UK:10 a day are now being treated for psychological problems

Ten troops a day suffer mental health problems in fight against Taliban


by Chris Hughes, Daily Mirror 24/01/2011

THE war on terror is taking its toll on the mental state of British troops with a dramatic rise in the number seeking psychiatric help.
Worrying new figures have revealed 10 a day are now being treated for psychological problems as a result of the bitter fight with the Taliban.
The daily threat of roadside bombs, fierce gun battles and seeing comrades killed or horrifically maimed in the blood and dust of Afghanistan has led to a steep increase in the number of personnel suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.
But experts claim many troops hit by mental illness do not present with any symptoms until many years after the incidents that triggered the problems.
A report for the Government by former navy doctor and Tory MP Andrew Murrison calls for serving personnel to be screened for signs of psychiatric disorders in a bid to prevent chronic illness later.
MoD figures show the number of troops with mental health issues was last year up 28% on the year before while those with PTSD had risen by a shocking 72%. Military charity SSAFA Forces Help said: “It is not surprising the intense nature of current and recent operations is resulting in an increase in mental health issues amongst those who have deployed.


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Ten troops a day suffer mental health problems

Stunning Numbers of Veterans Suffer Psychological Problems, With No Support

This is what got me involved in all of this back in 1982. No support for far too many. Back then it was all about Vietnam Veterans. It is heartbreaking to see that while we have come closer to getting it right, we have too far to go for anyone to relax on any of this.


Post Deployment Health Reassessment (PDHRA) data show that up to 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of marines suffer from negative psychological symptoms.

Each time I read something like this I am taken back to the dark days when no one knew much of anything, PTSD was a secret to be kept along with everything else that came with it and families suffered in silence. I remember a time when there were no books written by veterans or their families, blogs had not even be thought of and support groups were hard to find. It was a time when I tried to explain all of this to my family but none of them could really understand, especially one of my brothers working in mental healthcare trying to get inner-city kids into college. He found great compassion for a kid growing up with gun violence around them but no compassion for a combat veteran with the same response to being in a violent situation such as war. Back then the best advice my family had was to get a divorce. They had no other response to give because they had no experience to fall back on.

So what's the excuse now? How many more years do we need of research to know that PTSD is real, causes lives to fall apart until there is an intervention and they are helped to heal? How many more years do we have to hear that the sooner they get help the more of their lives they can reclaim only to discover that the help they need is not where they need it to be when they need it to be ready?

Stunning Numbers of Veterans Suffer Psychological Problems, With No Support
Michael Friedman, L.M.S.W.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Columbia University's schools of social work and public health
Posted: January 27, 2011 08:11 AM

Last week's report about suicides of military personnel is a reminder that our nation faces a formidable challenge to meet the mental health needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. Many are struggling with emotional turmoil and diagnosable mental and/or substance use disorders but are not getting the care they need and deserve.

Since October 2001, there have been over 2,000,000 deployments to combat theaters in Iraq and Afghanistan, including 793,000 multiple deployments. With each deployment, service members encounter extreme stress, contributing to unprecedented rates of physical, mental and substance use disorders -- most notably post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, addiction and traumatic brain injury (TBI) -- as well as high rates of suicide, homelessness and unemployment. Extended and repeated absences as well as personal changes among those who have experienced the dangers and horrors of war also take a psychological toll on their families.

Post Deployment Health Reassessment (PDHRA) data show that up to 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of marines suffer from negative psychological symptoms. The Department of Defense recently reported elevated rates of major depression and substance abuse. There are also increased cases of traumatic brain injury.

Untreated psychological symptoms often result in self medication with alcohol and drugs. According to the American Forces Press Service, 21 percent of service members admit to drinking heavily, significantly higher than civilians. Drug abuse among returning service members has also increased. National Guard and Reserve troops also experience mental and substance use disorders at unprecedented rates. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reports that as many as 1 in 4 experience post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Federal VA has taken steps to increase health and mental health services to veterans. However, over 85 percent of veterans do not access VA health care. Some cannot get access because of the limited capacity of the VA. For others VA facilities are too far away. For many the VA is not the preferred source of treatment. They return to civilian life, hopefully get jobs with health benefits, and use local health and mental health providers rather than the VA. This includes local primary care physicians and mental health professionals, community health centers and hospital-based clinics, mental health clinics, social services agencies, emergency rooms and inpatient services in local general hospitals.
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Stunning Numbers of Veterans Suffer Psychological Problems

I keep going to meetings on PTSD when there are brainstorming questions floating around. I keep asking the same question but not getting any answer that makes sense. Why isn't anyone doing real proactive outreach? Veterans need to know what PTSD is and why their lives changed just as much as they need to know how they can help themselves heal. Families need to know what it is and why their veteran is acting the way they do so they can help them instead of having a negative response making it worse for the veteran and the family. Most of the time this question is not even an afterthought. Yet I know that had I not known what PTSD was, there is no way I would have been able to stick out the dark days so that we could still be together all these years later. It was damn near impossible to do it even knowing what all of this was so the likelihood of families not knowing anything of staying together is just about zilch.

So now we have veterans needing help, facing the fact they need help and reaching out for it, but it is not there. Over 9 years after troops were sent to Afghanistan and then to Iraq but there are still not enough people to take care of the veterans? Will there ever be enough?

