Army Surgeon General defends PTSD diagnostic method
April 3, 2012
By J.D. Leipold
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, March 30, 2012) -- The Army's surgeon general last week told Senators that all military services use a standard method to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho testified March 28 at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, Defense subcommittee hearing on military health and said military hospitals use the same method as the civilian sector to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD.
"It's the one standard that's out in the civilian sector as well as the military. It's the best standard out there for diagnosing PTSD," she said.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state said she was aware there were Soldiers at Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., who were diagnosed with PTSD but then a forensics psychiatry team changed the diagnosis. She asked if Soldiers elsewhere had been misdiagnosed.
Horoho said the Army had just completed its own investigation at Madigan, which is under review by Army attorneys. She said the Deputy Surgeon General's Office under Maj. Gen. Richard A. Stone had initiated the investigation to look into the forensics used in the evaluation of PTSD.
"Then there's another investigation that was launched by the Western Region Medical Command to look into command climate and Madigan Army Medical Center," she said. "I initiated an IG assessment, not an investigation, but an assessment that looked at every single one of our military treatment facilities and the provision of care to see whether we had this practice of using forensic psychiatry or psychology in the medical evaluation process."
Horoho said that since becoming surgeon general, she has focused on care for PTSD, brain injuries and behavioral health.
"Since I took over as surgeon general on the 5th of December, what I've done so far is we're pulling behavioral health up to the headquarters level so that we have one standard of care across all of Army Medicine, and we're able then to shift that capability where the demand is," she said.
read more here
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Lewis-McChord medic tries to save insurgent in Afghanistan
Will this story get as much coverage as Staff Sgt. Bales?
Lewis-McChord soldiers in Afghanistan see sudden action
ADAM ASHTON
The (Tacoma) News Tribune
The insurgents didn’t have a chance. Helicopter surveillance spotted them moving to a weapons cache and preparing to bury a powerful homemade bomb. It weighed 45 pounds, and they took turns carrying it. From the air, Apache helicopters laced into the insurgents with automatic cannons. On the ground, an infantry platoon from Joint Base Lewis-McChord marched to find the explosive and complete the job.
The Stryker soldiers looked to have won the opening round in the Taliban’s annual spring offensive, and it was a fight the enemy picked. But they still had a long night ahead with unknown dangers in the dark. They had to find out whether the insurgents had laid other bombs before they’d been spotted. And they had to secure the weapons cache. “There’s still a mine out there,” said the mission planner, Capt. Brian Rieser of Lacey. Spc. Eric Pollack of Puyallup treaded lightly as the platoon approached the scene, looking for mines, sticking in tight single-file formation.
Pfc. Uriel Velazquez, a medic, made it to a wounded insurgent and tried to give aid, but the man was near death.
read more here
Veteran leaves message "And let my demon sleep"
"And let my demon sleep" sounds like such an easy thing to do. It also sounds like a good thing to do. Letting a "demon" sleep should mean the veteran is able to rest, and in many cases, rest does come, but the problem is, rest does not last. The demon gains strength while resting. When it awakens, he does it without warning and attacks with vengeance.
The best time to fight this demon is as soon as he shows up. Defeat it with the weapons known to destroy it. The truth, support, faith and above all, forgiveness.
Truth comes when the veteran faces the truth about himself/herself. Not the way they see themselves in the moment of deepest suffering but in the moments leading up to the event haunting them. What were they thinking? What was going on around them? What was their intention? Watch the "whole movie" in their minds instead of the end result frozen in time. There was a lot more going on causing the outcome.
They usually forget about what they had inside of them pulling them to enter into the military in the first place. It was not about killing but more about defending. Then it became a cause greater than themselves. Being willing to die for the sake of someone else. There is no "demon" able to defeat that when they see the truth within them.
War is so horrible most wonder where God was and why He allowed it. The truth again is already known to them. God does not interfere with freewill. What man does to man is up to them and since the beginning of time, they have gone to war. Yet even during such horrific events, God is there but they cannot see Him. They cannot connect their ability to care at all to the fact that God is there with them. When there is an act of kindness or heroic act, He was there. When one of them shed a single tear for someone they called enemy as well as for a friend, He was there.
We know there is nothing God cannot forgive but too often it is harder for a veteran to forgive him/herself for what they had to do and the fact they survived. The demon is defeated when they are able to make peace with themselves. They can do that with the right support, someone to listen to them without judging them. They don't need judgement since they already judged themselves and are punishing from within.
The old warrior can only rest when the demon is defeated.
