VCS Appeals Court Ruling Because No Veteran Gets Left Behind

Keep one thing in mind as you read this. If the government had lived up to the thoughts we the people have as being grateful, no one would have to take them to court to make sure they finally do it.

VCS Appeals Court Ruling Because No Veteran Gets Left Behind
On Jun 25, 2008, U.S. Federal District Court Senior Judge Samuel Conti issued a detailed 82-page ruling where he concluded that VA is mired in crisis and that he is "troubled" by lengthy delays veterans face trying to obtain healthcare and benefits from VA. Sounds like the veterans won, right?

Unfortunately, Judge Conti said the Court lacks jurisdiction. We are deeply disappointed that he wants VA and Congress to fix VA's enormous problems.

VCS plans to press forward so our veterans receive prompt and high-quality VA healthcare as well as fast, complete, and accurate VA claims decisions. Either we repair VA now, or we face another generation of hundreds of thousands of veterans with broken homes, lost jobs, drug and alcohol problems, homelessness, and suicide.

That's why VCS will appeal the Court’s decision primarily on the Constitutional grounds that if the Judicial Branch does not enforce the law, then Legislative Branch actions become meaningless in the face of massive Executive Branch failures.

VCS needs your help to launch our lengthy and time-consuming appeal. Please click here to make a contribution to VCS today and support our work to overhaul VA for our veterans and their families.

Here are three important items about the Court's ruling:
1. The Army Times provides the best newspaper coverage about the facts.
2. CBS News / KPIX TV broadcast a thorough review of the verdict.
3. You can read the Court's decision and see VCS and Veterans United for Truth did the right thing to file suit.

VCS needs your help. In the past year we gathered veterans' stories, we obtained hundreds of pages of VA documents under the Freedom of Information Act, we worked closely for hundreds of hours with our attorneys at Morrison & Foerster and Disability Rights Advocates, and we flew to San Francisco for the two week trial.

Please consider setting up a monthly or quarterly contribution to VCS today so we can fight for our veterans.

Here is a sample of e-mails showing the broad public and veteran support of our lawsuit:
• "Your efforts will make life better for . . . veterans."

• "Thanks for all the hard work."

• "It was a great effort. The fact you were able to get the VA attitude out in the public, presented as evidence in a federal court, was of critical importance…. KEEP IT UP!"

• "I think you did a terrific job of exposing the tragedy of the veterans with the law suit."

• "All of you working on this should be proud of yourselves."

• "You have accomplished a great deal and there still things to do. This is only the beginning of the fight; end of round one."

There is a lot more work ahead as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars continue. As of April 2008, VA medical centers have treated 325,000 recent combat veterans, including 133,000 with a mental health condition, 75,000 of whom are diagnosed with PTSD.

Although we have a temporary setback, our landmark lawsuit with VUFT achieved several important goals for veterans:
• VA opened a suicide hotline, received tens of thousands of calls from highly distraught veterans, and "rescued" hundreds.

• VA hired thousands of new mental health professionals, including hundreds of suicide prevention coordinators at their hospitals and clinics.

• A trove of VA e-mails confirmed the suicide epidemic of 1,000 VA patient attempts per month. In addition, death statistics reveal that younger veterans are 3 to 4 times more likely to kill themselves than non-veterans of the same age group.

Read more of the facts uncovered by our lawsuit - facts Judge Conti agreed with.

• Congress held several oversight hearings on VA's crisis where VCS testified. Now several critical pieces of legislation inspired by our lawsuit should become law by the end of 2008. VA was also forced to explain why they concealed the suicide epidemic and why some VA staff fought against proper healthcare and disability benefits for PTSD.

• Several major media outlets now have full- or part-time journalists dedicated to investigating the human consequences of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Please give to VCS today so we can win our appeal on behalf of all our veterans!
Thank You,
Paul Sullivan

Executive Director

Veterans for Common Sense
VCS provides advocacy and publicity for issues related to veterans, national security, and civil liberties. VCS is registered with the IRS as a non-profit 501(c)(3) charity, and donations are tax deductible.