Lt. Gen. David Fridovich puts troops first ahead of pride

When you think that Lt. Gen. David Fridovich could have kept this part of his life private but decided to put the troops ahead of his privacy, that is one remarkable man! He is not a low profile serviceman who would make a good local story but someone with a lot of power to make things happen. Just coming out and talking about this will do wonders for others making them think that if he's talking about it, they can too. If he healed, they can too. If he is not ashamed, they don't have to be either.

3-star opens up about battle with addiction

Army Lt. Gen. David Fridovich says that, for years, he has regularly consumed narcotics and painkillers to deal with chronic pain — and now he’s sharing his story
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Jan 26, 2011 21:38:59 EST
TAMPA, Fla. — Standing before a packed hall of 700 military doctors and medics here, the deputy commander of the nation’s elite special operations forces warned about an epidemic of chronic pain sweeping through the U.S. military after a decade of continuous war.

Be careful about handing out narcotic pain relievers, Lt. Gen. David Fridovich told the audience last month. “What we don’t want is that next generation of veterans coming out with some bad habits.”

What Fridovich didn’t say was that he was talking as much about himself as anyone.

For nearly five years, the Green Beret general quietly has been hooked on narcotics he has taken for chronic pain — a reflection of an addiction problem that is spreading across the military. Hospitalizations and diagnoses for substance abuse doubled among members of U.S. forces in recent years. This week, nurses and case managers at Army wounded care units reported that one in three of their patients are addicted or dependent on drugs.

“This is huge for Fridovich to be willing to talk about this as a three-star general,” says Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff. “We’re finally coming clean and admitting at all levels this is an issue.”

Fridovich says narcotics altered his personality, darkened his mood and management style, and strained his 35-year marriage.

When Fridovich finally went through treatment and detoxification to reduce his drug reliance in 2008 — he still relies on weaker doses of narcotics to combat pain — his wife, Kathy, hid or destroyed more potent pain pills so he could not use them.

read more here
3-star opens up about battle with addiction

Major Nidal Hasan ruled sane and fit for trial

Source: Alleged Hood Shooter Ruled Sane

January 26, 2011
Associated Press
The US Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting spree on a Texas army base has been ruled sane and thus fit for trial, a source familiar with the case said Tuesday.
The ruling by a group of medical experts, called a sanity board, opens the door for a court martial that could end in the execution of Major Nidal Hasan, who was paralyzed from the neck down during the November 5, 2009 massacre.
Neither prosecutors nor retired Army Colonel John Galligan, a veteran military lawyer representing Hasan, 40, would confirm the board's decision.
But Galligan suggested it went against his client, who worked at Fort Hood until the shooting.
"I'm not going to say what they ruled," he told AFP. "I would just say this: I don't think the report will be anything that will be an impediment to the charges from the government's perspective."
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Alleged Hood Shooter Ruled Sane

Troops can't heal what they can't feel

Troops can’t heal what they can’t feel
January 27, 2011 posted by Chaplain Kathie
Drugs have one job and that is to get people to feel better. Antibiotics stop infections so that the body can take over and heal the wound. When it comes to PTSD, medications cover up the pain but too many times they cause more problems. When drugs are all that is used to fight PTSD, it isn’t giving troops a fair fighting chance to heal.

Army Trauma Unit’s Woes Detailed
By JAMES DAO
Published: January 26, 2011
The Army units created to provide special care for wounded soldiers after the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal continue to struggle with short staffing, inadequate training and an overabundance of prescription medications, a report by the Army inspector general’s office said.

This is from the VA

Clinician’s Guide to Medications for PTSD
What is the evidence base for the specific groups of medications used for PTSD treatment?
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI’s). These medications are the only FDA approved medications for PTSD . SSRIs primarily affect the neurotransmitter serotonin which is important in regulating mood, anxiety, appetite, and sleep and other bodily functions. This class of medication has the strongest empirical evidence with well designed randomized controlled trials (RCT’s) and is the preferred initial class of medications used in PTSD treatment (1, 2). Exceptions may occur for patients based upon their individual histories of side effects, response, and comorbidities. An example of an exception would be a PTSD patient with comorbid Bipolar Disorder. In this patient, there is a risk of precipitating a manic episode with the SSRI’s. Each patient varies in their response and ability to tolerate a specific medication and dosage, so medications must be tailored to individual needs. Research has suggested that maximum benefit from SSRI treatment depends upon adequate dosages and duration of treatment. Treatment adherence is key to successful pharmacotherapy treatment for PTSD.

I have listed many medications and warnings.
Read more here
Troops can't heal what they can't feel

UK: The New Prisoners of War

The New Prisoners of War

By VIRGINIA WHEELER, Defence Editor


THE Sun can today reveal that the mental health scandal afflicting traumatised troops has led to a surge in the number of military heroes being sent to jail.
Having been denied help when they needed it most, more and more servicemen and women are turning to drink and drugs.

As many as 20,000 are in prison, on probation or parole, costing taxpayers £250million a year.

The shameful toll was revealed as The Sun's StresS.O.S. campaign gathered momentum. We demand that all troops returning from Afghanistan have an appointment with an independent psychiatrist, that payouts for mental health issues are in line with those for physical injuries and that an all-party body is set up to organise a unified method of treatment.