Facing up to hidden wounds
Published: Tuesday, April 03, 2012
By The Oregonian Editorial Board
Jamie Francis / The Oregonian More than 1500 ribbons like this are display inside the PTSD unit of Roseburg Veterans Medical Center. Each ribbons was placed there by a graduate of the program.During the first few years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last week, the Army medical system was "overwhelmed."
The Army had sent so many soldiers to war so many times that its longstanding medical evaluation process simply couldn't keep up with the demand. This imbalance, Horoho told committee chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., was especially acute for those suffering from invisible wounds such as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.
The Army overhauled its medical evaluation system in 2007, but all the services are still scrambling to catch up. And the effort can be messy.
The latest evidence comes from up the highway at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the military base near Tacoma that most Oregon National Guard soldiers have passed through on their way home from deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Investigators are studying whether medical officers at Madigan Army Medical Center deliberately chose not to diagnose soldiers suffering from PTSD in order to limit costs to the government.
Those costs are substantial. In 2008, Congress granted a 50 percent disability rating for any service member who left the military with a PTSD diagnosis. That means each diagnosis puts the government -- the taxpayers -- on the hook for a lifetime of benefits.
read more here
Truth comes when the veteran faces the truth about himself/herself. Not the way they see themselves in the moment of deepest suffering but in the moments leading up to the event haunting them. What were they thinking? What was going on around them? What was their intention? Watch the "whole movie" in their minds instead of the end result frozen in time. There was a lot more going on causing the outcome.
They usually forget about what they had inside of them pulling them to enter into the military in the first place. It was not about killing but more about defending. Then it became a cause greater than themselves. Being willing to die for the sake of someone else. There is no "demon" able to defeat that when they see the truth within them.
War is so horrible most wonder where God was and why He allowed it. The truth again is already known to them. God does not interfere with freewill. What man does to man is up to them and since the beginning of time, they have gone to war. Yet even during such horrific events, God is there but they cannot see Him. They cannot connect their ability to care at all to the fact that God is there with them. When there is an act of kindness or heroic act, He was there. When one of them shed a single tear for someone they called enemy as well as for a friend, He was there.
We know there is nothing God cannot forgive but too often it is harder for a veteran to forgive him/herself for what they had to do and the fact they survived. The demon is defeated when they are able to make peace with themselves. They can do that with the right support, someone to listen to them without judging them. They don't need judgement since they already judged themselves and are punishing from within.
The old warrior can only rest when the demon is defeated.
PTSD on Trial: Iraq veteran returns home for new start
Ex-soldier returns to Virginia Beach for new start
By Corinne Reilly
The Virginian-Pilot ©
April 4, 2012 VIRGINIA BEACH
When the plane carrying Daryl Beamer home finally landed, the passengers around him scrambled to check messages and gather luggage. Beamer just waited. He had no cellphone and only a handful of belongings to his name. In the terminal at Norfolk International, he passed a soldier in uniform, and he thought, That should be me. That's how I wanted to come home.
But it had been years since Beamer wore those clothes. Now, in late March, he was in a T-shirt he'd bought at the Wildwood Correctional Center commissary in Alaska and a pair of jeans a fellow inmate had given him.
His eyes met his mother's. She rushed to meet him, wrapped her arms tightly around him, and spoke to God.
"Praise the Lord!" she called out. "My baby is here!"
As she held her son, shaking and crying, hurried travelers paused to stare.
She didn't care. Her boy was home.
The last time The Virginian-Pilot published a story about Beamer and his mother, Ozawa Skipper-Coleman, was in July 2010, several months after Skipper-Coleman called the newspaper pleading for help for her son, an Iraq war veteran who was then 26.
A tough but warm woman from Virginia Beach who'd raised Beamer and his two brothers mostly on her own, she was desperate to save her middle child from a fate that was beginning to feel inevitable: years of prison time, or worse, a jail-cell suicide.
If only she could get someone - the Army, the legal system, her congressman - to see Beamer for what he really was, a mentally ill combat veteran in urgent need of treatment, not a common thug.
read more here
By Corinne Reilly
The Virginian-Pilot ©
April 4, 2012 VIRGINIA BEACH
When the plane carrying Daryl Beamer home finally landed, the passengers around him scrambled to check messages and gather luggage. Beamer just waited. He had no cellphone and only a handful of belongings to his name. In the terminal at Norfolk International, he passed a soldier in uniform, and he thought, That should be me. That's how I wanted to come home.
But it had been years since Beamer wore those clothes. Now, in late March, he was in a T-shirt he'd bought at the Wildwood Correctional Center commissary in Alaska and a pair of jeans a fellow inmate had given him.
His eyes met his mother's. She rushed to meet him, wrapped her arms tightly around him, and spoke to God.