Chaplain Turner's War

Chapter 8 of 8: Chaplain Turner's War

A dangerous mission, a devastating night -- and God's foot soldier marches on


By MONI BASU
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 06/29/08

Baghdad — The story so far: Chaplain Darren Turner's battalion has lost another soldier. Now he must see three platoons off on a mission in unfamiliar territory. Before the day is over, more bad news tests the chaplain's emotional endurance.



Chaplain Darren Turner hurtles toward the motor pool at Forward Operating Base Falcon. He is anxious to see his men off to battle.

Turner is ordinarily not one for prayers before a mission — he abhors the idea of a soldier nurturing a 911 relationship with God: Pray before you roll out the gates. Pray when a buddy gets hurt.

Then stuff your Bible back into the trunk.

But Turner also understands the comfort that prayer can bring. And this mission to Baghdad's Sadr City is big.

It is March 28, and three 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment platoons in Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks have been called up to support U.S. forces already in the thick of battle.

An impoverished enclave of 2.5 million Shiites, Sadr City is unfamiliar and raw territory for Turner's soldiers. The battalion has not yet experienced urban guerrilla warfare — it is more accustomed to the farmlands and villages of Arab Jabour.

"Hey, what's up, fellas?"

Turner greets the visibly nervous soldiers.

"Ready to ride?"

They reply in a chorus of "hooahs."

"I just wanted to come and encourage you guys before you head out."

Two men who Turner baptized on Good Friday are here. The chaplain notices several others who regularly seek him out.

With those who share his Christian faith, Turner takes extra risks to know them well, to love them as brothers. It's an emotional roll of the dice, because at war, any day could be a soldier's last.

Like today.

Turner reads aloud Psalm 140.

"Keep me safe from violent people ... who plot my downfall. The proud have set a trap for me; they have laid their snares, and along the path they have set traps to catch me."

King David's words resonate, as though they were written specifically about this war, where roads are booby-trapped with improvised explosive devices.

The soldiers bow their heads before the chaplain.

Several fall to their knees.

click post title for more

CHAPLAIN TURNER'S WAR
Chapter 1: Comfort in toughest of places
Chapter 2: The invisible war
Chapter 3: Summer of death
Chapter 4: Formidable enemy
Chapter 5: Nightmare revisited
Chapter 6: Easter baptisms
Chapter 7: Tragedies test the armor of God
Chapter 8: A dangerous mission, a devastating night

Media report on homeless haven opened hearts

Published: June 29, 2008 6:00 a.m.
Aid pours in to finish off haven for vets
Frank Gray
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the Shepherd’s House, a halfway house on Tennessee Avenue that has been trying to finish a suite that would serve as a shelter for homeless veterans.

The need for such a shelter was epitomized by a man named Julius, a homeless 18-year Air Force veteran with an alcohol problem. He had suffered two strokes and a heart attack and ended up partly paralyzed, getting around in a wheelchair and living outdoors in a wooded area near a golf course off Coliseum Boulevard.

Julius, forgotten and abandoned, was the subject of a lengthy search by local veterans officials and others who had heard about him but couldn’t find him.

When Julius was finally located, people willing to help were scant. Julius was rejected by some other shelters because he posed a liability, and there weren’t any shelters specifically designed for homeless vets.

But the Shepherd’s House agreed to give him a place to stay, and after a few months he was stable enough to get his own apartment.

Unfortunately, within weeks of setting back out on his own, Julius suffered a heart attack that left him in a coma, and he eventually died.

All the Shepherd’s House founder, Barb Cox, could do was look at the partly completed suite intended as a veterans shelter. For two years she had been trying to get it finished, and it would take only a few thousand dollars to get accomplished.