The MoD said yesterday that 3.5 per cent of the prison population is ex-Forces. Charities say this soars when you include those on probation, parole or community service.

Around 4,000 troops have been diagnosed with a mental disorder.

Here we reveal more horrific tales from battle-scarred soldiers.
read more here
The New Prisoners of War

WWII Medal of Honor Recipient Barney Hajiro passed away at 94

Medal of Honor Recipient Barney Hajiro Dies

January 25, 2011
Honolulu Advertiser
The nation's oldest living recipient of the Medal of Honor, Barney Hajiro, died Friday at Maunalani Hospital in Honolulu.
He was 94.
Hajiro had been awarded three Distinguished Service Crosses by the Army while serving with a rifle company in the 442 Regimental Combat Team during World War II in Europe.
One of those awards was upgraded to the Medal of Honor 46 years after the war ended at the urging of Sen. Daniel Akaka who authored congressional legislation requiring the Army to determine whether 22 Asian and Pacific Island Americans who received the Distinguished Service Cross had not been properly recognized because of the war's anti-Japanese sentiment. Twenty, including Sen. Daniel Inouye, were members of the famed segregated Japanese American 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
During one of the 442nd's fiercest campaigns in dense forests of France's Vosges Mountains to free the towns of Bruyeres and Biffontaine, Hajiro on Oct. 29, 1944, led a charge on "Suicide Hill" drawing fire and single-handedly destroying two machine gun nests and killing two enemy snipers before being wounded by a third machine gun.
The effort by the nisei soldiers of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team's I and K companies to rescue Texas 36th Division's "Lost Battalion" is considered to be one of the key battles in U.S. Army history.
In a 2000 Star-Bulletin story, Hajiro discussed the battle before President Clinton hung the sky-blue ribbon that dangles a gold star around his neck at a special White House ceremony.
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Medal of Honor Recipient Barney Hajiro Dies

A third of Warrior Transition Unit Soldiers addicted to painkillers

Report: A Third of WTU Soldiers Addicted
January 26, 2011
UPI
A U.S. military report says up to 35 percent of the 10,000 Soldiers in Warrior Transition Units are dependent or addicted to prescription painkillers.
An Army inspector general's report released Tuesday says 25 percent to 35 percent of the Soldiers assigned to the special wound-care companies -- established after the 2007 Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal -- "are over-medicated, abuse prescriptions and have access to illegal drugs" as they wait sometimes more than one year for a medical discharge, USA Today reported.
read more here
A Third of WTU Soldiers Addicted

also

Report: Many in wounded units ‘over-medicated’
Up to 35 percent of the 10,000 soldiers assigned to Warrior Transition Units are addicted or dependent on drugs, according to an inspector general’s report
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Jan 25, 2011 19:02:58 EST
Medical officials estimate that 25 percent to 35 percent of about 10,000 ailing soldiers assigned to special wounded-care companies or battalions are addicted or dependent on drugs — particularly prescription narcotic pain relievers, according to an Army inspector general’s report made public Tuesday.

The report also found that these formations known as Warrior Transition Units — created after reports detailed poorly managed care at Walter Reed Army Hospital — have become costly way stations where ill, injured or wounded soldiers can wait more than a year for a medical discharge.

Some soldiers have become so irate about the delays in leaving the Army that doctors, nurses and other medical staff say they have been assaulted in their offices and threatened, or had their private cars damaged or tires flattened, the report says.

“I’m very concerned about folks and their personal safety,” says Army Col. Darryl Williams, commander of Warrior Transition Units, of those specific allegations. “I’m going after that really, really hard.”
read more of this here
Many in wounded units ‘over-medicated’

Veterans warned about fake email circulating and may contain virus

January 26, 2011, 10:55 AM
Veterans, Like Active Duty Troops, Are Hesitant to Seek Mental Health Care
By JAMES DAO
In recent years, the military has been encouraging its active duty troops to acknowledge the emotional and psychological stress of deployment, hoping to break through the resistance some people have to seeking help.

A new study of recent veterans living in New York State suggests that some of the same resistance continues among men and women who have left the military.

The study, by the Rand Corporation, found that only about a third of the veterans who appeared to need mental health care – typically for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or substance abuse – had actually received it in the previous year.

Asked why, many said they feared that seeking treatment would lead colleagues or bosses to lose respect for them and would hurt their careers. Others raised concerns about the side effects of medications or the cost and effectiveness of therapy.

The survey also found that about 22 percent of the veterans surveyed had either post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, or both. That finding is similar to a 2008 study by Rand that used a national sample of service members.

read more here


Veterans Are Hesitant to Seek Mental Health Care

State of the Union speech AWOL on troops and veterans

Let me make this perfectly clear from that start that President Obama has done a lot for veterans in his first two years. I know they matter to him just as much as the troops do and so do readers of this blog keeping track of all the changes at the same time you've read about how much more needs to be done. You've read about the suicides, arrests, struggles they face and too many heartbreaking stories to know all is not well for them. With Iraq and Afghanistan almost 2 million have been added to the veteran count but as they wait for the care this nation promised, their numbers have been reduced on the flip side because the care was not already waiting for them.

