By Julie Robinson
The Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Private First Class Lindsay Bailey saw plenty of carnage and destruction when she served as a U.S. Army gunner in Iraq.
About five months into her service there, the 21-year-old Sissonville native lost three friends when their vehicle was torn apart by an improvised explosive device, or IED.
"She called me crying and totally upset," said her mother, Robin, who was home with Lindsay's father, Greg. "She knew those three young men really well. She'd babysat the children and knew their wives.
Soon after the explosion, Lindsay Bailey began suffering from severe anxiety and sleeplessness.
This week, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs announced regulations it says will simplify the path to care for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. However, those regulations only apply to veterans, not to active-duty soldiers.
The base hospital at Fort Richardson is not equipped to provide long-term care and counseling for PTSD and substance-abuse sufferers, but they can be transferred to a private residential treatment facility in Colorado. Robin Bailey asked why her obviously troubled daughter was not receiving counseling, only extensive medication.
Later, she learned that her daughter's superiors planned to pursue a Chapter 14 discharge, which is issued for soldiers who have committed some form of misconduct. If they've served less than two years, as Bailey had at that point, they don't receive future Veterans Affairs and military benefits.
Confused and frightened by her daughter's condition and treatment, Robin Bailey turned to her friend, Diane Vande Burgt of Charleston, who runs Lest We Forget, a PTSD family support group, with her husband, Tom, a retired Marine and Army National Guard veteran.read more here
No comments:
Post a Comment
If it is not helpful, do not be hurtful. Spam removed so do not try putting up free ad.