Marines, Navy aim to remove stigma of mental health issues

Marines, Navy aim to remove stigma of mental health issues
By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

August 15, 2008

The Navy and Marine Corps will roll out a program next month that's designed to take the stigma out of mental health ailments by describing them as largely brief challenges instead of lifelong disorders.

“These Marines are recoverable,” said Sgt. Maj. Kevin Wilson, from the Personal and Family Readiness Division at Marine Corps headquarters in Arlington, Va. “In the past, we thought if a Marine had post-traumatic stress disorder, he was gone. Now it's more like breaking a leg.”

Wilson and other military officials outlined the program during the Marine Corps' second annual Combat Operational Stress Control Conference. The event, held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in downtown San Diego, ended yesterday.

Besides trying to forge a new outlook, commanders plan to intensify education efforts so that everyone from generals to rank-and-file Marines will be vigilant for signs of PTSD, combat stress, depression, alcohol abuse and traumatic brain injuries.

The Corps also plans to appoint regional training coordinators at Marine bases around the world, and it intends to deploy more mental health teams to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Numerous studies in recent years by military and civilian researchers have estimated that up to one-third of combat troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have suffered combat stress or PTSD.
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