I understand this nation has big problems that need to be addressed. We need jobs and this I know all too well because I have been without a steady paying job since 2008. On health insurance reform we need to know that we cannot be canceled because of preexisting illnesses. This I know because it was one of my brother's greatest fears when he lost his job and less than a week later he died from a massive heart attack at the age of 56. Back in college I know the need for financial aid to help cover the cost of a college education. There is much this nation has to do and much that has been done but just as there is much to be proud of that sense of pride should accept absolutely no excuses for not taking care of our veterans.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 25, 2011

Remarks by the President in State of Union AddressUnited States Capitol, Washington, D.C.



Look to Iraq, where nearly 100,000 of our brave men and women have left with their heads held high. American combat patrols have ended, violence is down, and a new government has been formed. This year, our civilians will forge a lasting partnership with the Iraqi people, while we finish the job of bringing our troops out of Iraq. America’s commitment has been kept. The Iraq war is coming to an end.

Hold their heads up high? How do they do that when they come home and then have to fight to have a claim approved, wait for months or years while they have no income to live on? How do they hold their heads up high when they are able, willing and ready to work but cannot find a job? How do they do that when the rest of the nation has been able to forget all about the fact there have been two wars going on but if you ask the average American they have no clue about any of what has been going on? They did their jobs but we haven't done ours'.

We’ve also taken the fight to al Qaeda and their allies abroad. In Afghanistan, our troops have taken Taliban strongholds and trained Afghan security forces. Our purpose is clear: By preventing the Taliban from reestablishing a stranglehold over the Afghan people, we will deny al Qaeda the safe haven that served as a launching pad for 9/11.

Thanks to our heroic troops and civilians, fewer Afghans are under the control of the insurgency. There will be tough fighting ahead, and the Afghan government will need to deliver better governance. But we are strengthening the capacity of the Afghan people and building an enduring partnership with them. This year, we will work with nearly 50 countries to begin a transition to an Afghan lead. And this July, we will begin to bring our troops home.

In Pakistan, al Qaeda’s leadership is under more pressure than at any point since 2001. Their leaders and operatives are being removed from the battlefield. Their safe havens are shrinking. And we’ve sent a message from the Afghan border to the Arabian Peninsula to all parts of the globe: We will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you.

Most of the men and women becoming veterans in the last few years entered into the military because of 9-11 but our support of them when they needed us has wavered, yet we call them heroes and brave, worthy of our praise but not our devotion.

Tonight, let us speak with one voice in reaffirming that our nation is united in support of our troops and their families. Let us serve them as well as they’ve served us -- by giving them the equipment they need, by providing them with the care and benefits that they have earned, and by enlisting our veterans in the great task of building our own nation.

Our troops come from every corner of this country -– they’re black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American. They are Christian and Hindu, Jewish and Muslim. And, yes, we know that some of them are gay. Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving the country they love because of who they love. And with that change, I call on all our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and ROTC. It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation.

Saying we support our troops and their families is not the same as doing it. "Enlisting veterans in the task of building our own nation" is not taking care of the veterans unable to work. It is time the leadership of this nation devoted the full measure of our gratefulness by allowing no excuses for one single veteran having to wait for care when they did not make us wait when this nation sent them into combat.

UPDATE
This email came from IAVA

Dear Chaplain Kathie,

Last night, our nation listened closely to the President’s State of the Union address.

We heard words. We heard rhetoric. But we didn’t hear a concrete plan of action to tackle any of the most urgent issues facing new veterans and their families. Nothing on veteran unemployment. And nothing on the staggering rate of military and veteran suicides.

Not only did the President miss a chance to address our issues, he misrepresented a key fact. The President said: "Veterans can now download their electronic medical records with a click of the mouse.”

Unfortunately, as many vets know firsthand, this is not true. Right now, the VA does not allow vets to access their full electronic medical records online.

In the last 24 hours, we’ve heard from hundreds of IAVA Member Veterans, all expressing surprise and outrage that the President could get something so wrong in arguably the most important speech of the year.

We want people to get the facts straight. Please forward this email to your friends and family to help us get the word out.

IAVA is now pushing the White House for a public correction. We’re also advocating for a plan to make VA medical records as accessible and seamless as possible. And in a few weeks, we will launch our 2011 Policy Agenda. Improving the VA and systems like this will be one of our top priorities. And we’ll need your help.

Together in 2011, we'll make sure all veterans know that we’ve got their back.

Best,

Paul

Paul Rieckhoff
Executive Director and Founder
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)

This is where this came from.

Now, we’ve made great strides over the last two years in using technology and getting rid of waste. Veterans can now download their electronic medical records with a click of the mouse.

Disabled veteran denied pain meds because he wouldn't convert

The good news in this is that the VA did send this veteran to a new doctor but the bad news is it ever reached that point. I am a chaplain because I do believe in the power of prayer but faith cannot be forced onto anyone and it is up to them what they believe or not. As a person of faith I see it as my job to show love, compassion and care for others but it is not my job to judge someone, try to convert them or pressure them into anything. I address questions regarding faith carefully, as if what I say matters just as much as the person I am talking to. For a government office to have anyone trying to religiously convert anyone, getting involved in influencing their personal faith at all is way out of line.

A Crusade and a Holy War in the US Military
-- Jason Leopold

An Orthodox Jew and former petty officer in the US Navy said his civil rights were violated after a chaplain and officials at a Veterans Administration hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, tried to convert him to Christianity while he was under the V.A.'s care.

