, a wife and two daughters in Byers, Colo., to serve in Iraq.

Now Hinkle is one of more than 13,000 American service men and women who have suffered serious wounds in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hinkle survived an IED blast but festering wounds nearly killed him.

He and his family are struggling to rebuild lives completely transformed by that explosion in Iraq.

Hinkle was diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI, as a result of the IED explosion. He suffers from sudden seizures. He tires quickly. He doesn't think clearly, and he cannot be left alone.

Hinkle was honored for his service in November when Vice President Dick Cheney pinned a Purple Heart to his desert fatigues, but his family feels otherwise deserted by the Army.

The U.S. Army failed to provide all the benefits and support for which the family is entitled. Now the Hinkles are tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and they may lose their ranch. Ron's wife, Reece, gave up her lucrative income as a corporate accountant to take care of him.

Reece now finds herself as more of a caretaker than wife, and she laments that Ron has lost the ability to be a father, a son and a husband because "he is living his life being injured."

"Just trying to just figure out how to deal with that is enough," Reece said. "What people don't realize is it's not the injury that destroys families. It's the aftermath. It's how you reconstruct your life, how you physically regroup, emotionally, financially. It will never be the same."

The Strength Within: One NCO's Experience with Suicide and PTSD

The Strength Within: One NCO's Experience with Suicide and PTSD
Sep 12, 2007
BY Elizabeth M. Lorge
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 12, 2007) - In the face of rising suicide rates among Soldiers, the Army is making a renewed effort to help Soldiers at risk and educate Soldiers and leaders about the signs to look for in their battle buddies and subordinates. That education is crucial in saving Soldiers' lives, said retired 1st Sgt. Cornell Swanier.

He has first-hand experience with suicide - as a prevention-education coordinator, as a noncommissioned officer who lost a Soldier and as a combat veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who has thought about killing himself. On Thanksgiving Day, 2002, he got the call every leader dreads. One of the Soldiers he had brought safely through a deployment to Kuwait for Operation Enduring Freedom was dead by his own hand, an event 1st Sgt. Swanier is still trying to comprehend. "I really got close to my Soldiers," he said. "I really tried to know the Soldiers, know their families, from top to bottom. It was tough on me. It's still tough on me to this day to walk in the barracks room and to see a dead Soldier. When Thanksgiving comes around, I think about that Soldier."
go here for the rest

http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/09/12/4829-
the-strength-within-one-ncos-experience-with-suicide-and-ptsd/


also

Suicide Prevention: Watch Out for Your Buddy
Sep 10, 2007
BY J.D. Leipold
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sep. 10, 2007) - In conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Week Sep. 9-15, the Army wants Soldiers and their Families to know help is available to those struggling with issues that sometimes bring about suicide.

"This year's strategy focuses on three key points - training the Army Family in positive life skills, buddy care and counseling through a variety of ways," said Army Chief of Chaplains Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Douglas L. Carver. "I think educating our leaders, Soldiers and Families on what to look for in suicidal behaviors has made our people more sensitive and aware."

Soldiers who commit suicide usually do so because they can't see another way out of a painful situation Chaplain Carver said. Frequent and longer deployments add yet more burden, especially on relationships, he said.

"We've looked pretty closely at all the various factors involved in Soldier suicide - failed relationships, this long war," said Chaplain Carver, "yet the morale of our Soldiers is as high as it's ever been because they sense the importance of their mission down-range and they look out for one another."
go here for the rest


http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/09/10/4765-
suicide-prevention-watch-out-for-your-buddy/

Tennessee Gulf War Vet put to death with PTSD

Gulf War veteran who killed his four children CHOOSES to go to the electric chair
Last updated at 20:00pm on 12th September 2007

Murderer: Daryl Holton
A Quadruple killer went to the electric chair yesterday after choosing to be electrocuted rather than receive a lethal injection.


Daryl Holton, 45, a Gulf war veteran who murdered his three sons and their half-sister with an assault rifle after promising them a Christmas surprise, was the first inmate to be electrocuted in the state of Tennessee since 1960.