"Praise the Lord!" she called out. "My baby is here!"
As she held her son, shaking and crying, hurried travelers paused to stare.
She didn't care. Her boy was home.
The last time The Virginian-Pilot published a story about Beamer and his mother, Ozawa Skipper-Coleman, was in July 2010, several months after Skipper-Coleman called the newspaper pleading for help for her son, an Iraq war veteran who was then 26.
A tough but warm woman from Virginia Beach who'd raised Beamer and his two brothers mostly on her own, she was desperate to save her middle child from a fate that was beginning to feel inevitable: years of prison time, or worse, a jail-cell suicide.
If only she could get someone - the Army, the legal system, her congressman - to see Beamer for what he really was, a mentally ill combat veteran in urgent need of treatment, not a common thug.
read more here
Parade planned for veterans in Des Moines
Welcome-home parade set in Des Moines for Iraq war vets
Apr. 4, 2012
Written by WILLIAM PETROSKI
State officials are planning a big parade in downtown Des Moines in June to officially welcome home thousands of Iraq war veterans while honoring other Iowa military service members from the past and present. A similar parade held in August 1991 after the Persian Gulf War drew an estimated crowd of 50,000 people who lined the streets of Des Moines.
The patriotic event included about 120 floats, marching soldiers wearing the uniforms of major wars, military vehicles, and entries from about 80 organizations. The upcoming parade will be held at 10 a.m. on June 30. It will begin at the Iowa Capitol and end at the Veterans Memorial Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center.
“I think every opportunity that we can take to thank our service members and our veterans is crucial,” said retired Iowa National Guard Col. Robert King, who was asked by Gov. Terry Branstad to head the event’s planning. “Some of our older veterans are passing on every day, and now we have a new breed of soldier who is coming home and assimilating back in our communities,” King said. “They gave a lot, too, and a good number of them didn’t come home.” Sixty-five Iowans died in the Iraq war, and 20 others have died in the Afghanistan war.
The June parade is titled “A Salute to Service Members and Veterans.” It will include an observance of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. combat involvement in Vietnam. read more here
Apr. 4, 2012
Written by WILLIAM PETROSKI
State officials are planning a big parade in downtown Des Moines in June to officially welcome home thousands of Iraq war veterans while honoring other Iowa military service members from the past and present. A similar parade held in August 1991 after the Persian Gulf War drew an estimated crowd of 50,000 people who lined the streets of Des Moines.
The patriotic event included about 120 floats, marching soldiers wearing the uniforms of major wars, military vehicles, and entries from about 80 organizations. The upcoming parade will be held at 10 a.m. on June 30. It will begin at the Iowa Capitol and end at the Veterans Memorial Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center.
“I think every opportunity that we can take to thank our service members and our veterans is crucial,” said retired Iowa National Guard Col. Robert King, who was asked by Gov. Terry Branstad to head the event’s planning. “Some of our older veterans are passing on every day, and now we have a new breed of soldier who is coming home and assimilating back in our communities,” King said. “They gave a lot, too, and a good number of them didn’t come home.” Sixty-five Iowans died in the Iraq war, and 20 others have died in the Afghanistan war.
The June parade is titled “A Salute to Service Members and Veterans.” It will include an observance of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. combat involvement in Vietnam. read more here
Marine veteran Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. killed by police who "came to help"
Marine veteran Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. killed after clash with police who responded to his medical emergency
Exclusive:
White Plains police came to 'help,' but shot 68-year-old with stun gun and beanbag gun
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Wednesday, April 4, 2012,
What began as a mission of mercy at a public housing project in White Plains ended with police killing the very man they had been dispatched to help. By the time the rapidly escalating conflict was over, police had zapped a 68-year-old former Marine and correction officer with a stun gun, shot him with a beanbag gun and blasted him twice in the chest.
The chronically ill Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. died at White Plains Hospital shortly after the early-morning clash on Nov. 19. Only now, more than four months after the fact, have authorities finally agreed to convene a grand jury to determine if the cops committed a crime.
Like 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Chamberlain was African-American, and his death has added fuel to the growing national debate that has flared since the Florida teen was killed on Feb. 26. As in Florida, the White Plains incident received little press attention for weeks and authorities resisted a grand jury probe.
