Is the Army doing enough to help PTSD soldiers?

The answer is, they are doing too much of the wrong things and not enough of the right ones.

The Last Battle:
Is the Army doing enough to help soldiers suffering from mental health problems?
Sep 23, 2012
By Greg Barnes
Staff writer

Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick stood in front of 14,000 soldiers on Fort Bragg in February with a message:

"We have got to stop the violence."

Just weeks before, Helmick had closed out the combat mission in Iraq and brought the troops home. Now, as he congratulated them for a job well done, he could not ignore some disturbing numbers. In just the past six weeks, he knew of six suicides and 25 accusations of spousal abuse.

Since Helmick retired in May, the violence at home has only gotten worse.

The Army has rolled out program after program aimed at identifying and helping soldiers suffering from mental health problems related to a decade of war.

Despite those efforts, figures show that soldiers and veterans continue to commit crimes and take their own lives in record numbers.

Through July, Fort Bragg had reported 13 suspected or confirmed cases of soldiers who committed suicide this year, the most of any military installation and on pace to far outstrip the 15 suicides recorded in 2011. Another 40 Fort Bragg soldiers tried to kill themselves between January and June of this year.

Nationwide, the 38 soldiers confirmed or suspected of killing themselves in July was the highest monthly total on record.
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PTSD Final Battle After War


When you think that USA has been working on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder associated with combat, you'll understand how far we should have gotten in reversing the suicide rate of our forces and our veterans. None of this is new.

It is not just a problem for the US military. Last night I was talking to a Bosnia veteran from the UK. He served many tours of duty and said that they are not getting the help they need. They do the best they can to help each other but all too often, they just can't do enough.

Canada has problems with their veterans. The US seems to have a bigger problem because of the size of our military, redeployments and the number of combat veterans.

As they wait for programs that actually do work, wait for real answers and to be told the truth, they get repeated failures from programs that have been pushed on them no matter what evidence comes out proving they do not work.