Common sense on PTSD from Congressman Tom Allen

Help for Veterans with PTSD
by: Congressman Tom Allen
Thu Feb 28, 2008 at 11:45:14 AM EST
(This is a guest piece by Congressman Tom Allen who represents Maine's 1st Congressional District. Congressman Allen is promoting H.R. 5448, a bill that would improve veterans' treatment for combat PTSD. From the diaries - promoted by Brandon Friedman)

When my father returned from the South Pacific after World War II, he rarely talked about the terrifying nightly bombings that blasted the Navy air base where he served as a control tower operator. Nor did he often speak of the pilots he had befriended who never returned from their missions. He was a quiet and determined man, who gave enormously to his country, community and family, but I now believe that when he came home, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and that skillful treatment might have eased his pain.

In 1945, however, the symptoms that constitute PTSD were rarely acknowledged. Even today, as Maine veterans have shown me, it remains under-diagnosed, under-treated, and misunderstood. That is why I have introduced the Full Faith in Veterans Act, H.R. 5448.
Continue reading below. . . .
Congressman Tom Allen :: Help for Veterans with PTSD
Scott Whittier, from Washington, Maine, served as an active duty Army Reserve soldier and National Guard Member during the Gulf War in 1991. U.S. forces had relentlessly bombed and strafed Iraqi military convoys fleeing Kuwait on Route 8, Iraq's "Highway of Death." As he recently recalled, "The sights were of nothing I'd ever seen before... Death littered the highway."

Later, these sights began to take their toll. Back in the States, Scott was diagnosed by Togus Veterans Administration (VA) medical personnel as suffering from PTSD, made worse when he watched 9/11 and the current War in Iraq unfold. "I almost totally shut down. I began isolating myself...started drinking even more. Lost all interest...could not remember simple tasks, names, where I was going... Memories came crashing down ...of all those bodies, smells, hands, legs, heads, blood, burnt gruesome odorsome bodies."

Although his physician was confident that his PTSD was service-connected, the VA demanded proof that he was on Route 8 during the invasion. One would think that the military itself could easily provide this evidence, but it took the Army years to do so. Only this month did Scott get word that his government would accept his doctor's diagnosis.

Terry Belanger of Biddeford was rapidly driving a troop-filled truck in Vietnam during the Tet offensive when he ran over a small girl. Ordered not to stop because of the danger lurking in the village, the accident has haunted him for decades. He is plagued by flashbacks and nightmares, anxiety, migraines and insomnia. As his loving wife wrote, "this wonderful man...left part of his soul in Vietnam."

Terry's PTSD disability claim was denied because "there was no evidence of a qualifying stressor and his evidentiary assertions regarding his post-traumatic stress disorder were found to be not credible." In other words, this soldier's medical history and the conclusions of his private and VA physicians-all of whom believe he has service-connected PTSD-are dismissed by VA bureaucrats.

go here for the rest
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=657