After wars end, troops need long term mental health care

When they come home and don't have another deployment to get ready for, that is when most will discover they need help. This part the military has right. The fact they are just now talking about it is disheartening. We've already seen numbers increase after combat deployments end.

We saw it in Vietnam veterans and we saw it in other veterans as the retire. Why? They are not able to stuff the harsh memories back in their minds and "get busy" with other things.

Army Leaders: Long-Term Mental Health Care Needed
Oct 19, 2012
Fayetteville (N.C.)
Observer
by John Ramsey

Army commanders said they expect more soldiers to struggle with mental health problems as deployments to the Middle East become more rare.

Many Fort Bragg soldiers have been in a decade-long cycle of deploying to war for a year, then coming home to train for another deployment the next year.

But with the Iraq war over and the Afghanistan war scheduled to end in 2014, that cycle is coming to a close. The entire 22,000-soldier 82nd Airborne Division is back at Fort Bragg, and only 2,000 of those soldiers will see another deployment to Afghanistan.

"We'll have more of our soldiers back, and those soldiers will have more time at home to realize all is not well," Brig. Gen. Timothy P. McGuire, deputy division commander, said Thursday at a conference focused on mental health in the military. "In terms of seeking help, I think you'll see an increase in demand."

McGuire was one of a half-dozen high-ranking soldiers speaking to more than 200 psychologists, social workers and other professionals at the third annual Forward March Conference.

The two-day conference -- created by the Partnership for Children of Cumberland County, Southern Regional Area Health Education Center and Snyder Memorial Baptist Church -- brings together military and civilian leaders and experts to discuss with mental health professionals and others in related fields how years of war affect soldiers and their families.

The expected increase in demand will challenge an already taxed mental health system.
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