If a "dummy" like me knew why didn't the experts?

If a "dummy" like me knew why didn't the experts?

by
Chaplain Kathie

There are many things I just don't understand. No one would ever ask me how to fix a car but I drive one. No one would ask me to do a tax return even though I did accounting for over 20 years I never really understood the tax rules. No one would ask me to do a lot of things most people do on a normal basis but PTSD is what I do know about and it's all normal to me. It's been my life for over 27 years now. I live with it, study it, track it and do my best to share the wealth of knowledge gained along with how to avoid making the same mistakes I made. It is because of this I knew PTSD would get worse, harder to treat because no one was ready for what was coming, had very little understanding of the cause of PTSD even though they were trying to "cure it" and worse, trying to prevent it. So why didn't the experts know?

This is the part that always gets me angry. I am an average person living a very un-average life. Even with the news reports lately on PTSD, most people have not heard a word about what it is. Yesterday I was doing a presentation to a group of women for a college alumni. When I do these for non-veterans, I try to make the presentation fit into their own lives. I explain about traumatic events and how those events never really leave them so they can remember the depth of pain they felt and then begin to understand PTSD when it comes to our military men and women along with the veterans.

Once they understand how memories take hold, they can understand the reality of flashbacks when the response is fully physically involved as the mind travels back in time to the event itself. When the group begin to think of events in their own lives, they end up opening up with their own pain coming closer to understanding the depth of PTSD turmoil. Arriving at this place of awareness, they were shocked to hear about the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides. Common sense told them that since we've been trying to address PTSD since 1978, we should be a lot better at addressing it and the numbers should have gone down instead of up. If the experts really knew what they needed to know, there would be very few active military suicides and even less veteran suicides. All the signs are pointing to a massive failure with no accountability.

Healing the Wounds of War Downtown
“Once you go through an experience like [combat] you are permanently changed,” said Iraq war vet Eduard H.R. Gluck, a Worth Street resident and photojournalist who receives counseling at the Vet Center. “But you don’t have to allow it to change you just in a negative way. You have to work towards trying to find balance and peace.”

The Vet Center program began in 1979, a recognition by the government that Vietnam veterans still faced adjustment problems years after the war had ended.

From Veterans For Common Sense

Suicides: Today the Department of Veterans Affairs released data to the Associated Press indicating that the suicide rate increased 26 percent for veterans aged 18 to 29, an issue first publicized by Veterans for Common Sense and CBS Evening News in November 2007.

We here at VCS extend our condolences to the families of our veterans who completed suicide. VCS calls upon President Obama, Defense Secretary Gates, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki to immediately implement a strategic casualty plan with a significant mental health component.

A long-term casualty care effort must start with quickly hiring more mental health professionals, examining every soldier before and after deployment (as required by law), and providing prompt access to high-quality care. This is critical because multiple deployments to war increase the risk of PTSD (and therefore suicide) by three-fold.

VCS also recommends that VA and DoD expand their anti-stigma efforts and encourage our service members and veterans with mental health symptoms to seek care soon, when treatment is most effective and least expensive.

In addition, Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense, said, "VCS remains deeply concerned about the enormous physical and psychological strain repeated deployments to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are causing our troops. As many as 800,000, or 40 percent, of the two million troops sent to the two conflicts deployed twice or more, according to the Department of Defense."

Sullivan also said, "VCS urges the Department of Defense and the VA to implement a casualty plan for our military and veterans. Such a plan should include hiring more mental health professionals immediately to perform medical exams on all troops before and after deployment to spot medical problems early, when treatment is most effective and least expensive. The Department of Defense and the VA must also expand their anti-stigma efforts, especially with training for both officers and non-commissioned officers so they know how to spot brain injury or other mental health symptoms and then promptly refer soldiers for treatment."

Read more about multiple deployments, PTSD, and suicide plus our VCS advocacy for our soldiers and veterans.

This was what they knew a year ago and we have to ask what they have learned since then when the numbers kept going up.

Soldier Suicides In Afghanistan Rose Sharply Last Year
WAR STRESS
By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN The Hartford Courant
January 14, 2009
Soldiers in Afghanistan committed suicide in record numbers in 2008, in step with a dramatic spike in combat deaths in the country, new military figures show.Seven Army soldiers committed suicide in Afghanistan last year, compared with 15 suicides in total during the previous 75 months of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to figures from the Defense Manpower Data Center.Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a top Army psychiatrist, said military officials during the past several years have tracked an increase in mental health problems among soldiers serving in Afghanistan. In 2004, she said, anxiety and depression were far less common among soldiers in Afghanistan, compared with those in Iraq. But by 2007 and early 2008, soldiers in Afghanistan were suffering depression and anxiety at the same rates as their counterparts in Iraq, she said."In Afghanistan, there are considerable barriers for providers getting to the troops due to the difficulties in travel and weather, compared to Iraq," Ritchie said.click link above for more

We knew about the risk of redeploying them in 2006!