But money had been tight and finding donations had been hard.
click above for more

Blind SF soldier determined to serve

Blind SF soldier determined to serve

By Kevin Maurer - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jun 30, 2008 9:43:22 EDT

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — When Capt. Ivan Castro joined the Army, he set goals: to jump out of planes, kick in doors and lead soldiers into combat. He achieved them all. Then the mortar round landed five feet away, blasting away his sight.

“Once you’re blind, you have to set new goals,” Castro said.

He set them higher.

Not content with just staying in the Army, he is the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces — the small, elite units famed for dropping behind enemy lines on combat missions.

“I am going to push the limits,” said the 40-year-old executive officer at the 7th Special Forces Group’s headquarters company in Fort Bragg. “I don’t want to go to Fort Bragg and show up and sit in an office. I want to work every day and have a mission.”

Since the war began in Iraq, more than 100 troops have been blinded and 247 others have lost sight in one eye. Only two other blind officers serve in the active-duty Army: one a captain studying to be an instructor at West Point, the other an instructor at the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Castro’s unit commander said his is no charity assignment. Rather, it draws on his experience as a Special Forces team member and platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne Division.

“The only reason that anyone serves with 7th Special Forces Group is if they have real talents,” said Col. Sean Mulholland. “We don’t treat [Castro] as a public affairs or a recruiting tool.”

An 18-year Army veteran, Castro was a Ranger before completing Special Forces training, the grueling yearlong course many soldiers fail to finish. He joined the Special Forces as a weapons sergeant, earned an officer’s commission and moved on to the 82nd — hoping to return one day to the Special Forces as a team leader.

Then life changed on a rooftop outside Youssifiyah, Iraq, in September 2006.

Castro had relieved other paratroopers atop a house after a night of fighting. He never heard the incoming mortar round. There was just a flash of light, then darkness.

Shrapnel tore through his body, breaking his arm and shoulder and shredding the left side of his face. Two other paratroopers died.

When Castro awoke six weeks later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., his right eye was gone. Doctors were unable to save his left.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_blind_063008/

A great example of if they want to serve and can serve, they should be allowed to no matter what their wounds are. If they can't, then take care of them. This is also an example of the magnificence of some of the men and women we have serving this country.

Two Medical helicopters collide midair, killing six

Medical helicopters collide midair, killing six
Nurse critically injured after crash over Flagstaff; two on ground wounded

updated 6:31 a.m. ET, Mon., June. 30, 2008
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - A helicopter ferrying a patient with a medical emergency from the Grand Canyon collided into another chopper carrying a patient near a northern Arizona hospital, leaving six people dead and critically injuring a nurse.

The collision Sunday east of Flagstaff Medical Center was a few hundred yards away from a neighborhood that was spared the falling debris. Officials said they were unable to provide an account of what preceded the crash.

Lawrence Garduno, who lives about a half mile from the crash, said he heard a loud boom that rattled the windows. He drove toward the hospital and stopped to see the burning wreckage. “It kind of scares me,” Garduno said. “If this had happened a half mile closer, it could have fallen on our house.”


Blast on the ground
An explosion on one of the aircraft after the crash injured two emergency workers who arrived with a ground ambulance company. They suffered minor burns and were spending the night at the hospital, but their injuries were not life-threatening. The crash, about 130 miles north of Phoenix, also sparked a 10-acre brush fire that was contained.

One of the helicopters was operated by Air Methods from Englewood, Colo., and the other was from Classic Helicopters of Woods Cross, Utah. Both aircraft were Bell 407 models, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Three people on the Air Methods aircraft, including the patient, died. On the Classic helicopter, the pilot, paramedic and patient all died. A flight nurse on the Classic helicopter suffered extensive injuries and was in critical condition at the hospital.
go here for more
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25446869

Veterans Long to Reclaim the Name ‘Swift Boat’

John Kerry, hands on hips, and Roy F. Hoffmann, kneeling, in Vietnam. Mr. Hoffman helped start the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which criticized Mr. Kerry in his 2004 presidential bid.

