Care now or pay more later

Here is a lesson all nations need to take seriously. It comes from the UK. A soldier suffered more because PTSD was not taken care of early on. The UK ended up paying out a lot of money to compensate him for the suffering he went through that did not need to happen.

This happens even more here in the US. PTSD is like an infection. It gets worse when it is not treated. Treat it and it stops getting worse. The sooner it is treated, much of what the warrior is experiencing can be reversed. They can be taught to live with what cannot be reversed and make their lives better.

It is not made public since the media has a habit of jumping on the latest figures but we're over a million suffering with PTSD right now. There are more with mild PTSD still hoping they will just get over it. They are not aware the 30 warning window flew wide open a long time ago. After trauma, if suffering does not subside within 30 days, survivors are advised to seek help no matter what caused the trauma. For the servicemen and women, too often multiple traumatic events come into their lives and feed what was already done by previous events. In other words, by the time they come home, it's already often too late to realistically expect to get over it.

Mild PTSD, if treated, can leave a veteran able to function quite well. Nightmares and flashbacks may remain, but they are not as strong or as often as they would be without treatment. Most medications can be decreased or stopped once the chemical balance of the brain has been restored. They can learn to cope with what cannot be reversed. They can learn to calm down when anxiety tries to take over. They can learn to retrain themselves to remember things. They can learn how to live as a survivor.

When it is not treated, damage is done to how their mind works. Like an infection, it eats away at what is there until medical attention is provided. Healing happens as the body's natural ability is supported but there is scar tissue. The mind works pretty much the same way. Not treating PTSD allows the scars to deepen. Mild PTSD turns into full blown PTSD and then it requires a lot more treatment, changes the lives more and then ends up costing more in the long run.

On a human level they need to be treated as soon as possible but on a financial level, not treating them leads to a lifetime of financial compensation. Aside from being a moral issue, which would demand care for them, not taking care of them prevents them from going on to live with the ability to support themselves.

We can care now or pay more later. Doesn't it make more sense to treat them early on after trauma? Their lives should matter enough for all of us to do the right thing now before too much damage is done to their lives.

MoD pays out six-figure sum for soldier suffering post-traumatic stress disorder
By Ian Drury
The Ministry of Defence could be forced to pay compensation to hundreds of soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder following a landmark six-figure pay-out to a former bomb disposal expert.

The soldier claimed he might not have suffered a breakdown in 2004 if military psychiatrists had diagnosed and treated his illness earlier.

The MoD fought the legal battle after insisting the ex-serviceman, who cannot be named for security reasons, had failed to lodge his claim for negligence within a three-year time limit.

But, having settled with the soldier out of court, Army chiefs face the nightmare scenario of paying out PTSD claims which could run into millions of pounds many years after sufferers have quit the military.

Read more: MoD pays out six-figure sum for soldier suffering

WWII Vet who died in prison gets national cemetery plot

Vet who died in prison gets national cemetery plot
By DAN ELLIOTT (AP)

DENVER — Some military veterans are angry that a World War II soldier who died in prison after pleading guilty to killing his wife is scheduled to be buried Tuesday in Denver's Fort Logan National Cemetery.

Raymond R. Sawyer, a former Marine from Colorado, died Aug. 11 in a Tucson, Ariz., state prison while serving 13 years for second-degree murder.

His wife, Frances A. Sawyer, was found strangled in August 1981 in Glendale, Ariz., where the couple lived. The case remained unsolved for 26 years.

In 2007, sometime after Raymond Sawyer moved to the Denver suburb of Arvada, a cold-case investigator from Glendale went to Arvada to interview him in hopes of turning up new leads, Glendale police said.

During the interview, Sawyer "broke down" and made statements about the slaying that only the killer could have known, Glendale spokesman Matt Barnett said at the time.

Sawyer was arrested and taken to Arizona. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison in 2008.

Besides citing the slaying, Sawyer's critics also say he once falsely claimed to have received the Navy Cross, the military branch's second-highest medal for valor.
read more here
Vet who died in prison gets national cemetery plot

Michigan lawyers line up to SALUTE veterans

Law school offers assistance to Mich. vets

By Mike Scott - Detroit Legal News via AP
Posted : Sunday Aug 22, 2010 12:15:29 EDT

DETROIT — More than 800 veterans in the state of Michigan have received assistance from Project SALUTE at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. But with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ongoing, such needs are only continuing to grow.

