When it comes to PTSD, it's time to reach outside of the box

I'm beginning to wonder if there is any possible way to get the elected officials to start working out of the box? Is it that hard to look beyond the usual places when it is clear the usual places have yet to come up with any answers?

If you go to YouTube video, type in PTSD in the search field, several of mine are on the first two pages. If you go to Google, again with PTSD in the search field, you find mind yet again. While Google video has had numerous problems with hit counts in the past, a few months ago, they seem to have corrected their problem.

PTSD I Grieve08:40
From:NamGuardianAngel
Views: 1,262

PTSD After Trauma
04:44
From:NamGuardianAngel
Views: 2,457

The Voice Women At War
09:49
From:NamGuardianAngel
Views: 1,040

Women At War
08:02
From:NamGuardianAngel
Views: 10,744

Coming Out Of The Dark Of PTSD
04:25
From:NamGuardianAngel
Views: 1,277

Hero After War
08:27
From:NamGuardianAngel
Views: 5,227


Nam Nights Of PTSD Still 08:33
From:NamGuardianAngel
Views: 2,499


Wounded Minds is a fairly long video, 28 minutes, and is only on Google because of the length.
Wounded Minds PTSD and Veterans
Mar 15, 2006
2819 views (The hits before the problem with Google was fixed were over 8,000)
83 downloads

There are more, but you get the idea.


With that in mind consider that if the veterans were getting what they need from the military and the VA, would they ever need to watch videos like mine or any of the others? I'm not a professional video creator. I taught myself how to do them two years ago. There is another version of Wounded Minds, the first one I made and last time I had a look at the counts on that one it was well over 10,000. That video was not very good because of the colors I used and the slides moved too fast to read them.

What I'm getting to is this simple fact. There are people like me all over the country the DOD and the VA will not use to help. To them, living with it everyday in our own homes, is not good enough. I've been doing outreach work for 26 years and 15 years of that has been online. My husband is a Vietnam vet with PTSD so I take all of this very seriously. I track it across the country and around the globe. Do any of the people acceptable to the VA and the DOD do that? I'm not saying they are not committed to what they do and they are trained to do what I cannot do, which is to diagnose and treat the veteran, but I am experienced and trained in getting them to understand what PTSD is. They also spend most of their time working with the veterans. They don't have time to do what I do. Most of them have no idea what the Montana National Guard is doing because of the suicide of Chris Dana or the fact they came up with a program so wonderful that President Elect Obama wants to replicate it across the nation. When he was campaigning, he went there without much media attention and found out exactly what they were doing. Yet if you ask a National Guard unit in another part of the country, they have no idea what is being done there.

I am a licensed, insured, certified and ordained Chaplain with the International Fellowship of Chaplains. We are good enough to work in any crisis with victims, emergency responders, but apparently we are not good enough to work in the crisis the VA and the DOD has on their hands with these veterans trying to keep their heads above water without drowning in misery. The VA won't use me as a Chaplain because I don't have a degree. The DOD ignores me even though I passed a test on Military Cultural Competence. I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to self-promoting, I'm not very good at it. I spend too much time researching and posting, plus making the videos to ever really understand how to do it right. While I have made a lot of phone calls, I get thanks but no thanks. So when do they work outside the box and start looking at what the veterans need that they are not doing?

The National Guards and Reservists have a bigger problem because they go back to their communities, isolated from the people who understand what they are going thru. Why aren't the armories having every single educator come in and do presentations so these civilian warriors can find what they need? Why not do it for the families as well? We've all heard how there are not enough acceptable people to go around the country, so why not use people who are trained to do what the others cannot? If the goal is to get as many as possible into treatment, then educating them should be one of the top priorities and mobilize every resource available but they don't.

The commanders can only do what they are allowed to do. The elected officials and the brass make the rules. It's time for them to either change the rules or work around them especially when the lives of these veterans are on the line.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

W.Va. National Guard social worker seeks assistance for returning vets

By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald reporter

CHARLESTON — Unaware help is available, or reluctant to seek it in deference to the stigma society attaches to mental disorders, many war-weary veterans are self-medicating and abusing alcohol, or getting flawed diagnoses, lawmakers learned Monday.

In some instances, says Lt. Suzanne Jenkins, a social worker for the West Virginia National Guard, soldiers are using a relative’s medicine and mixing in alcohol in search of immediate relief.

“When they get to me, I have not only to deal with the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but also their substance abuses.”

Jenkins provided the Legislature’s Select Committee B on Veterans Issues with a list of recommendations that would potentially put more returning troops under medical care.

One need is to get services advertised, which, by federal law, she explained, the Veterans Administration is barred from doing.

“What I have found when I’m talking to National Guard soldiers is they are not aware of exactly what the five-year window means,” Jenkins said, emphasizing it’s a five-year limit to seek help.

Failure to take advantage of the time limit means the soldier afterward cannot even get an appointment at the VA.

A recent survey commissioned by the panel, co-chaired by Delegate Barbara Fleischauer and Sen. Jon Blair Hunter, both D-Monongalia, found that one-third of returnees are not applying for services.

“If you get seen by that one provider, you can keep that benefit going,” Jenkins said of the five-year window.
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http://www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_322212503.html