Veterans Long to Reclaim the Name ‘Swift Boat’

By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: June 30, 2008
Years ago, when William Miller talked about being in the Vietnam War — if he talked about being in the Vietnam War — he would tell people he served on a Swift boat.

At least now they have heard of it. But not in the way he would like.

“I was proud of what I did, and all the guys I was with,” Mr. Miller said. “Now somebody says ‘Swift boat’ and it’s a whole different meaning. They don’t associate it with the guys we lost. That’s a shame.”

“Swift boat” has become the synonym for the nastiest of campaign smears, a shadow that hangs over the presidential race as pundits wait to proclaim that the Swiftboating has begun and candidates declare that they will not be Swiftboated.

Swift boat veterans — especially those who had nothing to do with the group that attacked Senator John Kerry’s military record in the 2004 election — want their good name back, and the good names of the men not lucky enough to come home alive.

“You would not hear the word ‘Swift boat’ and think of people that served their country and fought in Vietnam,” said Jim Newell, who spent a year as an officer in charge on one of the small Navy vessels in An Thoi and Qui Nhon. “You think about someone who was involved in a political attack on a member of a different party. It just comes across as negative. Everyone who is associated with a Swift boat is involved in political chicanery.”
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linked from RawStory

St. Cloud City Council ok's rehab for veterans

Military can open facility near school -- with strings
Kumari Kelly Sentinel Staff Writer
June 29, 2008
ST. CLOUD - A residential substance-abuse treatment facility for veterans and active-duty military members will be allowed to open near a playground for schoolchildren with strict limits on how the center is used, the City Council voted last week. Despite protests from parents and the principal at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School, who expressed concern about the potential for crime and the safety of their children, the council voted 3-1 to allow Transition House to open an 80-bed center. It will be at 3800 Fifth St., about 500 feet west of Brown Chapel Road. The school is at 800 Brown Chapel Road, but its playground backs up near the property. The center is also about a half-mile from Lakeview Elementary School and within the two-mile boundary for 114 students who could be walking to school, a county school district official said. Officials with Transition House agreed that only veterans -- and no former inmates or those with criminal histories -- will be allowed at the house.

Researchers cannot predict PTSD

Researchers Unable to Agree on Predictors of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders

Melbourne, Australia — 30 June, 2008— Studies exploring potential predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) following major trauma have resulted in varied conclusions. While a number of risk factors such as injury severity, demographic factors and compensation-related factors have been identified, none is strong enough to reliably predict which patient will develop the disorder.

PTSD is characterized by flashbacks of the event, anxiety, and social withdrawal. Victims of major trauma are at significant risk of developing PTSD, with about 15% developing the disorder within a year of the injury.

A study in the July issue of ANZ Journal of Surgery titled "Predictors of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder following Major Trauma" by Professor Ian Harris et al. argues that the lack of consistency of previous PTSD studies is a result of methodological flaws such as selection bias, and poorly defined diagnostic criteria.
go here for more
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/press/pressitem.asp?ref=1806

After living with my husband and knowing him for over 25 years, plus talking to PTSD veterans for this long, there are some things they seem to have in common. Sensitivity for others and their relationship with God. The majority of them mention that they felt abandoned by God or that God judged them. They have a simple knowledge of scripture and depending on how they were raised, they may also have a twisted knowledge of God transforming Him from the loving God who sent Christ, back to the judgmental One inspiring the writings of the Old Testament. Scientist and researchers need to look seriously at the connection between mind, body and soul if they really want to find their answer.

Bush signs war funding, GI Bill overhaul

Bush signs war funding, GI Bill overhaul

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 30, 2008 10:17:41 EDT

A $162 billion war funding bill that includes a $63 billion overhaul of GI Bill education benefits was signed Monday by President Bush.

