Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker:PTSD Help Not Adequate

MILITARY PTSD CASES SOAR AS ARMY SURGEON GENERAL

SAYS MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES "NOT ADEQUATE" --

"As a nation, our mental health capability is not adequate

to the need," and the Army suffers from the same problem.

Wartime PTSD cases jumped nearly 50 pct. in 2007

By PAULINE JELINEK



WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of troops diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder jumped by roughly 50 percent in 2007, the most violent year so far in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pentagon records show.

In the first time the Defense Department has disclosed a number for PTSD cases from the two wars, officials said nearly 40,000 troops have been diagnosed with the illness since 2003, though they believe many more are likely keeping their illness a secret.

"I don't think right now we ... have good numbers," Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker said Tuesday.

That's partly because officials have been encouraging troops to get help even if it means they go to private civilian therapists and don't report it to the military. The 40,000 cases cover only those that the military has tracked.

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http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfMAY08/nf052808-1.htm

Bayh Challenges Overdose Comment by Army General

Bayh Challenges Comment by Army General
By KIMBERLY HEFLING – 15 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Friday it was inappropriate for the Army's surgeon general to compare the overdose deaths of injured soldiers in the military's care to that of actor Heath Ledger.

Earlier this month, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker made reference to the 28-year-old "Brokeback Mountain" star's death as he discussed the overdose deaths of some troops in the Army's "warrior transition units." The units give wounded troops coordinated medical care, financial advice, legal help and other services as they make the adjustments necessary either to return to active duty or re-enter civilian life.

"This isn't restricted to the military, alone, as we all saw the unfortunate death of one of our leading actors recently," Schoomaker told Pentagon reporters. His comments came a day after it was announced that Ledger had died Jan. 22 from an accidental overdose — the effect of taking several types of painkillers and sedatives.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., told reporters during a conference call Friday that likening Ledger's death to the deaths by overdose of wounded soldiers was not appropriate because Ledger was not injured in combat.

"He didn't have a traumatic brain injury," Bayh said. "He wasn't, as far as I know, under a physician's care or residing in a unit designed to protect him and treat him or given by his own caregivers potentially lethal doses of medication and left to self medicate himself when he had a traumatic brain injury."

Said Bayh, "I just think that analogy is inappropriate and I hope it will stop."
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Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker slams disability system project

Army official slams disability system project

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 15, 2008 14:52:28 EST

A pilot project intended to speed the process of evaluating and rating service members’ disabilities will do little more than turn a bad process into “a fast bad process,” the Army’s top medical official said Friday.

Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker’s comments came at a hearing at which the services’ surgeons general had their chance to brag about what they have done in the year since the outpatient scandal at Walter Reed broke — standing up units specially designed to take care of wounded troops, asking for and receiving money to house those service members, ombudsmen, internal checks and toll-free numbers for reporting problems – before the House Armed Services Subcommittee.

Schoomaker also spent some time talking about continued problems, including his view that the pilot project designed to streamline the disability system will not prove to be the answer.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/military_schoomaker_vadisability_080215w/

Schoomaker responds to Fort Drum Order on helping veterans

Top Army Doctor Responds to Fort Drum Flap

Ari Shapiro


National Public Radio

Feb 08, 2008

February 7, 2008 - The Army Surgeon General says he was mistaken when he denied that the Army had told the Veterans Affairs Department not to help injured soldiers challenge their disability ratings.

VA spokesmen told NPR last week that an Army team sent to Fort Drum in New York to review disability issues had told the VA office there to stop helping the soldiers, to leave that to others. Soldiers said the VA had helped them get better disability ratings, and they felt that the Army was damaging their cases by cutting off that assistance.

Army Surgeon General Eric B. Schoomaker says the whole thing was a misunderstanding, and it is fine for the VA to help the soldiers.
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http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/9313

NPR:documents show VA did give orders to stop helping wounded

Morning Edition, February 7, 2008 · A document from the Department of Veterans Affairs contradicts an assertion made by the Army surgeon general that his office did not tell VA officials to stop helping injured soldiers with their military disability paperwork at a New York Army post.

The paperwork can help determine health care and disability benefits for wounded soldiers.

Last week, NPR first described a meeting last March between an Army team from Washington and VA officials at Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York. NPR reported that Army representatives told the VA not to review the narrative summaries of soldiers' injuries, and that the VA complied with the Army's request.

The day the NPR story aired, Army Surgeon General Eric B. Schoomaker denied parts of the report. Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), who represents the Fort Drum area, told North Country Public Radio, that "The Surgeon General of the Army told me very flatly that it was not the Army that told the VA to stop this help."

Now, NPR has obtained a four-page VA document that contradicts the surgeon general's statement to McHugh. It was written by one of the VA officials at Fort Drum on March 31, the day after the meeting. The document says Col. Becky Baker of the Army Surgeon General's office told the VA to discontinue counseling soldiers on the appropriateness of Defense Department ratings because "there exists a conflict of interest."
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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18742202