Push for National Guard PTSD treatment advances

Push for National Guard PTSD treatment advances
DAN HOLTMEYER
Associated Press
February 13, 2013

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma must bridge a gap in mental and physical trauma treatment for its 10,000 National Guard members, a state senator told a Senate panel Wednesday.

The Senate Veterans and Military Affairs Committee approved without opposition a proposal from Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, that calls for training guard members' caregivers to better treat post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.

"I've got a concern that others have brought to me that we are not doing enough to provide the full attention that those National Guard members need and certainly deserve," Crain told The Associated Press after the hearing. "We want to make sure that people that are providing care to those National Guard members have the training, have the support, know what resources are available."

Specifically, Crain's bill calls on the Oklahoma Health Care Authority's medical advisory committee to launch and oversee pilot training programs for caretakers, even if they're simply family members or neighbors of guardsmen.

According to Pentagon data, more veterans died by suicide than in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan last year, a years-long trend that has intensified interest in military mental health screening and treatment. Multiple studies also have found National Guard members are especially at risk for PTSD and other mental health problems.

"Because National Guard soldiers return to civilian status following their deployment, they do not have the same uninterrupted access to military medical care as Active Component soldiers," researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research wrote in a June 2010 study on PTSD among returning active and reserve Iraq veterans.
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