Time to put shame of PTSD where it belongs

When the soldiers went home following the Revolutionary War, there was shame. When they went home after the Civil War, there was shame. When they went home after every war, there was shame. The difference is we are a lot more educated than the population back then. Or at least you'd think we were. Back then they shot soldiers experiencing mental health problems because they were seen as cowards. We know better now. Don't we?

Historians have been documenting the price the human mind pays when humans are sent into combat. This has been documented over and over again under different titles but with the same reports of the same problems humans face today. While science has advanced to the point where we can actually see the changes in the brain by someone with PTSD, humans however are still only human. Trauma can, will and does strike humans until we stop being human.

It takes other humans to become involved enough to learn what PTSD is, what it isn't and what can be done about it, as well as what cannot be done yet.

The shame should have never been placed on humans who develop PTSD after traumatic events. The shame belongs to the rest of the humans who refuse to learn. You would think that by now the stigma of PTSD would be so eroded it would resemble the attitude we now have toward leaches and bleeding a patient to death, but when it comes to PTSD, too many are still living in the dark ages.

These dark-dwellers are in the military, back home and in the neighborhoods. I for one would be more embarrassed hanging onto the attitude it's their fault when this has never been the case. Today there are still members of the military upper echelon remaining ignorant and coming off as uneducated cave dwellers thinking fire was magic. Will they ever learn? How many humans serving this nation need to pay for their ignorance? The shame does not belong to the veterans or the active military any more than it belongs to other humans who also experience PTSD from other causes. It belongs to those who would prefer to stand in the way of help than offer a hand toward it.

Sens.: Shame may spur better care for wounded

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 15, 2008 16:55:25 EST

Shame and embarrassment can do as much as, if not more than, legislation to prod the services to improve treatment for wounded combat veterans, key lawmakers said Friday.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Congress can pass laws like the Wounded Warrior Act that took effect Jan. 28, but getting the services to follow through on new policies is harder.

While Congress has the power to cut budgets if the services don’t follow orders, Levin said calling public attention to shortfalls seems more effective.

“We can require it by law. We’ve already done that. So I think kind of embarrassing and shaming them into meeting those deadlines, through that kind of public disclosure of their shortfalls, is probably the most practical way to accomplish the goal,” Levin said in a conference call with reporters.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind. — who has been involved in investigating the death of an unattended soldier at Fort Knox, Ky., who was being treated for mental health issues — agreed.

Bayh said while it should not take publicity to “spur action,” experience has shown publicity works. “We need to follow up on this and keep the pressure on,” he said.

Bayh worries that as time passes since last year’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center outpatient scandal, some of the urgency to make improvements is diminishing, and the glacial pace of changing a bureaucracy has returned.

“For a while, there was a sense of focus and urgency, and then that kind of dissipated,” he said. “We cannot allow that to dissipate again. Whether it’s shame or coercion, whatever it takes, we’re going to do better.”

Levin, Akaka and Bayh said the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs deserve credit for progress made in the last year, but they stressed no one should believe the job is done.

“They’ve been way too slow on this, but they’re trying to do the right thing here,” Bayh said.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02
/military_shamingservices_woundedwarrior_080215w/