Care now or pay more later

Here is a lesson all nations need to take seriously. It comes from the UK. A soldier suffered more because PTSD was not taken care of early on. The UK ended up paying out a lot of money to compensate him for the suffering he went through that did not need to happen.

This happens even more here in the US. PTSD is like an infection. It gets worse when it is not treated. Treat it and it stops getting worse. The sooner it is treated, much of what the warrior is experiencing can be reversed. They can be taught to live with what cannot be reversed and make their lives better.

It is not made public since the media has a habit of jumping on the latest figures but we're over a million suffering with PTSD right now. There are more with mild PTSD still hoping they will just get over it. They are not aware the 30 warning window flew wide open a long time ago. After trauma, if suffering does not subside within 30 days, survivors are advised to seek help no matter what caused the trauma. For the servicemen and women, too often multiple traumatic events come into their lives and feed what was already done by previous events. In other words, by the time they come home, it's already often too late to realistically expect to get over it.

Mild PTSD, if treated, can leave a veteran able to function quite well. Nightmares and flashbacks may remain, but they are not as strong or as often as they would be without treatment. Most medications can be decreased or stopped once the chemical balance of the brain has been restored. They can learn to cope with what cannot be reversed. They can learn to calm down when anxiety tries to take over. They can learn to retrain themselves to remember things. They can learn how to live as a survivor.

When it is not treated, damage is done to how their mind works. Like an infection, it eats away at what is there until medical attention is provided. Healing happens as the body's natural ability is supported but there is scar tissue. The mind works pretty much the same way. Not treating PTSD allows the scars to deepen. Mild PTSD turns into full blown PTSD and then it requires a lot more treatment, changes the lives more and then ends up costing more in the long run.

On a human level they need to be treated as soon as possible but on a financial level, not treating them leads to a lifetime of financial compensation. Aside from being a moral issue, which would demand care for them, not taking care of them prevents them from going on to live with the ability to support themselves.

We can care now or pay more later. Doesn't it make more sense to treat them early on after trauma? Their lives should matter enough for all of us to do the right thing now before too much damage is done to their lives.

MoD pays out six-figure sum for soldier suffering post-traumatic stress disorder
By Ian Drury
The Ministry of Defence could be forced to pay compensation to hundreds of soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder following a landmark six-figure pay-out to a former bomb disposal expert.

The soldier claimed he might not have suffered a breakdown in 2004 if military psychiatrists had diagnosed and treated his illness earlier.

The MoD fought the legal battle after insisting the ex-serviceman, who cannot be named for security reasons, had failed to lodge his claim for negligence within a three-year time limit.

But, having settled with the soldier out of court, Army chiefs face the nightmare scenario of paying out PTSD claims which could run into millions of pounds many years after sufferers have quit the military.

Read more: MoD pays out six-figure sum for soldier suffering