Since then, accounts have surfaced that at least one officer was heard on a tape hurling racial epithets and taunts in the moments before cops removed Chamberlain’s apartment door from its hinges and burst inside. During the past several days, nearly 200,000 people have signed an online petition demanding justice in Chamberlain’s case. White Plains Mayor Tom Roach on Friday issued his first public statement of condolences to the dead man’s family. read more here 68 year old Ex-Marine's medic alert alarm got him killed by police
White Plains police came to 'help,' but shot 68-year-old with stun gun and beanbag gun
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Wednesday, April 4, 2012,
What began as a mission of mercy at a public housing project in White Plains ended with police killing the very man they had been dispatched to help. By the time the rapidly escalating conflict was over, police had zapped a 68-year-old former Marine and correction officer with a stun gun, shot him with a beanbag gun and blasted him twice in the chest.
The chronically ill Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. died at White Plains Hospital shortly after the early-morning clash on Nov. 19. Only now, more than four months after the fact, have authorities finally agreed to convene a grand jury to determine if the cops committed a crime.
Like 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Chamberlain was African-American, and his death has added fuel to the growing national debate that has flared since the Florida teen was killed on Feb. 26. As in Florida, the White Plains incident received little press attention for weeks and authorities resisted a grand jury probe.
Since then, accounts have surfaced that at least one officer was heard on a tape hurling racial epithets and taunts in the moments before cops removed Chamberlain’s apartment door from its hinges and burst inside. During the past several days, nearly 200,000 people have signed an online petition demanding justice in Chamberlain’s case. White Plains Mayor Tom Roach on Friday issued his first public statement of condolences to the dead man’s family. read more here 68 year old Ex-Marine's medic alert alarm got him killed by police
WUFT Florida focuses on combat and PTSD
The effects of PTSD on military families
Front Page Edition on April 3rd, 2012
By Luis Giraldo
WUFT-FM
Yesterday we heard from John McDaniel, the founder of Wounded Warriors In Action, about the opportunities he is giving purple heart veterans as they battle physical injuries and cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Today, Florida’s 89.1, WUFT-FM’s Luis Giraldo brings us the voice of someone who knows PTSD symptoms well, through her experience with the United States Military and her family.
Although a cure for the disorder does not exist, more and more veteran centers are providing counseling opportunities to veterans that now recognize that talking is the best medicine in this case. Tomorrow, Luis will bring us the voice of Scott Camil, a Vietnam War Purple Heart recipient who recognizes the issues going on in the news right now with PTSD as those he witnessed when he was the hero on ground.
go here to listen
Front Page Edition on April 3rd, 2012
By Luis Giraldo
WUFT-FM
Yesterday we heard from John McDaniel, the founder of Wounded Warriors In Action, about the opportunities he is giving purple heart veterans as they battle physical injuries and cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Today, Florida’s 89.1, WUFT-FM’s Luis Giraldo brings us the voice of someone who knows PTSD symptoms well, through her experience with the United States Military and her family.
Although a cure for the disorder does not exist, more and more veteran centers are providing counseling opportunities to veterans that now recognize that talking is the best medicine in this case. Tomorrow, Luis will bring us the voice of Scott Camil, a Vietnam War Purple Heart recipient who recognizes the issues going on in the news right now with PTSD as those he witnessed when he was the hero on ground.
go here to listen
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
New phishing scam targets troops’ fiancees
New phishing scam targets troops’ fiancees
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 3, 2012
One of the latest phishing scams targets fiancées of service members in an attempt to lure them into “registering” in the Defense Finance and Accounting Service “system” to be entitled to receive benefits if their service member dies — for a $350 fee. It’s not from DFAS. Rather, it’s a typical scam used by phishers when trying to extract personal information and, in this case, money, from any victim who takes the bait. read more here
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 3, 2012
One of the latest phishing scams targets fiancées of service members in an attempt to lure them into “registering” in the Defense Finance and Accounting Service “system” to be entitled to receive benefits if their service member dies — for a $350 fee. It’s not from DFAS. Rather, it’s a typical scam used by phishers when trying to extract personal information and, in this case, money, from any victim who takes the bait. read more here
Source of Iraq WMD Claim Admits He Lied
With all the talk from the tea party folks, you'd think they'd mention this as if it was an important story and part of our budget problem. So why do they ignore this? Why have they ignored it all along instead of demanding accountability?
Source of Iraq WMD Claim Admits He Lied
April 03, 2012
The Independent
by Jonathan Owen
A man whose lies helped to make the case for invading Iraq -- starting a nine-year war costing more than 100,000 lives and hundreds of billions of dollars -- told British television Monday that his tales of WMD were lies. "Curveball," the Iraqi defector who made claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, smiles as he confirms how he made the whole thing up.
It was a confidence trick that changed the course of history, with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi's lies used to justify the Iraq war. He tries to defend his actions: "My main purpose was to topple the tyrant in Iraq because the longer this dictator remains in power, the more the Iraqi people will suffer from this regime's oppression."