“The bill shows even in an election year, Republicans and Democrats can come together to stand behind our troops,” Bush said, predicting the GI Bill increases would be a boost to military recruiting and also a boon to families if educational benefits are transferred to family members.

The signing of HR 2642 brings an end to a Pentagon cash-flow crisis that threatened to disrupt military and civilian payroll, cancel or delay maintenance, and postpone nonessential training and travel.

And, for the first time since the Vietnam War, there will be a completely free veterans’ education benefit program that pays enough to fully cover the cost of getting a four-year college degree.

go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/military_gibill_signed_063008w/

NY City Council hears from veterans

Suicide, PTSD, Homelessness, High Unemployment Cited by Experts ...
PR Newswire (press release) - New York,NY,USA


Suicide, PTSD, Homelessness, High Unemployment Cited by Experts from Veterans Across America, NY Chamber of Commerce, Veterans' Groups, at Hearing Before NY City Council



One Solution: "Six Months to Success," Conference with Mentors

NEW YORK, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- A dispiriting litany of the many
problems New York-area military veterans are facing -- rising suicide
rates, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), homelessness, high
unemployment -- was voiced by a distinguished group of experts last week,
at a New York City Council hearing, "Exploring Employment Options for New
York City's Veterans," organized by the nonprofit Veterans Across America.

Councilman Hiram Monserrate, a Gulf-War veteran (a Marine) who became
the first Latino elected to public office in Queens, held the hearing as
Chairman of the Council's Veterans' Committee.

Councilman Monserrate thanked Veterans Across America for gathering a
knowledgeable group of experts, and pledged his support for veterans.

Dr. Ray Healey, co-founder of Veterans Across America (VAA), announced
that VAA, partnering with the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, will
stage a veterans' employment conference, "Six Months to Success," in April
2009. Dr. Healey said the Conference would focus on the needs of wounded
and disabled veterans.
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As of tomorrow, ads will be gone

As of tomorrow, the ads will be gone from this site. They take up too much room and frankly, are a waste of the space. I'm hoping my readers will consider to make a donation to make up the difference. It would help me out a great deal if you do but the ads are gone as of July 1st. I will still have useful links that do have something to do with the troops and veterans.

A blind eye on soldiers' suicides

A blind eye on soldiers' suicides
By James Carroll
June 30, 2008
'SUPPORT THE troops" is an American lie. This nation is grievously and knowingly failing the young men and women who wear the uniform of its military services, and nothing demonstrates that more powerfully than the suicides of soldiers. According to the Army's own figures, the rate of suicide among active duty personnel nearly doubled between 2001 and 2006. The number then grew even higher in 2007, when suicide ranked third as the cause of death among members of the National Guard. Even if proximate causes vary from war zones to home fronts, such data are anomalous, since suicide rates among soldiers historically go down during wartime, not up.

Veterans, too, are in trouble. In May, the head of the National Institute of Mental Health warned of "a gathering storm." Thomas Insel told the American Psychiatric Association that one in five of the 1.6 million soldiers who have been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan (or more than 300,000) suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome or depression. Potentially life-threatening mental disorders, including self-destructive behavior like addiction, raise the prospect, in Insel's words, of "suicides and psychological mortality trumping combat deaths."

As America has steadily averted its gaze from the actualities of its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so, too, has the nation refused to look at what is happening to those it sends to fight. Repeated deployments to war zones, combined with meager support upon returning home, are leaving many soldiers adrift. Each one who commits suicide, or attempts to (more than 2,000 last year), shows this. It would be presumptuous to draw conclusions from any single instance of such despair, but taken as a whole, these acts of self-destruction lay bare some difficult truths.

