DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2003
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS,
Washington, DC
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 2:12 p.m., in room 334,
Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith (chairman
of the committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Smith, Simmons, Brown of South Carolina,
Boozman, Bradley, Beauprez, Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida,
Renzi, Evans and Filner.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN SMITH
The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. Good afternoon.
Last night President Bush reported that the State of the Union
was strong. Today we will examine the state of veterans’ health
care to see if it is equally strong.
Only days ago the Department of Veterans Affairs announced
that for the first time it would use its authority to curtail new enrollments
for veterans’ health care. VA reported that at least, and
I emphasize at least, 200,000 veterans are waiting 6 months or
longer for their first appointment with a VA doctor, and that estimate
doesn’t count those still waiting to enroll in the system. Many
of those waiting are 100 percent disabled and paralyzed veterans.
In fact, when Secretary Principi sent one of his deputies, Gordon
Mansfield, a decorated Vietnam veteran paralyzed in combat, to try
and enroll in VA health care, he was turned away in state after
state due to overcrowding.
Earlier this month Chairman Buyer and committee staff visited
one medical center in Florida and discovered that over 2,700 veterans
are waiting to be scheduled to see a VA audiologist, over 4,000
veterans are waiting to see an eye specialist, and almost 700 are
waiting to see a cardiologist. More than half of these veterans were
high-priority veterans in categories 1 through 7. All reports indicate
that a similar situation exists at a majority of VA medical centers
throughout the country. Care delayed, I would respectfully
submit, is care denied.
At the same time there remain at least 275,000 homeless veterans
who—and that is a VA estimate, the VSO has put the number
even higher—who desperately need a helping hand, yet VA is unable
to fully fund programs that Congress approved less than 2
years ago. The VA has closed over 1,500 long-term care beds at a
time when World War II and Korean War veterans are most in
need of assistance. Despite an increase in the number of veterans
who have service-connected mental illnesses such as post-traumatic
stress disorder, VA is providing less care overall than it did in previous
fiscal years. And most troubling of all, according to the VA’s
own published documents in the Federal Register of January 17,
the VA will be short, $1.9 billion in their health care budget for
this fiscal year, and that assumes that the VA will receive the full
$23.9 billion for health care approved last year by both the House
and the Senate Appropriations Committees.
Let me emphasize what I just said. The VA projects that it needs
other $1.9 billion this year to meet the health care needs of veterans
already enrolled. To put this in perspective, $1.9 billion is the
annual cost of providing care to roughly 422,000 veterans from all
priority groups, veterans who are already in the system.
How does the VA plan to make up the difference this year? The
only proposal to date is the freeze on enrollment of new priority 8
veterans, a move that the VA projects could save at most $130 million
this year.
Some have suggested that Congress is to blame for the shortfall
in funding for the veterans’ health care, but the record over the
past 5 years is clear that each Administration request has been a
budget floor, while Congress has added funds above the request
each and every one of those years. For fiscal year 2003, the Administration
requested a 6 percent increase. The House passed and the
Congress is expected to approve an 11 percent increase. That is $1
billion above the VA budget request. Over the past 5 years Congress
has consistently provided greater funding than was requested
by the Administration, on average over $300 million each year. In
addition, last year Congress passed a supplemental appropriation
that included $417 million for VA health care. Regrettably, the Administration refused to accept $275 million of that supplemental targeted for veterans’ medical care.
Others have suggested that the VA’s problems are driven by enrollment
of veterans who were not injured during their service, socalled
lower-priority veterans in category 8. However, it is clear
that even if VA had never offered priority 8 veterans the opportunity
to receive care from the VA, it would still be swamped with
service-connected and low-income veterans who are in the high-priority
categories.
According to the VA, the number of high-priority veterans enrolled
in VA health care is projected to rise by 384,000, or 7.5 percent
this year, and by 281,000 next year. A total of 5.8 million
high-priority veterans will be enrolled for VA health care next fiscal
year, and this trend will not diminish for several more years.
The word ‘‘crisis’’ is often overused in this town, but clearly VA
health care is in crisis, the funding of VA health care, and it is at
a crossroads. Last year I, along with my good friend Lane Evans,
offered several bills seeking long-term solutions to VA health care
funding problems. H.R. 4939 would have allowed the VA to be reimbursed
by Medicare for providing care to Medicare-eligible veterans.
H.R. 5250 would have made VA health care funding a formula-
driven budget item, based upon demand and medical inflation
rather than a discretionary budget item. H.R. 5392 would have al3
lowed the VA to recover costs of medical care from third parties in
the same manner as if VA were a preferred provider organization.
And finally, H.R. 5530 would have enhanced the right of the VA
to recover payments from third parties for providing non-serviceconnected
care.
We are again preparing to introduce legislation on a bipartisan
basis to provide long-term solutions to VA’s funding problems, but
before we can arrive at solutions, we first need to agree on the nature
and scope of the problems. For some, the Secretary’s decision
to cut off enrollment of 164,000 category 8 veterans was a solution.
To me and many others it is a problem.
So I return to the central question of today’s hearing: How well
is VA fulfilling its statutory mandate to provide the full range of
health care services that veterans have earned? Are service-connected
disabled and paralyzed veterans receiving timely and comprehensive
care, including access to the latest advances in medicine
and technology? Is VA meeting its obligations to indigent veterans,
those who have fallen on hard times, including those suffering from
drug addiction and mental health problems? How about our elderly
veterans? Many who fought on the beaches of Normandy or in the
forests of the Ardennes, and the across the frozen Chosin Reservoir,
are they receiving the long-term care Congress mandated
for them in the Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act of 2000?
(Which again, was passed by a previous Congress and remains to
be adequately acted upon by the administration).
Many of you have heard of the American Legion’s project called
‘‘I Am Not a Number.’’ It is helping to put a human face on veterans’
health care issues rather than just focusing on numbers such
as budget allocations and enrollment projections. It reminds me of
a saying often used by Mark Twain, and it is quite appropriate for
today’s hearing. Twain said there were three kinds of lies: Lies,
damn lies, and statistics. I think that Mr. Twain and the American
Legion have it right: Veterans are not numbers, their health is not
a statistic, and our Nation’s debt to them must be more than just
words. We can do better, and I do believe we will.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Smith appears on p. 45.]
The CHAIRMAN. I would like to yield to Mr. Evans for any opening
comments he might have.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LANE EVANS, RANKING
DEMOCRATIC MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS
Mr. EVANS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of this committee.
I welcome the new members of the committee who are joining
us for the first time today.
I am also deeply disappointed to learn that Secretary Principi
had recently decided to bar those highest-income veterans who had
not already enrolled for care from applying for VA services. I was
particularly disappointed, Mr. Chairman, given our bipartisan recommendation
to the Budget Committee to increase the President’s
request for VA funding levels fiscal year 2003 by $2.2 billion. Unfortunately
the appropriation that is before us is below that level
and will only aggravate the VA’s health care problems.
But, Mr. Chairman, there is a solution. You and I introduced
H.R. 5250, the Veterans Health Care Funding Guarantee Act of
2002, which would have established a mandatory funding stream
for the VA health care.
I want to reaffirm my commitment and ask for yours in working
together to address any obstacles that have been set in our path
in getting this legislation reintroduced in the near future. I look
forward to working with you, Mr. Chairman.
I yield back.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you for your comments.
[The prepared statement of Congressman Evans appears on p.
46.]
The CHAIRMAN. I would like to introduce our very distinguished
Under Secretary for Health, Dr. Robert Roswell, who was confirmed
by the Senate on March 22, 2002. Dr. Roswell has directed
the VA’s health care network for Florida and Puerto Rico since
1995. Dr. Roswell previously held positions as Chief of Staff at the
VA medical centers in Birmingham Alabama, Oklahoma City; and
held leadership positions in other VA facilities and VA central office
in Washington.
He is a 1975 graduate of the University of Oklahoma School of
Medicine, where he completed his residency in internal medicine,
and a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism.
Dr. Roswell served on Active Duty in the U.S. Army from 1978
to 1980 and is currently a colonel in the Army Reserve Medical
Corps.
Thank you for being here. We look forward to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT H. ROSWELL, M.D., UNDER
SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS
AFFAIRS
Dr. ROSWELL. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I am
pleased to be here today to discuss the challenges facing VA in
meeting the current demand for VA health care services. With your
permission, I will provide a brief summary of my formal statement
and ask that the formal statement be included in the record.
Today’s VA health care system is one of the most effective and
successful health care systems in the Nation. VA’s performance
now surpasses many government targets for health care quality as
well as measured private sector performance. For 16 of 18 indicators
critical to the care of veterans and directly comparable externally,
VA is now the benchmark for the entire Nation. VA is also
leading the way in assuring safe health environments and health
care delivery, and we are continuing our efforts to achieve additional
cost efficiencies.
Today VA has nearly 1,300 sites of care and is providing care to
nearly 48 percent more veterans than in 1997. At the same time
we have reduced the cost of care per veteran by 26 percent through
more efficient and effective care delivery.
VA continues to place a strong emphasis on comprehensive speciality
care, but we now also emphasize coordination of care
through primary care providers. With this transformation, and by
employing new models of care coordination and delivery, veterans
have gained access to an integrated health care system focusing on
addressing their health care needs before hospitalization becomes
necessary.
Mr. Chairman, while the changes in the VA health care system
have been profound, and the benefits have been recognized both inside
and outside the Department, we also face significant challenges.
VA is currently experiencing an unprecedented demand for
health care services. We had nearly 800,000 new enrollees in fiscal
year 2002 alone, and currently we have almost 6.6 million veterans
enrolled. We currently project that we will provide care to 4.6 million
veterans this year. This represents a 70 percent increase since
1996. Continued workload growth of this magnitude is clearly
unsustainable within VA’s current level of available resources.
As discussed in my formal statement, VA has taken steps to assure
priority access to service-connected veterans, veterans who are
poor and those with special needs.
And recently we announced our decision to suspend enrollment
of new Priority 8 veterans. We did not reach this decision easily.
However, it was a decision that had to be made in order to maintain
the quality of health care we provide to currently enrolled veterans
and those higher-priority veterans who have yet to enroll,
and to assure that our system will be ready and able to meet any
and all needs of veterans of a future conflict, should one occur.
The Secretary has also announced that work is under way with
the Department of Health and Human Services to determine how
to give Medicare-eligible Priority 8 veterans who cannot enroll in
VA’s health care system access to a VA+Choice Medicare plan
which would include prescription drug benefits very similar to the
type of plan the President mentioned last evening. Our goal is to
have this option available by the end of the year.
During much of the past year, we have had over 300,000 patients
on waiting lists to receive medical care. Currently, about 200,000
veterans are on those lists. VA has made concerted efforts to reduce
waiting times and eliminate excessive waits. With the additional
funding requested for fiscal year 2003 and the enrollment decision,
we expect to significantly reduce these waits this year.
We must also continue to find better ways to deliver care. We
need new ways to partner with patients to more effectively manage
health care continuously. This approach will involve a fundamental
change in how we view health care from a provider-centric to a patient-
centric focus. Implementing this approach will have a substantial
impact on primary care, but an even more profound impact
on long-term care. Institutional long-term care is very costly and
may impair the long-term spousal relationships and reduce quality
of life.
The technology and skills exist to meet a substantial portion of
long-term care needs in noninstitutional settings. Nursing home
care should always be the option of last resort.
To oversee many of the initiatives needed to implement a new
patient-centered model for care in long-term care, I have created
the new Office of Care Coordination. This office will have in its
charge such issues as the use of technology and care coordination
and the development and implementation of policy and initiatives
for chronic disease management and long-term care.
But while there is much that VA can do on its own, we also need
the committee’s assistance. For more than 30 years VA has developed
a continuum of institutional and noninstitutional services to
meet the extended care needs of veterans, including VA-provided
contracted and State home services. I believe that the capacity requirement
included in the Millennium Act should be updated to reflect
VA’s current direction in the provision of all types of long-term
care.
We also need your help to assure VA’s ability to remain competitive
in pay and work force innovations. We expect to experience
increasing difficulties in the year ahead in maintaining our nursing
work force, and we currently expect to face severe challenges in recruiting
physicians, especially in scarce specialties. VA’s current
pay authorities are stretched to the maximum and the Department
can no longer offer competitive salaries for many medical
specialties.
We are developing a comprehensive work force improvement proposal
that would improve our ability to recruit and retain physicians,
nurses and other health care occupations. The administration
expects to submit this proposal by late spring of this year.
Mr. Chairman, the current state of VA health care is excellent.
We have—but we have much to do to maintain and build upon that
excellence. My vision of the future of VA health care is positive, but
we must deliberately address the challenges I have outlined today
or risk a very different future.
This concludes my statement. I will be happy to answer any
questions you or other members of the committee have. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Roswell appears on p. 56.]
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much Dr. Roswell.