The efforts of a dedicated group of lawyers have kept Project SALUTE top of mind around the area. Combined with the law school’s Veterans Law Clinic, the two UDM-run programs are designed to address the compelling legal needs of veterans around the state. The programs focus on veterans’ federal disability and pension benefits through education, law student representation, and pro bono attorney referral.

Thus far the clinic and Project SALUTE organizers have trained more than 300 lawyers statewide to serve as pro bono advocates on behalf of these veterans. As of early August, there were approximately 140 lawyers working on client cases.

Project SALUTE has held more than 65 clinics for veterans around Michigan so far this year, with 35 more scheduled for this fall, Executive Director Tammy Kudialis said.
read more here
Law school offers assistance to Mich vets

Personality Disorder and PTSD What’s In a Name?

Guest post,,,,,

What’s In a Name?-
Personality Disorder and PTSD Things are changing in the military. Over the past five years, soldiers returning from Middle Eastern battlegrounds are being saddled with a new label, personality disorder. While the military recognizes Post Traumatic Stress disorder as an illness that results from warfare ---i.e. a treatable illness---- personality disorders are grounds for immediate medical discharge.

Personality Disorder Diagnosis Statistics
Between 2005 and 2007, the Army alone discharged nearly 1,000 soldiers for having personality disorders. The symptoms of personality disorder are very similar to those experienced by someone in the throes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

What is Personality Disorder?
Personality Disorder is defined as “a deeply engrained maladaptive pattern of behavior”. While PTSD is brought about by extreme environmental stresses, personality disorders are generally brought about by some combination of early childhood trauma and genetic predisposition. According to the military, a personality disorder constitutes a pre-existing condition. Therefore, those who are diagnosed with a personality disorder are not given psychiatric help after being discharged.

Policy Changes
When veterans’ advocacy groups confronted the military at-large for their increased reporting of personality disorders, they re-evaluated their strategy for diagnosis. Since this re-evaluation, the reported rates of PTSD have increased dramatically.

Blighted Records
While the changes in policy have potentially helped newly returning soldiers, they do little to help veterans who have a record blighted by a personality disorder diagnosis. Unlike their counterparts who are diagnosed with PTSD, a diagnosis of personality disorder carries a much less desirable prognosis. Further, a discharge due to a pre-existing medical condition carries with it implication that the soldier knowingly lied on the medical profile they filled out when joining the military.

Righting Wrongs
The same veteran’s groups that brought the increase in potentially false diagnoses to the attention of military review committees are now seeking out former soldiers to connect them with the psychiatric assistance for PTSD. By doing this, groups like Give an Hour, among others, hope to determine the extent of the false diagnosis and to help veterans’ who otherwise would have little recourse for care.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is a passionate blogger on the topic of education and free college scholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Vets Tackle Transition Home

New Battlefield: Vets Tackle Transition Home
by Jeff St. Clair


August 23, 2010 from WKSU
In the military, 12 weeks of basic training can make someone a soldier. But it may take years, even decades, for many veterans to readjust to home life.

While much of the responsibility for guiding the transition falls to the Department of Veterans Affairs, community-based groups are playing a key role in helping veterans transition to civilian life. One such group, based in Ohio, is being held up as a national model.

A Warrior's Journey Home

Dustin Szarell was one of those veterans who needed help after coming home from Iraq. He tells of seeing comrades killed, and of killing in blind rage. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in an explosion, relearned how to walk and talk, and was returned to duty. When he came home to Ohio, Szarell faced a different set of challenges.

"I had such a frustrating time. You know, I finished my time in the military — six years ... and I was like, 'What am I going to do?' " he says.

Szarell married and soon divorced. He drank and struggled to find work.

Eventually the VA found him a room in a homeless veterans' shelter, where Szarell's transition began in earnest.
go here for more
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129325820

USO Helps Troops With PTSD Symptoms

USO Helps Troops With PTSD Symptoms
Daniel Novick-KFOX News Weekend Anchor/Reporter
Posted: 4:42 pm MDT August 20, 2010


EL PASO, Texas -- Soldiers and post traumatic stress disorder. It's a problem that has only gotten worse as troops have been at war for much of the last decade, and now some of those soldiers could be getting help from the USO.

The USO has a unique relationship with troops, as they see many of them everyday, but not for training, combat or other daily duties. Many soldiers and their families told KFOX they are an extended family for soldiers, providing an array of services.