David Miller, 46, who is on full disability, said in an interview that his physician at the Veterans Affairs (V.A.) Medical Center in Iowa City told him last week to go home and pray or meditate in place of using medication to relieve the pain he was experiencing from kidney stones. When Miller complained to V.A. staffers that his physician suggested he turn to God to treat his medical condition and refused to prescribe pain medication, V.A. officials provided him with a new doctor.

"My doctor said that since I am a religious Jew, I should try prayer or meditation to deal with the pain," Miller said. "I was shocked that a medical doctor would make such a suggestion. I immediately raised hell and was assigned a new physician."

Kurt Sickels, a spokesman for the Iowa City V.A. Medical Center, said that he could not comment on Miller's specific allegations against the hospital, but he said the V.A. does not try to convert patients to Christianity.

"We respect all religious preferences and beliefs, and we make every effort to accommodate what those beliefs may be," Sickels said.

If officials tried to convert Miller, Sickels said, the hospital staff is not adhering to its policy.

Miller dresses in the traditional attire required for Orthodox Jews. He started receiving treatment for a heart condition and kidney stones at the Iowa City V.A. hospital after moving back to his hometown two years ago. Since then, he said, a chaplain on duty at the hospital has tried on numerous occasions to convert him to Christianity.

"The first two visits by the Protestant (Assembly of God) chaplain were all about trying to convert me, trying to convince me that I needed Jesus, that Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews too," Miller said. "My medical records clearly indicate that I am Jewish. However, with each admission, I have informed the nursing staff both verbally and in writing that I require kosher food and that I do not wish to be visited by anyone from the chaplain's office. I requested they contact my rabbi, and I provided them with his name and telephone number. Despite these instructions, during all three of my hospitalizations, I have been denied kosher food and have had to endure my entire hospitalizations without eating."

The chaplain, Miller said, provided him with a copy of a scripture from the New Testament, despite Miller's protests that he be left alone. click link for more

How is this possible? It happens while they are in the military and there are some in the VA believing they have every right to get involved in the personal choices of our veterans. Faith is a very personal thing. When they suggest prayer, that is fine as long as they do not get involved in what-who-how the veteran prays. Spirituality is important in healing but that is when it is of their own freewill, needs and beliefs.

Concerns Raised About Combat Troops Given Psychotropic Drugs

It is not that they are "using" the drugs. The biggest problem is they are given them. That is an important word choice that needs to be made clear.

Concerns Raised About Combat Troops Using Psychotropic Drugs
FOX News – Jan 19, 2011


As U.S. military leaders gathered Wednesday to give their latest update on the rash of Army suicides, new questions are being raised about a U.S. Central Command policy that allows troops to go to Iraq and Afghanistan with up to a six-month supply of psychotropic drugs.

Prescription drugs have already been linked to some military suicides, and a top Army official warned last year about the danger of soldiers abusing that medication. Psychiatrists are now coming down hard on the military for continuing to sanction certain psychotropic drugs for combat troops, saying the risk from side effects is too great.

“There’s no way on earth that these boys and girls are getting monitored on the field,” said Dr. Peter Breggin, a New York-based psychiatrist who has extensively studied the side effects of psychiatric drugs. “The drugs simply shouldn’t be given to soldiers.”

Anxiety, violent behavior and “impulsivity” are all side effects of some of these medications, he said, the latter symptom being particularly dangerous in a war zone. Breggin said that if patients were given these medications in the civilian world and not monitored, it would amount to “malpractice.”
read more here
Concerns Raised About Combat Troops Using Psychotropic Drugs

Mental health hospital and owner sued

Mental health hospital and owner sued
Published: Jan. 24, 2011 at 6:06 PM
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- An employee at a Pasadena, Calif., mental health facility filed a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging the hospital provided "minimal, substandard care" to patients.

The suit was filed last year in U.S. District Court and sealed but newly made public.

It is the most recent in a string of complaints concerning care at Aurora Las Encinas Hospital, a psychiatric facility treating patients seeking help for alcoholism and drug problems, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

One of the allegations mentioned in the suit and in government investigations include the deaths of two patients being treated for substance abuse in which case workers falsified logs to show they had been checked every 15 minutes, government reports said.

Read more: Mental health hospital and owner sued

Two cops dead, U.S. marshal shot in St. Petersburg FL

Two cops dead, U.S. marshal shot trying to arrest suspect in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg shooting comes four days after two Miami-Dade detectives were shot dead
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — A man hiding in the attic of a home sparked an intense firefight with authorities trying to arrest him on a warrant Monday morning, killing two officers and wounding a deputy U.S. Marshal, police said.

St. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Harmon said more than 100 rounds were fired during the shootout, which was the latest in a recent rash of shootings across the nation that have killed or wounded law enforcement officers.

The officers had come to arrest Hydra Lacy Jr., 39, on an aggravated battery charge, and investigators think he is the one who opened fire on the officers, police spokesman Michael Puetz said. He said Lacy had a long record that includes convictions for armed robbery and sexual battery.

As of midday, the shooter was still barricaded inside the home, police said.

"He was somebody we wanted to get off the streets, " Harmon said. "Who expects to walk into a house and get gunfire from the attic?"

