Contracting out PTSD

Contracting Out PTSD
It's not only the troops suffering from war's mental ravages
TIME Swampland
By Mark Thompson
Dec. 15, 2013

Contractor fraud and waste in Afghanistan and Iraq has run rampant, costing U.S. taxpayers something between $31 billion and $60 billion, according to the congressionally created Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But it also has cost many of those contractors too: a new report from the Rand Corp. says such private workers suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder and depression at rates similar, if not higher, than the troops they serve alongside.

The Rand study, Out of the Shadows: The Health and Well-Being of Contractors Working in Conflict Environments — released Dec. 10 as part of what Rand describes as “self-initiated independent research” — says:

Although contractors have become a nontrivial part of the fighting force in several theaters of conflict over the past decade, their characteristics, deployment experiences, and health status have not been thoroughly explored. This study found that the contractors sampled have similar deployment experiences to military personnel—including combat exposure. The contractors in our study reported relatively high rates of probable mental health problems, including PTSD and depression. Moreover, our findings suggest that this population has few resources to cope with these problems and faces significant barriers to seeking mental health treatment.
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