The chemical engineer claimed to have overseen the building of a mobile biological laboratory when he sought political asylum in Germany in 1999. His lies were presented as "facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence" by Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State, when making the case for war at the U.N. Security Council in February 2003. But Janabi, speaking in a two-part series, "Modern Spies," says none of it was true. When it is put to him "we went to war in Iraq on a lie. And that lie was your lie", he simply replied: "Yes."
read more here
Ramstein Air Base students "hoodie up" for Trayvon Martin
Ramstein students put on their hoodies for Trayvon Martin
By JENNIFER H. SVAN
Stars and Stripes
Published: April 3, 2012
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — In a show of solidarity for slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, more than 230 students at Ramstein High School wore hooded sweatshirts or jackets to class Tuesday as part of a peaceful demonstration they called “Hoodies Up.”
The intent was to show that wearing a hoodie should not make a person appear threatening, said 17-year-old senior Caleb Guerrido, one of five students who came up with the idea of wearing hoodies to school.
Martin, 17, was shot Feb. 26 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman as he walked back to the townhouse of his father’s girlfriend in the gated community of Sanford. Zimmerman, 28, told police that Martin, who was unarmed, was wearing a dark hoodie and looked “suspicious.” He claimed that when he questioned Martin, the teen jumped him and that he shot him in self defense.
read more here
By JENNIFER H. SVAN
Stars and Stripes
Published: April 3, 2012
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — In a show of solidarity for slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, more than 230 students at Ramstein High School wore hooded sweatshirts or jackets to class Tuesday as part of a peaceful demonstration they called “Hoodies Up.”
The intent was to show that wearing a hoodie should not make a person appear threatening, said 17-year-old senior Caleb Guerrido, one of five students who came up with the idea of wearing hoodies to school.
Martin, 17, was shot Feb. 26 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman as he walked back to the townhouse of his father’s girlfriend in the gated community of Sanford. Zimmerman, 28, told police that Martin, who was unarmed, was wearing a dark hoodie and looked “suspicious.” He claimed that when he questioned Martin, the teen jumped him and that he shot him in self defense.
read more here
UK Ex-soldier with PTSD cleared of gun murder
Ex-soldier cleared of gun murder
Published on Monday 2 April 2012
A former soldier from Leeds suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Afghanistan has been cleared of murdering his landlady.
Aaron Wilkinson, 24, of Alma Street, Woodlesford, Leeds, was found not guilty of murdering 52-year-old Judith Garnett by shooting her in the chest and head. The jury took around three hours to reach the not-guilty verdict after the two-week trial. Wilkinson, who was also diagnosed with a form of Asperger's Syndrome, told Bradford Crown Court he was not in control of his actions when he shot Mrs Garnett. He has admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The trial heard that Wilkinson joined the Territorial Army at 19 and went on a six-month tour of duty of Afghanistan in 2009. Following his return, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress reaction by an army doctor. He was later assessed by psychiatrists who diagnosed him with the more serious post-traumatic stress disorder. Wilkinson had worked for Mrs Garnett on her game farm for around 10 years and moved into her attic room as a lodger in July 2010 after an argument with his mother. He described Mrs Garnett as being like a "second mother" to him.
read more here
Published on Monday 2 April 2012
A former soldier from Leeds suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Afghanistan has been cleared of murdering his landlady.
Aaron Wilkinson, 24, of Alma Street, Woodlesford, Leeds, was found not guilty of murdering 52-year-old Judith Garnett by shooting her in the chest and head. The jury took around three hours to reach the not-guilty verdict after the two-week trial. Wilkinson, who was also diagnosed with a form of Asperger's Syndrome, told Bradford Crown Court he was not in control of his actions when he shot Mrs Garnett. He has admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The trial heard that Wilkinson joined the Territorial Army at 19 and went on a six-month tour of duty of Afghanistan in 2009. Following his return, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress reaction by an army doctor. He was later assessed by psychiatrists who diagnosed him with the more serious post-traumatic stress disorder. Wilkinson had worked for Mrs Garnett on her game farm for around 10 years and moved into her attic room as a lodger in July 2010 after an argument with his mother. He described Mrs Garnett as being like a "second mother" to him.
read more here
To DOD brass, N.O.W. cut the crap of resiliency
To DOD brass, N.O.W. cut the crap of resiliency
by Chaplain Kathie
The fact that most military leaders care about the men and women serving is not the problem. Understanding them is. After hearing they can "train their brains" and become "resilient" they blame themselves when they end up with Combat PTSD. While the DOD will mention that some suicides are committed by men and women that had not deployed yet, they fail to address the fact that the threat of deployment plays a huge role in their suicides. The fact they feel the need to mention this when releasing suicide numbers, screams they are searching for excuses as the numbers prove what they are doing is a massive failure.
