Financial reality of ignoring PTSD

American Psychiatric Foundation, Lilly Foundation And Give An Hour Join Forces To Provide Mental Health Care To Iraq And Afghanistan Veterans

Heeding the call of a growing public health crisis -- the unmet mental health needs of returning soldiers and their families -- Give an Hour (GAH) and the American Psychiatric Foundation (APF) announced a major expansion of a nationwide effort to help U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

GAH and APF, the philanthropic and educational arm of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), will be using a $1 million grant from the Lilly Foundation to recruit and educate volunteer mental health professionals, who will become part of a network aiming to bridge the gap in mental health services for soldiers returning from service, as well as their families. Among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, approximately 40 percent of soldiers, a third of Marines, and half of the National Guard members report psychological problems, but mental health services are in short supply.

Details of today's announcement were made public by the three organizations at the Reserve Officers Association (ROA) building on Capitol Hill -- one week prior to the nation's Memorial Day holiday. The ROA represents the interest of the soldiers of the Army National Guard, who suffer high rates of post-combat psychological problems, exacerbated by repeat deployments, detailed front-line combat positions and little access to the services of military treatment facilities.

"This all-volunteer effort provides badly needed support to help our veterans, many of whom come home with mental health needs," said U.S. Representative Steve Buyer (R-Indiana), Ranking Member, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "I applaud the hard work of Give an Hour, the American Psychiatric Foundation, and the Lilly Foundation, which are stepping up to help those who have selflessly served."

Efforts will be made to create a large, national, volunteer network over the next three years to address postwar mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), drug abuse, anxiety and depression.

"This grant will allow us to get out the message that help is available. We want to normalize what our military personnel and their families are experiencing and support the sacrifices that they are making by providing critical mental health support at no cost," said Barbara V. Romberg, Ph.D., founder and president of GAH. "We will be educating the military community and broader public about these mental health needs in hope of helping veterans keep their lives and families intact."
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http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/108689.php

Aside from the emotional costs when families fall apart, this is a glimpse of what it costs the nation.

April 15, 2008
Study: Single parents cost taxpayers $112 billion
Story Highlights
New study says divorce, unwed childbearing cost taxpayers

Says $112 billion spent on welfare, healthcare, criminal justice

Study sponsors want more funding for strengthening marriages
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/04/15/fragmented.families.ap/index.html

We cannot save all marriages and some marriages should not be saved. Yet this is not about the rest of the nation. This is about families trying to cope with Post Traumatic Stress. There are too many who have no idea what PTSD is, what the cause of the changes in their family life comes from or why someone they loved suddenly turned into a stranger.

It is nearly impossible to hold a family together when we know what PTSD is and why everything is falling apart, yet when we do not know the cause of it, the veteran is blamed for all of it. Families fall apart, but it does not stop there.

The veteran, still suffering from PTSD, from the wound they brought home with them, is suffering alone because his/her family could not deal with the way they acted any longer. Jobs are very hard to keep when there is no support and they lost their home life. The financial burden on them to support themselves along with child support and financial obligations to their family, adds stress to a veteran trying to survive.

Yet when they know what PTSD is, what is causing the upheaval in the home, the changes in the person they love, they are armed to fight it all. They are given the tools to cope until they get the treatment they desperately need. When anyone says that the price is too high, they should have considered this when the war was planned out. When they say it costs too much money to take care of all the veterans with PTSD, they better reconsider anything they knew about accounting because the money they spend now, early on, is a lot less than they will have to pay for years to come by doing nothing.

Give An Hour volunteers are giving up a lot of money for the time they donate. They understand that failing to act will cost lives, marriages and futures for far too many.

What are you doing?