This is the moment it happened. Most of the media was not around but that was not what was important to then, Senator Obama. What he wanted to know, was what was working to help the warriors wounded by PTSD to heal and get the help they needed. After all, he was serving on the Veterans Affairs Committee, one more thing the media didn't seem too interested in. But you dear reader are smarter than the media and you care a lot more than far too many of them do. No, I'm not slamming everyone in the media because some have been doing some fantastic reports because they care. Right now though I feel I should point out something about this day in Montana when Obama promised to take the guard's program national if he ended up being elected.
I've tracked all of this since 1982. Over the last few years, spare time has turned into a 70 hour or more work week for free. I've read some of the most horrible stories you could imagine and lost too many people in my life. I take all of this very personally because of my own husband and too many of his friends, but above all, his nephew, another Vietnam veteran out of hope, so deeply in pain that he took his own life. The Montana National Guards program is one that I had been very hopeful with and you can read most of the posts I've done on this since they first began it. I am also a member of NAMI, on the Veterans' Council. There were programs all over the country when they came up with this, so Obama had plenty of programs to support if he only wanted to appear to care. When he decided that this program was so vital he wanted to focus on it and take it national, he did it because he not only cared, but the man paid attention. PTSD was no passing thought in his mind. He made sure he knew what he was talking about. He did not try to support programs that were not working. Had he done so, that would have shown us that he really didn't think it was important enough to pay attention.
With all the horrible posts I've done, even with them, I have more hope than ever that we will someday soon get to where the troops and veterans need us to be.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Support the The Post Deployment Health Assessment Act of 2009
Matt Kuntz, the keynote speaker at our upcoming Annual Education Conference, has asked us to take a few minutes to contact our Congressional Representatives and Senators to ask them to support comprehensive mental health screenings for our returning soldiers.
Two years ago, Matt, the Executive Director of NAMI Montana and one of President Obama's "18 Ordinary Americans Making an Extraordinary Difference," lost his step-brother Chris Dana to a post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) induced suicide sixteen months after he returned from Iraq.
The events around Chris’s death led Governor Brian Schweitzer and the Montana National Guard to develop the premier program in the country for caring for National Guard members suffering from PTSD. Matt says, "The foundation of this successful system is a series of five face-to-face mental health screenings that every returning service member must complete upon their return home from combat."
This broad screening program overcomes the traditional barriers that have kept service members from receiving treatment for PTSD. Over forty percent of the individuals that have completed the screening asked for help in dealing with their combat stress injuries.
Senator Max Baucus introduced “The Post Deployment Health Assessment Act of 2009” to implement this common sense screening program throughout our fighting force. The Act would require face-to-face screening before deployment, upon return home, and then every six months for two years. This basic and effective program will help safeguard the mental health of our entire fighting force for approximately the same price tag as a single F-22 Fighter. The Act is supported by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the National Guard Association, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).
Please take a few minutes out of your day to contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators to ask them to support this critical legislation. Our military suicide rates are at record levels and climbing. We can’t afford to wait any longer to help our heroes get the care they deserve. You can follow this link to find your Representatives’ and Senators’ contact information: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/.
