VAOIG REPORT: SAN DIEGO VA'S PTSD PROGRAM IN DISARRAY
-- No full-time director...
Clinicians doing research while trainees handled clinical duties...
Staff didn't follow-up on appointment no-shows.
Executive Summary
The purpose of this inspection was to review allegations regarding the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Program at the VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS):
We substantiated that the designated Medical Director of the PTSD clinical team (PCT) and the PTSD Program does not function as a full-time director. At the time of our review, the Medical Director was only available for program management and clinical care 0.5 days per week and spent the remainder of his time on research studies. In light of the salient role of PTSD treatment in veteran mental health care and the increasing number of recently discharged veterans and Vietnam era veterans seeking VA mental health services, the substantial presence of a clinician-administrator appears to be reasonable and warranted.
In the absence of valid workload and productivity data, it appeared that generally, the PTSD Program is able to meet requests for group or individual evidence-based therapy. However, during times of higher volume, the demand exceeds the ability to provide individual therapy slots.
go here for more
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfaug08c/nf083008-1.htm
Monday, September 1, 2008
India:Kashmir, Conflict's Psychological Legacy
In Kashmir, Conflict's Psychological Legacy
Mental Health Cases Swell in Two Decades
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 1, 2008; Page A09
SRINAGAR, India
Suraya Qadeem's brother was one of the Kashmir Valley's brightest students. Handsome and disciplined, he had been accepted into a prestigious medical school in Mumbai. But just weeks before Tahir Hussain was to pack his bags, the 20-year-old was shot dead by Indian forces as he participated in a peaceful demonstration calling for Kashmir's independence.
At his funeral, Suraya Qadeem, also a medical student, wept so hard she thought she might stop breathing. Seventeen years later, she spends her days counseling patients in Indian-controlled Kashmir who have painfully similar stories.
In the sunny therapy rooms of a private mental hospital here in Kashmir's summer capital, Qadeem listens to young patients, nearly all of them children scarred by the region's two-decade-old conflict. Most suffer from depression, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction and suicidal tendencies in numbers that are shockingly high, especially compared with Western countries.
Srinagar, a scenic lakeside city nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, once had among the lowest mental illness rates in the world. But in 1989, leaders of the region's Muslim majority launched an armed separatist movement, one of several said to have been backed by predominantly Muslim Pakistan, which has fought two wars with Hindu-majority India over Kashmir since India's partition in 1947. Srinagar became a battleground as hundreds of thousands of Indian troops quelled the uprising. The fighting has left a powerful psychological legacy.
The number of patients seeking mental health services surged at the state psychiatric hospital, from 1,700 when the unrest began to more than 100,000 now. Last year, they were treated at the hospital or the recently opened Advanced Institute of Stress and Life Style Problems, where Qadeem works.
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Mental Health Cases Swell in Two Decades
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 1, 2008; Page A09
SRINAGAR, India
Suraya Qadeem's brother was one of the Kashmir Valley's brightest students. Handsome and disciplined, he had been accepted into a prestigious medical school in Mumbai. But just weeks before Tahir Hussain was to pack his bags, the 20-year-old was shot dead by Indian forces as he participated in a peaceful demonstration calling for Kashmir's independence.
At his funeral, Suraya Qadeem, also a medical student, wept so hard she thought she might stop breathing. Seventeen years later, she spends her days counseling patients in Indian-controlled Kashmir who have painfully similar stories.
In the sunny therapy rooms of a private mental hospital here in Kashmir's summer capital, Qadeem listens to young patients, nearly all of them children scarred by the region's two-decade-old conflict. Most suffer from depression, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction and suicidal tendencies in numbers that are shockingly high, especially compared with Western countries.
Srinagar, a scenic lakeside city nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, once had among the lowest mental illness rates in the world. But in 1989, leaders of the region's Muslim majority launched an armed separatist movement, one of several said to have been backed by predominantly Muslim Pakistan, which has fought two wars with Hindu-majority India over Kashmir since India's partition in 1947. Srinagar became a battleground as hundreds of thousands of Indian troops quelled the uprising. The fighting has left a powerful psychological legacy.