What has the DOD been doing? Telling them since the Battlemind training came out that they are not tough enough and have to train their brains to deal with combat. Whatever else the DOD has to say after this has fallen on deaf ears. How is a combat veteran supposed to think PTSD is not connected to being weak when that is exactly what this type of training drills into their brains? Does the DOD really expect them to reach out for help after this? Are they out of their own minds?
For the last 30 years (yes, I’m that old) I have been reading all the data coming in on PTSD. The VA didn’t accept the term until the 80’s but the mental health community was already using the term with an ever-growing understanding of what traumatic events do, especially when it came to combat trauma. In the 70’s, the Disabled American Veterans had already established Veterans Centers to help Vietnam veterans heal from where they’ve been. PTSD is not new.
What is needed is not some new notion. What fails has been learned a long time ago and telling them it is their fault is the biggest mistake they could ever make. Do they learn from any of this? Hell no! They keep repeating the same basic principle under a different acronym expecting a different result.
The human mind has been studied enough that the age group the DOD targets for recruitment is not fully emotionally developed until the age of 25 when the region of the brain controlling emotions is as strong as it will ever be. Life forms this. Everything from the day they were born goes into who they will become and the good along with the bad experiences in life build into how they feel. In other words, they have been “training” their brains since the day they let out their first scream after being shocked into the first breath on their own.
This same age group, exposed to combat trauma, has an open door policy to PTSD crashing in. The other factor of their age is they believe they’ll get over it. Resiliency training enforces this delusion. If they want to save lives, stop military suicides then they need to stop this deadly approach.
Medicating PTSD troops and sending them back into combat without psychologists monitoring them and proving therapy is deadly especially when everyone they are serving with has been provided with the same “training” leaving them to believe their “buddy” is just weaker than they are.
They have no one to trust with what they need to talk about. They look at their buddies with “normal” reactions to the same event and they believe what the DOD told them. They didn’t train their brains and are weak. We see the number of suicides across the branches fluctuate month to month but then we read about the increased number of attempted suicides indicating that this approach is a colossal failure.
What works is explaining to them what PTSD is. They were exposed to a traumatic event that hit them harder this time than other events. That others exposed to the same event may not show problems today, but they may show up years from now. That the rate of PTSD for humans is one out of three and no one walks away from combat the same way they went in. Everyone is changed by it. The event caused PTSD and had nothing to do with how well they “trained” to be tough.
Start with preparing for traumatic events the same way the civilians do. Police and fire departments are ready right after the event to emotionally debrief the responders. Yes, they figured this out a very long time ago. This gives the “survivors” the ability to walk through the event from start to finish so that the last, worst, image in their minds is put into context with everything else that happened. If they had to kill someone, they will not just see the dead body but they will see that other lives were in danger before they had to pull the trigger.
Firefighters experience the traumatic event after the fire started but all too often they are too late to save all the people in the building and they need an emotional debriefing to understand that some things are out of their power.
For the members of the military, they not only face the situations where they are saving lives, but they are taking lives as well. They need the same approach available to them.
Train people in every unit to be able to walk them through the event as soon as possible so the last, worst image is not the only image they see when they go do sleep. They need to feel safe talking to someone that will understand and not judge them. They need to be able to talk until they are done talking about it so they can “fix” it themselves. In other words, make peace with it.
They need trained Chaplains and lay people to talk to about their spiritual issues without hearing some zealot tell them they are going to hell if they do not convert. I am with Point Man International Ministries because it works. They have been doing it since 1984 and saving lives while helping veterans live better lives. The peer-to-peer support needs to be replicated by the DOD coupled with healing the spirit/soul of the warrior sent and veteran coming home. Point Man helps all veterans. They do not separate them by wars but links them to each other.
With all that has been learned since Vietnam veterans fought to have PTSD treated, the DOD is the last to learn these lessons. We know what works but they have not understood what has failed.
by Chaplain Kathie
I have been struggling with this for the last couple of days waiting to calm down. That isn't happening. If you follow this blog, you know that this is one thing I am very passionate about, so you're accustomed to my rants. This is about to be another one.
The fact that most military leaders care about the men and women serving is not the problem. Understanding them is. After hearing they can "train their brains" and become "resilient" they blame themselves when they end up with Combat PTSD. While the DOD will mention that some suicides are committed by men and women that had not deployed yet, they fail to address the fact that the threat of deployment plays a huge role in their suicides. The fact they feel the need to mention this when releasing suicide numbers, screams they are searching for excuses as the numbers prove what they are doing is a massive failure.