Let me just begin by congratulating you on a very, very difficult
job that you have undertaken. I think you do it with great passion,
but unfortunately, you get handicapped by the resources that you
have at your disposal and fault for that certainly can be spread in
a number of areas. OMB always comes to mind. Congress comes to
mind. I mean, it seems to me that our endeavor needs to be to
marry up the need with sufficient resources so that rationing, however
unwittingly, doesn’t happen.
In the Secretary’s interim final rule, if I read the numbers correctly,
is how we derive that shortfall of $1.9 billion. I hope that
you work with us, notwithstanding OMB’s direction, to try to get
that additional money.
I know the appropriations bill is moving, and it won’t even come
close to meeting that. But supplementals are something that happen
frequently, or at least maybe once a year, and it seems to me
that once again, the veterans are voting with their feet. They are
choosing VA health care because of the services provided, in some
cases because of the pharmaceutical benefit which is significant for
the category 7s and 8s. But the sense is that there is a good health
care delivery network. They want to be a part of it. The CBOCs
have made it possible as access points for many veterans who may
not have even thought of it before to now become consumers of veterans’
health care.
As you and Secretary Principi have so ably pointed out, especially
for our senior population, it is a good deal for the government
when they use VA health care—25, 30 percent less per capita per
patient than if they used a Medicare provider in a more traditional
sense or setting. It seems to me that when Uncle Sam, this spigot,
Medicare or some other spigot, or General Treasury funds, is paying,
we can’t a case that we get a better utilization of our tax dollar
going into VA health care. I continue to be baffled. Why we can’t
make that case sufficiently to get these resources?
And so, generally you know where I’m coming from, because we
have had this discussion, but I hope maybe you can just speak to
it a little more and maybe talk about the $1.9 billion—is that the
shortfall for this coming year? Are we reading these papers
correctly?
What is the estimation going forward? I know the budget has not
been submitted yet. We will have our budget hearing, but give us
a sense of what kind of resources, year after year, we are going to
need to meet the need.
Dr. ROSWELL. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Using an actuary’s full-demand projection model, the 1.9 billion
shortfall you spoke about is roughly correct. But it is important to
understand, as much as I support and appreciate your advocacy for
veterans and your leadership in this committee and your tireless
efforts to generate the resources that are needed to provide care,
at this point in time it is more than simply resources. We have
reached a point with our VA health care system where the fundamental
nature of the system has shifted because of recent demand
for care and years of chronic underfunding.
Today we must rebuild the system. We have to hire new physicians,
new specialists and new nurses, and we have to go back and
reexamine our tertiary care capability. We have had tremendous
demand for care, for pharmaceutical benefits and for outpatient
care. But over half of the new enrollees in the system have sought
just prescription drug benefits.
That shifted precious, limited resources away from our tertiary
care mission. It has created primary care clinics and prescription
drug delivery systems that are not at the fundamental nature of
our core system.
If, God forbid, we have a war with Iraq, and if we have, God forbid,
new veterans returning with combat-related disabilities and
injuries, we must have in place the tertiary care system that will
meet those full and comprehensive needs. I’m sorry to say, Mr.
Chairman, that today we don’t have those specialists and we have
underfunded and neglected the tertiary medical equipment needs
that will create such a system to meet that need.
We need a standdown. We need time to recruit specialists to
bring on new capacity and to rebuild and replenish our tertiary
equipment capability.
The CHAIRMAN. I think you make our case, though, Dr. Roswell,
that funds are policy. I mean, notwithstanding the enrollment moratorium
that Secretary Principi—and he has fully had the discretion
to do so; I think he did so in very good faith, even though I
disagree. But I think he has the veteran at heart and especially,
you know, the service-connected and the indigent veteran. But it
seems to me that chronic underfunding in the past should not become
perpetual. We need to break that cycle and break it decisively.
And why not in the 108th Congress? Why not now? If not
us, who?
My question is: with this budget that we will soon get, knowing
that we have a $1.9 billion demand-model shortfall for this year,
won’t that only get exacerbated as we move forward?
Please work with us because we are only one part. I mean, half
of our budget is mandatory, thank God, and that is why when we
do a GI bill, it does get fully funded because it is mandatory. And
the benefits work that our new Chairman Brown will be working
on, so much of that is, if we do it, it happens. But, unfortunately,
the health care remains discretionary, and that has led to these
chronic shortfalls, as you describe them.
But let’s not let the past, I would respectfully request, color our
future. We need sufficient resources and we will fight and the Administration
can put the marker down.
Last night I was very proud of the President on the AIDS crisis.
I am on the International Relations Committee; I am Vice Chairman
of it. We have been working to get an AIDS bill passed that
will put more money, especially in Africa where you have an explosion,
25 to 30 million people carrying the HIV virus within their
bodies. And that will only get worse; you need to put a tourniquet
on that. And the President announced a $10 billion increase for
that, $15 billion in total.
It seems to me that we have a chronic shortfall, and it goes
through previous Administrations, no doubt about it. Congress
ponied up more money, but not enough. We can break that cycle
now and do it in a bipartisan way. The Presidential Task Force—
and you might want to speak to that, and then I will yield to my
colleague for any questions he might have—will be making its
recommendations.
I know they are looking at the mandatory scheme and other
schemes as possible solutions. I would hope that maximum input
would be made that what they produce won’t be like so many GAO
reports that get put on the shelf and nobody ever acts on it. We
need a real change now, and I think the time has come.
Dr. ROSWELL. Thank you. Certainly we have worked and continue
to work closely with the Presidential task force. We don’t
know what their final recommendations will be. But let me tell you
that the concept of a VA+Choice benefit that the Secretary recently
announced actually had its genesis, its beginning, in discussions
with the chairperson of the Presidential task force, Gail Wilensky,
the former HCFA Administrator.
So we have been maintaining very close communication with the
Presidential task force. We are working to implement concurrently
many of the areas of interest and many of what we believe will be
their recommendations. Clearly, I think their interim report
showed that to maximize VA-DOD sharing we have to improve access
to the VA health care system which is, in large measure, resource-
related. But at this point, because we have saturated our capacity,
we also need time to hire those physicians and nurses. And
in the health care field, the time to recruit and bring on additional
health care professionals can sometimes be lengthy.
The CHAIRMAN. I see my time is up, so I yield to Mr. Evans.
Mr. EVANS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a disturbing question
to ask.
If we are already in debt to a great degree and are not providing
enough funding for the next fiscal year, how are we going to have
enough if this war gets very heated and starts costing us casualties.
Particularly since a lot of the same people who are serving as
backfill are often the supply troops behind our lines?
Do you have any comment about that situation?
Dr. ROSWELL. Well, Congressman Evans, I share your concerns.
As many as 8 percent of VA personnel could be deployed with a full
deployment, and that would create a critical shortage of very vital
health care professionals at a time when we most need them. I
don’t have any solutions, but I can tell you that we are eager and
ready to begin an active recruitment program. If we receive the
2003 appropriation in the near future, we will activate that full effort
to bring on a substantial number of additional nurses, as many
as 1,300 additional nurses this fiscal year, as many as 500 additional
physicians.
go here for more
http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/schedule108/jan03/1-29-03/1-29f-03.pdf
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Veterans Affairs Committee knew problems in 2003
If you read back on transcripts from the Veterans Affairs Committee, you can see there were problems already known way back. This one from 2003 was a clear indication of what the veterans were heading into. The problem was no one did enough about any of it. Now they are trying to play catch up but they need to try a lot harder or we'll be reading about the problems they knew about five years from now and scratching our heads as to why so little was done to face them and correct the problems.
Australia Military Families training for when soldiers come home
Families on alert for stress disorders in Iraq soldiers
Samantha Healy
June 08, 2008 12:00am
IT'S the day anxious Queensland soldiers' families have longed for - their loved ones are coming home.
Today, more than 130 soldiers, mostly from 6RAR at Enoggera's Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane, will arrive at Brisbane International Airport.
For many, it will be the first time their boots have touched home soil for more than six months.
While it will be a joyous occasion for the families, it could also herald a period of awkward readjustment for some of the military personnel who have raw memories of war-ravaged Iraq.
Family and friends have already been counselled by defence experts to be on the lookout for signs of stress disorders.
Debbie Kilbride's son, 22-year-old Pte Tim Kilbride, served six months in Iraq.
"Part of me was scared when he said he was going to Iraq. He'll always be my baby," she said. "I know it will take time for him to open up, but we know the signs to look for."
Iraq is not the first tour for young Pte Kilbride, who also served in East Timor.
"When he came back from Timor he was very quiet and wanted his family around," Ms Kilbride said.
"He saw a lot of combat in Timor but he hasn't been able to tell us much about Iraq. He will when he is ready. I know he spent a bit of time with the (Iraqi) kids.
"He definitely believes they were doing good over there and the army has made sure there is plenty of support for them and us. I will be keeping an eye on him," she said.
Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to Anxiety Australia, include nightmares, recurring negative feelings, muscle tension and rapid heartbeat.
Other signs include excessive use of alcohol or drugs, avoiding people and public places, feelings of detachment, a constant state of alertness and over-reaction to loud noises.
Dr Matthew Bambling, of Queensland University of Technology's psychology department, said no amount of training could prepare soldiers for the realities of war.
"You go into survival mode and often have to live outside your normal value system, so when a soldier comes home it can be hard to adjust," he said.
Dr Bambling said the public had a part to play in making that transition as smooth as possible.
"There are some mixed feelings about this war, and some of these soldiers may be open to criticism from some sectors of society," he said. "We all need to support them, regardless of the politics."
go here for more of this
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23826605-3102,00.html
Samantha Healy
June 08, 2008 12:00am
IT'S the day anxious Queensland soldiers' families have longed for - their loved ones are coming home.
Today, more than 130 soldiers, mostly from 6RAR at Enoggera's Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane, will arrive at Brisbane International Airport.
For many, it will be the first time their boots have touched home soil for more than six months.
While it will be a joyous occasion for the families, it could also herald a period of awkward readjustment for some of the military personnel who have raw memories of war-ravaged Iraq.
Family and friends have already been counselled by defence experts to be on the lookout for signs of stress disorders.
Debbie Kilbride's son, 22-year-old Pte Tim Kilbride, served six months in Iraq.
"Part of me was scared when he said he was going to Iraq. He'll always be my baby," she said. "I know it will take time for him to open up, but we know the signs to look for."
Iraq is not the first tour for young Pte Kilbride, who also served in East Timor.
"When he came back from Timor he was very quiet and wanted his family around," Ms Kilbride said.
"He saw a lot of combat in Timor but he hasn't been able to tell us much about Iraq. He will when he is ready. I know he spent a bit of time with the (Iraqi) kids.
"He definitely believes they were doing good over there and the army has made sure there is plenty of support for them and us. I will be keeping an eye on him," she said.
Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to Anxiety Australia, include nightmares, recurring negative feelings, muscle tension and rapid heartbeat.
Other signs include excessive use of alcohol or drugs, avoiding people and public places, feelings of detachment, a constant state of alertness and over-reaction to loud noises.
Dr Matthew Bambling, of Queensland University of Technology's psychology department, said no amount of training could prepare soldiers for the realities of war.
"You go into survival mode and often have to live outside your normal value system, so when a soldier comes home it can be hard to adjust," he said.
Dr Bambling said the public had a part to play in making that transition as smooth as possible.
"There are some mixed feelings about this war, and some of these soldiers may be open to criticism from some sectors of society," he said. "We all need to support them, regardless of the politics."
go here for more of this
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23826605-3102,00.html
PTSD SOS TO CLERGY
CALL TO CLERGY: Chaplain John Morris has started a program, "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon," to help reintegrate combat soldiers.
BECKY OLSTAD/SPECIAL TO THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Backstory: Enlisting churches to help soldiers
A military chaplain in Minnesota encourages clergy to act as counselors to National Guard troops returning from Iraq.
September 25, 2006 edition
By Sean J. Miller Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
MINNEAPOLIS –
John Morris, a military chaplain, stands at the front of a crowded conference room dressed in desert fatigues and tan combat boots, commanding his audience's attention with a tone barely above a whisper. Addressing some 30 Minnesota church leaders, Major Morris opens with a story about his time in Anbar Province, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq.
"When the insurgents found out a new unit was there, they would walk a child in front of our convoys," he recalls. "What does a good Minnesota person do? Stop. You only do that one time, because you get ambushed and someone gets maimed or killed."
It's a chilling story, which Morris heard from numerous soldiers in combat, meant to convey the reality of war - and the kind of psychological stress soldiers go through in the field and when they come home.
Morris is on a mission. Since returning from the Middle East, the deputy state chaplain of the Minnesota Army National Guard has labored to convince members of Minnesota's religious community - many of whom oppose the war - to support the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. More than that, he wants them to be frontline counselors and comforters.
"Sociologists or psychologists - they're great, they're helpful," Morris tells the audience. "But when I get to this issue, I have to always tell them, 'I'm sorry but there are people better qualified than you to handle this: religious leaders.' You're the healers. You bring reconciliation."
go here for more
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0925/p20s01-lire.html
Luke 10
Jesus Sends Out the Seventytwo
1 After this the Lord appointed 72 others. He sent them out two by two ahead of him. They went to every town and place where he was about to go.