The number of patients seeking mental health services surged at the state psychiatric hospital, from 1,700 when the unrest began to more than 100,000 now. Last year, they were treated at the hospital or the recently opened Advanced Institute of Stress and Life Style Problems, where Qadeem works.
click post title for more
Tragedy as Groton MA father dies trying to save daughter
Father drowns in Chatham rescue attempt
Man dies during swim in Maine
By Matt Collette
Globe Correspondent / September 1, 2008
A 46-year-old Groton man drowned yesterday at Lighthouse Beach in Chatham after attempting to rescue his 10-year-old daughter, who was swept into the ocean by strong currents, while a 68-year-old Lowell man died during a swim in Sebago Lake in Maine.
The two deaths came on a busy holiday weekend day that also saw several ocean rescues and the Coast Guard responding to reports that a man had slipped off a raft at Winthrop Beach. As of last night, the Winthrop search had been suspended, with Coast Guard officials saying an unmanned raft had probably blown into the ocean from shore.
Thomas McDonald, 46, of Groton, was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital yesterday afternoon. He lost consciousness swimming after his daughter, who had been overcome by waves at the beach and swept out to sea, Chatham officials said. The girl and two women who swam out to assist in the rescue were pulled from the water by Chatham Harbormaster patrol boats.
"It's just tragic, he was doing a valiant thing trying to go after his daughter who was caught in the current," said Chatham harbormaster Stuart Smith. "I don't know the man but he was certainly one brave individual. "
Smith praised the responders for their quick action and called Tanya O'Donnell, a 17-year-old Harwich lifeguard who swam 100 yards to the girl and stayed with her until patrol boats arrived, a hero. "Quite frankly, without her intervention, we might have lost the girl," Smith said.
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Man dies during swim in Maine
By Matt Collette
Globe Correspondent / September 1, 2008
A 46-year-old Groton man drowned yesterday at Lighthouse Beach in Chatham after attempting to rescue his 10-year-old daughter, who was swept into the ocean by strong currents, while a 68-year-old Lowell man died during a swim in Sebago Lake in Maine.
The two deaths came on a busy holiday weekend day that also saw several ocean rescues and the Coast Guard responding to reports that a man had slipped off a raft at Winthrop Beach. As of last night, the Winthrop search had been suspended, with Coast Guard officials saying an unmanned raft had probably blown into the ocean from shore.
Thomas McDonald, 46, of Groton, was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital yesterday afternoon. He lost consciousness swimming after his daughter, who had been overcome by waves at the beach and swept out to sea, Chatham officials said. The girl and two women who swam out to assist in the rescue were pulled from the water by Chatham Harbormaster patrol boats.
"It's just tragic, he was doing a valiant thing trying to go after his daughter who was caught in the current," said Chatham harbormaster Stuart Smith. "I don't know the man but he was certainly one brave individual. "
Smith praised the responders for their quick action and called Tanya O'Donnell, a 17-year-old Harwich lifeguard who swam 100 yards to the girl and stayed with her until patrol boats arrived, a hero. "Quite frankly, without her intervention, we might have lost the girl," Smith said.
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Modesto man tries to amputate own arm
Modesto man tries to amputate own arm
Sun Aug 31, 2:34 PM ET
MODESTO, Calif. - Police say a man tried to cut off his own arm at a restaurant in Modesto, Calif., because he thought he had injected air into a vein while shooting cocaine and feared he would die unless he took drastic action.
Authorities say 33-year-old Michael Lasiter rushed into the Denny's restaurant late Friday and started stabbing himself in one arm with a butter knife he grabbed from a table.
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linked from RawStory
Sun Aug 31, 2:34 PM ET
MODESTO, Calif. - Police say a man tried to cut off his own arm at a restaurant in Modesto, Calif., because he thought he had injected air into a vein while shooting cocaine and feared he would die unless he took drastic action.
Authorities say 33-year-old Michael Lasiter rushed into the Denny's restaurant late Friday and started stabbing himself in one arm with a butter knife he grabbed from a table.
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linked from RawStory
Life of Civil War veteran linked to living today
A great example of how one life matters to so many.
