Soldiers in Iraq seek help in mental health

Soldiers in Iraq seek help in mental health
Attitudes toward treatment change
October 31, 2007

BY JAY PRICE

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq -- U.S. troops in Iraq, facing the stress of multiple, extended combat tours, are increasingly willing to seek mental health counseling while in the field, military medical experts say.

Combat-stress experts from the 785th Medical Company, an Army Reserve unit from Ft. Snelling, Minn., that originally deployed to Iraq in 2004 and redeployed in August after two years in the United States, say they've noticed a substantial change in attitudes toward mental health treatment, which has long been stigmatized.


"There hasn't been that challenge of having to go out and kind of sell ourselves to make sure people know that we're here and this is an important part of the combat experience for everybody," said Capt. Troy Fiesel, the company's operations officer.

"Now we've got people walking in and saying, 'Hey, I know I have got this issue,' or 'I had this problem last time and I need to keep working on it.' "

The willingness to seek help comes as the Pentagon pushes mental health care as some troops enter their third or fourth deployments in a war with no front lines and no safe rear areas and as the first tours of duty that were extended to 15 months grind to an end.
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