The war in Iraq, in particular, is an exercise in the obliteration of meaning. The war's essence is its lack of essence. The war's catch-22 is that its stated goal is social order, while the American presence itself creates disorder. Our troops know this. They arrive in the war zone with every intention of protecting an innocent population from the enemy, only to discover that the enemy and the population are indistinguishable. "Insurgents" often turn out to be, not ideologues, much less "terrorists," but only cousins of those already killed. Victims and victimizers are alike. Suspicion is ubiquitous. No one trusts Americans. Such contradictions make the war controversial in the United States, but in Iraq they make the soldiers' situation intolerable.
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Advocates Want Mandatory Health Insurance Coverage For PTSD

Received by email


NYAPRS Note: Following is today's piece in the Legislative Gazette
regarding last Tuesday's Albany new conference pressing a top priority
of members of NYAPRS and our state advocacy partners: extension of
Timothy's Law parity protections to include those with post traumatic
stress disorders, most notably returning veterans, victims of sexual
abuse and domestic violence and disasters.



Advocates Want Mandatory Health Insurance Coverage For Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder

By ARAMIS M. GRANT Legislative Gazette April 21, 2008



The number of soldiers returning home from war with mental health
problems is among the reasons advocates in Albany last week were pushing
for an expansion of Timothy's Law.



A coalition of mental health advocacy groups calling themselves the
Timothy's Law Campaign are lobbying the Legislature to broaden the scope
of the legislation, which was signed into law by Gov. George E. Pataki
in December 2006 to mandate parity in the private insurance industry's
coverage of physical and mental health illnesses.



The campaign wants an amendment that would include posttraumatic stress
disorder among the biologically based mental illnesses Timothy's Law
requires insurance companies provide coverage for.



The amendment (A.10078/S.6818) is being sponsored by the chairmen of the
Senate and Assembly's mental health committees: Sen. Thomas Morahan,
R,C,I,WF-New City, and Assemblyman Peter Rivera, D-Bronx, who met with
the coalition in Albany last week to speak about the importance of
coverage for posttraumatic stress disorder.



"Timothy's Law has significantly advanced access to mental health
treatment," said Morohan. "However, the exclusion of posttraumatic
stress disorder negatively impacts returning veterans, children and
adults who have suffered sexual abuse and trauma," he said.



"This is a great first step to expanding Timothy's Law to a population
who needs it," said Rivera. The assemblyman said the amendment could
help society deal with the problems suffered by troops returning home
from Iraq.



Timothy's Law was named for Timothy O'Clair, who in 2001 committed
suicide at the age of 12 after his parents reached the limit on what
their insurance carrier would cover for their son's treatments.



Timothy's Law covers major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia
(psychotic) disorders, delusional disorders, panic disorder,
obsessive-compulsive disorders, anorexia and bulimia. The proposed
amendment would add posttraumatic stress disorder to the list.



The campaign argues that posttraumatic stress disorder was not
originally included into Timothy's Law, even though its inclusion was
proposed, due to the belief that treatment for soldiers would be covered
under benefits they receive from the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs.



But only 35 percent of veterans seek help from Veterans Affairs,
according to John Javis, chairman of the Veterans Health Alliance of
Long Island.



Javis said veterans are reluctant to seek help from the federal agency
for a number of reasons, including a concern that information about
their mental health problems will wind up on their personal records. And
Javis said there are also problems with access because the agency's
office hours usually conflict with veterans' work schedules and because
they might have to travel long distances to get to an office.



Javis also said women may be reluctant to visit a Veterans Affairs
facility because of sexual abuse experiences that may have taken place
during their time of service, making them fearful of personal
interactions.



The coalition said for individuals in the acute phases of posttraumatic
stress disorder, the base mental health benefit required by Timothy's
Law might not cover all of their treatment needs. The proposed amendment
would cover treatment past the currently mandated 20 outpatient and 30
inpatient visits for insured individuals and cover all treatment for
posttraumatic stress disorder sufferers, even if they are only in an
acute phase of the condition, when more intensive inpatient and
outpatient treatment is medically necessary to help the person reach a
state of stability.



