NYU PTSD Researcher Dismissed Exploited Vulnerable

An N.Y.U. Study Gone Wrong, and a Top Researcher Dismissed
The New York Times
By BENEDICT CAREY
JUNE 27, 2016

Study participants with mental disorders are especially susceptible to adverse reactions, experts said. “These are people who are more vulnerable to being exploited in the research process, and more vulnerable to things going wrong during the research, so you want extra vigilance,” said Elisa Hurley, the executive director of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research, a national nonprofit devoted to promoting high research standards. “If someone in my family were in a situation like this, I would want to be sure that the institution was crossing its t’s and dotting its i’s.”

Diane Ruffcorn, of Seattle, was a participant in the N.Y.U. study who said she had been sexually abused as a child. “I was given this drug, and all these tests, and then it was goodbye, I was on my own,” she said. “There was no follow-up.” Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

New York University’s medical school has quietly shut down eight studies at its prominent psychiatric research center and parted ways with a top researcher after discovering a series of violations in a study of an experimental, mind-altering drug.

A subsequent federal investigation found lax oversight of study participants, most of whom had serious mental issues. The Food and Drug Administration investigators also found that records had been falsified and researchers had failed to keep accurate case histories.

In one of the shuttered studies, people with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress caused by childhood abuse took a relatively untested drug intended to mimic the effects of marijuana, to see if it relieved symptoms.
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Ohio National Guard "Demystify PTSD"

Demystifying PTSD for Employers 
Ohio NationalGuard

Myth or Fact?A majority of Ohio's military veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

It is a myth, as less than 10 percent of Ohio National Guard service members suffer from significant PTSD.

The Ohio National Guard has produced the above video to encourage employers to understand diagnosed and undiagnosed PTSD among their employees who are service members and veterans.

“We are committed to supporting our men and women who are suffering from the effects of a traumatic experience,” said Maj. Gen. Mark E. Bartman, Ohio adjutant general. “Many times, because of the stigma associated with the condition, they are not seeking treatment. By partnering with employers to dispel the myths about PTSD, we can break down the barriers that could be preventing recovery.”

Employers, PTSD survivors and others who are concerned about this issue are encouraged to commit their support online by participating in the dialogue with #DemystifyPTSD.

Vietnam Veteran Lived After Police Officer Cared

If you think that anything is new with PTSD then you haven't been paying much attention. This article pretty much proves that one. It also proves that with all the talk about raising awareness, it is more talking about what they get wrong instead of the truth.

Veterans call for attention to 'invisible wounds'
Detroit Free Press
Curt Smith, Lansing State Journal
June 28, 2016

LANSING – In police circles it’s called “suicide by cop” and Kent Hall saw no other way out.

It was 1985, and the nightmares that had tormented him since his service with the Army in Vietnam would not go away. Although he doesn't talk about the day in detail, he describes it this way:

“I was saved by the actions of an officer,” he said Monday on the steps of the state Capitol. “And then I got a lot of help along the way.”

Marine Corps veteran Rod Thayer (from left) and Army veterans Dale Brown and Bruce Whipple stand for the singing of the national anthem by The Old Skool Fella's at a rally Monday at the state Capitol called "Visible Honor For Invisible Wounds." The event was designed to bring attention to the challenges veterans have when struggling with post traumatic stress

(Photo: Robert Killips | Lansing State Journal)

Today, Hall of Williamston is vice president of a small veterans advocacy group called Honor for All. The core mission of the Royal Oak-based group is to erase stigmas attached to the term “post-traumatic stress disorder."

Its members want the word “disorder” dropped and replaced with the term “injury.” Hall likens the condition to a wound of the arm or leg — invisible but just as debilitating.

Hall didn’t die on that day 31 years ago, but his struggle didn’t either.
read more here

The article talks about "22 a day" and the event publicized that even though it is not even close to reality. It also talks about calling PTSD "PTSI" for injury instead. Do they really think that will make a difference at all? It won't.

They have been mulling the title around for decades and the wound is still the same wound. Veterans suffer the same way all the other generations did. The most sickening thing of all is that folks are getting famous off that suffering.

Would be great if they would stop talking about what they get wrong and then maybe veterans would trust then to help them heal for the right reasons.

