Military Mom, one son on 3rd tour, other son PTSD put him in jail

These are our soldiers. Why do we forget that? The photo is of troops in Iraq not the subject of the following piece.

Self-medicating to kill off what they do not want to feel again.


From MyFox Kansas City

PTSD More of a Problem for Returning Soldiers

Last Edited: Wednesday, 30 Jan 2008, 3:57 PM CST


OLATHE, KAN. -- A military study reached a new conclusion about returning soldiers who have memory loss, irritability and trouble sleeping. The cause, more often, may be due to depression and post traumatic stress disorder than blast related concussions.

Olathe mom Cindy Goforth knows about the problem first hand. She has two sons. One who's back from Iraq, 19-year-old David, and the other who's serving his third tour there.

She said her younger son is in jail because of PTSD and she hopes the new study will help convince him he can be treated.

"The night before he come home on R and R one of his best buddies was killed and he did not handle that well. He didn't handle that one well at all," said Goforth.

That was in October. He was supposed to go back in November, but went AWOL at the airport.

"Did he ever get mental health treatment when he came home? No, of course they teach them to be Army strong. Well, they're Army strong. The only problem is these kids don't realize they've got problems," said Goforth.

Goforth said that her son's PTSD was so bad, that David was so sensitive to noise, that simply turning on a computer, a sound you probably barely notice, caused him to the hit the ground for cover.

Angry and constantly unnerved, she said David turned to drugs when he got home. A week ago, he was arrested on drug charges.

"I've told my son that if I get you out of there, you aren't coming home. You're going to the VA. Any arguments, I'll leave you there. He's like 'Mom, I'll go to the VA,' Now, I'm getting the point of what you were saying," Goforth said.
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This is why I do what I do. This is why there are over a thousand just like me doing what we do. David Goforth didn't know what was wrong with him. Maybe he took it as if he would "get over it" and go back to the way he was before. Maybe he thought that if anyone knew what was going on in his mind, they would lock him up. After all, when they don't know what PTSD is, this is what usually happens.

When they do finally understand what PTSD is and that is a normal reaction to all they went through in the abnormal world of combat and carnage, they seek help but end up in a pile of claims 650,000 deep with 147,000 more on appeal. These are wounded veterans being tortured by the system unable, unprepared thanks to Nicholson and the Bush Administration not valuing the men and women they sent to risk their lives.

VA urged to use advanced technology to cut backlog of benefit claimsBy Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com January 30, 2008
Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence could help the Veterans Affairs Department reduce a backlog of disability claims that has spiked past 1 million, according to computer experts and veterans advocates.

The Veterans Benefits Administration, which processes the claims, has a backlog of 650,000 pending claims and another 147,000 that are under appeal and working their way through a process that "is paper intensive, complex to understand, difficult to manage and takes years to learn," Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., chairman of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability and Memorial Affairs, said at a Jan. 29 hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

Training an employee to rate VBA claims can take two to three years and many leave within five years, Hall said. Experienced raters can adjudicate only about three claims a day, spending two to three hours on each claim. He said the VA should consider the use of artificial intelligence technologies, such as automated decision-support tools that can determine disability payments, which would speed up claims processing.

Computer experts who testified at the hearing said technology exists today that can automate the claims process and eliminate the backlog.

VBA repeatedly loses paper records submitted by claimants. Robin Cleveland, wife of retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Tai Cleveland, told the hearing that since November 2005, she has submitted multiple copies of Tai's medical record and was told that the VBA could not find the records and she needed to resubmit them. She said her husband, a paraplegic after injuries incurred in August 2003 during a hand-to-hand training exercise in Kuwait, only started to receive benefit payments this month after Congress intervened.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0108/013008bb1.htm

Years ago, when veterans came to me to understand PTSD, I would explain it to them and their families, get the idea of it having anything to do with them out of their mind, support them until they were ready to go for help and then send them to it. Now I have no place to send them. This is especially hard for veterans in rural areas of the country. Help is often too far away. The suicide prevention lines are helping. The veteran can reach out in the middle of the night to talk to someone but unless they get into treatment with an approved claim, they find themselves either being billed for their treatment or being pushed back so that veterans with approved claims can be seen.

Between the time they come back and understand what PTSD is, vital time is lost. The sooner they begin treatment PTSD stops getting worse. It's like an infection that spreads untreated. The system is adding stress to them on a daily basis as they have to wait to have their claims approved. It's like a knife in their back when their claim is denied and they have to file an appeal.

With the changes in the new VA Bill providing five years of free care to returning forces, this will help in having them treated without charging them but it does not address the income stress they and their families face when most of the time, they are unable to work in the condition PTSD puts them in.

650,000 backlogged claims and 147,000 on appeal means they are just one of 797,000 veterans suffering for their service to this country and countless family members suffering right along with them.

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