Wasting Time and Lives on Un-Awareness

Wasting Time and Lives on Un-Awareness
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 15, 2015

Everyday my email box is full of news reports from across the country along with pleas from folks "trying to raise awareness" and that, that is the most depressing thing of all. What has all this "awareness" raising crap gotten any of us? Reporters are still unaware of what the real numbers are. They are still unaware of what the demographics are. In other words, are most people. Few seem to know how many years this has all been going on as well as how many veterans are still suffering.

If you hear one of these folks say they want to raise awareness, ask them what they mean by that. Exactly what are they trying to share? If they say they want to share what the problem is, tell them they are way too late. Veterans have known for generations. If they say it is to let people know how many are committing suicide, again, veterans know way better than they do especially if they are still using the fictional 22 a day ever the VA put a disclaimer on. If they say they want the general public to know, hate to say this but if they don't already know, then they don't give a crap and nothing will wake them up.

So what is this all really about?

Is it about 15 minutes of fame? Getting money? Or actually doing something meaningful for veterans? So far, haven't seen much meaningful coming out of any of this and neither have the veterans.

All this awareness raising has been around for about a decade and the numbers have gotten worse. Here are some things we should be talking about honestly if we really intend to save lives and spare veterans more years of needless suffering in this awareness propaganda campaign.

Family members after suicide need to stop doing what they don't know and start doing what they need to be doing. Too many families are experiencing the same anguish and they need support from others with the same experience. No amount of training on the trauma/recovery end can compare to what living after suicide does.

I was an expert when it happened in my family. My husband's nephew, also a Vietnam veteran, committed suicide instead of listening to what I was trying to explain to him. That is a burden that will never end for me. Every time I read about or talk to a family member, it all comes back. All the questions about what I could have said differently, what I could have done, along with every should have, could have would have in the book. Nothing will ever change the fact I just couldn't get him to listen. Even after all these years and veterans healing, nothing takes that pain away.

If you are a family member, start a support group because families like yours are always left out. All of you need support but so far, few know where to find it or how to find each other. Use your Facebook skills and put them where it will do the most good. Your experience with loss may save the life of a family member because that does in fact happen.

Joshua Omvig's parents talked about their son, and one of the first bills addressing military suicide has his name on it, just as it has since it was passed in 2007.

Rep. Jeff Miller Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, let me take this opportunity first to thank the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Mr. Michaud; as well as the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Filner; and Ranking Member Mr. Buyer for their leadership in bringing this legislation timely to the floor.The heavy burden of some of our servicemembers that they bear in coping with the aftermath of combat is tragically evident in the death of Army Specialist Joshua Lee Omvig.

Specialist Omvig was a member of the U.S. Army Reserve 339th Military Police Company from Davenport, Iowa. He took his life in 2005 after returning from a deployment to Iraq. H.R. 327 is aptly named to remember this brave young man.VA must be vigilant with a proactive mental health strategy to help our veterans and returning servicemembers readjust to stateside duty after their exposure to combat. H.R. 327 would require VA to implement a comprehensive program to reduce the incidence of suicide among our veterans.

Specific steps included in this bill are: a campaign to reduce stigma surrounding seeking help or training for VA staff in suicide prevention and education; the creation of peer counselors to understand risk factors and to assist families during the readjustment process; and a 24-hour counseling line so that veterans, especially those in rural areas, could seek help whenever they need it.

VA is already fulfilling many of the requirements of H.R. 327.

The Secretary of VA developed and has started to implement a similar suicide prevention strategy that is based on public health and clinical models with activities both in VA facilities and within local communities. For example, VA is fulfilling requirements of H.R. 327 by providing training for both clinical and nonclinical staff on how to assess and respond to patients that they may come in contact with that are at risk for suicide. And by April 1, the Department plans to have in place a Suicide Prevention Coordinator within each VA medical center.