2 He told them, "The harvest is huge, but the workers are few. So ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=49&chapter=10&version=76
It is by no accident The Story of the Good Samaritan appears right after this event in Luke. The Good Samaritan saw a man in the road and did not want to know more than the fact this man needed help. He didn't want to know how he voted. He didn't want to know what faith he practiced. He didn't want to know anything more than the need the man had and he took care of him without even knowing his name.
Why can't pastors do the same? They want to tend to their own flock, yet ignore the needs of the community their flock belongs to. They want to ignore the suffering of the wounded men and women who go to war serving this nation, doing what this nation asks of them because they were called to defend this nation. It is no less of a calling than the pastors and priests have and no less worthy. Have they all forgotten the history of how Christianity was begun and spread? It was not with spread with peace alone. The nations of the ancient world had to be defended. Yes, there were very dark times in the history of Christianity they would like to forget because the crusades along with other events bear no resemblance to Christ or His message, but they are nonetheless part of it.
The soul wounded by warfare is recorded in the Bible they all studied. It is recorded in every history book and can be found in the writings of ancient Greek and Roman historians. Unless you've lived in a cave, you've come into contact with terror in one form or another. So how is it when you try to talk to members of the clergy about PTSD and the need to help, their eyes glaze over and they roll them while they try to change the subject?
I spent two weeks driving to some really large churches here in Central Florida, trying to get members of the clergy involved with the need of these men and women. When the mind, body and spirit are tended to, miracles happen, families are restored and healing is tremendous. I couldn't get past the receptionist. One pastor called me back and he happened to be a Chaplain as well. That is appalling! I worked for a church for two years as administrator of Christian Education and couldn't get the pastors educated on what I've spent over half my life doing.
For a while I thought about the difference between Chaplains and pastors. While they work out of a building, Chaplains work in the world. Maybe that's why we have a greater understanding of the needs of the people instead of the needs of just the select few who go to church once a week? I don't know. What I do know is the mission of those who have been called to serve Christ as a Christian or serve God as a member of any other faith, the mission is to serve all of God's children. Read the Ten Commandments and then tell me this is not the case.
These religious leaders had better start opening their minds and the doors to their churches to all of those who serve this nation and their families or those doors will end up being closed by the One they were opened for. Did they forget how Christ sent out the disciples to heal? They still have not gotten the message and this piece came out in September of 2006! When will they hear this urgent call to help the men and women who serve this nation?
Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs, At War With Himself
At war with himself
Posted by Ron Thibodeaux
June 06, 2008 11:16PM
The all-points bulletin that crackled from the radios of law enforcement officers across southern Arizona was explicit in its urgency.
Be on the lookout, authorities were warned, for a white, late-model Dodge hatchback bearing Arizona license 606RFC, believed occupied by two brothers who had carjacked it from the Grand Canyon two days earlier.
The Border Patrol had tried to detain the vehicle at a checkpoint near Yuma, but the driver sped away, and officers were now in pursuit. Both men were said to have violent criminal histories, and anyone coming in contact with them should consider the suspects armed and dangerous, the bulletin warned.
Thus informed, anxious deputies and police officers from communities along Interstate 8 joined in the chase, speeding brothers Travis and Will Twiggs, both St. Charles Parish natives, toward an unlikely destiny on the morning of May 14.
But that fateful call to arms was only half right.
Until they had wrecked their own car at the Grand Canyon and uncharacteristically forced their way into someone else's, these guys were no criminals. Will Twiggs, 38, lived a quiet life in Metairie, and other than driving under the influence now and then, he didn't get into trouble. Travis Twiggs, 36, knew violence all too well, but it was in the line of duty, as a Marine staff sergeant who had pulled a staggering five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.
He was good at what he did, utterly devoted to duty and country, but all that time in "the sandbox" had messed with his head. Although physically fit, he was an emotional wreck, a classic case of post-traumatic stress disorder if there ever was one.
So it wasn't just Travis and Will in that stolen hatchback. Jared and Bobby were there, too.
Never mind that the explosion from the enemy mortar attack wasn't the sergeant's fault, couldn't have been avoided. Ever since Lance Cpl. Jared J. Kremm and Lance Cpl. Robert F. Eckfield Jr. had died under his command in Iraq in the fall of 2005, they were with their sergeant always. Every day. Every night. Everywhere.
Travis Twiggs had returned from earlier deployments with battle scars from the combat he had seen with his men. Although his injuries were not visible, were "only" psychological, he was no more whole than if he'd had a leg blown off. The only way he knew how to cope was to get back in-country with his Marines.
But once he lost Jared and Bobby, he spiraled out of control. And no amount of treatment, or counseling, or booze could persuade him he was not to blame for their deaths or teach him how to live with the guilt.
Those Arizona cops had no way of knowing it, but when he sped away from that Border Patrol checkpoint and took off through the desert with his brother at his side, Travis Twiggs wasn't running from them. He was running from his demons.
go here for more
http://blog.nola.com/updates/2008/06/at_war_with_himself.html
Tomorrow is part two of this story.
Posted by Ron Thibodeaux
June 06, 2008 11:16PM
The all-points bulletin that crackled from the radios of law enforcement officers across southern Arizona was explicit in its urgency.
Be on the lookout, authorities were warned, for a white, late-model Dodge hatchback bearing Arizona license 606RFC, believed occupied by two brothers who had carjacked it from the Grand Canyon two days earlier.
The Border Patrol had tried to detain the vehicle at a checkpoint near Yuma, but the driver sped away, and officers were now in pursuit. Both men were said to have violent criminal histories, and anyone coming in contact with them should consider the suspects armed and dangerous, the bulletin warned.
Thus informed, anxious deputies and police officers from communities along Interstate 8 joined in the chase, speeding brothers Travis and Will Twiggs, both St. Charles Parish natives, toward an unlikely destiny on the morning of May 14.
But that fateful call to arms was only half right.
Until they had wrecked their own car at the Grand Canyon and uncharacteristically forced their way into someone else's, these guys were no criminals. Will Twiggs, 38, lived a quiet life in Metairie, and other than driving under the influence now and then, he didn't get into trouble. Travis Twiggs, 36, knew violence all too well, but it was in the line of duty, as a Marine staff sergeant who had pulled a staggering five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.
He was good at what he did, utterly devoted to duty and country, but all that time in "the sandbox" had messed with his head. Although physically fit, he was an emotional wreck, a classic case of post-traumatic stress disorder if there ever was one.
So it wasn't just Travis and Will in that stolen hatchback. Jared and Bobby were there, too.
Never mind that the explosion from the enemy mortar attack wasn't the sergeant's fault, couldn't have been avoided. Ever since Lance Cpl. Jared J. Kremm and Lance Cpl. Robert F. Eckfield Jr. had died under his command in Iraq in the fall of 2005, they were with their sergeant always. Every day. Every night. Everywhere.
Travis Twiggs had returned from earlier deployments with battle scars from the combat he had seen with his men. Although his injuries were not visible, were "only" psychological, he was no more whole than if he'd had a leg blown off. The only way he knew how to cope was to get back in-country with his Marines.
But once he lost Jared and Bobby, he spiraled out of control. And no amount of treatment, or counseling, or booze could persuade him he was not to blame for their deaths or teach him how to live with the guilt.
Those Arizona cops had no way of knowing it, but when he sped away from that Border Patrol checkpoint and took off through the desert with his brother at his side, Travis Twiggs wasn't running from them. He was running from his demons.
go here for more
http://blog.nola.com/updates/2008/06/at_war_with_himself.html
Tomorrow is part two of this story.
Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs, Marine, Hero and Loved
You want to know about PTSD or you would not be reading this blog. Do you really want to know about it? Do you want to know more of their stories? The families? Of their lives? I'm sure you do. While I try to post as much as possible about PTSD so that there is a place people can come to and get what they're looking for, I am not a reporter. I am more of an editor who puts in my two cents more than I should at times, but it's my life and they are my passion. It comes from investing my time and energy as if my life depends on it, simply because it does. It is personal to me because of my life with my husband and his life that I do this.
After they came home from Vietnam, men like Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs would never have their story told. It would have just been reduced to a few words in a crime section of your local paper. No one paid attention to their suffering. Because of the Internet, we have the ability to tell their stories and turn numbers into people. Names into faces. One life who touched many. This ability is part of the reason the stigma of PTSD is dying instead of many of them who have sought help finally understanding what it is. They are discovering that the only shame of PTSD belongs to the people who still want to deny the reality of this wound, uneducated, ignorant fools who would rather return to the dark ages when patients were bled to death than they would to understand the advancement of science. We know a lot more about the human mind, body and soul than we ever did before. Now those who serve this county will not simply pass from this life to the next in obscurity. Their stories are being told and people like Lily Casura at Healing Combat Trauma, are making their stories real. She's done a fantastic job covering the story of Travis Twiggs, going above and beyond where people like Tom Ricks would probably even bother to read. I am happy to call her friend and humbled by her dedication and talent.
After they came home from Vietnam, men like Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs would never have their story told. It would have just been reduced to a few words in a crime section of your local paper. No one paid attention to their suffering. Because of the Internet, we have the ability to tell their stories and turn numbers into people. Names into faces. One life who touched many. This ability is part of the reason the stigma of PTSD is dying instead of many of them who have sought help finally understanding what it is. They are discovering that the only shame of PTSD belongs to the people who still want to deny the reality of this wound, uneducated, ignorant fools who would rather return to the dark ages when patients were bled to death than they would to understand the advancement of science. We know a lot more about the human mind, body and soul than we ever did before. Now those who serve this county will not simply pass from this life to the next in obscurity. Their stories are being told and people like Lily Casura at Healing Combat Trauma, are making their stories real. She's done a fantastic job covering the story of Travis Twiggs, going above and beyond where people like Tom Ricks would probably even bother to read. I am happy to call her friend and humbled by her dedication and talent.
June 07, 2008
SSgt. Travis Twiggs - Well-Loved U.S. Marine and PTSD-Struggling Hero - the Update
[In progress...check back later for more.] It's nice to know that the exceptionally tragic story of PSTD sufferer and well-loved Marine SSgt. Travis N. Twiggs hasn't completely faded from view -- a story we broke here, days before the national media even picked it up. This weekend it looks like the Times-Picayune has a two-part series about Twiggs on the NOLA.com website, linked here, and the story is both well-written, and contains - gasp - actual reporting, including conversations with the dad and stepmom, both Louisiana residents. (The Twiggs brothers spent their formative years in Alma, Louisiana.) It's a shock to me that CNN never covered the Twiggs story -- although they did cover the story of the Marine on leave who was murdered over $8 in his pocket. I guess the fear-mongering, anxiety-producing shock value of that "news," while terrifically sad in itself, beats the prospect of actually covering a story with some complexity and depth, in which we as Americans could stand to learn more about the life and background of an American hero whose death we mourn. Weird values, CNN (or maybe complete lack of them...)
One nice development since our original reporting on this story, back in mid-May when it happened. The Marine Corps Gazette, which originally published Travis Twiggs' story about his battle with PTSD, put the article back in print. It's available on their website now, linked here. And they added a nice little blurb about mourning his passing and extending their condolences to his family, which is appropriate. It also sounds like there was a Memorial Service for the extremely well-loved Staff Sergeant at Quantico a week ago, which allowed his fellow Marines and those he'd come in contact with over the years, to pay their respects. Also a very nice, and well-deserved touch. (So much better than just sweeping the whole situation under the rug, because it had such a tragic ending.)go here for more
Friday, June 6, 2008
Center’s focus: Mental health issues, severe brain injuries
Center’s focus: Mental health issues, severe brain injuries
By Jeffrey Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, June 07, 2008
BETHESDA, Md. — Defense leaders feel a "debt and a need and a requirement" to address the stresses troop feel from combat and what happens afterward, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday,
"Combat changes people," said Marine Gen. James Cartwright said. "It changes the members of the service. It changes their families. It changes the communities they live in. And we have to acknowledge those changes. We have to address those changes."
Cartwright spoke Thursday at the groundbreaking for a new center to treat brain injuries and psychological wounds. The move is "overdue," he said.
"It is something that men and women in uniform deserve, not only from the current conflict, but from past conflicts," Cartwright said.
The National Intrepid Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury is slated to be completed in late 2009, according to a news release for Thursday’s event.
Money for the center is being raised by the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund, a private charity that previously raised $60 million to build the Center for the Intrepid, a rehabilitation facility for amputees and burn victims at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, the news release said.
go here for more
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55362
By Jeffrey Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, June 07, 2008
BETHESDA, Md. — Defense leaders feel a "debt and a need and a requirement" to address the stresses troop feel from combat and what happens afterward, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday,
"Combat changes people," said Marine Gen. James Cartwright said. "It changes the members of the service. It changes their families. It changes the communities they live in. And we have to acknowledge those changes. We have to address those changes."
