by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
July 19, 2012
General Peter Chiarelli can blame the suicides on not enough money all he wants but the truth is DOD and VA PTSD Programs are F.U.B.A.R. so if they don't even know their programs work, what good would it do to spend more money on them when we're seeing the number of suicides and attempted suicides go up instead of down? What never seems to get tied into the numbers is the fact that at the same time the number of suicides goes up, the Suicide Prevention Hotline calls have increased as well. Top that off with the number of veterans finally turning to the VA for help and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we've had a bitter history of failure after failure.
We read numbers but their families grieve for someone they loved. These men and women are not asleep in their graves. Their families keep them alive when they fight to save others.
Two Soldier Suicides Reveal Flawed Mental Health SystemThe assessment of 18 veterans a day taking their own lives leaves over 30,000 veterans took their own lives since 2007 and their families are left with an indescribable anguish because they know combat did in fact kill their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, Dads, Moms, sisters and brothers, but suicides are not considered in the honored deaths we read about all the time.
WBUR
July 18, 2012
One American soldier commits suicide every day, on average. And in an article about why the military hasn’t succeeded in reducing the problem, Time Magazine profiles two soldiers who killed themselves on the same day.
The stories of Dr. Michael McCaddon and helicopter pilot Ian Morrison illustrate “two different ends of the same spectrum,” according to Time’s Pentagon correspondent Mark Thompson.
Ian Morrison — A Soldier Who Knew He Needed Help
CPT Ian Samuel Morrison committed suicide March 21, 2012.(Photo: West Point)
Officer Ian Morrison was a helicopter pilot and his wife was a mental health professional who knew he needed help and tried to help him get it.
“[Morrison] was somewhat atypical… in that he was very eager to get help,” Thompson told Here and Now‘s Monica Brady-Myerov.
At Fort Hood Texas before he died, Morrison tried to get help at least six times, Thompson says. But he was either shunted aside or told that the wait was too long and to come back next month.
“When somebody reaches out for help, he must not be told, ‘Sorry come back in two hours,’ or ‘Sorry come back next week,’” Thompson said. “Or be put on hold as Captiain Morrison was for at least 45 minutes before he killed himself.”
Dr. Michael McCaddon — Didn’t Get The Help He Needed
Captain Michael Ryan McCaddon, M.D. committed suicide March 21, 2012.(Gloucester Times)
Before his suicide, Dr. Michael McCaddon had been a bomb defuser, who then went to medical school to become an Army obstetrician. He wasn’t deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, but he had served in Bosnia. And he had a history of depression. His biological father had also committed suicide.
“He knew he had these issues, and he sought help… Perhaps not as much as his wife Leslie thought he needed,” Time’s Mark Thompson said.
McCaddon had a fear that he wouldn’t be promoted if it was revealed that he had mental health problems.
And when he got in his residency, his work load intensified, and he began lashing out at his family. Then his wife went to McCaddon’s commander, without her husband’s knowledge, and pleaded with her get her husband some help.
“[Leslie] told her, ‘Get my husband some help. Encouraging him isn’t good enough. You can order him to get that help,’” Thompson said. “The Army resolutely, on at least two occasions, said, ‘No, frankly Leslie, this sounds more like a family problem than an Army problem.”
Months later, McCaddon killed himself.
What Suicides Illustrate
Peter Chiarelli, who recently retired as the Army’s second in command, told Time that there aren’t enough mental health professionals in the Army, or sufficient funds put towards soldier mental health.
Chiarelli told Thompson about a study that appeared to show that two-hour long consultations for soldiers can help with mental health problems.
“But we, the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayers, just have not allocated sufficient funds to allow that sort of intense mental health counseling to occur,” Thompson said.
As he writes:
“No program, outreach or initiative has worked against the surge in Army suicides, and no one knows why nothing works. The Pentagon allocates about $2 billion—nearly 4 percent of its $53 billion annual medical bill—to mental health. ‘That simply isn’t enough money,’ says Peter Chiarelli… “And those who seek help are often treated too briefly.”
read more here and listen
Do not stand at my grave and weep
Mary FryeDo not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there; I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow, I am the sun on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circling flight. I am the soft star-shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there; I did not die.
They are not just numbers in a report. They were family members and they should still be here. They were not only killed by the combat they managed to survive, they were killed by the ignorance of the American public and our failure to demand something be done that works, demand what has been failing to be ended and above all this, demand someone is held accountable for all the time, money and lives sacrificed in our name.
If they are not getting treatment that works, then it doesn't matter how long they get it. You could put them in the hospital for six months of constant care but if they are given only lollypops during all that time all you'll have a combat veteran with stronger PTSD and weaker teeth.
Do not just show up at their funerals and act as if you've honored their lives enough. Do something to help others live!
Wife protests treatment of PTSD husband at Fort Bragg
Wife of Capt. Michael McCaddon talks about his suicide
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