Enlisted Leaders Focus on Suicide PreventionThe DOD bought the bullshit line that troops could train their brains to be "tough" because they didn't understand them in the first place. Did they ever ask themselves what it would sound like to them to hear this? Did they ever once wonder about boot camp training them in the first place to be physically and mentally tough? Being willing to risk their lives along with all the other hardships they are prepared to accept when they walk into a recruitment office proves they are tough enough to even think about it.
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 29, 2012 – The most senior enlisted leaders from each branch of service and the combatant commands focused on the health of the force, and specifically on suicide prevention, during a conference here this week, the military’s top enlisted member said today. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Bryan B. Battaglia, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he and the other enlisted leaders collaborated on issues pertaining to the health, welfare and wellness of service members and their families.
Battaglia highlighted his “NOW” initiative, designed to reach younger service members. “The audience that I really wanted to reach is the 18- to 24-year-olds,” he said. The suicide issue seems to be most prevalent with younger service members, he said, but “it’s also important to educate the leadership too, so the audience wasn’t restricted to simply the young [troops].” The sergeant major broke down the initiative’s three-letter acronym.
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What has the DOD been doing? Telling them since the Battlemind training came out that they are not tough enough and have to train their brains to deal with combat. Whatever else the DOD has to say after this has fallen on deaf ears. How is a combat veteran supposed to think PTSD is not connected to being weak when that is exactly what this type of training drills into their brains? Does the DOD really expect them to reach out for help after this? Are they out of their own minds?
For the last 30 years (yes, I’m that old) I have been reading all the data coming in on PTSD. The VA didn’t accept the term until the 80’s but the mental health community was already using the term with an ever-growing understanding of what traumatic events do, especially when it came to combat trauma. In the 70’s, the Disabled American Veterans had already established Veterans Centers to help Vietnam veterans heal from where they’ve been. PTSD is not new.
What is needed is not some new notion. What fails has been learned a long time ago and telling them it is their fault is the biggest mistake they could ever make. Do they learn from any of this? Hell no! They keep repeating the same basic principle under a different acronym expecting a different result.
The human mind has been studied enough that the age group the DOD targets for recruitment is not fully emotionally developed until the age of 25 when the region of the brain controlling emotions is as strong as it will ever be. Life forms this. Everything from the day they were born goes into who they will become and the good along with the bad experiences in life build into how they feel. In other words, they have been “training” their brains since the day they let out their first scream after being shocked into the first breath on their own.
This same age group, exposed to combat trauma, has an open door policy to PTSD crashing in. The other factor of their age is they believe they’ll get over it. Resiliency training enforces this delusion. If they want to save lives, stop military suicides then they need to stop this deadly approach.
Medicating PTSD troops and sending them back into combat without psychologists monitoring them and proving therapy is deadly especially when everyone they are serving with has been provided with the same “training” leaving them to believe their “buddy” is just weaker than they are.
They have no one to trust with what they need to talk about. They look at their buddies with “normal” reactions to the same event and they believe what the DOD told them. They didn’t train their brains and are weak. We see the number of suicides across the branches fluctuate month to month but then we read about the increased number of attempted suicides indicating that this approach is a colossal failure.
What works is explaining to them what PTSD is. They were exposed to a traumatic event that hit them harder this time than other events. That others exposed to the same event may not show problems today, but they may show up years from now. That the rate of PTSD for humans is one out of three and no one walks away from combat the same way they went in. Everyone is changed by it. The event caused PTSD and had nothing to do with how well they “trained” to be tough.
Start with preparing for traumatic events the same way the civilians do. Police and fire departments are ready right after the event to emotionally debrief the responders. Yes, they figured this out a very long time ago. This gives the “survivors” the ability to walk through the event from start to finish so that the last, worst, image in their minds is put into context with everything else that happened. If they had to kill someone, they will not just see the dead body but they will see that other lives were in danger before they had to pull the trigger.
Firefighters experience the traumatic event after the fire started but all too often they are too late to save all the people in the building and they need an emotional debriefing to understand that some things are out of their power.
For the members of the military, they not only face the situations where they are saving lives, but they are taking lives as well. They need the same approach available to them.
Train people in every unit to be able to walk them through the event as soon as possible so the last, worst image is not the only image they see when they go do sleep. They need to feel safe talking to someone that will understand and not judge them. They need to be able to talk until they are done talking about it so they can “fix” it themselves. In other words, make peace with it.
