PTSD Warning For Soldiers Returning Home From The Battlefield

This is a warning that needs to be taken seriously.

PTSD Warning For Soldiers Returning Home From The Battlefield
December 21, 2011

By Todd Quinones

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – With the war in Iraq now over, thousands of troops are leaving the battlefield and heading home where families across the country are getting the emotional homecomings they have been waiting for.

Sons and daughters wives and husbands home and in time for the holidays.

“I’m not going to let him go. It’s great(crying). Merry Christmas to everybody, all the military. It’s too much,” said mom Lynn Wrzesinski.

At Philadelphia international airport on Wednesday, servicemen and women were greeted by loved ones.

“Happy to be home see my kids. I’m going to sneak in today and see my daughter in high school,” said Army Staff Sgt. Phillip Smith.
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Now for the good news. If our veterans seek help for PTSD soon, most of the bad that comes with PTSD can be prevented. Soldiers don't have to give up the careers they committed their lives to. Families don't have to be destroyed. Communities don't have to cope with law enforcement officials facing off with combat veterans. Veterans don't have to reach the point where they feel the need to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline. None of what has been happening when they come home had to happen.

Experience has taught us that it is never too late to seek help but too often, not there when they do seek it. The mountain of backlog claims explains only part of the problem. When providers have no clue what it is like to go through combat, they give the wrong advice and the wrong treatment. Giving medications and telling them to take a pill to feel better is not healing them. It is only numbing them.

The recent reports of trouble at VA hospitals is not new. This report came out in 2007

VA studies: PTSD care inconsistent
By Chris Adams McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs, which touts its special programs to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in returning soldiers, spends little on those programs in some parts of the country, and some of its efforts fail to meet some of the VA's own goals, according to internal reports obtained by McClatchy Newspapers.

In fiscal year 2006, the reports show, some of the VA's specialized PTSD units spent a fraction of what the average unit did. Five medical centers — in California, Iowa, Louisiana, Tennessee and Wisconsin — spent about $100,000 on their PTSD clinical teams, less than one-fifth the national average.

The documents also show that while the VA's treatment for PTSD is generally effective, nearly a third of the agency's inpatient and other intensive PTSD units failed to meet at least one of the quality goals monitored by a VA health-research organization. The VA medical center in Lexington, Ky., failed to meet four of six quality goals, according to the internal reports.
A top VA mental-health official dismissed the reports' significance, saying veterans receive adequate care, either in specialized PTSD units or from general mental-health providers. In addition, he said, some of the spending differences aren't as extreme as the documents indicate, and the department is working to increase its resources for mental health treatment.

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When Vietnam veterans came home, there wasn't anything ready for them. They had to fight for all that is available today. A report commissioned by the DAV stated there were 500,000 Vietnam veterans with PTSD by 1978. It also predicted the rate would go up over the following ten years.

It wasn't too late for Vietnam Veterans to seek help. This happened in 2007 when news reports of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking help for PTSD helped them understand what was "wrong" with them all these years later.

Monday, October 8, 2007

148,000 Vietnam Vets sought help in last 18 months
In the past 18 months, 148,000 Vietnam veterans have gone to VA centers reporting symptoms of PTSD "30 years after the war," said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He recently visited El Paso.


Two-tiered system of healthcare puts veterans of the war on terror at the top and makes everyone else -- from World War I to the first Gulf War -- "second-class veterans"
by Chris Roberts, El Paso Times

An internal directive from a high-ranking Veterans Affairs official creates a two-tiered system of veterans health care, putting veterans of the global war on terror at the top and making every one else -- from World War I to the first Gulf War -- "second-class veterans," according to some veterans advocates.

"I think they're ever pushing us to the side," said former Marine Ron Holmes, an El Paso resident who founded Veterans Advocates. "We are still in need. We still have our problems, and our cases are being handled more slowly."

Vice Adm. Daniel L. Cooper, undersecretary for benefits in the Department of Veterans Affairs -- in a memo obtained by the El Paso Times -- instructs the department's employees to put Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans at the head of the line when processing claims for medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation, employment and education benefits...
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Also from 2007 another warning,

Expect 800,000 PTSD veterans out of Iraq and Afghanistan
Iraq veterans deserve more than post-combat negligence
By Stacy Bannerman

Special to The Times


WHEN the appalling conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were made public, accompanied by grim photos of moldy walls, crumbling ceilings and dirty, bug-infested rooms, it sparked a national outcry and immediate action. Unfortunately, it has been comparatively quiet about the nearly 300 Iraq war veterans who have committed suicide, and thousands more who have attempted it.

America cannot afford the price of failing to care for veterans with combat-related mental-health problems. The systemic breakdown in mental-health care is so profound that military families and veterans groups have filed lawsuits against the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth have filed a class-action suit on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The suit claims there are as many as "800,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans said to suffer or risk developing PTSD."

The groups charge the VA with collaborating with the Pentagon to avoid paying PTSD benefits.
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It is doubtful that there would be this many suicides, attempted suicides, standoffs with police offices, domestic abuse cases, divorces, substance abuse arrests or the programs that resulted from these cases. Veterans Courts would not be needed any more than the Suicide Prevention Hotline had this country really prepared for two wars adding to the struggles veterans face coming home from combat. But no none of this is new.

Vietnam veterans only made the news when they came home after getting into trouble. They went through everything the newer generation is going through but the only time the media reported on any of it, it was after they got into trouble with the law. Much like what is happening for the most part all over the country, but again, the good news is reports like this one on CBS are possible because reporters have educated themselves on the issues veterans face.

One more thing about Vietnam veterans is that they are the best help for the newer veterans. They are still standing after suffering for 40 years, had careers, raised families and managed to still contribute to their communities no matter how they were treated when they came home.

None of what happened to them has to happen to todays veterans. They came home to communities blaming them or ignoring them. They didn't have jobs waiting. They had to get into the back of the line because no one wanted to hire them. They didn't have support or use of the internet but somehow they managed to find each other and the sense of "brotherhood" helped them heal.

Wives had to make the hard decision leave or stay and fight without knowing what they were dealing with. We had to make plenty of mistakes until we were able to find what works and what makes things worse.

We had the same worries the newer wives do and they can learn a lot from us so that their lives don't have to be as hard as they are.

Coming home doesn't have to be bittersweet if everyone comes together for support.