Harmon would not identify the dead officers pending notification of their relatives.

read more here
Two cops dead, U.S. marshal shot

Orlando's VA Medical Center taking shape

Orlando's VA Medical Center taking shape

By Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel
10:29 p.m. EST, January 24, 2011

The Orlando VA Medical Center slated to open next year in Lake Nona will offer some nationwide firsts for the more than 100,000 Central Florida military veterans expected to seek treatment there.

The $600 million-plus facility, which includes a hospital, clinic, nursing home and rehabilitation center, will be the only such center in the country in which all of the rooms are private. Each one will be equipped with a hoist and railings for lifting patients, and they will accommodate all but intensive care so patients don't have to move to new rooms as they recover. Each room will also have a view of a lake, conservation area or garden, and offer Internet access.

"It's very much different than anything else you'd see around here," said Joe Battle, who oversees construction of the center for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "It's very much about making this as home-like of an environment as possible."

Everything from colors to textures have been chosen to create a more comfortable feel than that of the typical hospital, he added. Window glass, for instance, is 3 inches thick to keep out noise from nearby Orlando International Airport.
read more here
Orlando's VA Medical Center taking shape

Brain scans show changes after combat

When I do presentations I talk about how survivors of traumatic events walk away one of two ways. Either they were saved, spared by God and glad to be alive or they think they were abandoned by God, judged and the trauma was brought into their lives as punishment.

For the first group, they are touched by the event and most of the time changed by it in a more positive way than a negative one. For the other group when they feel as if there is no one watching over them, it takes over.

What's more, the investigators observed that neural activity in the region of the brain that is responsible for emotional regulation differed among the deployed soldiers. The kind of changes that took place depended on how the soldiers perceived the experiences to which they were exposed, the study authors noted. For example, the degree to which a soldier perceived a roadside bomb explosion to be a threat predicted the degree of activity change in their brain's emotional control center.

One time, they can manage to heal easier than the next time. Too many times it piles up on them and is less likely to be healed alone. Feeling alone is part of the problem in itself.

The following study looked at soldiers before and after deployment using brain scans.

Stress of War Spurs Changes in Brain Activity, Study Finds
Scans show that regions that control fear, vigilance, emotion affected by deployment
Posted: January 24, 2011
MONDAY, Jan. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Continual exposure to stress prompts neural activity changes in those parts of the brain that control fear, vigilance and emotion, a new study suggests.


The finding stems from an analysis of brain scans taken among troops recently deployed to Afghanistan, and is reported in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

"For the first time we can now conclude that the effects on the brain really are due to experiences in combat," study first author Guido van Wingen, of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, said in a university news release.
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Stress of War Spurs Changes in Brain Activity, Study Finds

Iliff's military chaplaincy program

New Degree Addresses Needs of Military Chaplains for PTSD Training

DENVER, Jan. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Are you a military chaplain interested in learning more about spiritual care to those experiencing post traumatic stress? Are you a spiritual caregiver wanting more knowledge and experience in working with post traumatic stress? There's a new degree at Iliff that can help – the master of arts in pastoral and spiritual care.
"Designed for students who already hold a master of divinity degree (MDIV), the MAPSC is an expedient way to concentrate additional theological education on pastoral care courses, as well as courses in psychology, counseling, comparative religions, or social work through the University of Denver," said Carrie Doehring, associate professor of pastoral care and counseling.
The MAPSC degree can be completed in 40 quarter credits, if chaplains have previously earned a MDIV or its equivalent from an accredited institution prior to Iliff enrollment. Specific requirements may be negotiated based on prior educational experience. A minimum grade point average of 2.75 is needed for admission. A two year MAPSC is also available for caregivers without a MDIV, who wish to gain expertise in working with trauma and spiritual care.
"Iliff's strong collaborative relationships with a variety of clinical settings are helpful for finding appropriate clinical pastoral education settings for chaplains – including settings for the study of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)," added Doehring. "Chaplains can also complete a summative project focused on the experience of PTSD in the military, supervised by our pastoral care faculty."
Iliff's military chaplaincy program begins in August and is usually completed with a summer unit of clinical pastoral education (the following year).
Courses include:
Impact of war on pastoral care of families
PTSD: Pastoral, psychological, and theological responses
Substance abuse and dependence: Psychological and theological perspectives
Physical and sexual violence: Pastoral responses
Pastoral care in death and dying, grief and loss
Multicultural pastoral care and counseling
Self care and healthy boundaries
Trauma and crisis intervention

Former Marine sues over Camp Lejeune water contamination

Former Marine sues over Camp Lejeune water contamination


BY BARBARA BARRETT

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON - A man who served at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune for nearly two years in the 1950s has sued the federal government for $16 million, saying poisonous water at the North Carolina base caused his cancer.
Joel P. Shriberg of Pinehurst, N.C., was diagnosed in 2004 with male breast cancer and had a radical mastectomy on his left breast. The cancer has since metastasized to his lung, according to the suit he filed last week in the U.S. District Court's Eastern District of North Carolina.
Shriberg is one of more than 65 men across the United States who has been diagnosed with male breast cancer after serving at Lejeune. He couldn't be reached for comment.
According to his lawsuit, he was a clerk with the 155th Howitzer Division from September 1957 through April 1959, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of colonel.
That was when, according to federal and state documents, poisons that included tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene and benzene contaminated Camp Lejeune's water system. The contamination lasted until the mid-1980s.
The contamination violated military standards that included Navy drinking water standards of 1946, the lawsuit claims.
Federal scientists have established that the water was hazardous, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has begun establishing some links on a case-by-case basis between the water and some diseases, including male breast cancer.
The suit says the Marine Corps failed to protect Lejeune residents during the period of contamination and that it has been "passive" about notifying Marines and their families since. The military never contacted Shriberg, according to his suit. He learned about and signed up with the Marines' water contamination registry last April.