Cartwright spoke Thursday at the groundbreaking for a new center to treat brain injuries and psychological wounds. The move is "overdue," he said.
"It is something that men and women in uniform deserve, not only from the current conflict, but from past conflicts," Cartwright said.
The National Intrepid Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury is slated to be completed in late 2009, according to a news release for Thursday’s event.
Money for the center is being raised by the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund, a private charity that previously raised $60 million to build the Center for the Intrepid, a rehabilitation facility for amputees and burn victims at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, the news release said.
go here for more
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55362
Army captain in South Korea is charged with murdering his wife
Army captain in South Korea is charged with murdering his wife
By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, June 8, 2008
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — The mother of Lea Gray reacted with relief and tears Friday at news that murder charges have been filed in her daughter’s disappearance and death in South Korea.
And she said Lea Gray’s 6-year-old daughter Bianca has yet to be told of her mother’s death and continues to ask for her.
The Army on Friday charged Capt. Christopher Gray with murder in his wife’s death.
"I’m glad finally they charge him for my daughter’s death," Marilyn Bahena, 50, of the Philippines, told Stars and Stripes in a telephone interview from California late Friday.
go here for more
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55383
By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, June 8, 2008
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — The mother of Lea Gray reacted with relief and tears Friday at news that murder charges have been filed in her daughter’s disappearance and death in South Korea.
And she said Lea Gray’s 6-year-old daughter Bianca has yet to be told of her mother’s death and continues to ask for her.
The Army on Friday charged Capt. Christopher Gray with murder in his wife’s death.
"I’m glad finally they charge him for my daughter’s death," Marilyn Bahena, 50, of the Philippines, told Stars and Stripes in a telephone interview from California late Friday.
go here for more
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55383
Iowa National Guard Soldier Send Off
With tears all around, Staff Sergeant Boyd Brinker hugs his four-year-old son Braydon, after a send off ceremony at the Aviation Support facility at Waterloo Thursday. (BRANDON POLLOCK/Courier Staff Photographer)
Friday, June 6, 2008 12:13 PM CDT
Soldier send-off
By LAURA GREVAS, Courier Staff Writer
WATERLOO --- It was standing room only. So they stood, in the oppressive heat, to say goodbye.
More than 200 family members and friends attended a send-off ceremony Thursday for the Waterloo detachment of the Iowa National Guard's 248th Aviation Support Battalion.
The 18 guardsmen will leave from the Waterloo Army Aviation Support Facility and travel to Fort Sill, Okla., where they will spend several weeks in additional training before being deployed to the Central Command theater of operations in Iraq. Once there, they will provide aviation maintenance support to a combat aviation brigade. Lt. Col. Tim Eich, the facility commander, said the unit could work on repair, maintenance and testing of several hundred airplanes.
"They have people who specialize in all the airplanes the Army has," he said.
Their tour is scheduled to last a little more than a year, but members of the Iowa National Guard can serve as many as 24 consecutive months.
This will mark the battalion's third active-duty deployment since 9/11, and Eich said the majority of the men on this mission had been deployed before.
Several of them, like aviation maintenance technician Alan Kakac, have dedicated much of their lives to the National Guard. Kakac, 51, has been in the Guard for 32 years, serving in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
go here for more
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/06/06/news/metro/10391192.txt
VA, Congress assist veterans in mortgage mess
VA, Congress assist veterans in mortgage mess
By Tom Philpott, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, June 07, 2008
With thousands of servicemembers and veterans having lost homes or facing foreclosure as the mortgage crisis continues, lawmakers are pushing legislation to raise VA loan ceilings, lower VA funding fees and expand the VA’s ability to help veterans to refinance loans they can’t afford.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, meanwhile, is encouraging military members, veterans and surviving widows with at-risk loans to seek advice from VA loan counselors even if their loans are not VA-guaranteed.
VA loan experts lack authority to restructure or renegotiate loans not backed by VA. But they can advise veterans on their options and on how they might negotiate with mortgage holders to avoid default.
VA’s effort to reach mortgage holders in distress now includes a help line —(877) 827-3702 — that automatically directs callers the nearest of nine VA regional loan centers. VA loan counselors have helped 74,000 homeowners since 2000, including half of all VA loans in serious default last year, thus saving the government nearly $1.5 billion, officials contend.
The VA Loan Guaranty program avoided the subprime loan debacle. While delinquency rates have climbed over the past five years for subprime, FHA and prime mortgages, delinquencies have fallen for VA-backed loans.
go here for more
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55366
By Tom Philpott, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, June 07, 2008
With thousands of servicemembers and veterans having lost homes or facing foreclosure as the mortgage crisis continues, lawmakers are pushing legislation to raise VA loan ceilings, lower VA funding fees and expand the VA’s ability to help veterans to refinance loans they can’t afford.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, meanwhile, is encouraging military members, veterans and surviving widows with at-risk loans to seek advice from VA loan counselors even if their loans are not VA-guaranteed.
VA loan experts lack authority to restructure or renegotiate loans not backed by VA. But they can advise veterans on their options and on how they might negotiate with mortgage holders to avoid default.
VA’s effort to reach mortgage holders in distress now includes a help line —(877) 827-3702 — that automatically directs callers the nearest of nine VA regional loan centers. VA loan counselors have helped 74,000 homeowners since 2000, including half of all VA loans in serious default last year, thus saving the government nearly $1.5 billion, officials contend.
The VA Loan Guaranty program avoided the subprime loan debacle. While delinquency rates have climbed over the past five years for subprime, FHA and prime mortgages, delinquencies have fallen for VA-backed loans.
go here for more
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55366
Emergency Negotiators Train For Returning Warrior Issues
Should be repeated all over the country.
Riverside County - Emergency Negotiators Train For Returning Warrior Issues
Riverside, CA – Riverside Police Department hosted a training session Thursday, June 5, for nearly 50 officers from six Inland law enforcement agencies dealing with post-traumatic stress issues pertaining to return veterans of war.
“Early in my career, in the 1980s, we encountered a lot of these issues of stress, addiction and violence, with Vietnam veterans. We want to be prepared as these issues arise with returning Iraq war veterans,” said RPD Emergency Negotiations Team Sgt. George Masson.
Nearly 40 percent of returning combat veterans will suffer some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder upon returning home, which can result in extreme and dangerous behavior, domestic violence and crisis situations police will be first responders to, said William Rider, co-founder and president of American Combat Veterans of War, a nonprofit support group working with vets at Camp Pendleton.
ACVOW volunteers, themselves Vietnam combat veterans, and five young Iraq war veterans, worked with police officers from Riverside, San Bernardino, Corona, Chino, Murrieta and deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff, on combat-related stresses and scenario training on how negotiators can respond to vets in crisis.
The training — initiated by Masson and Riverside Officer Phil Fernandez, who is a former U.S. Marine — was ACVOW’s first collaboration with law enforcement agencies. The Riverside County Department of Mental Health - Emergency Treatment Services (ETS) coordinated the training.
ACVOW volunteers called the initiative “refreshing.” Veterans with post-traumatic stress often put family members and innocent bystanders at risk, Rider said. “This (training) goes right to the heart of what needs to happen,” helping first responders deal more safely and successfully with returning combat veterans in crisis.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Thursday, June 5, 2008
Contact: Steven Frasher, Press Information Officer
Phone: (951) 826-5147
http://www.mymurrieta.com/wordpress/?p=1552
Bodies found at Fort Wainwright ID as soldier and wife
Wainwright bodies ID’d as spc., wife
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jun 6, 2008 6:16:55 EDT
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Army officials have released the identities of two people found dead at Fort Wainwright.
Officials identified them as 23-year-old Spc. Benjamin Bays, of Brazil, Ind., and his 22-year-old wife, Faith.
Their bodies were found in their residence Tuesday morning. The discovery was announced late Wednesday, and identities released Thursday after relatives were notified.
Base spokeswoman Linda Douglass said Bays was a radio operator with the 28th Military Police Detachment.
He joined the Army in March 2005 and was stationed at Fort Wainwright five months later.
Douglass said the causes of death are not known. The Army is still investigating and has released no other details.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_wainwrightbodies_060508/
NOTE:
To the person claiming to know how these two people died, it will be posted when it is made public and not, repeat, not, before that. This post was not tagged as PTSD, so stop trying to comment and threaten me. The PTSD tag is on everything because that is the nature of this blog however if you bothered to look at the tags belonging to this post alone as they all have their own tags, you would see clearly there was nothing mentioned as PTSD. If you cannot get it through your head this blog is about other things that is your problem.
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jun 6, 2008 6:16:55 EDT
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Army officials have released the identities of two people found dead at Fort Wainwright.
Officials identified them as 23-year-old Spc. Benjamin Bays, of Brazil, Ind., and his 22-year-old wife, Faith.
Their bodies were found in their residence Tuesday morning. The discovery was announced late Wednesday, and identities released Thursday after relatives were notified.
Base spokeswoman Linda Douglass said Bays was a radio operator with the 28th Military Police Detachment.
He joined the Army in March 2005 and was stationed at Fort Wainwright five months later.
Douglass said the causes of death are not known. The Army is still investigating and has released no other details.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_wainwrightbodies_060508/
NOTE:
To the person claiming to know how these two people died, it will be posted when it is made public and not, repeat, not, before that. This post was not tagged as PTSD, so stop trying to comment and threaten me. The PTSD tag is on everything because that is the nature of this blog however if you bothered to look at the tags belonging to this post alone as they all have their own tags, you would see clearly there was nothing mentioned as PTSD. If you cannot get it through your head this blog is about other things that is your problem.
Air Force Honor Guard stillness in face of a storm
Video shows airmen standing fast in a storm
Posted : Friday Jun 6, 2008 16:20:39 EDT
Footage of an Air Force Honor Guard in Arlington National Cemetery is attracting attention online for the airmen’s almost surreal stillness in the midst of a sudden, violent storm.
A man filming a funeral at the cemetery Wednesday caught the airmen just as wind picked up — and he kept his camera on them as the guard held its post despite lightning and sheets of rain. Their only movement is the flapping of their coats.
The video was posted to http://www.ireport.com/ that day and later aired on CNN.
Watch the video
The thunderstorms that swept across the Washington, D.C., area yesterday downed power lines and trees throughout the region. Meteorologists reported gusts of wind up to 66 mph at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and one man was killed by a falling tree in Annandale, Va.
Amazing!! Just amazing. They stood still no matter how hard it rained! The person with the camera had a hard time keeping them in focus but you could see they did not move at all. What a bunch of fine men who saw their duty to do and that was all that mattered! WOW.
Marine who claimed PTSD pleads guilty to manslaughter
Marine who claimed PTSD pleads guilty to manslaughter
June 5, 2008 - 12:27PM
Jeremy Roebuck
EDINBURG - A Peñitas Marine pleaded guilty Thursday to charges connected to the drunken driving death of a Pharr woman last year.
Erik James Mercado, 26, asked a judge for leniency soon after his arrest claiming he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the Feb. 4, 2007, wreck.
But his attorney - Ricardo Palacios - made no similar claims as Mercado approached visiting Judge Homer Salinas to enter his plea.
Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Mercado was sentenced to 10 years probation and a 50-day stint in the county jail.
He will be required to pay $120,000 in restitution over the next decade.
He avoided more extensive jail time because he would lose his veteran's disability benefits should he be incarcerated for more than 60 days. Prosecutors felt it was important that he be able to pay restitution to Eusebia Aragon Estrada's surviving children.
"He's got a lot ahead of him," Palacios said. "It's not a walk in the park."
Breathalyzer tests indicate Mercado had a blood-alcohol level of .11 --.03 over Texas' legal .08 limit - the night he rear-ended Aragon's silver Chevrolet Impala while driving back from a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Mission.
The collision caused the Impala to roll over into the median near the intersection of Expressway 83 and Inspiration Road, killing Aragon on impact.
But since then life has been difficult for Aragon's children - Diana, 9, and Edward, 7, their grandmother Guadalupe Romo said.
Five months after Aragon's death, her husband died of a heart attack.
"He died of a broken heart," Romo said. "He was never the same after her death."
Since then, the children have been living with Romo, a retired nurse.
Shortly after Thursday's hearing, she said she was not interested in Mercado's money but felt restitution payments were important.
"Every time he has to write that check, he'll have to remember (the children)," she said.
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/claimed_12802___article.html/ptsd_edinburg.html
June 5, 2008 - 12:27PM
Jeremy Roebuck
EDINBURG - A Peñitas Marine pleaded guilty Thursday to charges connected to the drunken driving death of a Pharr woman last year.
Erik James Mercado, 26, asked a judge for leniency soon after his arrest claiming he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the Feb. 4, 2007, wreck.
But his attorney - Ricardo Palacios - made no similar claims as Mercado approached visiting Judge Homer Salinas to enter his plea.
Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Mercado was sentenced to 10 years probation and a 50-day stint in the county jail.