USO officials said it's that unique relationship that has opened the door for USO staffers and volunteers to help troops deal with their PTSD.
read more here
http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/24706306/detail.html

MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT YOU'VE SEEN, BUT NOT MET UNTIL NOW

He played Shenandoah on the harmonica his Mom sent and still does every time he talks about his time in Vietnam. He plays it when he talks about what he did and what he did not get to do with a humble voice filled with more regrets about those he was not able to save than about the lives he did. Sammy won my heart a couple of years ago when we met at the Nam Knights Eternal Chapter dedication in Orlando.

When Sammy was in Vietnam, his CO was made aware his men were not writing back home and their Moms were worried. The problem was, none of the men wanted to worry their Moms so they didn't want to write. The CO told them they had to write no matter what. If they didn't want to write about what was going on, then they should write about something pleasant, anything as long as they wrote home.

Sammy wrote letters about the weather and small talk nonsense that had nothing to do with what was going on. His Mom sent him a package. He thought it was goodies to eat and share but it turned out there was a harmonica wrapped up. She sent a note that since he was so bored there, it was something to fill up the time. His CO wanted him to play Shenandoah but Sammy tried to explain he didn't know how to play it. The CO ordered him to learn. He did. He played it every time they needed to be calmed and then he played it every time their hearts were heavy. It is what he played during this interview followed by a salute to the friends gone so long ago from this earth but not from his memory.
Chaplain Kathie


sent from email,,,,,,

I consider my self very fortunate to have known Sam Davis for 25 years.

He earned the medal six weeks before I began my second tour.

We met at a veteran's reunion in Kokomo, IN in Sept. 1985 and have a good deal of outreach together, traveling across several states in the ensuing years.

A kinder, humbler gentleman you will not find. This forward comes about because of the kindness of a brother Australian Vietnam veteran, Bob "Gibbo" Gibson.
Paul Sutton

From: Bob Gibson
Subject: MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT YOU'VE SEEN, BUT NOT MET UNTIL NOW
To:
Date: Monday, August 23, 2010, 4:45 AM

Bob "Bomber" Gibson

Gold Coast AUSTRALIA.
Aussie Vietnam vet 1967-Oct 1968.
Infantry Rifleman D&E Platoon 1ATF.
VIETNAM.

Well im happy to say ive met Sammy in 1986 in chicago and we have stayed mates ever since, Sammy also come down under to help me with the national vietnam vets welcome home in sydney in 1987 he was such a big help to aussie vietnam vets during that time of Silence we all faced since our return from SVN.

Here you go mates think I told you all the story of "Forest Gump" the movie.
I will be linking up with Sammy again in Chicago next June 2011 for 25th
anniversary of Chicago welcome home Vietnam vets parade as i did way back in 86. We all went to Vietnam as boys come home as men,went to our first welcome home in Chicago as middle age men and return 25yrs later as old diggers ( Soldiers ) where has all the time gone.

Thousands strain Fort Hood's mental health system

It never feels good being right when it didn't stop anything. It's almost as if I saw flames coming out a window and screamed for the fire department to come but no one was around to hear me. I would have done what I could to have stopped the fire but the house still would have burnt to the ground. I feel that way now when it comes to Fort Hood. I warned there would be a bigger need for helping the Fort Hood soldiers because of the shooting there last year. Less than a year later, looks like I was right but considering the price paid because no one listened, it just makes me sick to my stomach that someone like me saw it coming but the "experts" being listened to, had no clue.

Thousands strain Fort Hood's mental health system
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
FORT HOOD, Texas — Nine months after an Army psychiatrist was charged with fatally shooting 13 soldiers and wounding 30, the nation's largest Army post can measure the toll of war in the more than 10,000 mental health evaluations, referrals or therapy sessions held every month.
About every fourth soldier here, where 48,000 troops and their families are based, has been in counseling during the past year, according to the service's medical statistics. And the number of soldiers seeking help for combat stress, substance abuse, broken marriages or other emotional problems keeps increasing.

A common refrain by the Army's vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, is that far more soldiers suffer mental health issues than the Army anticipated. Nowhere is this more evident than at Fort Hood, where emotional problems among the soldiers threaten to overwhelm the system in place to help them.

Counselors are booked. The 12-bed inpatient psychiatric ward is full more often than not. Overflow patient-soldiers are sent to private local clinics that stay open for 10 hours a day, six days a week to meet the demand.

"We are full to the brim," says Col. Steve Braverman, commander of the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center on the post.