Read more: Former Marine sues over Camp Lejeune water contamination

Marine from Orlando found dead in snowdrift in Revere Massachusetts

Man found dead on Revere Beach ID’d as Fla. Marine

By Robin Kaminski/The Daily Item

REVERE - A man who was found partially buried in a snowdrift on Revere Beach Boulevard Jan. 19 has been identified as a Marine from Orlando, Fla.

Huang Day Phan, 23, was identified by his family on Friday, according to Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley.
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Man found dead on Revere Beach

When they can't see the enemy

"We don't know who we're fighting over there, who's friendly and who isn't," he said. "They're always watching us. We're basically fighting blind."

This is what they bring back home. They fight an enemy they can't see just as they did in combat. PTSD is the enemy hidden in the shadows of their minds. It is as dangerous as a bomb waiting to explode but this one waits to claim every part of their lives, is more cunning than any human and more patient. The bombs they encounter in Afghanistan and Iraq are hidden by the enemy refusing to face the US forces. They explode hitting anyone nearby yet for the troops escaping the physical damage they have all the images frozen in their minds. While we count the dead and the wounded, there is no real way to count the true magnitude of the walking away wounded.

We talk about the rates of PTSD placed between one out of five or one out of three. Most experts use the 30% range but this figure is used for one traumatic event, not multiple incidences.

Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) usually results from prolonged exposure to a traumatic event or series thereof and is characterized by long-lasting problems with many aspects of emotional and social functioning.

Statistics regarding this illness indicate that approximately 7%-8% of people in the United States will likely develop PTSD in their lifetime, with the lifetime occurrence (prevalence) in combat veterans and rape victims ranging from 10% to as high as 30%. Somewhat higher rates of this disorder have been found to occur in African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans compared to Caucasians in the United States. Some of that difference is thought to be due to higher rates of dissociation soon before and after the traumatic event (peritraumatic), a tendency for individuals from minority ethnic groups to blame themselves, have less social support, and an increased perception of racism for those ethnic groups, as well as differences between how ethnic groups may express distress. In military populations, many of the differences have been found to be the result of increased exposure to combat at younger ages for minority groups. Other important facts about PTSD include the estimate of 5 million people who suffer from PTSD at any one time in the United States and the fact that women are twice as likely as men to develop PTSD.

Almost half of individuals who use outpatient mental-health services have been found to suffer from PTSD.

As evidenced by the occurrence of stress in many individuals in the United States in the days following the 2001 terrorist attacks, not being physically present at a traumatic event does not guarantee that one cannot suffer from traumatic stress that can lead to the development of PTSD.

PTSD statistics in children and teens reveal that up to more than 40% have endured at least one traumatic event, resulting in the development of PTSD in up to 15% of girls and 6% of boys. On average, 3%-6% of high school students in the United States and as many as 30%-60% of children who have survived specific disasters have PTSD. Up to 100% of children who have seen a parent killed or endured sexual assault or abuse tend to develop PTSD, and more than one-third of youths who are exposed to community violence (for example, a shooting, stabbing, or other assault) will suffer from the disorder.

Although not all individuals who have been traumatized develop PTSD, there can be significant physical consequences of being traumatized. For example, research indicates that people who have been exposed to an extreme stressor sometimes have a smaller hippocampus (a region of the brain that plays a role in memory) than people who have not been exposed to trauma. This is significant in understanding the effects of trauma in general and the impact of PTSD, specifically since the hippocampus is the part of the brain that is thought to have an important role in developing new memories about life events. Also, whether or not a traumatized person goes on to develop PTSD, they seem to be at risk for higher use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Conversely, people whose PTSD is treated also tend to have better success at overcoming a substance-abuse problem.

Economically, PTSD can have significant consequences as well. As of 2005, more than 200,000 veterans were receiving disability compensation for this illness, for a cost of $4.3 billion. This represents an 80% increase in the number of military people receiving disability benefits for PTSD and an increase of 149% in the amount of disability benefits paid compared to those numbers five years earlier.

read more hereComplex posttraumatic stress disorder

During a year of deployment one may encounter ten, twenty, thirty or more times when they have witnessed catastrophic events. They bury the pain with practice but they do not defeat it.

This is from the above article.

PTSD At A Glance
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an emotional illness that was first formally diagnosed in soldiers and war veterans and is usually caused by terribly frightening, life-threatening, or otherwise highly unsafe experiences but can also be caused by devastating life events like unemployment or divorce.
PTSD symptom types include re-experiencing the trauma, avoidance, and hyperarousal.
PTSD has a lifetime prevalence of 7%-30%, with about 5 million people suffering from the illness in any one year. Girls, women, and ethnic minorities develop PTSD more than boys, men, and Caucasians.
Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) usually results from prolonged exposure to traumatic event(s) and is characterized by long-lasting problems that affect many aspects of emotional and social functioning.
Symptoms of C-PTSD include problems regulating feelings, dissociation, or depersonalization; persistent depressive feelings, seeing the perpetrator of trauma as all-powerful, preoccupation with the perpetrator, and a severe change in what gives the sufferer meaning.