Kenneth City man discovers a part of himself in a forgotten Civil War survivor
By William R. Levesque, Times staff writer
In print: Sunday, August 31, 2008
KENNETH CITY — A Confederate bullet smashed into Cornelius Ridgeway's left breast and lodged near his heart during an 1864 battle in Virginia, another bloody day in the Civil War.
So many things could kill a person then. Infection. Disease. An operation to remove a bullet long before the days of blood transfusion.
As a Delaware native with a mix of Indian, black and European blood — locals called them Delaware Moors — Ridgeway had been allowed to join only an all-black regiment.
More than a century later, records provide tantalizingly few clues about the then 22-year-old's year in a hospital, except that he survived. A wound like his was usually fatal. If Ridgeway had died in that hospital, much that followed would have been different, much would have been lost to history.
A white Pinellas County resident born long after that Civil War battle knows this well. His name is John Carter.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/war/article791095.ece
Dereliction of Duty McCain’s record on veterans’ issues
Dereliction of Duty
McCain’s record on veterans’ issues is shocking and awful
By Cliff Schecter
Features > September 1, 2008
Dereliction of Duty
McCain’s record on veterans’ issues is shocking and awful
By Cliff Schecter
Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) talks to World War II veteran George Dusdenbury on Jan. 18, in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
McCain's record on veterans' issues paints a picture of a man who has been willfully negligent when it comes to providing for his former brothers and sisters in arms.
At a town hall meeting in Denver in early July, a Vietnam veteran asked presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) why he had opposed increasing healthcare for veterans whenever Congress had taken up the issue over the past six years. McCain virtually ignored the man’s question, dissembling his opposition to an updated GI Bill for veterans. After the questioner challenged McCain’s response, the senator reacted as he usually does when queried beyond his comfort level: He got visibly angry.
Because McCain is running for president almost solely on his biography as a war hero, he can’t — and won’t — allow the slightest doubt to linger about his dedication to soldiers both past and present. It didn’t matter that the vet simply wanted to know how McCain — himself a former soldier and prisoner of war — could oppose important healthcare legislation for veterans. In fact, he didn’t even ask McCain about the GI Bill that he opposed, which had been supported by a bipartisan group of 75 senators, including Republican veterans Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and John Warner (Va.).
Most notably, McCain also testily responded to his inquisitor that he had “received every award from every vets organization.”
The problem is, not only is that assertion not true, but McCain’s record on veterans’ issues paints a picture of a man who has been willfully negligent when it comes to providing for his former brothers and sisters in arms.
As Iraq War veteran and former Democratic congressional candidate Paul Hackett says, “Here is a guy who touts himself as a friend of veterans, but his history shows just the opposite. How can someone who cares about our men and women in the armed services vote against the GI Bill or veterans’ healthcare?”
go here for more
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3864/dereliction_of_duty/
What makes all of this worse is the fact McCain enjoys the very thing he does not want all other veterans to have. Doesn't matter to him at all as long as he gets his "share" and all he feels he earned. After all, he was a POW and the rest, well they did not suffer as much as he did, so they should be on their own. This is proven when he says he wants the non-combat veterans treated by civilain doctors with "health care cards" instead of the VA.
For all the veterans still supporting him just because "he's one of them" they need to understand that he is far from one of them when he uses them instead of fights for them.
McCain’s record on veterans’ issues is shocking and awful
By Cliff Schecter
Features > September 1, 2008
Dereliction of Duty
McCain’s record on veterans’ issues is shocking and awful
By Cliff Schecter
Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) talks to World War II veteran George Dusdenbury on Jan. 18, in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
McCain's record on veterans' issues paints a picture of a man who has been willfully negligent when it comes to providing for his former brothers and sisters in arms.
At a town hall meeting in Denver in early July, a Vietnam veteran asked presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) why he had opposed increasing healthcare for veterans whenever Congress had taken up the issue over the past six years. McCain virtually ignored the man’s question, dissembling his opposition to an updated GI Bill for veterans. After the questioner challenged McCain’s response, the senator reacted as he usually does when queried beyond his comfort level: He got visibly angry.
Because McCain is running for president almost solely on his biography as a war hero, he can’t — and won’t — allow the slightest doubt to linger about his dedication to soldiers both past and present. It didn’t matter that the vet simply wanted to know how McCain — himself a former soldier and prisoner of war — could oppose important healthcare legislation for veterans. In fact, he didn’t even ask McCain about the GI Bill that he opposed, which had been supported by a bipartisan group of 75 senators, including Republican veterans Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and John Warner (Va.).