He will be required to pay $120,000 in restitution over the next decade.
He avoided more extensive jail time because he would lose his veteran's disability benefits should he be incarcerated for more than 60 days. Prosecutors felt it was important that he be able to pay restitution to Eusebia Aragon Estrada's surviving children.
"He's got a lot ahead of him," Palacios said. "It's not a walk in the park."
Breathalyzer tests indicate Mercado had a blood-alcohol level of .11 --.03 over Texas' legal .08 limit - the night he rear-ended Aragon's silver Chevrolet Impala while driving back from a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Mission.
The collision caused the Impala to roll over into the median near the intersection of Expressway 83 and Inspiration Road, killing Aragon on impact.
But since then life has been difficult for Aragon's children - Diana, 9, and Edward, 7, their grandmother Guadalupe Romo said.
Five months after Aragon's death, her husband died of a heart attack.
"He died of a broken heart," Romo said. "He was never the same after her death."
Since then, the children have been living with Romo, a retired nurse.
Shortly after Thursday's hearing, she said she was not interested in Mercado's money but felt restitution payments were important.
"Every time he has to write that check, he'll have to remember (the children)," she said.
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/claimed_12802___article.html/ptsd_edinburg.html
Preventing PTSD
Reported June 6, 2008
Preventing PTSD
(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Reliving a troubling event may help patients prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In exposure therapy, individuals who recently survived a traumatic event are instructed to mentally relive the event. The goal is to ease anxiety associated with the memory and reverse the belief that it’s best to avoid that memory. Despite evidence that some clinicians avoid this kind of therapy because it distresses recent trauma survivors, exposure therapy has been used alongside cognitive restructuring to prevent PTSD. Cognitive restructuring involves changing counterproductive thoughts and responses brought on by a troubling event.
Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, compared the progress of patients in exposure therapy with those in cognitive restructuring. They also compared their progress with patients on a waitlist for treatment. They found fewer patients in the exposure therapy group met criteria for PTSD after completing the treatment than patients in the cognitive restructuring group or the waitlist group. In different results collected after six months, 14 patients in the exposure group achieved full remission, while four patients in the cognitive restructuring group did. In addition, researchers found distress ratings to be lower in the exposure therapy group than in the cognitive restructuring group.
“The current findings suggest that direct activation of trauma memories is particularly useful for prevention of PTSD symptoms in patients with acute stress disorder,” study authors write.
“Exposure should be used in early intervention for people who are at high risk for developing PTSD.”
Source: The Archives of General Psychiatry, 2008;65:659-667
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Lindsay Braun at lbraun@ivanhoe.com
http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=18977
Preventing PTSD
(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Reliving a troubling event may help patients prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In exposure therapy, individuals who recently survived a traumatic event are instructed to mentally relive the event. The goal is to ease anxiety associated with the memory and reverse the belief that it’s best to avoid that memory. Despite evidence that some clinicians avoid this kind of therapy because it distresses recent trauma survivors, exposure therapy has been used alongside cognitive restructuring to prevent PTSD. Cognitive restructuring involves changing counterproductive thoughts and responses brought on by a troubling event.
Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, compared the progress of patients in exposure therapy with those in cognitive restructuring. They also compared their progress with patients on a waitlist for treatment. They found fewer patients in the exposure therapy group met criteria for PTSD after completing the treatment than patients in the cognitive restructuring group or the waitlist group. In different results collected after six months, 14 patients in the exposure group achieved full remission, while four patients in the cognitive restructuring group did. In addition, researchers found distress ratings to be lower in the exposure therapy group than in the cognitive restructuring group.
“The current findings suggest that direct activation of trauma memories is particularly useful for prevention of PTSD symptoms in patients with acute stress disorder,” study authors write.
“Exposure should be used in early intervention for people who are at high risk for developing PTSD.”
Source: The Archives of General Psychiatry, 2008;65:659-667
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Lindsay Braun at lbraun@ivanhoe.com
http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=18977
Military Inconsistent' On Medical Records Reviews
Report: Military Inconsistent' On Medical Records Reviews
By LISA CHEDEKEL And MATTHEW KAUFFMAN Courant Staff Writers
June 5, 2008
The military is not routinely reviewing the medical records of troops being sent to war despite a policy that calls for such a check before service members are deemed mentally fit to deploy, congressional investigators said in a new report.
In the report, the Government Accountability Office said that although the Department of Defense, or DoD, had taken some "positive steps" to improve the mental-health screening of deploying and returning troops, "unfortunately, DoD's policies for reviewing medical records during the pre-deployment health assessment are inconsistent."
"Because of DoD's inconsistent policies," the investigators said, "providers determining if ... service members meet DoD's minimum mental health standards for deployment may not have complete medical information."
The accountability office reviewed changes approved 18 months ago in the way troops are screened for mental-health status before and after deploying to war.
The defense department in late 2006 adopted a policy, in response to congressional legislation, that tightened pre-deployment screening by setting limits on when troops with mental-health problems may be sent to war and retained in combat.
The legislation was prompted by a series of stories in The Courant that found troops' mental illnesses were being missed or ignored during pre-deployment screenings. Some of those troops committed suicide in Iraq.
go here for more
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-screen0605.artjun05,0,4311866.story
By LISA CHEDEKEL And MATTHEW KAUFFMAN Courant Staff Writers
June 5, 2008
The military is not routinely reviewing the medical records of troops being sent to war despite a policy that calls for such a check before service members are deemed mentally fit to deploy, congressional investigators said in a new report.
In the report, the Government Accountability Office said that although the Department of Defense, or DoD, had taken some "positive steps" to improve the mental-health screening of deploying and returning troops, "unfortunately, DoD's policies for reviewing medical records during the pre-deployment health assessment are inconsistent."
"Because of DoD's inconsistent policies," the investigators said, "providers determining if ... service members meet DoD's minimum mental health standards for deployment may not have complete medical information."
The accountability office reviewed changes approved 18 months ago in the way troops are screened for mental-health status before and after deploying to war.
The defense department in late 2006 adopted a policy, in response to congressional legislation, that tightened pre-deployment screening by setting limits on when troops with mental-health problems may be sent to war and retained in combat.
The legislation was prompted by a series of stories in The Courant that found troops' mental illnesses were being missed or ignored during pre-deployment screenings. Some of those troops committed suicide in Iraq.
go here for more
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-screen0605.artjun05,0,4311866.story
Talking Out Trauma: Not Always a Help. Ok, if you say so
This whole article should have begun with this,,,,
Instead of this
All they need to do is ask the police and firefighters if it works or not. After reading this article, this entire study must have been a huge waste of time. Go there and read it for yourself.
Seery agrees that his study shouldn't discourage anyone from seeking counseling after a trauma, if they believe they will benefit from it. Instead, he stresses that what the new findings do reinforce is that no one should be pressured into therapy against their will either. "The implication of our work is that people handle bad situations differently and we need to accept that reality," Seery says, adding, "There's no single solution that fits everyone."
Instead of this
Talking Out Trauma: Not Always a HelpThursday, Jun. 05, 2008 By KATHLEEN KINGSBURY
Talk it out. That's the first advice most victims are given in the wake of trauma. Conventional wisdom would suggest that burying one's emotions after a violent incident — such as a school shooting or terrorist bombing — will only lead to deeper anxiety later on. Yet, while mental health practitioners widely subscribe to this truism, it has rarely been tested outside a laboratory setting — past studies have found a lack of convincing evidence to support the use of psychological debriefing to mitigate trauma — and some experts think the theory doesn't hold up in every situation.
go here for more
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1812204,00.html
All they need to do is ask the police and firefighters if it works or not. After reading this article, this entire study must have been a huge waste of time. Go there and read it for yourself.
VA Suicide Hotline, 720 rescues and 37,200 calls
Growing Public Health Crisis of Domestic Violence and Suicides by Returning Veterans
By Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
WEST ROXBURY, Mass., June 5 --"We are greatly concerned in this state about the 'invisible wounds of war' - the mental health of our returning veterans, the stress, depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - which raise the specter of rising levels of domestic violence and suicide. We need to begin focusing on their recuperation as well as building awareness and support programs with their families about what to expect when the veterans return," says Senator Richard T. Moore, State Senator and Chairman of the Massachusetts Health Care Financing Committee.
Moore is one of three experts offering guidance at a free public forum exploring solutions to an impending mental health crisis among returning veterans.
-- WHAT: "Returning War Veterans: Meeting Health Needs of Veterans, Families and Communities"
-- WHEN: Friday, June 13, 2008, 2:30 pm. to 5 pm
-- WHERE: Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, (MSPP), 221 Rivermoor Street, West Roxbury, MA
Joining Moore will be Dr. Jaine Darwin, Co-Chairman of the SOFAR Project (Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists), who will speak of essential outreach efforts to veterans, families and community, and Dr. Jonathan Shay, Staff Psychiatrist at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Boston and author of "Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming."
A recent RAND Corporation report stated that 300,000 veterans have mental health problems and 320,000 have brain injuries and that nearly 50 percent of those in need do not seek mental health services. The reasons: career stigma, worry about medication side effects and the belief that family and friends could help them instead.
Each day 18 veterans commit suicide. And since last August, a Department of Veterans Affairs hotline has made more than 720 suicide rescues and responded to more than 37,200 calls for help.
In February, a community in Port Charlotte, Florida searched for weeks for 24-year-old Eric Hall, a missing veteran who suffered Iraq combat flashbacks. Hall's body was later found in a hillside pipeline.
Dr. David Satin, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at HMSS and Chairman of the Erich Lindemann Memorial Lecture Committee at MSPP will moderate.
The forum is 31st annual program dedicated to the legacy of the late Dr. Erich Lindemann.
SOURCE Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
Elinor Stout of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology,
1-978-369-3588, Estout2000@hotmail.com
http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/606464.html
By Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
WEST ROXBURY, Mass., June 5 --"We are greatly concerned in this state about the 'invisible wounds of war' - the mental health of our returning veterans, the stress, depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - which raise the specter of rising levels of domestic violence and suicide. We need to begin focusing on their recuperation as well as building awareness and support programs with their families about what to expect when the veterans return," says Senator Richard T. Moore, State Senator and Chairman of the Massachusetts Health Care Financing Committee.
Moore is one of three experts offering guidance at a free public forum exploring solutions to an impending mental health crisis among returning veterans.
-- WHAT: "Returning War Veterans: Meeting Health Needs of Veterans, Families and Communities"
-- WHEN: Friday, June 13, 2008, 2:30 pm. to 5 pm
-- WHERE: Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, (MSPP), 221 Rivermoor Street, West Roxbury, MA
Joining Moore will be Dr. Jaine Darwin, Co-Chairman of the SOFAR Project (Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists), who will speak of essential outreach efforts to veterans, families and community, and Dr. Jonathan Shay, Staff Psychiatrist at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Boston and author of "Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming."
A recent RAND Corporation report stated that 300,000 veterans have mental health problems and 320,000 have brain injuries and that nearly 50 percent of those in need do not seek mental health services. The reasons: career stigma, worry about medication side effects and the belief that family and friends could help them instead.
Each day 18 veterans commit suicide. And since last August, a Department of Veterans Affairs hotline has made more than 720 suicide rescues and responded to more than 37,200 calls for help.
In February, a community in Port Charlotte, Florida searched for weeks for 24-year-old Eric Hall, a missing veteran who suffered Iraq combat flashbacks. Hall's body was later found in a hillside pipeline.
Dr. David Satin, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at HMSS and Chairman of the Erich Lindemann Memorial Lecture Committee at MSPP will moderate.
The forum is 31st annual program dedicated to the legacy of the late Dr. Erich Lindemann.
SOURCE Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
Elinor Stout of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology,
1-978-369-3588, Estout2000@hotmail.com
http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/606464.html
Marine, Lance Cpl. Dustin Canham death at Camp Lemonier
WA Marine's father, widow raise questions about his death
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
LAKE STEVENS, Wash. —
On the afternoon of March 23, two superiors took a 21-year-old Marine, Lance Cpl. Dustin Canham, into a tent at Camp Lemonier, a U.S. base in the rocky desert of the Horn of Africa.
Exactly what happened inside remains unclear, except this: Canham died.
In letters, the Marines told Canham's family he collapsed while exercising. His father and his 19-year-old widow believe that's half the story. They were told by Canham's fellow Marines that he was being punished for accidentally chipping another Marine's tooth. They suspect he might have dropped dead from being forced to work out too hard.
A military autopsy determined the manner of death to be "natural" and said Canham had a mildly enlarged heart. But the medical examiners were not told the circumstances of Canham's death and thus did not consider heat exhaustion as a possible cause, The Associated Press has learned.
After the AP raised questions last week, Armed Forces Medical Examiner Craig T. Mallak and the deputy medical examiner who performed the autopsy, Cmdr. Timothy D. Monaghan, told the family they would take another look at Canham's case.
