Recognizing the 'Silent Killer' of the Military: PTSD

Recognizing the 'Silent Killer' of the Military: PTSD
Huffington Post
Harry Croft, M.D

Harry Croft M.D. is a former Army doctor and psychiatrist who has evaluated more than 7,000 veterans diagnosed with PTSD. He is author of the book "I Always Sit With My Back To The Wall." He is on a national speaking tour providing Continuing Medical Education to primary care physicians on recognizing the signs of PTSD in their veteran patients.

October 2, 2013

They served our country proud and fought for our freedom, but now many are paying a price they shouldn't have to pay.

One in five veterans suffers with combat-related post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and struggles to reintegrate back into society. Help is available, but many veterans continue to needlessly suffer for a number of reasons. Many veterans go to their civilian primary care physician (PCP) than to the doctors at the VA for treatment of their PTSD symptoms. What's needed is increased education for both primary care physicians and veterans when it comes to PTSD.

Commonly experienced symptoms of military PTSD include: inappropriate anger or irritability; insomnia; problems on the job and at home; acting detached or distant; having trouble with social events such as weddings, funerals and other family gatherings; and being easily startled or hyper vigilant.

Once the veteran is seen by his family doctor, a PTSD diagnosis is often missed for two reasons:

First, primary care physicians simply don't have the specific training to recognize or treat combat-related PTSD. It's not uncommon for the physician to write the patient a script for an antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication and send him on his way, failing to recognize there is a deeper underlying issue. In addition, many doctors have little time to spend with patients, and therefore are simply unable to fully explore all symptoms and give adequate information about the best treatment options.

Second, the patient fails to inform his doctor that he is a veteran and spent time in the combat theatre, and more than likely the physician fails to inquire. The patient's symptoms are attributed to stress or a rough patch that should hopefully improve with time.

To ensure that a proper diagnosis of PTSD is not missed, better education for both veterans and primary care physicians needs to become the new standard protocol.
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Shutdown has delayed troops' bonus payments

Despite promises, shutdown has delayed troops' bonus payments
Army Times
By Sam Fellman
Staff writer
October 2, 2013

Potentially thousands of troops have not received their bonuses due to a glitch or processing delay between the Pentagon and the Treasury Department — another fallout from the federal shutdown.

Dozens of sailors told Navy Times that they had not received annual payments of selective re-enlistment bonuses, which are typically paid by Oct. 1, saying the money had not been sent to their account and that the Defense Finance and Accounting Services told them the payouts were delayed.

The shortchanging of bonus money was confirmed by a defense official and is also hitting the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps.

It’s evidence the shutdown is having unfortunate affects on service members’ pocketbooks despite the promises of Congress and the Obama administration. It also runs counter to the services’ assurances that these bonuses will be paid on time.
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American Legion: Treatment for PTSD and TBI 'limited and inadequate'

Legion: Treatment for PTSD and TBI 'limited and inadequate'
Navy Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
October 2, 2013

The nation’s largest veterans group says the Veterans Affairs Department and Pentagon are not doing enough to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

Calling current medical protocols and treatments at VA and DoD “limited and inadequate,” the American Legion urged the two departments to provide more non-pharmaceutical care and invest research dollars in complementary and alternative medical therapies such as acupuncture, yoga and biofeedback.

In a new report, a seven-member Legion committee largely found that DoD and VA have “no well-defined approach to the treatment of TBI” and veterans who seek care at VA for PTSD are 2½ times more likely to be prescribed opioid pain medications than those experiencing chronic pain.

“The fact that there is an emphasis on drugs as opposed to other treatments, that these guys and gals are going in there with issues and the answer is to prescribe them drugs, is incredible. There are alternatives,” said William Detweiler, chairman of the panel that drafted the report, titled “The War Within,” and a past national commander of the American Legion.
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WWII veteran cried when sent away from museum with plane he flew in it

Tearful WWII veteran turned away from Ohio museum
Associated Press
October 2, 2013

DAYTON, Ohio — An 88-year-old veteran who traveled to Ohio from New York to see the plane he flew in during World War II has been turned away because of the partial federal government shutdown.

The Dayton Daily News (http://bit.ly/16eYD4J ) reports Joe McGrain of Rochester, N.Y., went to the National Museum of the United States Air Force on Tuesday to see the B-26 he flew in as a bombardier and navigator in Europe.

He also wanted to show the aircraft to his wife and two sons, who came from New Orleans and Washington for the trip. But with museum staff on furlough because of the shutdown, the McGrains were turned away.
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Furloughs start at military bases

1,000 Employees Furloughed At Fort Carson
KKTV News
By: Zak Sos
Oct 02, 2013

More than 1,000 civilian employees have been sent home at Fort Carson because of the government shutdown. The jobs being furloughed range from public works employees to hospital workers.