Most notably, McCain also testily responded to his inquisitor that he had “received every award from every vets organization.”
The problem is, not only is that assertion not true, but McCain’s record on veterans’ issues paints a picture of a man who has been willfully negligent when it comes to providing for his former brothers and sisters in arms.
As Iraq War veteran and former Democratic congressional candidate Paul Hackett says, “Here is a guy who touts himself as a friend of veterans, but his history shows just the opposite. How can someone who cares about our men and women in the armed services vote against the GI Bill or veterans’ healthcare?”
go here for more
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3864/dereliction_of_duty/
What makes all of this worse is the fact McCain enjoys the very thing he does not want all other veterans to have. Doesn't matter to him at all as long as he gets his "share" and all he feels he earned. After all, he was a POW and the rest, well they did not suffer as much as he did, so they should be on their own. This is proven when he says he wants the non-combat veterans treated by civilain doctors with "health care cards" instead of the VA.
For all the veterans still supporting him just because "he's one of them" they need to understand that he is far from one of them when he uses them instead of fights for them.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Colorado:Semi-trailer and minivan crash leave 6 dead
Semi, minivan collide, six killed
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Originally published 06:57 p.m., August 31, 2008
Updated 07:28 p.m., August 31, 2008
GREELEY — The Colorado State Patrol says a crash between a semitrailer and a minivan in Weld County has killed six family members.
Cpl. Eric Wynn says a woman, two men, a 4-year-old, 6-year-old and 9-month old were killed in the crash around 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
He described the adults as a couple and a brother-in-law. Wynn says the minivan carrying the family was northbound on Weld County Road 49 when it passed a relative’s driveway. The minivan was trying to make a U-turn when it was struck by the northbound semitrailer. The semitrailer driver was injured but was expected to survive.
The victims’ names and hometowns weren’t immediately released.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/31/semi-minivan-collide-six-killed/
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Originally published 06:57 p.m., August 31, 2008
Updated 07:28 p.m., August 31, 2008
GREELEY — The Colorado State Patrol says a crash between a semitrailer and a minivan in Weld County has killed six family members.
Cpl. Eric Wynn says a woman, two men, a 4-year-old, 6-year-old and 9-month old were killed in the crash around 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
He described the adults as a couple and a brother-in-law. Wynn says the minivan carrying the family was northbound on Weld County Road 49 when it passed a relative’s driveway. The minivan was trying to make a U-turn when it was struck by the northbound semitrailer. The semitrailer driver was injured but was expected to survive.
The victims’ names and hometowns weren’t immediately released.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/31/semi-minivan-collide-six-killed/
TV news stars head to New Orleans instead of Republican convention
One more case of "if it bleeds, it leads" when it comes to the media. The stars just have to be the ones to report on this monster heading for New Orleans once more. Why is it they cannot just send in a film crew to cover it instead? Because they know people will be tuned in for news of the damage the storm is leaving behind.
Wouldn't it be great if they paid this much attention to the events that change people's lives the same way? Coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan, the people of both nations, our troops, our wounded, the fallen, the families, none of them are worthy of such coverage yet a storm, well now, that's something they really need to be there for. Plan on up to four days of non-stop coverage of this and then they go away and forget all about it. Forget about the lives of the people who will be forever changed. Forget about the fact they will have lost everything they had, yet again. Forget about what the hurricane will do to all of them as long as they get this story as it happens, that's all that matters. Anderson Cooper on CNN is just about the only one who was interested in finding out what happened to the people after Katrina hit. Let's see if anyone is interested this time or not. Somehow, I doubt it.
Wouldn't it be great if they paid this much attention to the events that change people's lives the same way? Coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan, the people of both nations, our troops, our wounded, the fallen, the families, none of them are worthy of such coverage yet a storm, well now, that's something they really need to be there for. Plan on up to four days of non-stop coverage of this and then they go away and forget all about it. Forget about the lives of the people who will be forever changed. Forget about the fact they will have lost everything they had, yet again. Forget about what the hurricane will do to all of them as long as they get this story as it happens, that's all that matters. Anderson Cooper on CNN is just about the only one who was interested in finding out what happened to the people after Katrina hit. Let's see if anyone is interested this time or not. Somehow, I doubt it.