When prison warden Ricky Bell asked Holton if he had any last words, he replied only 'Yeah, I do,' but said nothing further.

Officials at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution then placed a wet sponge and metal plate on Holton's head.

Holton kept his eyes closed.

As a towel was used to wipe away water from the sponge, he said: "Don't worry about it."

A black shroud was placed over his head.

Then a 20-second shock was administered. Holton's back straightened and his hips moved up out of the chair before he slumped back.

After a 15 second pause, Holton was given a second shock that lasted 15 seconds.

He was pronounced dead moments later.

Tennessee law states the voltage used must be at least 1,750 volts.

Electrocution was first introaduced in New York in 1888 as a more humane method of execution than hanging, but there have been horrific instances of inmates catching on fire, multiple jolts being needed to kill, and bones being broken by convulsing limbs.

Holton had methodically killed his children and their half-sister in Shelbyville, Tennessee, garage in 1997, following a lengthy custody battle with his ex-wife.

Lined up on the promise of a Christmas surprise, the youngsters - Steven, 12, Brent, ten, Eric, six, and their four-year-old half-sister Kayla - were shot in the back.

Holton told police he killed the children because his ex-wife had not let him see them for months.

Holton said he was suffering from severe depression at the time. His lawyers maintain he had a long history of mental illness and may have suffered post traumatic stress disorder following the 1991 Gulf War.
click post title for the rest


When I was researching the suicide deaths of our veterans, I came across more stories like Holton's and their families. The percentages of murder-suicides is low. There were other crimes committed but most of the ones I found had suspicions of links to inoculations and drugs given before deployments. The majority of the PTSD findings I came across were suicide.

Too many of these men and women have the mind-set that people with PTSD are defects, useless or even deserve what they're going through. Others around them don't want PTSD talked about because they feel it will make them look bad.

Although I am grateful the media began to pay attention to PTSD, they still have fallen short of removing the stupidity from the minds of those in the military and eliminating the stigma attached to having it. What will it take for everyone to finally and fully understand that PTSD is a wound. It is caused by trauma. It has nothing to do with being "bad" or "evil" or their courage or their patriotism but has everything to do with getting help to heal.

The dangerous ones are rare with PTSD. Most are just trying to spend one night without having a nightmare, without having a flashback, without forgetting what happened ten minutes ago because of short term memory loss.

There are different degrees of PTSD and it is about time for us to understand this. It is not a one size fits all diagnosis. Some have mild PTSD that if they get treated early on, it does not develop into full blown life altering PTSD for the rest of their lives. Others develop it stronger from trauma upon trauma piling up until they can no longer see themselves when they look in the mirror. Until the sickening, judgmental response of those around these wounded warriors develops into positive support, more will end up suffering needlessly. More families will fall apart and more people will blame themselves instead of the trauma.


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

Cleansing Wounded Warriors

Federal government taps ancient healing methods to treat native American soldiers
The veterans administration teams up with medicine men to use sweat lodges and talking circles to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.
By JENnifer miller Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the September 13, 2007 edition

Page 1 of 3
Rock Spring, N.M. - In a dusty lot on the Navajo reservation, a cleansing ceremony is about to take place. Women sit on rickety chairs outside a hogan, (a circular, squat Navajo home with a dirt floor). A line of parked cars sizzle in the Southwestern sun. Suddenly, a pack of horses rushes into view. They stop just short of the hogan, their hooves beating up a cloud of dust.
A man appears in the doorway – an unassuming figure, dressed in a work shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. He is a medicine man who has spent decades learning ancient Navajo healing techniques. He waits for the lead rider – the patient – to dismount and then ushers him inside.
For the next hour, the spiritual leader, Alfred Gibson, conducts an "enemy way" ceremony, a form of Navajo therapy that cleanses physically and mentally ill individuals by forcing them to confront their pain.
The technique is increasingly being used across the American West to help native American soldiers deal with the traumas of war..................

