Pentagon tries aroma therapy to ease combat stress

Don't dismiss this without thinking about it.

We all know a sound, like an explosion or gunfire can have a veteran jumping just as the sound of helicopter blades can cause flashbacks for Vietnam veterans. Well there is also the reaction brought on by smells. Gun power and diesel fuel can give them a nasty trip back to combat. As humans can have unpleasant experiences brought back because of reminders like these, they can have pleasant ones replace them with better smells.

Chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven, fresh baked apple pie, cinnamon in hot apple cider, work wonders for this New Englander longing for home living in Florida. Warm memories fill my heart and it "feels like home to me" until I go outside on the pool deck in December still in shorts and a T-shirt. