Tom Coburn Kicks Suicide Prevention Bill Down the Road

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 12, 2014

Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Bill is on hold and I am glad. When I read that Tom Coburn is holding it up, I had to leave the computer to fight the gag reflex. It isn't about what Coburn said but the simple fact I found myself agreeing with him and that left a lousy taste in my mouth. I just don't like politicians in general.

Tom Coburn puts hold on veterans suicide prevention bill

But Mr. Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican serving out his final days in the Senate before his retirement, said the bill wouldn’t accomplish much new.

“In almost every case, VA already has the tools and authorities it needs to address these problems,” he said in a statement listing his objections. “The department needs leadership, not another piece of ineffective legislation. Congress should be holding the VA accountable rather than adding to its list of poorly managed programs.”
The bill, largely driven by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, would require an annual outside review of suicide prevention programs to expand what works best for veterans and do away with ineffective programs. The bill also allows the VA to partner with mental health nonprofits, create a website to consolidate the VA’s mental health resources, and expand peer support networks.

Had this bill, or any of the others, come close to actually reducing suicides tied to the military, I'd be screaming "No amount of money is too much" to save their lives. But it isn't even going to come close to solving anything. We've had 40 years to learn that what works best is peer support but if their peers think PTSD is a sign of weakness, that support goes out the fucking door. Therapy works great but if they are not trained on trauma, especially combat trauma, that won't work as well. Drugs only numb but they are used all the time. Spiritual help works, especially with survivor guilt but then they turn around and shut up Chaplains sharing their own struggles with PTSD.

Here's a thought. How about "Stop Passing PTSD-Suicide Bills Without Knowing Cost" since all that billions a year have produced are higher suicides in the military and among the veteran population? How much time are they supposed to get to figure that out? How many more lives have to be lost after a decade of attempts to prevent suicides?

This part really got to me and actually proves the point of a clueless congress.

Saul Levin, CEO of the American Psychiatric Association, said, “Hundreds of additional lives will be lost” if lawmakers wait until the next Congress to put these reforms into place.

Reform needed to start by getting rid of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.
The Dark Side of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness

There seems to be reluctance and inconsistency among the CSF promoters in acknowledging that CSF is "research" and therefore should entail certain protections routinely granted to those who participate in research studies. Seligman explained to the APA's Monitor on Psychology, "This is the largest study - 1.1 million soldiers - psychology has ever been involved in" (a "study" is a common synonym for "research project"). But when asked during an NPR interview whether CSF would be "the largest-ever experiment," Brig. Gen. Cornum, who oversees the program, responded, "Well, we're not describing it as an experiment. We're describing it as training." Despite the fact that CSF is incontrovertibly a research study, standard and important questions about experimental interventions like CSF are neither asked nor answered in the special issue. This neglect is all the more troubling given that the program is so massive and expensive, and the stakes are so high.

The biggest part of the problem rests on this same group backing up Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. It was a research project sold to the military for soldiers even though they were just studying kids and their sense of self worth. How did they actually expect it to work on soldiers in combat?

"Regardless of how one evaluates prior PRP research, PRP's effects when targeting middle-school students, college students, and adult groups can hardly be considered generalizable to the challenges and experiences that routinely face our soldiers in combat, including those that regularly trigger PTSD."

In 2009, the evidence was already gathered to the point where this was predicted to increase suicides if it was pushed on soldiers. It was easy to see it. It was more of the same the soldiers were already complaining about. It was yet one more way of feeding the stigma by telling them they would be able to train their brains to be resilient. It was obvious that they would translate this into not training right and being mentally weak. Who predicted it? I did. That was just from talking to them and reading the reports. Members of congress could have done the same basic research before they shoved it down the throats of the troops.

Congress had the same ability to take the data coming in after this clusterfuck was pushed and suicides went up at the same time the number of enlisted went down.

What makes all of this even worse is when troops become veterans, the military stops counting them even though they are paying the price for what the military failed to do.

Top that off with the fact that this program isn't even good enough to keep "non-deployed" from committing suicide and you get the drift of what is behind all of this.

Add in the fact that out of Texas, the Dallas Morning News and NBC joint investigation actually documents the fact that PTSD soldiers in Warrior Transition Units were still being treated like crap, told to man up and get over it.

So yes, Coburn is right. He just doesn't know why he is.

The day I support something like this is when they prove they not only care about what they are doing, they actually understand it.