Fort Drum:"There’s a trickle-down problem" with PTSD

Report Faults Mental Care for Iraq Veterans at Upstate Base
by VFA on Feb 12, 2008
Lisa W. Foderaro, the New York Times

In the report issued by Veterans for America, one soldier, Eli Wright, 26, who was a medic in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 and remains on active duty while awaiting a medical discharge, said his symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder began after his tour ended and have worsened since then.

“My nerves are basically shot,” Mr. Wright said in a recent interview at the Different Drummer Cafe downtown. “I have flashbacks if I hear loud noises, especially if weapons are being fired. Sometimes just putting on my uniform can bring me right back to my experience in Iraq.”

He said that when he was in Iraq, he treated more civilians than American soldiers, and that two in particular stood out in his mind: an old woman and a child who were shot through a door as soldiers were “going door to door, tearing apart entire neighborhoods” searching for insurgents.

Mr. Wright said he waited weeks at Fort Drum to see a mental health professional, who diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. He was prescribed medication and pointed toward group therapy, where, he said, “half the time the group is staring at the floor.” At times, he was taking two pills at once. “I couldn’t stay awake,” he said.

But his chief complaint with the Army is the long wait for treatment. “The average wait time is five to six weeks,” he said. “When a soldier is having a mental breakdown, he has to wait over a month to see a counselor about his problems.”

Mr. Forrester of Veterans for America said that while the top brass at Fort Drum, especially General Oates, have spoken passionately about the need for soldiers to seek psychological treatment, others have not.

“There’s a trickle-down problem with the message, and that is that there’s still a pervasive stigma around mental health treatment in the military, along with a lack of confidentiality,” he said. “For those who still doubt the legitimacy of these wounds, they often are quite abusive of fellow soldiers or people in their units.”
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