According to Shelly Nortz, deputy executive director for policy at the
Coalition for the Homeless, there are about 20,000 to 25,000 people in
New York who would be covered by the amendment.



Nortz estimated it would cost insurance companies an additional $500,000
annually should the amendment pass. The amount is so small, she
explained, because few people require treatment past the 30 inpatient
visits already covered by Timothy's Law.



But the New York Health Plan Association, which represents 27 managed
care health plans it says provide comprehensive health care services to
nearly 6 million New Yorkers, is opposed to the proposed expansion of
Timothy's Law expansion proposal and said in a press release that the
inclusion of posttraumatic stress disorder would be costly and
unnecessary.



"This bill appears to be a solution in search of a problem," said Paul
Macielak, Health Plan Association president. He said the majority of the
proposed amendment is aimed at helping returning soldiers and survivors
of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, who already have access to services.



In addition to the cost-free health care services provided to veterans,
including reservists and National Guard members, the association pointed
out that in 2005, New York passed the World Trade Center disability law
to "provide that any injury or illness directly related to terrorist
attack on September 11, 2001, be presumptively eligible for an
accidental disability."



Also noted by the association was that in the crafting of Timothy's Law,
posttraumatic stress disorder was ultimately not included in the final
draft because "the Legislature made a decision to limit the scope of
covered conditions specifically so as to not require coverage of every
condition listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental
Disorders-IV" - a section of a handbook for mental health professionals
that lists different categories of mental disorders and the criteria for
diagnosing them.



Also, the association argues that a provision of Timothy's Law requires
the state Department of Insurance and the Office of Mental Health to
study the legislation's effectiveness.



"This study is to encompass two years of experience with the new law and
is not scheduled to be insued until April 1, 2009. Expanding the scope
of the law's coverage to include PTSD undermines the value of a
meaningful analysis," Macielak said.



Dr. Frank Dowling, a professor of psychiatry at the State University of
New York at Stony Brook, said posttraumatic stress disorder is a
treatable illness that develops after being witness to or victim of a
traumatic event. "The event stays with them ... reminders may trigger
thoughts of the event," said Dowling.



Dowling said that just like depression and panic disorders,
posttraumatic stress disorder is a common response to traumatic events.
"It should be covered just the same," Dowling argued. "It's all the same
spectrum and a response to the same types of events," he said.



Pat Purdie, who said she was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress
disorder a year ago after being sexually abused by family members, said
her abuse affected her significantly.



Purdie said she has tried to take her life on more than one occasion and
still experiences flashbacks, frustration and anger. She said treatment
for the illness has given her a "will to live," which Purdie said she
lost after her abuse and after experiencing the symptoms of
posttraumatic stress disorder.



"Who wouldn't want to add PTSD into the Timothy's Law today?" Purdie
asked. "Because without treatment, we couldn't make it out there ... I
wouldn't know where I would be today if I hadn't gotten treatment," she
said.



The Assembly's version of the bill was referred from the Mental Health
Committee to the Ways and Means Committee on March 11, and the Senate
bill advanced to a third reading on Feb. 26.




------- End of forwarded message -------

Women At War with PTSD

Ghosts of war tug them back. It doesn't matter if the ghosts were born out of Vietnam, the Gulf War, or today's combat, the ghosts live on. Male or female, humans are wounded by events. While they are trained to do their jobs, they cannot control events. They can only adapt to them or withdraw from them.

Post-Iraq, veteran moms can't put stress to bed
Darryl E. Owens Sentinel Staff Writer
June 30, 2008
1 2 next Army Spc. Elizabeth Jackson shut down emotionally during her tour in Iraq. It was her way of dealing with the stress and danger.

Coming home, she found it hard to turn her feelings back on and become a mom again.

"I had a lump in my throat holding him, but [I] still couldn't cry yet," said Jackson, 26, of her reunion with Christopher just three days before his first birthday. "He was still my son, but it took me a little while to get the tenderness down. It was like a 'Why are you crying? Suck it up!' kind of thing."