There are many levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

38 C.F.R. § 4.130, DC 9411
GENERAL RATING FORMULA FOR MENTAL DISORDERS:

Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as: gross impairment in thought process or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; persistent danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation occupation, or own name 100%

Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due to such symptoms as: suicidal ideation; obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities; speech intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively; impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a worklike setting); inability to establish and maintain effective relationships 70%

Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as: flattened affect; circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech; panic attacks more than once a week; difficulty in understanding complex commands; impairment of short- and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks); impaired judgment; impaired abstract thinking; disturbances of motivation and mood; difficulty in establishing and maintaining Effective work and social relationships 50%

Occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform occupational tasks (although generally functioning satisfactorily, with routine behavior, self-care, and conversation normal), due to such symptoms as: depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent events) 30%
go to Vietnam Veterans of America for more

While some experts disagree on the numbers, what they all agree on is the sooner survivors of trauma seek help, the more of their lives they can reclaim. What we are seeing today is only the start of too many more survivors needing to put their lives back together again. While most say they want to go back to the way they were before, this is not possible any more than it is possible for any of us to go back to our younger days. Life changes all of us. For the survivors of trauma with the right kind of help they can be better than they were before!

Now that you have a better understanding of how complicated all of this is, read the report of Marines in the battle for Sangin Afghanistan. It may help you understand what is coming in the next few years and how many will need help to heal.

Lance Cpl. Juan Dominguez, 26, left, practices using a biometric prosthetic arm with Todd Love, also from Camp Pendleton, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Marines pay a price trying to secure an Afghan hot spot
What happened to them in Sangin district of Helmand province shows the sacrifices in a campaign aimed at crippling the Taliban in a stronghold and helping extricate the U.S. from a decadelong war.

By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
January 22, 2011, 8:33 p.m.

Reporting from Camp Pendleton — Marines tell of snipers who fire from "murder holes" cut into mud-walled compounds. Fighters who lie in wait in trenches dug around rough farmhouses clustered together for protection. Farmers who seem to tip the Taliban to the outsiders' every movement , often with signals that sound like birdcalls.

When the Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, deployed to the Sangin district of Afghanistan's Helmand province in late September, the British soldiers who had preceded them warned the Americans that the Taliban would be waiting nearly everywhere for a chance to kill them.

But the Marines, ordered to be more aggressive than the British had been, quickly learned that the Taliban wasn't simply waiting.

In Sangin, the Taliban was coming after them.

In four years there, the British had lost more than 100 soldiers, about a third of all their nation's losses in the war.

In four months, 24 Marines with the Camp Pendleton-based Three-Five have been killed.

More than 140 others have been wounded, some of them catastrophically, losing limbs and the futures they had imagined for themselves.

The Marines' families have been left devastated, or dreading the knock on the door.

"We are a brokenhearted but proud family," Marine Lt. Gen. John Kelly said. He spoke not only of the battalion: His son 1st Lt. Robert Kelly was killed leading a patrol in Sangin.

When Lance Cpl. Juan Dominguez slipped down a small embankment while out on patrol and landed on a buried bomb, the explosion could be heard for miles.

"It had to be a 30- to 40-pounder," Dominguez said from his bed at the military hospital in Bethesda, Md. "I remember crying out for my mother and then crying out for morphine. I remember them putting my legs on top of me."

His legs were severed above the knee, and his right arm was mangled and could not be saved. A Navy corpsman, risking sniper fire, rushed to Dominguez and stopped the bleeding. On the trip to the field hospital, Dominguez prayed.

"I figured this was God's will, so I told him: 'If you're going to take me, take me now,'" he said.

His memories of Sangin are vivid. "The part we were in, it's hell," he said. "It makes your stomach turn. The poor families there, they get conned into helping the Taliban."

Like many wounded Marines, Dominguez never saw a Taliban fighter.

"We don't know who we're fighting over there, who's friendly and who isn't," he said. "They're always watching us. We're basically fighting blind."

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Marines pay a price trying to secure an Afghan hot spot

There is also the issue of when they can see the enemy right in front of them. A Marine killed an Afghan Police Officer he was working with after he pulled a gun on the Marine.

US marine kills Afghan policeman after dispute
KABUL | Sat Jan 15, 2011 4:54am EST
(Reuters) - A U.S. marine shot and killed an Afghan police officer Saturday after a dispute between the pair during a security operation in southern Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

ISAF was investigating the incident in Helmand province. It said initial reports found that after a dispute, the police officer made threatening statements and handled his weapon carelessly and the marine told his commanding officers.

"After departing his post, the uniformed police member returned with his weapon raised and pointed toward the marine," ISAF said in a statement.

"The marine responded with escalation of force procedures, including shouting at the individual to put the weapon down."

When the police officer failed to put down his weapon, the marine fired two shots and killed him, ISAF said. More information would be made available, it said, when the investigation into the incident at a patrol base in Sangin district was complete.
read more of this here
US marine kills Afghan policeman after dispute

There is a history behind this and many times someone they were training ended up turning on them and killing US Forces. This leaves them not knowing who to trust wondering who will be the next to turn against them.