That doesn't even count those soldiers reluctant to seek care because they are ashamed to admit they need help or the hundreds who find therapy outside the Army medical system, Braverman and other medical officials say.

Officials worry the problems may worsen — for the military and the country.
read more here
Thousands strain Fort Hoods mental health system

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Aftermath of Fort Hood shootings may be worse
Aftermath of Fort Hood shootings may be worseAs the news reports kept coming out today about the carnage at Fort Hood, my greatest fears were not for today, but for the next few months ahead. No one is talking about "secondary stressors" and this needs to be addressed quickly.

There are crisis teams heading there according to the press briefing by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone. This is one of the best things they can do. I spent months taking this kind of training and it is very thorough. The issue that we need to be concerned about is when there are thousands of soldiers, combat soldiers with multiple tours, many of them are dealing with mild PTSD. Mild PTSD is not that hard to cope with. They live pretty normal lives while covering up the pain they have inside. Many even cope well the rest of their lives but many do not.

Like a ticking time bomb, PTSD rests waiting to strike if untreated. It waits for the next traumatic event and then mild PTSD turns into PTSD on steroids. These are the soldiers that will need the greatest help as soon as possible.

These bases are very well secured. That makes the soldiers and their families feel safe. Think about going into combat and then making it home alive where you are supposed to be safe. Then having this happen.

I was at Fort Hood in March. I had an auto rental and even though I had a military issued ID, that was not good enough at the guard house. I had to show my rental agreement every time I drove onto the base. Even if you have a Department of Defense sticker on your car, you still have to show your military ID. That makes them feel they are safe. Then away from harm, away from combat, they end up having to face something like this from not only one of their own, but a Major and a Doctor who is supposed to be there for them, trying to kill them.

Crisis teams will address the traumatic events of today, but the soldiers that have already been involved in traumatic events cutting into them will need far greater help than anyone is really prepared to deliver. This is my greatest fear for them.Then we have troops from Fort Hood and other bases deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan wondering who they can trust now after one of their own did something like this. None of this is good and the aftermath may be worse than this day itself.

Media keeps missing point after Fort Hood

Thursday, February 18, 2010

3 Fort Hood Soldiers committed suicide last month alone
There are more and you can search the blog looking up Fort Hood to find the rest but I bet you get the point. There are domestic violence reports, suicides, you name the aftermath and it's there.

Soldiers Punished for Refusing to Attend a Christian Rock Concert

There is nothing wrong with being a Christian. There is something very wrong with trying to force others to become one. There is nothing wrong with talking about the love of Christ. There is something wrong with trying to force someone to love Christ. There is nothing wrong with talking about your own faith, no matter which group you happen to belong to. There is something wrong with power being given to your denomination over others just as there is something wrong with the military doing any of this.

Maybe you're devoted like I am but thinking of what Christ means in your own life was not forced on you. You had the right to decide which church to attend. Christians come from many different denominations and each has their own set of rules as well as beliefs. If you read this story based on your own faith then look deeper and know this isn't about just being a Christian, but a member of the selected group of Christians above all others. This isn't about making a choice of your own freewill but being forced to conform. This nation was built on the foundation of religious freedom and was defended by the blood of those who serve in the military. If you find no problem with these things going on in the military then you are not supporting your own faith, your own country or the troops.

All faiths should be treated equally. If the majority of the troops are Christian, then there should be more spiritual avenues for them from every denomination. If there are Christian Rock concerts, great, but no one should be forced to attend. What if the soldier simply doesn't like rock music or the band at all? What if their upbringing was opposed to rock music? If a church forced you to go to a service, would you still want to belong to that church or would you feel so bitter toward it, you never returned? You may have had a wonderful spiritual church life but keep in mind that there are many who have not. If you were treated badly by a church would you want to be forced to attend anything having to do with that church?

Things in the military have gotten totally out of control and it should disgust every citizen in this country. Having a choice to retain one's own faith of their own freewill is a fundamental right in this country. If we allow this to go on in the military then what have we become?

I've said it many times that there needs to be more Chaplains in the military. A lot of the Chaplains serving now are appalled by what has been going on when evangelism and proselytizing has become more important that taking care of everyone honoring their own freewill. This is not a slam against Chaplains, especially when I am a civilian Chaplain, believing in the power of faith. Forcing anyone dishonors the faith, this country and our troops.