"They try to make it sound routine, but there's nothing routine about taking one Marine aside," said Canham's widow, Devyn. "Why wouldn't they be doing their daily exercises together?"
The AP has also learned that one of the two superiors who brought Canham into the tent, Sgt. Jesus Diaz, was reassigned out of the platoon following the death.
go here for more
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004459493_apamarinesdeath.html
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
LAKE STEVENS, Wash. —
On the afternoon of March 23, two superiors took a 21-year-old Marine, Lance Cpl. Dustin Canham, into a tent at Camp Lemonier, a U.S. base in the rocky desert of the Horn of Africa.
Exactly what happened inside remains unclear, except this: Canham died.
In letters, the Marines told Canham's family he collapsed while exercising. His father and his 19-year-old widow believe that's half the story. They were told by Canham's fellow Marines that he was being punished for accidentally chipping another Marine's tooth. They suspect he might have dropped dead from being forced to work out too hard.
A military autopsy determined the manner of death to be "natural" and said Canham had a mildly enlarged heart. But the medical examiners were not told the circumstances of Canham's death and thus did not consider heat exhaustion as a possible cause, The Associated Press has learned.
After the AP raised questions last week, Armed Forces Medical Examiner Craig T. Mallak and the deputy medical examiner who performed the autopsy, Cmdr. Timothy D. Monaghan, told the family they would take another look at Canham's case.
"They try to make it sound routine, but there's nothing routine about taking one Marine aside," said Canham's widow, Devyn. "Why wouldn't they be doing their daily exercises together?"
The AP has also learned that one of the two superiors who brought Canham into the tent, Sgt. Jesus Diaz, was reassigned out of the platoon following the death.
go here for more
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004459493_apamarinesdeath.html
Pfc. Joshua E. Waltenbaugh was part of Downed Aircraft Recovery Team
Ford City soldier's death in Iraq being investigated
Friday, June 06, 2008
By Milan Simonich, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A soldier from Armstrong County has died in Iraq of a gunshot wound unrelated to combat, the Army and his family said yesterday.
The Army identified the soldier as Pfc. Joshua E. Waltenbaugh, 19, of Ford City.
He died Tuesday in Taji, north of Baghdad. His case was classified as a noncombat death and is under investigation, the Army said in a statement.
Bonnie Waltenbaugh, mother of the soldier, said in an interview he was killed by a gunshot. Asked if she knew the circumstances, she said, "Yes, but we're not at liberty to say."
A spokeswoman at Fort Hood, Texas, Pfc. Waltenbaugh's home post, said she did not know how he died. An Army spokesman in Iraq did not immediately respond to questions.
Pfc. Waltenbaugh's job was to repair helicopter engines. He also was a member of the Downed Aircraft Recovery Team, his mother said.
go here for more
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08158/887835-85.stm
Friday, June 06, 2008
By Milan Simonich, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A soldier from Armstrong County has died in Iraq of a gunshot wound unrelated to combat, the Army and his family said yesterday.
The Army identified the soldier as Pfc. Joshua E. Waltenbaugh, 19, of Ford City.
He died Tuesday in Taji, north of Baghdad. His case was classified as a noncombat death and is under investigation, the Army said in a statement.
Bonnie Waltenbaugh, mother of the soldier, said in an interview he was killed by a gunshot. Asked if she knew the circumstances, she said, "Yes, but we're not at liberty to say."
A spokeswoman at Fort Hood, Texas, Pfc. Waltenbaugh's home post, said she did not know how he died. An Army spokesman in Iraq did not immediately respond to questions.
Pfc. Waltenbaugh's job was to repair helicopter engines. He also was a member of the Downed Aircraft Recovery Team, his mother said.
go here for more
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08158/887835-85.stm
Marine Staff Sgt.Travis N. Twiggs story focus of attention still
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder a common syndrome, expert says
By Uriah A. Kiser
Published: June 6, 2008
STAFFORD — More and more soldiers returning from war are being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an ailment that leaves families confused, torn, and for one local marine who suffered from the disorder, dead.
Last month Marine Staff Sgt. Travis N. Twiggs, 36, went absent without official leave from Quantico Marine Base on May 5. Officials there say he was assigned to the Warfare Laboratory, an Quantico-based agency that facilitates war games and devises ways to better operate Marine forces during ground combat.
Twiggs had served four tours in Iraq, one month in Afghanistan, according to Quantico officials.
Kelle Twiggs, his widow, told the Associated Press that her husband he was undergoing therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and was taking up to 12 medications to treat his condition.
Twiggs, who lived in Stafford with his wife, drove to the Grand Canyon with his 38-year -old brother, Willard J. Twiggs. When they arrived at the Canyon, police say the two tried to drive their car into the chasm in a suicide attempt. During the unsuccessful attempt, the car became lodged in a tree.
The two brothers later car-jacked another vehicle and drove it to the Arizona - Mexico boarder. Police say when asked to pull over for questioning, the two sped off leading police on an 80-mile pursuit.
Police eventually disabled the car by laying tire spikes on the roadway in front of the moving vehicle.
Once disabled, Twiggs then exited the car and shot his brother, then turned the gun on himself. Both men died at the scene.
Judy MCGillicuddy, a substance abuse therapist with the Rappahannock Community Services Board says her agency has seen an increase in PTSD cases, and that she works very closely with families to treat the disorder.
click post title for more
By Uriah A. Kiser
Published: June 6, 2008
STAFFORD — More and more soldiers returning from war are being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an ailment that leaves families confused, torn, and for one local marine who suffered from the disorder, dead.
Last month Marine Staff Sgt. Travis N. Twiggs, 36, went absent without official leave from Quantico Marine Base on May 5. Officials there say he was assigned to the Warfare Laboratory, an Quantico-based agency that facilitates war games and devises ways to better operate Marine forces during ground combat.
Twiggs had served four tours in Iraq, one month in Afghanistan, according to Quantico officials.
Kelle Twiggs, his widow, told the Associated Press that her husband he was undergoing therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and was taking up to 12 medications to treat his condition.
Twiggs, who lived in Stafford with his wife, drove to the Grand Canyon with his 38-year -old brother, Willard J. Twiggs. When they arrived at the Canyon, police say the two tried to drive their car into the chasm in a suicide attempt. During the unsuccessful attempt, the car became lodged in a tree.
The two brothers later car-jacked another vehicle and drove it to the Arizona - Mexico boarder. Police say when asked to pull over for questioning, the two sped off leading police on an 80-mile pursuit.
Police eventually disabled the car by laying tire spikes on the roadway in front of the moving vehicle.
Once disabled, Twiggs then exited the car and shot his brother, then turned the gun on himself. Both men died at the scene.
Judy MCGillicuddy, a substance abuse therapist with the Rappahannock Community Services Board says her agency has seen an increase in PTSD cases, and that she works very closely with families to treat the disorder.
click post title for more
VA's Systemic Indifference to Invisible Wounds
Senator Akaka Holds Hearing on VA's Systemic Indifference to Invisible Wounds
U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D - HI)
US Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Jun 05, 2008
June 4, 2008, Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, held a hearing today on the state of mental health care within the Department of Veterans Affairs. Today’s hearing follows recent findings that VA’s top mental health official attempted to suppress suicide data, while a psychologist at the Temple Veterans Affairs Medical Center suggested that her coworkers avoid diagnosing veterans with PTSD, in order to save time and resources. Akaka called both individuals, along with other high-ranking VA officials, to testify before Congress.
“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.
Chairman Akaka held today’s hearing as a part of the Committee’s broader effort to investigate the veterans’ mental health system, especially care for PTSD and suicide prevention. Last month, Akaka requested additional data on veteran suicide and quality control at VA health care facilities. Following the disclosure of the Temple VA email, Akaka and other Committee members requested an Inspector General investigation of the incident and facility.
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10297
U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D - HI)
US Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Jun 05, 2008
June 4, 2008, Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, held a hearing today on the state of mental health care within the Department of Veterans Affairs. Today’s hearing follows recent findings that VA’s top mental health official attempted to suppress suicide data, while a psychologist at the Temple Veterans Affairs Medical Center suggested that her coworkers avoid diagnosing veterans with PTSD, in order to save time and resources. Akaka called both individuals, along with other high-ranking VA officials, to testify before Congress.
“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.
Chairman Akaka held today’s hearing as a part of the Committee’s broader effort to investigate the veterans’ mental health system, especially care for PTSD and suicide prevention. Last month, Akaka requested additional data on veteran suicide and quality control at VA health care facilities. Following the disclosure of the Temple VA email, Akaka and other Committee members requested an Inspector General investigation of the incident and facility.
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10297
Even Dr. Katz thinks Norma Perez is wrong
June 5 VA E-Mail Scandal Update:
Top VA Mental Health Official Contradicts VA Manager at Senate Hearing,
Says VA Facility is Using Improper Diagnoses for Metnal Health
Senator Patty Murray
Jun 05, 2008
June 4, 2008, Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) questioned top Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials over a recent e-mail that discouraged VA employees from diagnosing veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The e-mail, which was written by VA manager Dr. Norma Perez, directed VA staff at a facility in Temple, Texas to diagnose "compensation-seeking veterans" with adjustment disorder, a diagnosis that has a lower disability payout than Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Dr. Perez appeared at the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing and was joined by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's top mental health official.
During questioning, Dr. Ira Katz said that he did not agree with diagnosing veterans with adjustment disorder in the way that Dr. Perez described - often more than a year after a veteran had returned home. Diagnostic guidelines for adjustment disorder say that it should not be diagnosed more than six months after the traumatic event.
"Unfortunately, today's hearing raises more questions than it answered," Murray said after the hearing. "Instead of getting to the bottom of this damaging e-mail, we learned that there may be deeper, systematic problems with how facilities are diagnosing mental health disorders."
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10298
Top VA Mental Health Official Contradicts VA Manager at Senate Hearing,
Says VA Facility is Using Improper Diagnoses for Metnal Health
Senator Patty Murray
Jun 05, 2008
June 4, 2008, Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) questioned top Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials over a recent e-mail that discouraged VA employees from diagnosing veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The e-mail, which was written by VA manager Dr. Norma Perez, directed VA staff at a facility in Temple, Texas to diagnose "compensation-seeking veterans" with adjustment disorder, a diagnosis that has a lower disability payout than Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Dr. Perez appeared at the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing and was joined by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's top mental health official.
During questioning, Dr. Ira Katz said that he did not agree with diagnosing veterans with adjustment disorder in the way that Dr. Perez described - often more than a year after a veteran had returned home. Diagnostic guidelines for adjustment disorder say that it should not be diagnosed more than six months after the traumatic event.
"Unfortunately, today's hearing raises more questions than it answered," Murray said after the hearing. "Instead of getting to the bottom of this damaging e-mail, we learned that there may be deeper, systematic problems with how facilities are diagnosing mental health disorders."
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10298
Prozac Platoon America's Medicated Army
America's Medicated Army
Thursday, Jun. 05, 2008 By MARK THOMPSON
Seven months after Sergeant Christopher LeJeune started scouting Baghdad's dangerous roads — acting as bait to lure insurgents into the open so his Army unit could kill them — he found himself growing increasingly despondent. "We'd been doing some heavy missions, and things were starting to bother me," LeJeune says. His unit had been protecting Iraqi police stations targeted by rocket-propelled grenades, hunting down mortars hidden in dark Baghdad basements and cleaning up its own messes.
He recalls the order his unit got after a nighttime firefight to roll back out and collect the enemy dead. When LeJeune and his buddies arrived, they discovered that some of the bodies were still alive. "You don't always know who the bad guys are," he says. "When you search someone's house, you have it built up in your mind that these guys are terrorists, but when you go in, there's little bitty tiny shoes and toys on the floor — things like that started affecting me a lot more than I thought they would."
So LeJeune visited a military doctor in Iraq, who, after a quick session, diagnosed depression. The doctor sent him back to war armed with the antidepressant Zoloft and the antianxiety drug clonazepam. "It's not easy for soldiers to admit the problems that they're having over there for a variety of reasons," LeJeune says. "If they do admit it, then the only solution given is pills."
While the headline-grabbing weapons in this war have been high-tech wonders, like unmanned drones that drop Hellfire missiles on the enemy below, troops like LeJeune are going into battle with a different kind of weapon, one so stealthy that few Americans even know of its deployment. For the first time in history, a sizable and growing number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants to calm nerves strained by repeated and lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The medicines are intended not only to help troops keep their cool but also to enable the already strapped Army to preserve its most precious resource: soldiers on the front lines.
Data contained in the Army's fifth Mental Health Advisory Team report indicate that, according to an anonymous survey of U.S. troops taken last fall, about 12% of combat troops in Iraq and 17% of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope. Escalating violence in Afghanistan and the more isolated mission have driven troops to rely more on medication there than in Iraq, military officials say.
But if the Army numbers reflect those of other services — the Army has by far the most troops deployed to the war zones — about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq were on such medications last fall. The Army estimates that authorized drug use splits roughly fifty-fifty between troops taking antidepressants — largely the class of drugs that includes Prozac and Zoloft — and those taking prescription sleeping pills like Ambien.