But the U.S. Army says health and safety on the base will still remain a priority during the shutdown. So emergency room staff at the post's hospital will stay on, and fire and security personnel will also remain on duty.
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Fort Hood workers frustrated with shutdown
YNN
By: Rex Castillo
10/01/2013

Through a federal government shutdown, a political battle in Washington D.C. is sending serious ripples through Central Texas.

Many of Fort Hood’s 6,000 federal employees were sent home Tuesday, unsure when they’ll return, after a round of furloughs caused by the shutdown.

Mary Smith clocked into her job at Fort Hood Tuesday morning and immediately received a letter saying she had to return home.

"I'm still shocked, because I'm almost a 30 year vet, and I've never experienced this before," Smith said. "I have a family, and I have house payments and regular bills like everybody else. Children to raise and your bill collectors want their money.”

About 20 percent of the post’s 6,000 federal employees have will be out of work—and pay—until the government shutdown is over.
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800 Camp Lejeune, 300 Cherry Point civilians on furlough
WNCT News
By Madeleine Wright, Digital Journalist
October 1, 2013

JACKSONVILLE, N.C.
More than a thousand people came to work on Tuesday only to find out they had to go right back home.

The government shutdown is forcing 800 civilian employees at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and 300 Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point to take furloughs, base officials said. It's unclear how long they'll take unpaid time off.

"I think anytime you're not getting paid, it's going to be significant," said Camp Lejeune spokesman Nat Fahy.

The furloughed civilians are considered non-essential for life and safety, for example, those who work at the library, the grocery store, and the outdoor recreation office, said Fahy.

Fahy said civilians had a week and a half's notice that this might happen.

"And now that it has come to pass, they now realize that unfortunately this is a reality," said Fahy.

It's a reality Ernie Wright says they shouldn't have to go through. He's a lawyer representing Camp Lejeune civilians on labor issues. He says he knows dozens of people being furloughed.

"Folks sometimes live from week to week and how are they going to be able to meet their bills and needs of their dependents if the politicians are playing games in Washington?" said Wright.
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Marines Will Furlough 3,581 Civilian Employees in Region
Camp Pendleton will see 1,163 employees furloughed, and base personnel and residents can expect reduced services, including closed commissaries.
Oceanside Camp Pendleton Patch
Posted by Chris Jennewein (Editor)
October 01, 2013

Because of the federal government shutdown, the Marine Corps will furlough 3,581 employees in Southern California and Arizona, including 1,163 at Camp Pendleton.

A Marine Corps statement said the only civilian employees remaining on the job are those who are required to provide crucial services that protect life, safety and property, provide essential range, training and air operations, or provide necessary utility services.
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Shutdown leaves disabled veterans families in fear

It isn't as if we did anything wrong but yesterday I woke up worried about the VA check not being in our bank account. I wondered why we had to pay for what the congress has done yet again. There was talk years about about how the congress wanted to review disability claims for PTSD so they could cut veterans off but that plan was squashed. That was the last time I worried about something that we had to fight six years to get. If you think the problems with VA claims are new, it took the VA from 1993 to 1999 to honor my husband's service and the wounds he came home with. PTSD and Agent Orange come with the price he paid for joining but our family has also paid.

So why are we faced with this all over again?

We are not alone. I am tired of members of Congress stomping their feet while refusing to do the right thing. If they really believe the government is good for nothing, then why were they given the opportunity to make sure it stopped working? Never figured that one out. They seem like a bunch of brats complaining about no one wanting to discuss why they can't burn down the government.

When it comes to the military the folks in congress have a lot to learn from them but they should start with the simple fact the men and women in the military and our veterans knew what it was like to work together as if their lives depended on it. They were willing to die to prove how much someone else mattered.

Shutdown is worrisome time for couple living on vet benefits
KATU News
By Joe English
Published: Oct 1, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. – Kelli Landis is the caregiver for her husband, who was injured in Iraq.

A head wound left him with memory problems and severe migraine headaches. He also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, Landis said.

Landis works part-time as a nanny, but she says her full-time job is essentially taking care of her husband. The couple lives on his veteran benefits. They got their money this month, but there were no promises they’d get it next month if the government is still shut down.

“If it happens that we don’t get our income next month, we may get evicted. Everything’s up in the air, but that’s quite a possibility,” she said. “That’s very frightening to us.”

Landis says it’s a challenge to have a wounded soldier in the family, but a government shutdown could make it even more difficult.

“With someone who’s disabled, trying to move that quickly, if we can’t make rent, is going to be very difficult.”

Landis said they’ll try to find someone to stay with if their benefits don’t come through next month.
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Arlington National Cemetery’s Section 60 upsets families of war dead

Cleanup in Arlington National Cemetery’s Section 60 upsets families of war dead
Washington Post
By Greg Jaffe
Published: October 1 2013

Elizabeth Belle walked toward the grave of her son carrying a canvas bag full of miniature pumpkins, silk leaves and other decorations for his headstone. Then she noticed the changes.

Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where more than 800 Iraq and Afghanistan war dead are buried, had been stripped bare. The photographs of young soldiers were gone. The balloons, too, and love letters, the sonograms and worry stones, the crosses and coins.

“They’ve taken everything,” Belle said.

Over the past weeks, a quiet transformation has taken place in Section 60, leaving family members of the dead feeling hurt, saddened and bewildered. Today, Section 60 resembles the quiet cemetery of an older generation’s war, not the raw, messy burial ground of one still being fought. Even within the hallowed ground at Arlington, Section 60 is special, a living memorial to an ongoing war.
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Soldiers nothing more than lab rats for research project

They used to shoot soldiers for being cowards, now they just push them so they do it themselves. This is what Comprehensive Soldier Fitness was based on.

“They had schoolchildren, each night, write down three positive things about themselves. And then they noticed in a follow-up study that those children felt better about themselves.

But to go from that to saying that we can have a soldier in a foxhole who says positive things about himself and follows the precepts of this program, is going to watch his buddy blown to smithereens and spend four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and come out feeling better about himself, there is a shallowness to the assessment that, from my vantage point, I find abhorrent.”

“Recently, the Army released an evaluation of the program, which said, in part, "There is now sound scientific evidence that Comprehensive Soldier Fitness improves the resilience and psychological health of soldiers.” But there is disagreement over that statement in psychiatric circles from doctors and Ph.D.s who say the evaluation is flawed and doesn't prove anything. Meanwhile, the Air Force is in the process of implementing its own version of the program.” (Army Program Aims to Build Troops Mental resilience to Stress, PBS News Hour, Judy Woodruff, December 14, 2011)

Soldiers nothing more than lab rats for research project
De-Tour Combat PTSD Survivors Guide
Kathie Costos
October 1, 2013


Well Suicide Awareness Month is over and so far we have not learned much. At least nothing that is good or hopeful. We do know the answers are out there, just as they have been for the last 40 years but with the way most reporters act, it is almost as if nothing has been learned.

First you need to know that it is not your fault. PTSD goes all the way back to the Old Testament and if you ever read the Psalms of David, you'd see it in his words and his heartbreak. That depth of pain few find the words to express come pouring out of him. It isn't new.

There was a news report released today about WWI soldiers in what was most likely PTSD cases.

The historians' report, commissioned by the government, called for the cases of 650 men shot during the war to be reconsidered.

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August Army suicides bring total to 208 so far in 2013

UPDATE It looks like we have not been told the truth on military suicides yet again. The DOD report says that there were 208 for 2013 but read this,

Since the start of 2013, some 219 Soldiers have committed suicide Army-wide, Champlain said, putting it into context by saying, "about the entire size of the 1st Military Intelligence Battalion. (Ready and Resilient: Joining together to help prevent suicide Karl Weisel, USAG Wiesbaden, September 30, 2013)

They keep pushing the programming that caused most of this in the first place.

Army Releases August 2013 Suicide Information
No. 696-13
October 01, 2013

The Army released suicide data today for the month of August 2013. During August, among active-duty Soldiers, there were 12 potential suicides: 2 have been confirmed as suicides and 10 remain under investigation.

For July 2013, the Army reported 19 potential suicides among active-duty Soldiers: three have been confirmed as suicides and 16 are under investigation.

For CY 2013, there have been 106 potential active-duty suicides: 51 have been confirmed as suicides and 55 remain under investigation.

Updated active-duty suicide numbers for CY 2012: 185 (171 have been confirmed as suicides and 14 remain under investigation).

During August 2013, among reserve component Soldiers who were not on active duty, there were 8 potential suicides (5 Army National Guard and 3 Army Reserve): 1 has been confirmed as a suicide and 7 remain under investigation.

For July 2013, among that same group, the Army reported 8 potential suicides; however, subsequent to the report, 2 more cases were added bringing July’s total to 10 (8 Army National Guard and 2 Army Reserve): 3 have been confirmed as suicides and seven cases remain under investigation.

For CY 2013, there have been 102 potential not on active duty suicides (66 Army National Guard and 36 Army Reserve): 70 have been confirmed as suicides and 32 remain under investigation.

Updated not on active duty suicide numbers for CY 2012: 140 (93 Army National Guard and 47 Army Reserve): 138 have been confirmed as suicides and two remain under investigation.

Veterans tuition assistance suspended during shutdown

Tuition assistance suspended during shutdown
Army Times
Oct. 1, 2013

Tuition assistance for all classes starting today or after Oct. 1 has been suspended as a result of the government shutdown, the Army announced today.

“Effective 1 October, all soldier accounts in GoArmyEd will be placed on hold and they will not be able to process any new TA requests,” the Army said in an emailed statement, which was also posted on the GoArmyEd website.

About 20,000 soldiers have requested TA for classes in fiscal year 2014, the Army said in an email to Army Times. About 2,000 soldiers have classes scheduled to start this week.

The Army also will not fulfill TA requests submitted before Oct. 1, for classes that start on or after Oct. 1.
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