The VA's Serious Mental Illness Treatment Research and Evaluation Center will be designated to guide prevention strategies and maintain data on suicide rates and risk factors. VA is also currently working to create a suicide prevention hotline by the end of this calendar year.I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 327. This legislation does put the full force of legal authority behind a comprehensive program to ensure that VA is taking all appropriate measures to prevent suicide among our Nation's veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

What PTSD warriors are up against at home has remained the same but there are still crappy attitudes out there and that won't change as long as people just keep talking about the problem but not doing much to change the outcome. A year later more families talked. Lana Waldorf talked about her husband.

Lance Waldorf, a 40-year-old major in the U.S. Army Reserve and a resident of Bingham Farms, was found dead Monday afternoon of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly Township.

"The war had a great deal to do with this," said Lana Waldorf, about her husband's death.

Waldorf said her husband suffered from post-traumatic stress and increasing depression after returning home from serving as a civil affairs specialist in Afghanistan.

"He had nightmares," she said. "He didn't tell me the details. What husband wants to share the horrific ordeals of war with his wife?"

Lana Waldorf, 51, said she alerted authorities after finding a note from her husband. His body was found shortly afterward at the cemetery. He was wearing military fatigues; a handgun was found nearby.

Authorities also found a note, a will, a backpack and photographs of Waldorf with his wife as well as family and friends, said Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Gary Muir.

That was back in 2008.

This was followed by years and years of other families trying desperately to change what was happening.

Congress held more and more hearings on military suicides as well as veterans committing suicide. 2008 Chairman Accuses VA of Criminal Negligence

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs' top mental health official said Tuesday he made a poor choice of words when he sent his colleagues an e-mail about suicide data that started out with "Shh!"

Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's mental health director, told the House Veterans Affairs Committee that the e-mail was in poor tone _ even though the body contained "appropriate, healthy dialogue" about the data.

"I deeply regret the subject line," Katz said. "It was an error and I apologize for that."

The e-mail claims 12,000 veterans a year attempt suicide while under department treatment. "Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?" the e-mail asks.

The e-mail was among those recently disclosed during a trial in San Francisco that suggested some at the VA might have been attempting to hide the number of attempted suicides by those under the agency's care. Its disclosure prompted two Democratic senators to call for his resignation.

Obama meets Chris Dana's family

Family of soldier who killed himself meets with Obama
By LAURA TODE Of The Gazette Staff

Montana National Guard Spec. Chris Dana will never know the impact his life and ultimately his death may someday have on the lives of veterans nationwide.

Dana took his life in March 2007, less than two years after returning from a tour in Iraq. His family believes he was a victim of post traumatic stress disorder, brought on by his combat experience.

Since Dana’s death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans. Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he’s been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife Sandy and their infant daughter Fiona.

Kuntz was heavy with emotion, but hopeful and eager to share Dana’s story, and tell the senator about his work to ensure other Montana veterans aren’t suffering from the same condition that made his step-brother take his life.

Yes, that was when then Senator Obama was on the Veterans Affairs Committee. Now you know why some folks need to just stop talking about the "problem" they know about when they don't seem to know much more than when began to notice?

The numbers are worse after all these years have been wasted because we're into research on all of this going back to the 70's.

FORGOTTEN WARRIOR PROJECT

In 1977, DAV was approached by Dr. John Wilson of Cleveland State University concerning a doctoral thesis he had titled “The Forgotten Warrior Project.” His thesis was to clarify and provide a diagnosis for what we now know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Vietnam veterans. Dr. Wilson had previously approached all the major service organizations and they declined any assistance. However, DAV saw the value of this research and agreed to fund and publish the study.

The study resulted in the creation of the DAV Vietnam Veterans Outreach Program, which was implemented in six cities. Within six months, DAV witnessed the benefit of these counseling centers were having on Vietnam veterans—they now had a place to talk to others like themselves. DAV expanded the program to 63 cities, one of which was Boston.

Through the cooperative support of DAV and Dr. James Goodwin, a combat Vietnam veteran and psychologist from Denver, we finally opened the door for PTSD to be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM III). Senator Alan Cranston of California, a ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, introduced legislation to include PTSD as a disability in the 38 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) which provides the law governing the VA.