Navy launches new suicide prevention program for all sailors
SAIL now available at all Fleet and Family Support Center locations
News 4 Jax
By Jodi Mohrmann - Managing Editor of special projects
February 06, 2017
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Navy announced Monday that a pilot program to prevent suicide is now available to all sailors.
SAIL, which stands for Sailor Assistance and Intercept for Life, is designed to provide rapid assistance, on-going risk assessment and support for sailors who have exhibited suicide-related behavior. It is aimed at supplementing existing mental health treatment by providing continual support through the first 90 days after suicide-related behavior.
"We are excited that we are able to bring this important program to the fleet ahead of schedule," said Capt. Michael Fisher, Director, Navy Suicide Prevention Branch. "Having SAIL available across the Navy is a great addition to the ongoing work that commands are doing to promote help-seeking behavior, self-care, and support for our Sailors who reach out for assistance. Instilling hope is the hallmark of SAIL and we believe those Sailors who take advantage of this terrific program will see its benefit."
read more here
“That’s not the America I sacrificed for. You want to be a legitimate President, sir? Then act like one.”
At 43 years old, Murzyn wondered if she would be the oldest widow, and on the first day of the retreat she was nervous. "A lot of widows, military widows are young," Murzyn says. "[I thought] am I going to be the only suicide widow? Like, is everyone else going to be KIA?"
The American Widow Project provides retreats for groups of military widows. Gloria Hillard /Gloria Hillard for NPRIn the kitchen of a vacation rental in southern California, family pictures form a collage on the refrigerator.
"He did leave a letter and he put in the letter that his head hurt so bad," Murzyn says. "And he didn't feel he could be fixed."
Russell had served two tours in Iraq and was being treated by the VA when he died. His widow says she didn't realized how bad things had become — that he was a wonderful new father and kept his feelings inside to protect those he loved.
"Russell was that Marine that other Marines looked up to," Murzyn says. "He was the guy that they went to with problems."
read more here
Up to 189 Armed Forces members have taken their lives since 2002 with the majority of cases coming from those who have experience in warzones
The overwhelming majority of suicides in the Armed Forces are by battlefield veterans.Suicide levels in the Army are the highest of all three services (Photo: Getty)
"The VA’s handling of benefits claims has been the focus of sharp criticism for the past decade. The agency has struggled to respond to growing numbers of disability applications from veterans returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."That came from a Newsday article about a Gulf War veterans fighting for his claim to be approved and getting help for PTSD.
A significant factor working against Revolutionary War veterans was their small number. The Continental Army never comprised more than 30,000 officers and men. The vast majority of Americans had nothing personal at stake in the plight of veterans after the war. Citizens who did feel the matter personally were unable to do much about it. American politics in the 18th and early 19th centuries was controlled by a small elite group of property holders. Most of the men who had filled the ranks of Washington’s army couldn’t even vote.By the time the Civil War began, the situation was quite different. The 1820s rise of Andrew Jackson and his populist democracy, which made voters of almost all adult white males, had created a Congress far more susceptible to popular pressure. The scale of the Civil War, in which more than 2.2 million men served the Union and more than 1 million served the Confederacy, left few families untouched.
These cutbacks would be accompanied by a shrinking of V.A. hospital staffs and other health-care resources for veterans. The number of Veterans Administration employees working on medical care programs would decline, under the President's budget proposal, from 193,941 in the fiscal year 1986, which began Oct. 1, to 185,039 in 1987 and 171,674 in the fiscal year 1991, the documents show.
These problems remain decades later. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV), there are almost 300,000 veterans homeless on any given night across the US. Veterans of the Gulf War and Iraq, like their Vietnam brethren, are fighting today for recognition of their medical maladies, such as Gulf War Syndrome, which includes symptoms of fatigue, skin rash, headache, muscle and joint pain, memory loss and difficulty concentrating, shortness of breath, sleep problems, gastrointestinal problems and chest pain. PTSD also continues to be a serious problem. From 1999 to 2007, the number of veterans receiving disability compensation for PTSD increased from 120,000 to more than 280,500.
Coming on the heels of the discovery that veterans' benefit claims forms may have been shredded in regional offices nationwide, two veterans' organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs. They're attacking a related and, they say, similarly egregious problem: the time it takes for the VA to make a decision on a disability claim.Clogged with more than 600,000 pending claims, the VA takes an average of more than six months to make a decision—70 percent more time than it took four years ago, the claimants allege. That means that disabled veterans can't access their disability pay when they're transitioning back into civilian society and need help the most, say critics.If the claim is denied, an appeal takes even longer—an average of four years. Some stretch into decades. In comparison, private healthcare groups usually process claims in less than three months, including appeals.In response, the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Veterans of Modern Warfare filed a preliminary injunction in a D.C. district court today against the VA. The two organizations, which together represent about 60,000 veterans, are asking for the VA to adhere to a time limit: 90 days to decide initial claims for disability benefits and 180 days to resolve appeals.
“Part of it is all these new veterans in the system who came in – Agent Orange, PTSD. It means a lot more claims and, despite additional resources, it’s resulted in longer waits,” Obama said last month at the Disabled American Veterans’ annual convention. “And that’s been unacceptable – unacceptable to me, unacceptable to Secretary Shinseki.”At of the beginning of August, VA reported about 780,000 claims are pending, with about 500,000 of those claims in its inventory over 125 days.
Former Marine James McKenna wants the VA to help him with PTSD
Newsday
By Martin C. Evans
February 4, 2017
Former Marine Corps Lance Cpl. James “Jimmy” McKenna has struggled with anxiety that his Veterans Affairs doctors have linked to rocket attacks he endured during the Gulf War in 1991.
He said the anxiety has crippled his ability to hold a job as a correction officer in the Nassau County jail. The sound of the prisoners, banging doors and the tense atmosphere revived feelings of danger that McKenna said he had developed during the war.
“I was reluctant to accept it, but as time went on, I realized I needed help,” said McKenna, who has been enrolled in inpatient post-traumatic stress disorder programs at Veterans Health Administration facilities for much of the past year.
But McKenna, 48, of Wantagh, said he was rejected for benefits from the VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration when he applied during his hospitalization at an upstate facility. He said that rejection came as financial pressures related to his inability to work pushed his family toward foreclosure, and threatened his wife and four children with homelessness.
read more here
Fort Campbell said in a statement Friday night that East and Hoch were both specialists and that Hoch was posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant.
East, of Missouri City, Texas, was a health care specialist who joined the Army in 2011 and began serving at Fort Campbell in 2014.
Hoch, of Ferndale, Michigan, was an infantryman who joined the Army in 2013 and arrived at Fort Campbell later that year.
Demar was charged Friday with murder, murder-domestic violence, burglary and assault. He is being held at the Montgomery County Jail. Records don't indicate whether he has an attorney.
read more here
