Nitty-Gritty-Pesky Facts Skipped on PTSD Reporting

Yet One More Infomercial on PTSD Program
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 26, 2016

This is the claim being made. "A ground-breaking program hopes to help soldiers with PTSD like no one has ever has done before." Ok, well then I guess everyone in this for the last four decades did not exist. That is when all the real "ground breaking" started. Since then, it has been more like digging a hole in the ground and veterans falling into it.

Just a reminder, I wrote about the "collateral damage" being done to our troops and spawning the suffering of millions of veterans right along with their families back in 2015. It got into the nitty gritty pesky things called facts and historical reports tying most of the results to the deplorable "resilience training" our troops were receiving. 

The number of enlisted was higher, yet the number of suicides were lower before they started this. There were also two full-force wars being fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. Top that off with the fact the DOD kept saying most of the suicides happened with non-deployed troops taking their own lives. Yep, after getting the same "training" everyone else got.

The geniuses thought it would work on combat forces deployed multiple times when it didn't even work for stateside folks? But they kept doing it anyway. As the number of enlisted went down and the number of suicides went up, they pushed the training harder.

But the press never bothered to investigate why any of this was happening or the fact that Congress kept writing FUBAR bills that simply repeated what had already failed. Well, BOHICA on yet one more case of the press not doing their jobs with this latest report. It leaves so many questions it is hard to know what the goal of this was.

Packers Don Barclay hopes to spread word of his uncles’ ground-breaking PTSD therapy program
ABC News
By Aisha Morales
Published: December 23, 2016

Green Bay, Wis. (WBAY) – A new program and the only one of its kind is hoping to change the way veterans and active duty military members with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health struggles are treated.

It’s a four-week intensive program based in Virginia created by Doctor Tim Barclay, uncle of Don Barclay of the Green Bay Packers.

Dr. Tim Barclay has seen the issue up close and personal and thinks it’s time to make a change.

“In treating veterans I’ve always been frustrated that not being able to deliver the type of care that is actually needed to treat like traumatic brain injury, PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and common things that they struggle with, simply because of insurance benefits are so limiting,” said Dr. Barclay.

This passion was the start of Collateral Damage Project, a non-profit program that will survive solely on donations.

“We’re hoping to launch our first group of participants in the Spring, so we’re just in our intensive fundraising mode to get all the things that we need to get in place,” said Dr. Barclay.
read more here

Specialized Intensive PTSD Programs (SIPPs) already exist.

SIPPs provide PTSD treatment services in an inpatient or residential setting. Length of stay varies across programs and is based on the needs of the Veteran. SIPPs include:

Evaluation and Brief PTSD Treatment Units (EBPTUs)
PTSD Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Programs (PTSD RRTP) and PTSD Domiciliary Programs (PTSD DOM)
Specialized Inpatient PTSD Units (SIPUs)
Women's Trauma Recovery Programs (WTRPs)

The Miami VA has something that is "intense" therapy for PTSD

Inpatient PTSD Programs include four basic types of services conducted while veterans reside in hospital units providing 24-hour nursing and psychiatry care:

Specialized Inpatient PTSD Units (SIPUs) provide trauma-focused evaluation, education, and psychotherapy for a period of 28 to 90 days of hospital admission.

Evaluation and Brief Treatment of PTSD Units (EBTPUs) provide PTSD evaluation, education, and psychotherapy for a briefer period ranging from 14 to 28 days.

PTSD Residential Rehabilitation Programs (PRRPs) provide PTSD evaluation, education, and counseling, and case management emphasizing resuming a productive involvement in community life. PRRP admissions tend to be 28 to 90 days.

PTSD Substance Use Programs (PSUs) provide combined evaluation, education, and counseling for substance use problems and PTSD. PSU admissions range from 14 to 90 days.

Yet, there were problems with this program.

A drug abuse rehabilitation program at Miami’s Veterans Affairs hospital failed to monitor patients, provide sufficient staff, control access to the facility or even curb illicit drug use among patients — culminating with the death of a combat veteran in his 20s who overdosed on cocaine and heroin, according to a federal report.

So, back to the claim being made. How is it that a program that hasn't even started get a headline like this? You read how they are looking for funding and want to find ten patients to do it in the spring. Where is the evidence? What exactly is different about this? The interview video is about looking for psychologist on top of everything else. Shouldn't the headline be more like, "Yet one more group jumps onto the bandwagon" for Heaven 's sake?

Our troops and veterans committing suicide after surviving combat should be an important enough topic that they merit real reporting instead of an infomercial.