PTSD war wounds in all wars

WWI

During the 1930's, many veterans sought medical care, especially during a tuberculosis epidemic. The number of VA hospitals increased from 64 to 91, and significant contribution to medicine when it broke ground in the treatment of tuberculosis, which plagued the population of VA patients; by the mid-1930's, the disease affected 13 percent of that population. Neuropsychiatric patients then accounted for more than half of VA's patient population.

WWII

Advances in armaments, the conditions in prisoner of war (POW) camps, and experimentation with atomic radiation gave World War II veterans' health challenges not experienced by previous generations. In particular, psychiatric casualties increased by 300 percent from World War I to World War II and accounted for 23 percent of all evacuees. The traumatic aftereffects of combat were widely rejected as the cause for psychiatric casualties.

The American Legion drafted the GI bill of rights, a plan that included hospitalization, employment, home and business loans, mustering-out pay and education. Within 6 months, Congress passed the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, more commonly known as the GI Bill. Five years after the end of World War II, four out of every five veterans received benefits under one or more of the three major GI Bill programs for education and training, home loans, and unemployment compensation. By 1955, veterans who used their GI Bill had higher income levels than nonveterans of similar age, were more likely to be in professional skilled occupation, and were better educated. Three out of five married veterans owned their own home. The GI Bill paved the way for World War II veterans to become known a the "Greatest Generation," given their considerable contributions to the American economy and social structure.

Korea

In a departure from previous wars, the military took a more realistic approach to psychiatric casualties of the Korean War. The recognition that service members suffering from combat stress needed immediate treatment in the field decreased the evacuation rate for psychiatric reasons from 23 percent in World War II to 6 percent.

*****Again, this supports early intervention and attention to avoid PTSD from becoming chronic.

Vietnam

Emotional problems plagued and estimated 800,000 Vietnam veterans by 1985. Although those veterans had not manifested the same rate of neuropsychiatric disorders during active duty as had World War II or Korean veterans, Vietnam veterans were more likely to suffer psychiatric symptoms years after returning home.

http://www.vetscommission.org/pdf/Pastpresentfuture5.pdf

Commission report for todays occupations

3. Aggressively Prevent and Treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury Recommendation: VA should provide care for any veteran of theAfghanistan and Iraq conflicts who has post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). DoD and VA must rapidly improve prevention, diagnosis, andtreatment of both PTSD and traumatic brain injury (TBI). At the same time,both Departments must work aggressively to reduce the stigma of PTSD. Goals: Improve care of two common conditions of the current conflictsand reduce the stigma of PTSD; mentally and physically fit service memberswill strengthen our military into the future. DoD and VA have stepped up screening for these conditions with almostthree-quarters of survey respondents reporting being screened for PTSD andTBI, and over 40% of them reporting symptoms of PTSD or other mental healthproblemshttp://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-25-2007/0004632548&EDATE

You can go here to read more. There are a lot of sections to get through but this is what I've found so far.
Commission report
http://www.vetscommission.org/reports.asp

There is a lot here. Many of the recommendations are great. Aside from increasing the disability rate for the disability and individual unemployable rate to reach 100%, they are suggesting they should just put it at 100% at the same time taking another look at Social Security Disability to remove the barrier of the "quarters" requirement. This would be great for veterans because if they have families, it will also allow them to receive help with medical coverage. CHAMPVA covers a lot, but it does not cover everything. It will also increase the income for disabled veterans who have paid into the system and will not be able to work. Virtually they have retired early and should be able to collect social security benefits.


This is in fact a quality of life issue. Let's put it this way. My husband's claim was approved a long time ago. Instead of just saying thank you and going off on my "merry" way, I kept fighting for the other veterans out there because if the way my husband was treated wasn't right, it wasn't right for a lot of other veterans either. Little did I know back then I would end up trying to reach another generation beside the Vietnam veterans. It is worse all the way around now.

While Vietnam veterans are still coming to terms with what they came home with, there are thousands of others who have been in treatment. There is not enough room for the older veterans along with trying to fit in the new ones. Older veterans are being pushed back, appointments are being cut back on. Most say they don't mind because the newer ones need help now. These are amazing people. In all of this we also have Vietnam veterans trying to fit in. They are not newly wounded, but newly discovered the problems they have been carrying are a direct result of their service to this country. If you think it is unique to the USA, think again. The UK, Canada, Australia as well as many other nations are finding it difficult to treat all their combat wounded as well.

One thing consistently missed when you hear the deniers of PTSD speak, is they claim that it is just this generation coming out seeking a "free ride" or being, for lack of a better word to replace their's, "pussies" who can't hack it. They avoid the obvious. The net was not available to global communication when they came home from Vietnam, Korea and WWII, WWI or any of the other military actions with documented evidence dating back to ancient times. This was just picking up in the 90's when the Gulf War veterans were seeking answers for their own unique illness along with the usual ones, like PTSD. My husband's uncle was on a ship hit by a kamikaze pilot during WWII and ended up in a nursing home because he was "shell shocked" along with a lot of other veterans.

As you can see from the first section of this blog, there is enough evidence to wipe out the claim today's veterans are anything other than what all other veterans were. Aside from brave and risking their lives, they were also normal humans dealing with very abnormal events. If you think combat is a normal part of life, you must have one really bad life. Combat is not normal to humans!

The next time you come up against someone even trying to suggest that these veterans we have are anything else but wounded, point back to the history of how they were all wounded the same way by the same things. Then point to this because they wouldn't even suggest it if it was not a real wound.

And all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans would be allowed to receive care for post-traumatic stress disorder without having to demonstrate its connection to their service.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101602036.html

Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.namguardianangel.org/

http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington
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