Medication helps but it is not the answer. All psychiatric medications come with them a requirement the patient is monitored. Medication alone cannot and should not be expected to treat PTSD. If you go to the link of the video below, you will hear how talk therapy works best when addressing PTSD and how the brain manages to learn how to reprocess the events.
Ambien itself is a danger
U.S. Food and Drug Administration urged sleep drug manufacturers Wednesday to strengthen their package labeling to include warnings of sleep walking, "sleep driving" and other behaviors.
A class action lawsuit against Sanofi-Aventis, the maker of Ambien, was filed on March 6, 2006, by those claiming that they engaged in a bizarre variety of activities while asleep after taking the drug -- from binge eating to driving their cars while asleep.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=2952054&page=1
When it comes to fighting wars, though, troops have historically been barred from using such drugs in combat. And soldiers — who are younger and healthier on average than the general population — have been prescreened for mental illnesses before enlisting.
Here is just one more example of how any kind of non-sense of a preexisting personality disorder is not possible. Unless the tests given are flawed, there is no way a soldier can have a mental disorder and be enlisted in service and given a weapon.
Medication for a wound of the mind and a weapon is not a good idea. It is not only giving the soldier a means to end their suffering, it puts the rest of the platoon in danger.
The symptoms often continue back home, playing a key role in broken marriages, suicides and psychiatric breakdowns. The mental trauma has become so common that the Pentagon may expand the list of "qualifying wounds" for a Purple Heart — historically limited to those physically injured on the battlefield — to include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on May 2 that it's "clearly something" that needs to be considered, and the Pentagon is weighing the change.
The Army says half of the suicides among the troops happen after a breakup. While some want to dismiss this percentage of suicides as "just another breakup" the soldier couldn't deal with, they do not look at the root cause of the breakup. Extended deployments and redeployments play a role in this however we do a disservice to the soldiers when we leave it at that. People do get depressed when they breakup with someone they love in normal life. Divorce is stressful. A serious relationship ending is stressful, however, we do not see anything near this rate in "normal" life. What we do see is that when PTSD is alive in a relationship, the relationship itself becomes stressful. (More on this below) What needs to be addressed is why there are so many divorces and breakups instead of just leaving it at that.
Which means that any drug that keeps a soldier deployed and fighting also saves money on training and deploying replacements. But there is a downside: the number of soldiers requiring long-term mental-health services soars with repeated deployments and lengthy combat tours. If troops do not get sufficient time away from combat — both while in theater and during the "dwell time" at home before they go back to war — it's possible that antidepressants and sleeping aids will be used to stretch an already taut force even tighter. "This is what happens when you try to fight a long war with an army that wasn't designed for a long war," says Lawrence Korb, Pentagon personnel chief during the Reagan Administration.
go here for more
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1811858,00.html
While the Army can come out with all kinds of studies showing the harm being done to the soldiers with the extended deployments and redeployments, the DOD is not considering any of the studies. They just do it because they can. Imagine being at the end of your part of the deal with the DOD that tells your brain your time is over and you get to go back to civilian life in a manner of weeks only to discover that you have been "stop-loss" and extended with or without your agreement. This is not just a let down but an attack on the brain. It is not just a matter of sending them home to "rest" because they cannot when they know they will have to go back into Iraq and Afghanistan and the danger to their lives is not over but in a truce instead.
Many spouses are not able to cope with the stress of the redeployments and extended tours of duty. No matter how much support they receive from friends and families, it is nearly impossible to stay in the marriage when PTSD is added into the stress they have to endure. Give the fact that there are still too many military spouses unaware of what PTSD is, they lack the tools to cope with the emotional changes on the relationship.
In order to retain a trained force and save money, the price is being paid by the soldiers as well as their families. It is an outrageous ambivalence toward all of them when the quality of their lives falls so low in the concern of the command.
The PTSD part of this interview begins about 20 minutes into the program. Dennis Charney MD, Bruce McEwen Ph.D, and Joe LaDeoux Ph.D are interviewed by Charlie Rose.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2325225245580975678&q=+fear+brain&ei=RBlISPfAEYa4igLpgr3NDA
While medications work well, the combination of them, no therapy, no one checking on the patient, a well trained soldier with a weapon, it is a dangerous combination and must end.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
DOJ sues Honeywell over faulty bulletproof vests
DOJ sues Honeywell over faulty bulletproof vests
By DONNA BORAK, AP Business Writer
Thursday, June 5, 2008
(06-05) 13:38 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
The government is suing diversified manufacturer Honeywell International Inc. for selling material used in bulletproof vests that it alleges the company knew was defective.
According to the Justice Department lawsuit filed Thursday, Honeywell had scientific data that showed the ballistic material, known as Zylon Shield, "degraded quickly over time, especially in hot and humid conditions," leaving the vests unfit for use by law enforcement agencies and military personnel.
The department also alleges that Honeywell failed to notify the government or the vest manufacturer, Armor Holdings Inc., of the defect.
A Honeywell spokesman said the company did not make the vests sold to the government and denied claims that it was the manufacturer of the Zylon fiber that led to the initial Justice Department probe.
go here for more
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/06/05/financial/f125424D23.DTL&tsp=1
But then the military had problems with vest too,,,,,
January 22, 2006
All's Not Quiet on the Military Supply Front
By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN
A 9-millimeter bullet, erupting from the barrel of a handgun at 1,100 to 1,400 feet per second, can puncture skin, splinter bone and shred internal organs. A 7.62-millimeter rifle slug, flashing along at about 2,750 feet a second, dispatches targets at greater distances and with more accuracy and force than most handgun ammunition. And the human body - essentially a large, mobile sack of water - offers little resistance to bullets of any caliber.
Bulletproof vests, made of Kevlar and other fabrics, are meant to shield vulnerable bodies, giving a veteran cop on the beat or a young soldier on patrol in Baghdad added protection. Most vests, if properly designed, can stop a 9-millimeter handgun bullet. No vest, unless it is supplemented with heavy, brittle ceramic inserts, can stop a high-velocity rifle bullet. Over time, or with repeated exposure to gunfire, all vests degrade and lose their stopping power. Still, well-made vests offer wearers a measure of security in encounters that might otherwise prove fatal.
When the Iraq war began in early 2003, analysts say, the American military hadn't stocked up on body armor because the White House did not intend to send a large occupational force. The White House game plan called for lightning strikes led by lithe, technologically adept forces that would snare a quick victory. A light deployment of troops and a harmonious occupation were to follow, with the Pentagon anticipating relatively little hand-to-hand or house-to-house fighting. But as the breadth and duration of the Iraqi occupation grew, the war became a series of perilous, unpredictable street fights in Baghdad and other cities, leaving soldiers exposed to sniper fire and close-quarters combat - and in urgent need of hundreds of thousands of bulletproof vests.
In the world of military contractors, times like these - when a sudden, pressing need intersects with a limited number of suppliers - have all the makings of full-blown financial windfalls. For small vendors, the effect can be even more seismic than it is for their larger brethren, turning anonymous businesses into beehives of production and causing their sales to skyrocket. DHB Industries, based in Westbury, N.Y., whose Point Blank subsidiary in Pompano Beach, Fla., is a leading manufacturer of bulletproof vests, found itself occupying this lucrative turf when the military awarded it hundreds of millions of dollars in body armor contracts in 2003 and 2004.
go here for more of this
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/business/22vests.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
There is big money in vest,,,,,,
Point Blank Body Armor Inc., Pompano Beach, Fla., was awarded on August 3, 2006, a delivery order amount of $37,259,686 as part of a $169,433,519 firm-fixed-price contract for outer tactical vest conversion kits in universal camouflage. Work will be performed in Pompano Beach, Fla., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 8, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on March 2, 2006, and six bids were received. The Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-06-D-0030).
Specialty Defense*, Dunmore, Pa., was awarded on August 3, 2006, a delivery order amount of $35,827,114 as part of a $171,970,292 firm-fixed-price contract for outer tactical vest conversion kits in universal camouflage. Work will be performed in Dunmore, Pa., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 8, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on March 2, 2006, and six bids were received. The Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-06-D-0031).
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2006/08/dod-contracts_3302.htm
Tennessee Police Officer Killed While Serving Warrant
Deputy killed while serving warrant
Published: June 5, 2008 at 9:31 PM
MONTEAGLE, Tenn., June 5 (UPI) -- A Tennessee police officer was shot dead and another officer was wounded Thursday as they attempted to serve a warrant, police said.
Police were conducting a manhunt for Kermit Eugene Bryson, 29, of Monteagle, WRCB-TV reported.
The dead officer was identified as Grundy County Sheriff's Deputy Shane Tate. Police said Tate, 28, a recent police academy graduate, had been a sheriff's deputy for three years.
Brian Malhoite, a Monteagle police officer, was treated after being grazed by a bullet. A third officer was not injured.
Bryson, the alleged killer, was believed to still be in the area, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. Police used electronic billboards in Tennessee and four neighboring states to display his picture, The Birmingham (Ala.) News reported.
Investigators said Bryson was on probation and has a long history of arrests and convictions.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/06/05
/Deputy_killed_while_serving_warrant/UPI-99321212715890/
Published: June 5, 2008 at 9:31 PM
MONTEAGLE, Tenn., June 5 (UPI) -- A Tennessee police officer was shot dead and another officer was wounded Thursday as they attempted to serve a warrant, police said.
Police were conducting a manhunt for Kermit Eugene Bryson, 29, of Monteagle, WRCB-TV reported.
The dead officer was identified as Grundy County Sheriff's Deputy Shane Tate. Police said Tate, 28, a recent police academy graduate, had been a sheriff's deputy for three years.
Brian Malhoite, a Monteagle police officer, was treated after being grazed by a bullet. A third officer was not injured.
Bryson, the alleged killer, was believed to still be in the area, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. Police used electronic billboards in Tennessee and four neighboring states to display his picture, The Birmingham (Ala.) News reported.
Investigators said Bryson was on probation and has a long history of arrests and convictions.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/06/05
/Deputy_killed_while_serving_warrant/UPI-99321212715890/
Norma Perez, there is no excuse for her to hide behind
June 6, VCS in the News:
Judge Orders VA into Court to Explain VA E-Mail Discouraging PTSD Diagnoses
Paul Elias
San Jose Mercury News / Associated Press
Jun 05, 2008
Judge to consider newly-surfaced e-mail in vet care trial
June 5, 2008, San Francisco, CA — A federal judge considering a lawsuit that alleges inadequate veterans medical care ordered government lawyers on Thursday to explain an e-mail by a Veterans Administration psychologist suggesting that counselors diagnose fewer post-traumatic stress disorder cases in soldiers.
The hearing ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti follows a two-week trial that ended last month. Veterans groups had sued the VA, saying it inadequately addressed a "rising tide" of mental health problems, especially post-traumatic stress disorder and suicides.
The plaintiffs asked Conti to reopen the case in light of the e-mail discovered after the trial ended.
The judge agreed, saying "the e-mail raises potentially serious questions that may warrant further attention." He ordered lawyers for both sides to appear in court Tuesday to discuss whether the e-mail has any bearing on the case.
The document in question is a March 20 memo written by Norma Perez, who helps coordinate a post-traumatic stress disorder clinical team in central Texas.
"Given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out," Perez wrote to VA counselors. "We really don't or have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD."
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/10312
I have posted about this before along with far too many other reports to indicated the few people in the VA with this kind of attitude are not only casting a dark, hideous image of truly caring people working for the VA, they have also cost lives. Shall I list them here? Too late, they've been listed for years on this blog, on my other blog and all over the net. Shall we re-read the stories from the families who lost husbands, sons, wives, daughters, mothers, fathers when their lives could have been saved? Again, not really necessary considering the reports have come out all over the nation from grieving families who trusted the Veterans Administration to live up to what they claim by taking care of our veterans. Will one more post about any of them do any good?
Will it do any good at all to people like Perez? Will it bring them back to life? Restore a family torn apart? Undo a parent's unspeakable grief of having to bury a child of their's they thought had returned from combat safely and put into trusting care of the VA? Will it replace a wife's heartache as she lays in bed at night clutching her husband's pillow as she had done so many nights before while he was deployed only to have to face the rest of her life without him because the VA let him die? While it stop a child's tears or blot out memories of the stranger who came home looking like their parent but acting like someone they know longer knew only to find they had to go to their grandparent's house for a few days because "something happened" to their Dad or their Mom, then faced with having to get dressed up to go and stand by a coffin in a cemetery with a neatly folded flag to hold in place of their parent?
No, for Norma Perez, there is no excuse for what she did. There is no excuse for misdiagnosing any veteran when their lives could have been saved with the proper care and some human kindness. There is no excuse to abandon them to whatever may come their way when they could have been saved.
