As bad as the PTSD rate is now, it's due to get a lot worse

Of the many conversations I've had with Paul about PTSD and what we're facing, this is one of topics that seems to shock the most people. Over a year ago, I said we would be looking at a million with PTSD from Iraq and Afghanistan, but I also offered a warning. It depended on when both occupations ended what the end result would be.

First and foremost, I take all of this very seriously, as if my life depended on it simply because it does. I live with PTSD in my house because it came home with my husband buried deep inside of him when he came home from Vietnam. By the time we met, he had undiagnosed PTSD for 11 years. For the last 26 years I've read everything that has come out about this wound. I can tell you that the data was already pointing to catastrophic outcomes of Vietnam veterans with PTSD by 1978 when the study commissioned by the DAV had found 500,000. Even back then they also offered a dire warning that those numbers would rise over the next ten years. But that was assuming the VA would do the work of letting the veterans know what PTSD was, assuming they would notify the veterans that there was help to heal and that it was not anything they did wrong and they were not tough enough to cope. What they didn't say in the study was that 30 years later, they would still see these veteran entering into the VA system for the first time.

All the VA and the DOD had to do was take a serious look at the numbers from Vietnam veterans to know what they should expect the outcome to be. The data of the suicides was done a few years after this study in the early 90's and later. The data of the homeless was available as well as the incarcerated veterans for issues spanning from drugs to murder, most of them could have been tied to PTSD but no one ever connected the dots.

There is only one difference between then and now and it frightens the hell out of me just thinking about it. As bad as the numbers were for Vietnam veterans, there is a catch this time. Each redeployment increases the risk of PTSD by 50%. Most of these men and women are pulling multiple tours and a lot of them are members of the National Guards and Reservists returning home to isolation. They also face another factor with the backlog of claims, claims denied and appeals to file for only adding to all the stress they are under.

The usual rate of PTSD is 1 out of 3, about 30% of people exposed to traumatic events. With these redeployments over and over again, it would not shock me if next year there was a figure of 80% of the men and women deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan. There have already been over 1.7 million deployed. Yes, that means over a million in the near future and we're far from the end of either occupation. Naturally these numbers as bad as they are do not even begin to address secondary PTSD which is caused by living with someone with PTSD and the traumatic situations that arise in households across the nation.

This is from Paul Sullivan. He hasn't given up on getting this right either. Thank God he is doing he does because most of what the media is reporting on is because of his efforts to find out.

Feb 9, VCS Publishes Report About VA Based on FOIA Research: 'Looking Forward - The Status and Future of VA'
VCS Staff


Veterans for Common Sense

Feb 09, 2009
For Immediate Release: February 9, 2009Contact: Paul Sullivan (202) 558-4553paul@veteransforcommonsense.org
VA Data Reveals New High of 400,000 Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran PatientsVA Needs Accurate Forecasting to Handle Surge of Patients and Claims
February 9, 2009, Washington, DC - The number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans receiving treatment at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities skyrocketed from 13,000 to over 400,000 in the last four years, according to VA data obtained exclusively by Veterans for Common Sense (VCS).

Of the Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans treated by VA, nearly 178,000 were diagnosed with a mental health condition, including 105,000 diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The percentage of recent war veterans returning home with a mental health condition continues to climb steeply, from 14 percent in 2004 to 45 percent in 2008.

Despite the enormous growth in healthcare demand, VCS found little evidence that VA is correctly forecasting future demand among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. This could mean VA may be ill-equipped to handle a sharply increasing patient and disability claim load. An analysis by VCS indicates the number of veterans of these two wars receiving care from VA could soar to between 700,000 and one million within 10 years.
Read the full VCS report here.

VCS obtained dozens of VA reports using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) during the past two years. The VA data shows high rates of suicides and suicide attempts among younger veterans as well as growing incidents of drug use. VCS remains concerned that the backlog of disability claims at VA is more than 800,000, a figure that includes more than 50,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans’ claims. All veterans wait, on average, more than six months for an initial disability claim decision from VA. Of the 105,000 veterans diagnosed with PTSD by VA, only 42,000 receive disability benefits for PTSD.

“We can – and we must – do better speeding up the delivery of high-quality healthcare and benefits to our veterans,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.

“The new administration should compel VA to more accurately and consistently forecast future demand to avoid lengthy delays. Our veterans are not in a position to wait a month to see a doctor or six months to receive disability benefits. Our veterans and their families deserve better, especially during the economic recession exacerbated by the two current wars.”
Our new VCS report, “Looking Forward – The Status and Future of VA,” contains many previously unreported VA statistics about Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. VCS documents the status of VA at the end of 2008 so the information can be used as a yardstick to measure VA performance during the next four years.
Read the full VCS report here.
About Veterans for Common Sense: VCS is a non-profit 501(c)3 based in Washington, DC. VCS and our 14,000 members provide advocacy and publicity about policies related to veterans’ healthcare, veterans’ disability benefits, national security, and civil liberties.