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 20, 2006
U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health.
More than 650,000 soldiers have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001 -- including more than 170,000 now in the Army who have served multiple tours -- so the survey's finding of increased risk from repeated exposure to combat has potentially widespread implications for the all-volunteer force. Earlier Army studies have shown that up to 30 percent of troops deployed to Iraq suffer from depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with the latter accounting for about 10 percent.
The findings reflect the fact that some soldiers -- many of whom are now spending only about a year at home between deployments -- are returning to battle while still suffering from the psychological scars of earlier combat tours, the report said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121901659.html

VA diagnosing higher rates of PTSD
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 16, 2009 16:18:25 EST
More than 44 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have sought treatment at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility have been diagnosed with one or more possible mental disorders, according to the agency’s most recent summary of veteran health care.
click link for more

Then we have the issue of what happened at Fort Hood and the fact a Major did the shooting. Did Major Hasan have anything to do with these deaths? More? What did he tell the soldiers seeking help to heal? Did he give wrong medication? What did he tell the soldiers he treated?

Fort Hood investigating death of another soldier in barracks

Dallas Morning News - Dallas,TX,USA05:47 PM CST on Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The Associated Press
FORT HOOD, Texas – Army officials are investigating the death of a soldier found in his barracks at Fort Hood on New Year's Day.Staff Sgt. Kevin M. Marsh, 41, of Friedens, Pa., was found dead the night of Jan. 1 by officers from his unit after a concerned call from a family member, said Maj. David Shoupe, a Fort Hood spokesman.Marsh was assigned in June to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Rear-Detachment. He served twice in Iraq, in 2003-04 and in 2005-06, as a gunner and vehicle commander.His medals and awards include the Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Army Service Ribbon and the Combat Action Badge.Authorities were already investigating at least five deaths at Fort Hood from late July to September at the sprawling post that's home to about 52,000 troops.
click link above for more

Substance abuse? We knew about this a long time ago too!

Links between PTSD, substance abuse explored,,dah!
I'm really sorry but I can't help myself,,,,,dah! They've had over thirty years to notice this....It's called self-medicating and has been documented since the Vietnam Veterans came home!

Links between PTSD, substance abuse explored

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writerPosted : Wednesday Jan 7, 2009 18:20:34 ESTAt a two-day conference for civilian and military researchers, doctors produced one idea after another for treating and preventing substance abuse in service members with post-traumatic stress disorder.As the ideas bounced from person to person, they tried to tie them together in ways that could make sense in a military setting: They must be accessible to many people at once, they must be cheap, they must be proven, and they must be easy.

Better than nothing does more harm than good but did they learn anything?

BATTLEMIND: A Guide to PTSD for Military Members and their Spouses
by: Combat Infantry Bunny
Sat Dec 29, 2007 at 13:48:29 PM EST
.........From my understanding from those deployed, they are already requiring soldiers about to redeploy this, but my friend said it was just lumped in with all the other random redeployment briefings and no one really cared.
In addition, PTSD is a post-deployment thing and a refresher is sometimes necessary. Anyway, reading this brochure and explanations for PTSD really made sense, especially when I realized I pretty much fit every description re: PTSD behavior. Again, it made me realize I had made the right decision to seek help and I hope that everyone that reads this will forward it to any military personnel they know who may have PTSD and/or to their families who may be trying to understand what their soldier is going through, I think the following explains it very well:
Battlemind is the Soldier's inner strength to face fear and adversity with courage. Key components include:
• Self confidence: taking calculated risks and handling challenges.
• Mental toughness: overcoming obstacles or setbacks and maintainingpositive thoughts during times of adversity and challenge.Batttlemind skills helped you survive in combat, but maycause you problems if not adapted when you get home.
Every letter in B-A-T-T-L-E-M-I-N-D, refers to a different behavior, as shown below:
Buddies (Cohesion) vs. Withdrawal
Accountability vs. Controlling
Targeted Aggression vs. Inappropriate Aggression
Tactical Awareness vs. Hypervigilance
Lethally Armed vs. "Locked and Loaded" at Home
Emotional Control vs. Anger/Detachment
Mission Operational Security vs. Secretiveness
Individual Responsibility vs. Guilt
Non-defensive (combat) driving vs. Aggressive Driving
Discipline and Ordering vs. Conflict

While he does say that Battlemind does have some good points the first point made was that it was introduced lumped in with a bunch of other stuff. This was first reported by the BBC that uncovered only 11 1/2 minutes of Battlemind are provided when they arrive "in country" along with the two days of operational briefings they have to get through.They will be left thinking they can toughen their minds enough to not have to face PTSD and that also means that if anyone does, they are not tough enough. This includes their buddies and some of the others in their unit they may not happen to like very much and if they should end up wounded by it, well then, they must not be tough enough either. This is why Battlemind does not work and as a matter of fact very well could contribute to the increase in suicides and attempted suicides.

Army suicides rise as time spent in combat increases
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAYFORT LEWIS, Wash. — Josh Barber, former combat soldier, parked outside the Army hospital here one morning last August armed for war.A cook at the dining facility, Barber sat in his truck wearing battle fatigues, earplugs and a camouflage hood on his head. He had an arsenal: seven loaded guns, nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition, knives in his pockets. On the front seat, an AK-47had a bullet in the chamber.The "smell of death" he experienced in Iraq continued to haunt him, his wife says. He was embittered about the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that crippled him, the Army's failure to treat it, and the strains the disorder put on his marriage.Despite the firepower he brought with him, Barber, 31, took only one life that day. He killed himself with a shot to the head."He went to Fort Lewis to kill himself to prove a point," Kelly Barber says. " 'Here I am. I was a soldier. You guys didn't help me.' "

None of this is new. Because it keeps getting worse, all of it, reports produce nothing much other than a lot of talk and bad results, we should be asking what they have learned and why they still have not learned what was known over 30 years ago.