Sgt. Dustin Wood Battle with PTSD Ended

Fallen Marine remembered after final battle with PTSD
Tallahassee Democrat
Amanda Claire Curcio, Democrat staff writer
June 27, 2016

The war followed him home to Tallahassee.

Until last Sunday, when the Marine never woke up.

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Dustin Wood deployed twice to Afghanistan and Iraq. (Photo: Special to the Democrat)

Dustin Allan Wood was 32 years old and a father. The cause of his death is still unclear.

A sergeant at the end of his military service, Wood deployed twice to both Iraq and Afghanistan as a machine gunner and is now being considered for the Purple Heart. Sgt. Dustin Wood

But Wood was on pain medication to deal with wartime injuries. He drank often, usually to “feel less, remember less,” said Beatrice Wolfe, his aunt. She said she wouldn't call his death a suicide, but something like it.

Wolfe is coping with her nephew’s death by speaking out to raise awareness about veterans’ overall struggle with depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
read more here

30 Forgotten Veterans Laid to Rest at Fort Logan National Cemetery

Thirty veterans whose remains went unclaimed after they died in conflicts stretching back to World War II finally get a funeral ceremony
Daily Mail
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
26 June 2016

About 80 people gathered in Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver The names of the dead were read as well as their rank, branch and the war in which they serviced Some of their remains had been cremated and left at funeral homes, while others had no next of kin Vietnam veteran Jose Gonzales said attending services for fellow soldiers was 'healing to the soul'

Thirty veterans whose remains went unclaimed were finally honored during a funeral ceremony Saturday at Denver's Fort Logan National Cemetery (file picture)

Thirty veterans whose remains went unclaimed were finally honored during a funeral ceremony Saturday at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

Some of the fallen soldiers' remains had been cremated and left at funeral homes, while others had no next of kin.

About 80 relatives and supporters turned up to pay tribute to the veterans, some of whom had served during World War II, the Denver Post reported.

'In my mind, they're almost MIA, because they just sat there,' guest speaker Major General H Michael Edwards said. 'Each of them has a story. I only wish we knew their full story.'

Remains sometimes go unclaimed because families forget about them or do not know they can get a military burial for their relative, Edwards added.

The names of the dead were read during the ceremony, followed by the rank, branch and war in which the soldiers served.

The veterans' past went as far back as World War II.
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PTSD Awareness Day?

PTSD AWARENESS DAY! If you do not know what it is then you are now looking in the right place.

PTSD= Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the only way to get it is by surviving a traumatic event and yes, it actually is a wound.  It is even in the title since TRAUMA is Greek for WOUND.

It has nothing to do with being weak or not training right.  It has everything to do with the fact the Department of Defense failed ten years ago when they claimed they were taking it seriously and then found every excuse possible to sit back doing the same stuff that failed even though suicides went up.

How they hell did they think prevention training would work for those with multiple deployments when they keep pointing out that non-deployed service members committed suicide?

How did they expect anything to change when they refused to?

As for being out of the military, they no longer had to answer any questions or include veterans in on their heart wrenching totals.  They left that up to the VA. You know, the same VA that Congress has had jurisdiction over since 1946.  The same one they have been writing the rules for an coming up with the funding for when all they ended up doing was blame the VA.


What did Congress do? They kept funding all the stuff they pulled before when they did not have a single clue what to do.  They just kept doing the same with different names, funding them with more money and then giving themselves a pat on the back as if they did anything any reasonable person would have been ashamed of.

You have PTSD because you cared enough to put your life on the line and felt it all more than others. In other words, your strong emotional core is paying the price.  It is about time the DOD got that message.

Everything civilians get after anything traumatic events is because of what researchers learned when Vietnam veterans came back and fought for all of it. Yes, military folks started all of it.

So do yourself a big favor and spend some time on this site and learn what you should have known all along. "It ain't rocket science." It is all common sense and all public knowledge. I've been doing this for over 30 years and living with it everyday. I used to feel alone until I discovered how much company I have. Now you know it too.

VA Hospitals Facing Congress Chopping Block Fight Back

VA Employees Hold Dozens of Rallies Across the Country to Protest Proposed Closing of Veterans Hospitals

American Federation of Government Employees
AFGE members organize 38 rallies outside VA hospitals this week and next
Jun 23, 2016

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Veterans Affairs employees are holding dozens of rallies outside VA hospitals this week and next to protest plans to privatize veterans' health care and shut down VA hospitals and medical centers.