Doctors later diagnosed Jackson with post-traumatic-stress disorder, or PTSD -- an old diagnosis that's finding a new gender to victimize. The Deltona woman is among thousands of female veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with the mental disorder that World War I veterans knew as "shell shock."



As the current war and multiple deployments continue, the numbers will only surge, experts fear.

Women are "being exposed to combat in ways never seen before and are coming in to seek care for PTSD," said Amy Street, a psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs.





Trend rises

158: Women the Orlando VA Medical Center treated for post-traumatic-stress disorder during the 6 months ending in March.

143: Treated during the previous 12 months.

3,005: U.S. Army servicewomen diagnosed.

40,000: Troops from all military branches diagnosed.

193,400: Women have served in or near Iraq and Afghanistan -- about 11% of troops deployed.

SOURCES: Pentagon, Veterans Affairs

Darryl E. Owens can be reached at dowens@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5095.
click post title for more

These women brought the ghosts back with them. No safe zones. Iraq horrors are gender neutral. Bombs do not remain intact when a woman drives up to them. Bullets do not change their path when a woman is walking by. Jets and helicopters are not suddenly provided with magic shields because a woman is the pilot. Add in the fact some men still will regard women as objects instead of worthy of respect. They have to worry about the enemy trying to kill them at the same time they have to worry about some of the men they serve with attacking them.

They have to fight for their right to be there, to serve the nation with just as much devotion as the males, doing jobs needing to be done with just as much courage. While men develop with less emotional tendencies as females, women have to fight against their emotions more than males do.

Yet women are the last to be served by the government. They have different physical and mental health care needs than men do but no one bothered to prepare for the increase in their numbers. Women do not want to see male doctors or male psychologists. Too many of them have endured sexual abuse and verbal abuse by men in the military and too many cannot trust a male to provide care to them. As the need to address this grows, they wait. Why?

Did they suddenly enter into the combat zones? Iraq was invaded in 2003 and women were there. Afghanistan was invaded in 2001 and women were there. The Gulf War was in 1991 and they were there. The rest of the combat missions came before that and women were there. Since the beginning of this nation, women were there on the front lines. They were not the last to serve so why are they the last to be served?


Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.namguardianangel.org/

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/

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

Canada:Wounded Veterans, Wounded Families

Families of wounded military veterans struggling to cope and make ends meet
6 hours ago

CALGARY — They are the invisible victims of Canada's military efforts around the world.

The families of wounded soldiers released from active duty due to severe disabilities are poorer, less healthy and less socially active, says a study prepared for Veterans Affairs Canada.

It's a growing problem as Canadian soldiers continue to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and help keep the peace in global hot spots.

Soldiers who can no longer serve in the military receive full pensions, but the University of Alberta study suggests their families still struggle.

A Canada-wide review involved 142 wounded soldiers and 115 of their caretakers and paints a painful picture of what life is like at home.

"I tend to try to be positive, not negative, (but) ... I feel robbed because all our lives he has been ill, can't sit, walk, or stand too long," wrote one of the anonymous respondents.

The soldiers surveyed were between 25 and 65, were suffering full impairment to most of their bodies and were often battling emotional, psychiatric and psychological conditions.

The study found financial pressures and an overwhelming and relentless sense of responsibility for the caregiver.

"You don't dwell on it. You ... try to think of something good every day. You just try to keep going," wrote another woman. A few years ago I had to write a letter to Veterans Affairs and I thought, 'Oh my God. This is my life."'

The report, titled "Wounded Veterans, Wounded Families," revealed high levels of need for the severely disabled veterans and their families, many of whom were also trying to earn a living and raise young children.

"Are they suffering? Absolutely. And suffering in ways that their lives have been changed," said Norah Keating, a professor of human ecology, who co-authored the report with colleague Janet Fast.
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