Counselors hope to help troops cope with combat stress

“There's such a tremendous need out there,” said David Fenell, a counselor and retired Army colonel who taught a seminar on how to help military families. “These multiple deployments are taking place. The stresses on the family continue to build.”

Counselors hope to help troops cope with combat stress

By Audrey McAvoy
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:39 p.m. April 7, 2008

HONOLULU – Living on a base that's shelled every day. Risking a roadside bomb explosion each time you patrol the neighborhood. Watching children die.

Troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan consistently have experiences that may lead to combat stress and trauma. Now, as the number of U.S. military personnel deployed to both places since 2001 tops 1.5 million, the nation's largest counseling association is calling on its members to help the returning troops.


“We're engaged in a massive military mobilization with the war on terror,” said Dr. Brian Canfield, president of the American Counseling Association. “We are going to have to deal with the repercussions of this for years, if not decades, to come.”

The 45,000-member association made counseling military personnel a key topic at its annual convention this year for the first time. The meeting, attended by some 3,000 counselors in Hawaii last month, offered nine seminars on issues like identifying and treating post-traumatic stress disorder and helping returning troops readjust to life back home.

Experts say the current conflict presents particular mental health challenges.

Soldiers and Marines are constantly on the front lines, countering an enemy they can't always see. Commanders can't withdraw units to the rear and give troops a rest as they did in World War II.

click post title for more