The Commission on Care, a group that was created by Congress to recommend ways of improving veterans' health care, is close to finalizing a set of recommendations that would significantly weaken the VA's world-class health care system and pave the way for privatization and future closures of VA medical centers, sending veterans to for-profit hospitals for care.

Veterans Affairs employees rally outside the Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, on June 20 to protest the proposed closing of VA medical centers nationwide. The rally was one of nearly 40 nationwide actions being organized by the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 230,000 VA employees across the country who provide health care and other vital services to our military veterans. The Commission on Care is close to finalizing recommendations to Congress that would pave the way for privatization and future closing of VA facilities, sending veterans to for-profit hospitals for care.

Veterans Affairs employees rally outside the Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, on June 20 to protest the proposed closing of VA medical centers nationwide. The rally was one of nearly 40 nationwide actions being organized by the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 230,000 VA employees across the country who provide health care and other vital services to our military veterans.

The rallies are being organized by the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 230,000 VA doctors, nurses, psychologists, benefits specialists, and other workers across the country who provide health care and other vital services to our military veterans.

"Even though the vast majority of veterans oppose privatizing the VA, there are many people who would benefit financially from dismantling the VA and forcing veterans into a network of for-profit hospitals and insurance companies," said AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr., who was a VA registered nurse for 20 years.
read more here

Here are just a few and now you know why they have to do it. Congress has had since 1946 to make sure veterans were treated properly. They failed and the decades of blame game prove it. 

Alabama

Veterans push for greater support for VA hospitals
Government funding shortage impacts hospitals
WTMV
Chip Scarborough
Jun 24, 2016

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. —Veterans are pleading for action to keep VA hospitals across Alabama and the country from closing due to a shortage of government funding.

Signs greeted drivers as they passed by Tuscaloosa’s VA Hospital on Friday. The signs urged public support for veterans to continue receiving care.

"We made a promise to America's veterans that we would take care of them when they come back, and we think the VA does this better than anybody else," said Tammy Ryan with the American Federation of Government Employees.

Tuscaloosa’s VA Hospital also provides employment to local residents. Organizers of the picket said roughly one-third of the hospital’s 1,000 employees are veterans.
read more here

Alaska

Veterans, VA workers protest against possible hospital closures
KTUU
By Mallory Peebles
Jun 23, 2016

Anchorage, ALASKA (KTUU) - About half a dozen veterans and local Veterans Affairs workers held picket signs outside the Anchorage VA hospital on Thursday to raise awareness about proposed VA reform which calls for closures to some hospitals.

"I want personally to make people aware this is a real possibility," says Air Force veteran and VA audiologist Cari Sherris.

Across the country similar pickets were held Thursday.

Sherris says if the hospitals are closed, veteran healthcare would be privatized. She doesn't believe that will work well for veterans.

"It wouldn't be specific to veterans," says Sherris who believes a focus on PTSD and other combat related illnesses should be at the forefront of veteran care.
read more here

Michigan

Michigan Workers Ready to Fight VA Hospital Closures Public News Service - MI


June 22, 2016 ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan protesters are joining those in more than two dozen states this week to fight efforts to shutter some Veterans Administration hospitals.

The VA Commission on Care soon will release a report suggesting major changes to the VA health system, including privatizing some services.

As a leader in mental-health care, prosthetics and rehabilitation, the VA is best equipped to address the unique health-care needs of veterans, said J. David Cox, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees. He said it's a fully integrated health-care system.

"It's a system that deals with homelessness and veterans, works with veterans who end up with issues concerning law enforcement," he said. " VA health care is important, and we cannot privatize it or the men and women that serve this country will certainly be the losers."
read more here

Montana

Protesting privatization: Helena picketers say proposal could close VA hospitals
JAMES DEHAVEN for the Missoulian
Jun 22, 2016

HELENA – Around a dozen picketers gathered in Helena on Monday to protest a proposal they say could spell the closure of VA hospitals around the country.

Union representatives with the American Federation of Government Employees joined veterans and current and former VA employees for the three-hour picket at the heavily trafficked intersection of US Highway 12 and Williams Street – a little more than a mile from VA Montana’s headquarters at Fort Harrison.

