Veterans for Common Sense warns of need to hire more doctors now

They are right. Too often I'll talk to veterans and find out while they get all the meds they need, there isn't any therapy for them. They are given meds and told to come back in a few months but that's just about it. When you tell a twenty-something year old he needs to be on medication the rest of his/her life, they tend to not find much hope in that. Yet when you tell them what PTSD is, and what they can do to get to the point when they won't need much medication at all, that gives them hope. They need to know healing is possible and how to get there. This is their biggest complaint of all and it's easy to understand why it is that way.

National Security News
Finally, the press starts to wake up to the escalating and shocking human toll nine years of war has had on our military. The L.A. Times reports the number of U.S. military casualties caused by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is more than 500,000. The real total is 537,099, according to VA, because VA also counts veteran patients with TBI, mental illness, and warzone-acquired diseases - categories not counted in misleading and incomplete Pentagon reports.

The Army Times reports on the the military's struggles related to the severe shortage of medical personnel. VCS believes the number of suicides rises, in part, due to the lack of medical professionals, especially mental health professionals (other factors include multiple deployments, the lack of medical exams, and discrimination against veterans with mental health conditions).

Our messsage to Secretary Gates: Hire more doctors now !