I've been up against too many people like Perez who callously dismiss and deny the suffering of these men and women, so worthy of so much more. I've spent more than half my life trying to undo the stigma people like Perez perpetrated against our veterans to advance their career, get a bonus for cutting costs when they could have been saving lives. Her "poorly written" email was further damage to men and women serving this country who brought home a terror inside of them. That terror made them reach out for help and she took that away from them. She took it away by telling them they are not really as wounded as they were and did not require the help they really needed to begin to heal. It was a betrayal against them.
What she also managed to do was to put up a wall against other veterans who may have sought help if they found other veterans were treated with the care and consideration a truly grateful nation and really dedicated VA employee would have provided if she gave a shit!
These are men and women, humans, who risked their lives for this country! They were willing to die for this nation doing what this nation asked of them. By the Grace of God they made it home only to find the enemy was not back where they thought they left them, but right here in their own country, in their own state in their own government! What Perez manage to tell them was that they were not worthy of the disability compensation that truly reflected their wound and they were turned away from the help they needed to treat their wound properly.
Whatever qualified her for the position she obtained in the VA should have come with the requirement she first prove she was a grateful citizen and dedicated to the veterans before she was even hired!
Judge Orders VA into Court to Explain VA E-Mail Discouraging PTSD Diagnoses
Paul Elias
San Jose Mercury News / Associated Press
Jun 05, 2008
Judge to consider newly-surfaced e-mail in vet care trial
June 5, 2008, San Francisco, CA — A federal judge considering a lawsuit that alleges inadequate veterans medical care ordered government lawyers on Thursday to explain an e-mail by a Veterans Administration psychologist suggesting that counselors diagnose fewer post-traumatic stress disorder cases in soldiers.
The hearing ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti follows a two-week trial that ended last month. Veterans groups had sued the VA, saying it inadequately addressed a "rising tide" of mental health problems, especially post-traumatic stress disorder and suicides.
The plaintiffs asked Conti to reopen the case in light of the e-mail discovered after the trial ended.
The judge agreed, saying "the e-mail raises potentially serious questions that may warrant further attention." He ordered lawyers for both sides to appear in court Tuesday to discuss whether the e-mail has any bearing on the case.
The document in question is a March 20 memo written by Norma Perez, who helps coordinate a post-traumatic stress disorder clinical team in central Texas.
"Given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out," Perez wrote to VA counselors. "We really don't or have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD."
Perez told senators Wednesday at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing called to investigate the e-mail that her message was poorly written and she meant to remind counselors that they could initially diagnose patients with a less severe stress condition known as "adjustment disorder."
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/10312
I have posted about this before along with far too many other reports to indicated the few people in the VA with this kind of attitude are not only casting a dark, hideous image of truly caring people working for the VA, they have also cost lives. Shall I list them here? Too late, they've been listed for years on this blog, on my other blog and all over the net. Shall we re-read the stories from the families who lost husbands, sons, wives, daughters, mothers, fathers when their lives could have been saved? Again, not really necessary considering the reports have come out all over the nation from grieving families who trusted the Veterans Administration to live up to what they claim by taking care of our veterans. Will one more post about any of them do any good?
Will it do any good at all to people like Perez? Will it bring them back to life? Restore a family torn apart? Undo a parent's unspeakable grief of having to bury a child of their's they thought had returned from combat safely and put into trusting care of the VA? Will it replace a wife's heartache as she lays in bed at night clutching her husband's pillow as she had done so many nights before while he was deployed only to have to face the rest of her life without him because the VA let him die? While it stop a child's tears or blot out memories of the stranger who came home looking like their parent but acting like someone they know longer knew only to find they had to go to their grandparent's house for a few days because "something happened" to their Dad or their Mom, then faced with having to get dressed up to go and stand by a coffin in a cemetery with a neatly folded flag to hold in place of their parent?
No, for Norma Perez, there is no excuse for what she did. There is no excuse for misdiagnosing any veteran when their lives could have been saved with the proper care and some human kindness. There is no excuse to abandon them to whatever may come their way when they could have been saved.
I've been up against too many people like Perez who callously dismiss and deny the suffering of these men and women, so worthy of so much more. I've spent more than half my life trying to undo the stigma people like Perez perpetrated against our veterans to advance their career, get a bonus for cutting costs when they could have been saving lives. Her "poorly written" email was further damage to men and women serving this country who brought home a terror inside of them. That terror made them reach out for help and she took that away from them. She took it away by telling them they are not really as wounded as they were and did not require the help they really needed to begin to heal. It was a betrayal against them.
What she also managed to do was to put up a wall against other veterans who may have sought help if they found other veterans were treated with the care and consideration a truly grateful nation and really dedicated VA employee would have provided if she gave a shit!
These are men and women, humans, who risked their lives for this country! They were willing to die for this nation doing what this nation asked of them. By the Grace of God they made it home only to find the enemy was not back where they thought they left them, but right here in their own country, in their own state in their own government! What Perez manage to tell them was that they were not worthy of the disability compensation that truly reflected their wound and they were turned away from the help they needed to treat their wound properly.
Whatever qualified her for the position she obtained in the VA should have come with the requirement she first prove she was a grateful citizen and dedicated to the veterans before she was even hired!
Military Still Deploys Medically Unfit Soldiers to Iraq War
June 6, VCS in the News:
Military Still Deploys Medically Unfit Soldiers to Iraq War
Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
Jun 05, 2008
Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said he was frustrated, but not surprised, that the military is not following its own pre-deployment screening rules. "First, it costs money. Second, they don't have the staff to do it," Sullivan said. "The military's out of troops, and the military is broken. ... They've knowingly sent unfit soldiers into combat since the start of the war, and they're still doing it."
GAO Report: Military 'Inconsistent' On Medical Records Reviews
June 5, 2008 - The military is not routinely reviewing the medical records of troops being sent to war despite a policy that calls for such a check before service members are deemed mentally fit to deploy, congressional investigators said in a new report.
In the report, the Government Accountability Office said that although the Department of Defense, or DoD, had taken some "positive steps" to improve the mental-health screening of deploying and returning troops, "unfortunately, DoD's policies for reviewing medical records during the pre-deployment health assessment are inconsistent."
"Because of DoD's inconsistent policies," the investigators said, "providers determining if ... service members meet DoD's minimum mental health standards for deployment may not have complete medical information."
The accountability office reviewed changes approved 18 months ago in the way troops are screened for mental-health status before and after deploying to war.
The defense department in late 2006 adopted a policy, in response to congressional legislation, that tightened pre-deployment screening by setting limits on when troops with mental-health problems may be sent to war and retained in combat.
The legislation was prompted by a series of stories in The Courant that found troops' mental illnesses were being missed or ignored during pre-deployment screenings. Some of those troops committed suicide in Iraq.
The congressional investigators noted that the military's 2006 policy called for a "medical record review" of all deploying troops, but they said health care providers at several military bases they visited "were unaware that [a review] was required as part of the pre-deployment health assessment." Their report recommends that the military abide by the policy and require a record review for all deploying troops.
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm/page/article/id/10311
Military Still Deploys Medically Unfit Soldiers to Iraq War
Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
Jun 05, 2008
Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said he was frustrated, but not surprised, that the military is not following its own pre-deployment screening rules. "First, it costs money. Second, they don't have the staff to do it," Sullivan said. "The military's out of troops, and the military is broken. ... They've knowingly sent unfit soldiers into combat since the start of the war, and they're still doing it."
GAO Report: Military 'Inconsistent' On Medical Records Reviews
June 5, 2008 - The military is not routinely reviewing the medical records of troops being sent to war despite a policy that calls for such a check before service members are deemed mentally fit to deploy, congressional investigators said in a new report.
In the report, the Government Accountability Office said that although the Department of Defense, or DoD, had taken some "positive steps" to improve the mental-health screening of deploying and returning troops, "unfortunately, DoD's policies for reviewing medical records during the pre-deployment health assessment are inconsistent."
"Because of DoD's inconsistent policies," the investigators said, "providers determining if ... service members meet DoD's minimum mental health standards for deployment may not have complete medical information."
The accountability office reviewed changes approved 18 months ago in the way troops are screened for mental-health status before and after deploying to war.
The defense department in late 2006 adopted a policy, in response to congressional legislation, that tightened pre-deployment screening by setting limits on when troops with mental-health problems may be sent to war and retained in combat.
The legislation was prompted by a series of stories in The Courant that found troops' mental illnesses were being missed or ignored during pre-deployment screenings. Some of those troops committed suicide in Iraq.
The congressional investigators noted that the military's 2006 policy called for a "medical record review" of all deploying troops, but they said health care providers at several military bases they visited "were unaware that [a review] was required as part of the pre-deployment health assessment." Their report recommends that the military abide by the policy and require a record review for all deploying troops.
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm/page/article/id/10311
"We have no regard for each other." Hit and run, people walk by
Video shows bystanders ignoring hit-and-run victim
Associated Press
Published: Thursday June 5, 2008
Police released chilling surveillance video of a hit-and-run accident in hopes of catching the unidientified driver who ran down a 78-year-old pedestrian, paralyzing him, and to show the callousness of bystanders who did nothing to help.
The gripping one-minute video shows the violent May 30 accident and bystanders' apparent lack of sympathy. No one rushes to Angel Arce Torres' aid, and no one bothers to stop traffic as Torres lays motionless in the street.
In the video, released by police Wednesday, Torres walks in the two-way street at 5:45 p.m. after buying milk at a local grocery. He is struck by a dark Honda that was chasing a tan Toyota. Both cars dart down a side street as Torres crumples to the pavement.
Several cars pass Torres as a few people stare from the sidewalk. Some approach Torres, but most stay put until a police cruiser responding to an unrelated call arrives on the scene.
Police suggested the video shows a city that has lost its moral compass.
"At the end of the day we've got to look at ourselves and understand that our moral values have now changed." Police Chief Daryl Roberts said. "We have no regard for each other."
Torres is paralyzed and remains in critical condition in Hartford Hospital.
His son, Angel Arce, begged the public for help.
"My father is fighting for his life," Arce said. "I would like the public right now to help us in identifying the car and the person that did this."
Robert Luna, who works at a nearby store, blamed witnesses for failing to help Torres. "It took too long to call police," he said Thursday. "Nobody did nothing."
Witness Bryant Hayre said he didn't feel comfortable helping Torres, who he said was bleeding and conscious.
"Whoever did this should be sent away for a long time," Hayre told The Hartford Courant. "It was as if he was a dog left in the street to die."
go here and watch the video
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Video_shows_bystanders_ignoring_hitandrun_victim_0605.html
"We have no regard for each other."
Police Chief Daryl Roberts could not have put it better. How can people just drive by this man in the street? How can people just watch him lay there and not even try to help? How can they just act as if it was no big deal that this man could die in front of their eyes and they did nothing? What have we sunk to?
Associated Press
Published: Thursday June 5, 2008
Police released chilling surveillance video of a hit-and-run accident in hopes of catching the unidientified driver who ran down a 78-year-old pedestrian, paralyzing him, and to show the callousness of bystanders who did nothing to help.
The gripping one-minute video shows the violent May 30 accident and bystanders' apparent lack of sympathy. No one rushes to Angel Arce Torres' aid, and no one bothers to stop traffic as Torres lays motionless in the street.
In the video, released by police Wednesday, Torres walks in the two-way street at 5:45 p.m. after buying milk at a local grocery. He is struck by a dark Honda that was chasing a tan Toyota. Both cars dart down a side street as Torres crumples to the pavement.
Several cars pass Torres as a few people stare from the sidewalk. Some approach Torres, but most stay put until a police cruiser responding to an unrelated call arrives on the scene.
Police suggested the video shows a city that has lost its moral compass.
"At the end of the day we've got to look at ourselves and understand that our moral values have now changed." Police Chief Daryl Roberts said. "We have no regard for each other."
Torres is paralyzed and remains in critical condition in Hartford Hospital.
His son, Angel Arce, begged the public for help.
"My father is fighting for his life," Arce said. "I would like the public right now to help us in identifying the car and the person that did this."
Robert Luna, who works at a nearby store, blamed witnesses for failing to help Torres. "It took too long to call police," he said Thursday. "Nobody did nothing."
Witness Bryant Hayre said he didn't feel comfortable helping Torres, who he said was bleeding and conscious.
"Whoever did this should be sent away for a long time," Hayre told The Hartford Courant. "It was as if he was a dog left in the street to die."
go here and watch the video
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Video_shows_bystanders_ignoring_hitandrun_victim_0605.html
"We have no regard for each other."
Police Chief Daryl Roberts could not have put it better. How can people just drive by this man in the street? How can people just watch him lay there and not even try to help? How can they just act as if it was no big deal that this man could die in front of their eyes and they did nothing? What have we sunk to?
Pfc. Joshua E. Waltenbaugh, non-combat death in Iraq
DoD Identifies Army Casaulty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Pfc. Joshua E. Waltenbaugh, 19, of Ford City, Pa., died June 3 in Taji, Iraq, of injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.
This incident is under investigation.
linked from ICasualties.org
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