They need trained Chaplains and lay people to talk to about their spiritual issues without hearing some zealot tell them they are going to hell if they do not convert. I am with Point Man International Ministries because it works. They have been doing it since 1984 and saving lives while helping veterans live better lives. The peer-to-peer support needs to be replicated by the DOD coupled with healing the spirit/soul of the warrior sent and veteran coming home. Point Man helps all veterans. They do not separate them by wars but links them to each other.
With all that has been learned since Vietnam veterans fought to have PTSD treated, the DOD is the last to learn these lessons. We know what works but they have not understood what has failed.
Jacksonville's Arlington area to offer a place for homeless veterans
Center opens in Jacksonville's Arlington area to offer a place for homeless veterans
The former nursing home is turned into housing for ex-service members.
Posted: April 3, 2012
Last year, Gale Patrick Lancaster was homeless and jobless.
He was living on the street in downtown Jacksonville and, because of his circumstances, had lost visitation with his young daughter. Now, the 41-year-old Marine veteran has a place to stay at the newly opened Allied Veterans Center for homeless veterans off Atlantic Boulevard in the Arlington area.
He is now doing construction and janitorial work and in May will begin studying logistics and transportation at Florida State College at Jacksonville, with hopes of getting a port-related job. And he recently had a reunion with his daughter, after center officials helped get his visitation rights restored. Lancaster, who served in the Gulf war, credits the center for turning his life around.
“It’s a place for vets to get back on their feet, become productive members of society,” he said. “It’s hard to get help … [that helps] you out of a situation, rather than shoving you here or there.”
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The former nursing home is turned into housing for ex-service members.
Posted: April 3, 2012
WILL DICKEY/The Times-Union
Jerry Bass is the national commander of the Allied Veterans of the World and Affiliates, and has an office at the Allied Veterans Center, which is located in a former nursing home on Acme Street in Arlington.By Beth Reese Cravey
Last year, Gale Patrick Lancaster was homeless and jobless.
He was living on the street in downtown Jacksonville and, because of his circumstances, had lost visitation with his young daughter. Now, the 41-year-old Marine veteran has a place to stay at the newly opened Allied Veterans Center for homeless veterans off Atlantic Boulevard in the Arlington area.
He is now doing construction and janitorial work and in May will begin studying logistics and transportation at Florida State College at Jacksonville, with hopes of getting a port-related job. And he recently had a reunion with his daughter, after center officials helped get his visitation rights restored. Lancaster, who served in the Gulf war, credits the center for turning his life around.
“It’s a place for vets to get back on their feet, become productive members of society,” he said. “It’s hard to get help … [that helps] you out of a situation, rather than shoving you here or there.”
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Ensure veterans in trouble with the law receive the help they need
Saratoga County Veterans Service Agency director:
Ensure veterans in trouble with the law receive the help they need
Published: Monday, April 02, 2012
By MICHAEL CIGNOLI
BALLSTON SPA — A driver who gets pulled over for driving 85 miles per hour on the Northway will likely get a speeding ticket from a law enforcement official. But if that driver is a veteran, Saratoga County Veterans Service Agency Director Andrew Davis wants to ensure the police officer also provides a list of contact information for local veterans programs.
Studies have shown that as many as 26 percent of veterans returning from overseas suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries. Even more suffer from depression or other disorders that may contribute to — though not necessarily excuse — their getting in trouble with the law.
Addressing the county Board of Supervisors’ Veterans Committee on Monday, Davis outlined a new initiative designed to educate Saratoga County’s 14 law enforcement agencies about some of the issues veterans face as they return home from combat. He’s looking to improve officers’ ability to work with veterans who suffer from mental health disorders and allow those veterans to receive whatever help they need.
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Published: Monday, April 02, 2012
By MICHAEL CIGNOLI
BALLSTON SPA — A driver who gets pulled over for driving 85 miles per hour on the Northway will likely get a speeding ticket from a law enforcement official. But if that driver is a veteran, Saratoga County Veterans Service Agency Director Andrew Davis wants to ensure the police officer also provides a list of contact information for local veterans programs.
Studies have shown that as many as 26 percent of veterans returning from overseas suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries. Even more suffer from depression or other disorders that may contribute to — though not necessarily excuse — their getting in trouble with the law.
Addressing the county Board of Supervisors’ Veterans Committee on Monday, Davis outlined a new initiative designed to educate Saratoga County’s 14 law enforcement agencies about some of the issues veterans face as they return home from combat. He’s looking to improve officers’ ability to work with veterans who suffer from mental health disorders and allow those veterans to receive whatever help they need.
read more here
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