Ex-soldier faces charges after standoff with police

Ex-soldier faces charges after standoff with police
Phil Couvrette, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
A former member of the Canadian Forces accused of blindly firing weapons through the wall of his trailer home, hitting his neighbours' property, and engaged in a standoff with authorities last week was in court Tuesday facing over half a dozen charges.

They include mischief, production and possession of cannabis, possession of explosives, negligent use of firearms as well as improper storage of weapons, said his attorney, Luc Tourangeau, who described his client as "not fit to stand trial" and asked for a psychiatric evaluation. Tourangeau said Daniel Maltais, 41, formerly of the Valcartier military base, did not have a police record and didn't know whether Maltais had a history of mental troubles.

Maltais' home was cordoned off and surrounded by authorities Friday after police investigating the source of bullet holes appearing on nearby homes turned to his Chicoutimi home, some 200 kilometres north of Quebec City.


A man who had barricaded himself in his home "spoke very incoherently" when finally reached by phone after hours of trying to contact him and ultimately turned himself in during the evening, said Bruno Cormier, spokesman for the Saguenay police...............

HEALTH-US: Soldier's Tragic Suicide Just One of Dozens

HEALTH-US: Soldier's Tragic Suicide Just One of Dozens
By Aaron Glantz


Brian Rand

SAN FRANCISCO, Sep 10 (IPS) - Dane and April Somdahl own the Alien Art tattoo parlor on Camp Lejeune Boulevard -- just outside the sprawling Marine Corps base of the same name in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

In an interview from the back of her shop, April talked about how her customers' tastes have changed since George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

As the war approached, she said, "The most popular tattoos were eagles and United States flags. Those were coming in so often and, you know, everybody was like 'I gotta get my flag.'"

Then, a year into the war, the Somdahls noticed a new wave of Marines coming in to get information from their military dog tags tattooed onto their bodies. Most said they wanted so called "meat tags" so their bodies could be identified when they die.

"We went through over a year of meat tags, but then that passed too," she said. "Now we are seeing a lot of memorial tattoos. Even the wives are getting memorial tattoos -- moms and dads in their fifties too. And in a lot of cases they're getting their first tattoos. And they're saying 'We didn't think we would ever get a tattoo, but this one is to remember my son.'"

Because of the changing needs of their clientele, the Somdahls no longer blast rock and roll music inside the shop. Instead, the artists work in silence.

"The mood has died," April told IPS.
go here for the rest
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39203

When they come home, why do they have to wait?

WHEN I CAME HOME....
Posted By Ex SSG Michael J Goss at 6:40 PM
Monday, 10 September 2007


Statistics are one way to tell the story of the approximately 1.4 million servicemen and women who've been to Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2004, 86 percent of soldiers in Iraq reported knowing someone who was seriously injured or killed there. Some 77 percent reported shooting at the enemy; 75 percent reported seeing women or children in imminent peril and being unable to help. Fifty-one percent reported handling or uncovering human remains; 28 percent were responsible for the death of a noncombatant. One in five Iraq veterans returns home seriously impaired by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Words are another way. Below are the stories of three veterans of this war, told in their voices, edited for flow and efficiency but otherwise unchanged. They bear out the statistics and suggest that even those who are not diagnosably impaired return burdened by experiences they can neither forget nor integrate into their postwar lives. They speak of the inadequacy of what the military calls reintegration counseling, of the immediacy of their worst memories, of their helplessness in battle, of the struggle to rejoin a society that seems unwilling or unable to comprehend the price of their service.

Strangers to one another and to me, they nevertheless tried, sometimes through tears, to communicate what the intensity of an ambiguous war has done to them. One veteran, Sue Randolph, put it this way: "People walk up to me and say, 'Thank you for your service.' And I know they mean well, but I want to ask, 'Do you know what you're thanking me for?'" She, Rocky, and Michael Goss offer their stories here in the hope that citizens will begin to know.
go here to read their stories
Veterans For America