AFGE district vice president Gerry Swanke, who heads the union branch that represents thousands of VA workers in Montana and eight other western states, said a report from the congressionally created VA Commission on Care offers a blueprint for the rapid privatization of VA health care services and the potentially widespread shutdown of beleaguered agency-run hospitals.
read more here

North Carolina

Rally to protest privatization of Asheville VA attracts dozens
WLOS
BY KRYSTYNA BIASSOU AND ZACK GREEN
JUNE 22ND 2016

WLOS — ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Dozens of people showed support for the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville on Wednesday.

The rally is in support of keeping the facility open and not privatizing care for veterans.
read more here

UPDATE 

VA employees rally outside Fayetteville VA Medical Center

Wisconsin

Union rallies against VA privatization
Tomah Newspapers
STEVE RUNDIO
Jun 24, 2016

TOMAH — Jake Mason has received treatment for substance abuse from the private sector and the Veterans Administration.

He has no doubt which delivered the more effective care.

“The VA — they take it from the standpoint of veterans,” said Mason, an ex-Marine. “A lot of doctors hear about PTSD, but these are people who know what you’ve gone through.”

Mason was one of 15 patients and employees of the Tomah Veterans Administration Medical Center who held a lunchtime “Keep the Promise” rally Thursday at the facility’s entrance.
read more here

Right Battle Wrong Intel on PTSD

No Veteran Should Ever Fight Alone
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 26, 2016

Tomorrow is PTSD Awareness Day and I want you to wake up knowing a lot more than you knew today. It is time for some brutal honesty and that begins with the simple fact most of the veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50. Stunning I know but you are 78% of the veterans within the VA system taking your own lives and you did not even know it.

A visitor at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington passes early in the morning on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2013, to look at the names inscribed on the wall. J. David AP

VHA Veterans

29 and younger 3%

30-39 5.2%

40-49 14%

50-59 23.4%

60-69 19.6%

70-79 20 %

80 and older 14.8%

Ironically that is on page 22 from the Department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Report. While most of you are jumping onto your motorcycles for one charity ride after another trying to make a difference, it has been a worthy battle for the right reasons but with the wrong intel.  As with combat, the wrong intel costs lives.  In this case, it has meant more veterans your age are dying by their own hands instead of being lifted up by yours.

I see it all the time.  I have never known a finer bunch of people than Vietnam veteran families. Patriotic and lovingly committed to other veteran no matter what branch, war or MOS your dedication is inspiring. That is the most heart-wrenching thing of all. You are not even aware you are in the greatest need of help.  You are also the in the best position to help others heal.

So here is your new MOS.  Specialize in healing so you can go on a Mission of Surviving to help others heal.

Vietnam veterans came home with the same wounds as all generations before them and after them.  The difference is, it was your generation to being the fight to heal from what war did to you.  

You pushed for all the research and funding on trauma that allowed the civilian population to address what trauma does to them.  Because of you there are crisis intervention teams responding to events just like the one we had in Orlando at the Pulse when over 100 people were shot and 49 of them were killed.  Because of you it is also known that that one horrible night will effect all the others for many more years to come.

It was not just the families notified their kids were not coming home or the survivors recovering from bullet wounds, but also those who escaped and those who left the club before it all began. Yes, we're talking about survivor guilt.

It is because of you it is known that the responders are forever changed as well and will need help to recover from it.

Because of you it has been learned that PTSD is caused by the trauma itself and is a wound.  Trauma is Greek for "wound" so it is a wisely chosen term.  It did not begin inside of you.  It hit you.  It hit you because you were there and felt it more than others.  It has nothing to do with being weak but more to do with the strength of your emotional core and your commitment  to others.  That same commitment that allowed you to be willing to die for the sake of someone else.

As a matter of fact, your choice of profession after military service reflects that perfectly. The number one job veterans seek is in law enforcement, followed by firefighting, emergency responders, medical service and then teaching.  Serving others is in your emotional core.

With that out of the way, you also need to remember you are not a "victim" but a survivor.  You lived through combat. So why is it so hard for most of you to not be able to survive so long afterwards?

You have not been made aware that you can heal.  You do not have to suffer as badly as you may be doing right now.  This could very well be your last worst day and tomorrow can be the day you start to feel better.  As a matter of fact, once you begin to heal you can end up being even better than you were on your best day in the military.