TV network news anchors descending on New Orleans
by The Associated Press
Sunday August 31, 2008, 7:55 PM
NEW YORK -- Television networks rapidly shifted focus and personnel away from the Republican national convention to Gulf Coast communities in the path of Hurricane Gustav on Sunday, wondering how much of their political planning will be for naught.
Anchors Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith were all going to the New Orleans area for the storm instead of being with Republicans in St. Paul, Minn.
Whether they will be heading north at all depends on the strength of the storm at Monday's expected landfall. President Bush and Vice President Cheney both canceled plans to be at the convention, where they were to be featured Monday, and the GOP was considering other changes to its program.
"We're going to go with the biggest story of the day tomorrow," said Jay Wallace, a news vice president at Fox News Channel, "and right now the biggest story of the day is the storm."
Along with Smith, Fox was sending Geraldo Rivera and at least a dozen crews to the Gulf. Fox had been anticipating a big week in St. Paul; its ratings topped every broadcast and cable network at the 2004 GOP convention.
It's unclear how viewers will respond this time if the storm eclipses the convention as a story.
go here for more
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2008/08/tv_network_news_anchors_descen.html
Indian flood victims face food shortages
Indian flood victims face food shortages
Story Highlights
Indian flood victims now face food shortages
450,000 families displaced after dam in Nepal broke on August 18
2.7 million people in 1,600 villages might have been affected
Agencies scramble to help, but damaged infrastructure hampers efforts
PURNIA, India (CNN) -- The piercing wails from little lungs fill the air at this makeshift relief camp in Bihar's flood-ravaged Purnia district.
The babies scream for food. Their mothers cradle them in loving arms but cannot soothe the hunger in their bellies.
Food is scarce for the hundreds of people who have sought shelter here. They huddle under tents made from blankets and propped up by bamboo stems.
And when aid workers ration out rice, they quickly devour it.
"We ran for our lives and now we are dying here for food," said Bachni Devi, who arrived at the camp with ten small children and a pregnant daughter in tow.
"We are dying even for clothes. All our animals are also dying."
Government officials say that 450,000 families have been displaced after a dam in Nepal broke on August 18. It breached the eastern embankment of the Kosi River, a waterway that straddles the India-Nepal border.
Water flushed through the breach so forcefully that the river changed course in Bihar, gobbling up thousands of villages and marooning residents on thin strips of dry land in India and Nepal.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/31/india.floods/index.html
Story Highlights
Indian flood victims now face food shortages
450,000 families displaced after dam in Nepal broke on August 18
2.7 million people in 1,600 villages might have been affected
Agencies scramble to help, but damaged infrastructure hampers efforts
PURNIA, India (CNN) -- The piercing wails from little lungs fill the air at this makeshift relief camp in Bihar's flood-ravaged Purnia district.
The babies scream for food. Their mothers cradle them in loving arms but cannot soothe the hunger in their bellies.
Food is scarce for the hundreds of people who have sought shelter here. They huddle under tents made from blankets and propped up by bamboo stems.
And when aid workers ration out rice, they quickly devour it.
"We ran for our lives and now we are dying here for food," said Bachni Devi, who arrived at the camp with ten small children and a pregnant daughter in tow.
"We are dying even for clothes. All our animals are also dying."
Government officials say that 450,000 families have been displaced after a dam in Nepal broke on August 18. It breached the eastern embankment of the Kosi River, a waterway that straddles the India-Nepal border.
Water flushed through the breach so forcefully that the river changed course in Bihar, gobbling up thousands of villages and marooning residents on thin strips of dry land in India and Nepal.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/31/india.floods/index.html
Pets part of the deal this time for Gustav
Sylvania Moore is all smiles as she's assured that she and pet dog Buddy will get out of New Orleans safely as Hurricane Gustav threatens the city Saturday, August 30, 2008. State employee Rena Smith, right, is there to help. (UPI Photo/A.J. Sisco) Slideshow
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