Soldiers Punished for Refusing to Attend a Christian Rock Concert
Posted by steved at 2:46 pm
August 22, 2010
This post first appeared on Booman Tribune.
There is so much that is just so wrong with this story I don’t know where to begin:
The Army said Friday it was investigating a claim that dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band’s concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up. [...]Pvt. Anthony Smith said he and other soldiers felt pressured to attend the May concert while stationed at the Newport News base, home of the Army’s Transportation Corps.

“My whole issue was I don’t need to be preached at,” Smith said in a phone interview from Phoenix, where he is stationed with the National Guard. “That’s not what I signed up for.” {…]

Smith, 21, was stationed in Virginia for nearly seven months for helicopter electrician training when the Christian rock group BarlowGirl played as part of the “Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concerts.”

Smith said a staff sergeant told 200 men in their barracks they could either attend or remain in their barracks. Eighty to 100 decided not to attend, he said.

“Instead of being released to our personal time, we were locked down,” Smith said. “It seemed very much like a punishment.”


Banished for refusing to attend a Christian concert? What is happening to our military? When did it morph into you must be a Christian to serve or else? And what the hell does being a Christian, or following any other religion, have to do with being a soldier?
go here for more
Soldiers Punished for Refusing to Attend a Christian Rock Concert

A Love Story after PTSD

Match.com commercials never seem to have a part two. We get to see these happy couples finally finding someone to love but we don't get to see them after new love becomes normal. Normal relationships are filled with joys as well as heartaches. Someone dies, someone is born, someone loses a job, someone gets a promotion. There are times of plenty when there is extra money and times of lean when bills cannot be paid. It is not the joyous times that test a marriage under any circumstances but it is the hardships that either break or bond.

The rest of us spend our youth thinking about the type of person we want to spend the rest of our lives with. Some girls think of someone like their Dad or the total opposite of him depending on their own relationship with him. We think about someone strong, smart, funny, caring, passionate and will make us feel better about ourselves. What we don't think about is falling in love includes someone else's problems.

When relationships begin after combat, the civilian thinks of all the qualities the veteran has but they never seem to be able to think of the unique issues they bring into the relationship. When a relationship begins while they are active military, the hardships are right there to be looked at and considered. The spouse decides with all the information known. But when a relationship begins after, it's all unknown territory for them. Most have no clue what they're getting into. When the relationship becomes normal, they discover their idea of normal does not fit in with what they thought it was.

Today we see it all over the country as veterans come home and families, friends and lovers try to understand. It is a timeless story because I was new wife of a Vietnam vet 11 years after his trip back from Vietnam. Looking back over stories from all combat eras, there was always a family, always friends and always lovers these veterans returned to.

This is a story of a relationship begun after combat. It began after a veteran tried to kill himself but as with any good love story, the darkness of what Josh was carrying was not too great of a burden for Helen to carry. The qualities within him were stronger than the heartache she would have to bear. This story is about love and finding what normal really means when the veteran comes from the minority of combat veteran.

This is not a commercial or a movie. This is real life. Turn on talk radio shows or TV shows focused on relationships and one like this is not considered normal. Considering that we're talking about people surviving the rarity of combat operations, what is normal for their families seems hard to understand by the casual observer just trying to deal with their own lives without all the complications of combat. What is "abnormal" for the civilian population is normal to the minority of us.

Another great article from Lily Casura over at www.healingcombattrauma.com

August 23, 2010
Sometimes You Have to Choose to Love -- A Love Story after PTSD
by
Lily Casura

Into the dearth of "good news" about combat veterans with PTSD and their partners comes the remarkable love story of Josh and Helen, who met and fell in love AFTER his service, his suicide attempts, and his PTSD diagnosis. While PTSD can seem like the "third partner" in a relationship -- the ever-present elephant in the room -- in Josh and Helen's story, it's what brought them together, and love, wisdom and maturity is what keeps their union intact.

I had the pleasure of getting to spend a few days recently with Josh and Helen, and was impressed by both of them, and the sheer fun of their relationship, which can be too rare among partners where one has PTSD. I was struck by Helen's clear-eyed, open-hearted approach -- the education she sought about PTSD, as she was falling in love with Josh -- and the way in which she's really becoming a wise "spokesperson" for how love is possible after PTSD. For all the broken relationships out there, and all the partners barely enduring and tolerating one another, I felt like Josh and Helen's story needed to be told, so I asked Helen to tell it. Just as a point of reference, Josh served in the U.S. Army from 2002 to 2008. He was honorably discharged in 2008, and served in Iraq from 2005 to 2006.

Here is Helen's story:
Sometimes You Have to Choose to Love