You did not fight alone in combat and there is no reason for you to feel as if asking for help now is wrong.  It is just as vital now as it was back then. Getting all the support you could find to defeat the enemy saved lives and now getting all the help you can find now could very well save your own today and others when you help them heal later on.


Coming Out Of The Dark from 2006. The only difference is the numbers are higher, not lower after all these years of raising awareness.
Think of it a s new mission. You did all you could in combat to save them and that included being willing to pay the price with your own life so why not be willing to sacrifice your pride now? After all, there is nothing to be ashamed of if you have PTSD but your pride in discovering that has gotten in the way.

There is an ever growing list of Medal of Honor recipients talking about their own struggles because it has nothing to do with lacking anything including bravery.  You can't get much more of a stronger example of bravery than having a Medal of Honor around their neck.

If you have survivor guilt and wonder why you are still here, that was not up to you. That was up to the person who put the bomb in the road or pulled the trigger of the gun.  The question should be not about why you lived but what you are going to do with the rest of your life?

Do you do all you can to help yourself so you can help others?

Do you do all you can to make tomorrow better and make things up to folks you may have hurt? 

Do you restore relationships and be the best person you can be or do you plan on just getting by today getting numb instead of felling all the good that has been trapped inside of you?

Do you go on spreading rumors as if they mean anything that will make any kind of a difference to anyone or do you learn the truth so you can give another veteran a reason to wake up one more day?

The choice is yours. What you become aware of tomorrow could very well save lives and that, that should be your new mission.

Three North Dakota Marines Committed Suicide Within Last Month

Addressing PTSD, Suicide Among Marines
KX News
Posted: Jun 24, 2016

Three North Dakota marines took their own lives within the last month.

Commandant Raymond Morrell says those are not statistics that are well known, nor should they be, but through the Marine Corps League, he says future statistics should not be so grim.

Morrell says military members know better than most that battles continue to be fought at home.

He says whatever you choose to call it: PTSD, combat issues, or what he 'less than stellar conditions,' he says the way to heal is through camaraderie, and the best camaraderie comes from a fellow veteran.

(Raymond Morrell, Dakota Leathernecks Detachment #1419) "One of the best resources they have, is someone to talk to. You tell me, who understands marines better than a fellow marine? As fellow marines, that's one of the biggest issues. One life. The ability to save one life. That's what I feel we're here to do."
read more here
KXNet.com - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson-KXNEWS,ND

If Charities Cannot Get Number Right, What Else is Wrong?

Got up this morning and reading the second article so far about PTSD and suicides, my head is ready to just explode.

If they cannot get the number of veterans committing suicide right, then what else have they gotten wrong?

Both article involve motorcycle riders trying to change the outcome for far too many veterans.  Suicide in the veterans community is higher than in the civilian community.  Most states put the number at double the civilian rate.  With the CDC stating over 41,000 suicides per year, that means we are losing over 26,000 but you do the math.

The VA used the number "22" as an average and pointed out that involved just 21 states using limited data. The report came out 4 years ago and data collected was completed in 2010.  

The report also pointed out that the vast majority of veterans committing suicide within the VA data were over the age of 50. That number is 78%.

This is from North Dakota used "victims of PTSD" when it is clear, they are not victims but survived the trauma itself. The ride was dedicated to Joe Biel a veteran who committed suicide after 2 tours in Iraq.

“On average 22 veterans a day commit suicide due to PTSD. We've lost more people to PTSD the last ten years than we have to actual combat,” said Jory Stevenson, with Apathy Original Motorcycle Club

This report is out of Wisconsin about a fundraiser for equine therapy.  This has been shown to help veterans with PTSD but while that should have been the message, it was deluded with yet again a troubling claim.

“It is so important to get to them, 22 vets a day kill themselves,” said co-owner of the Trinity Equestrian Center Toni Mattson

If they cannot get the number right then what else have the gotten wrong? If you think that using the number is harmless, then you are part of the problem. Their lives should matter enough to actually learn the facts and stop reducing them down to an easy to remember number.  What about the over 50 veterans not included in that number? What about all the families within the over 50 range thinking it is only younger veterans society cares about? 

How can any of them care if they have not bothered to learn that the group with the highest suicide rate is being left out of all the efforts to save them? How can older veteran involved in all these efforts to raise funds not even know it is their generation of veterans suffering the most?

Nothing will ever change until people seeking to raise funds for what they want to do actually prove they know what they are talking about.