The military is a lousy healer, congress is a lousy watchdog

The military is a lousy healer, congress is a lousy watchdog
by Chaplain Kathie

Senator Murray is right but when she said "We need to be much further along." it didn't answer why it is we are not.

It is not that the DOD has any excuses left. After all we're talking about 40 years of government funded research on Combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder they had the in their hands. So far they haven't even acknowledged the fact that PTSD caused by combat is a different type of it any more than they have been able to tell the servicemen and women why they have it while others don't. They just keep pushing programs that don't work.

Congress has not held a single person accountable after all the "experts" testified during the endless parade heading into Washington to advise congress. The DOD has held no one accountable for failures. As for groups congress turns to, they end up giving awards to people doing the failing.

As in the case of Dr. Ira Katz was given an award from NAMI after Veterans for Common Sense exposed what he had done.

Congress has been hearing the same stories of suffering veterans and their families, the same stories about what the backlog of claims has been doing to them as the suicides went up along with attempted suicides.

Soldiers are waiting for congress to do their jobs and find solutions. They want to see someone held accountable just as much as they want help!

Invisible wounds of war: The military is a lousy healer
Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog)

Two service members who went into harm’s way to fight America’s 21st Century wars met a different challenge on Monday, facing a battery of TV cameras to talk of what Sen. Patty Murray called “the invisible wounds of war.”

Sgt. Stephen Davis, having been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, had the diagnosis withdrawn and was accused by a doctor of “exaggerating my symptoms.” Sgt. David Leavitt, another victim of PTSD, told his superiors in Afghanistan, “I’m not O.K. I need help.”

He received very little help there, with no followup back home. Leavitt looked down at his service dog and said: She’s save my life and given me purpose.”

The treatment of those who have served and served well — Sgt. Davis earned a purple heart and bronze star, Sgt. Leavitt has done tours in Iraq and Afghanistan — has raised the ire of Sen. Murray. She has brought activist leadership to what used to be a Senate backwater as chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

“‘Toughen up!’ they hear that all the time,” Murray said. “I believe that in this day and age, we should be much further along in dealing with military mental health issues. We need to be much further along.”

She has captured the ear of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, but Murray feels Congress should set some parameters. She is introducing legislation called the Mental Health Access Act of 2012, and hopes to make it bipartisan.
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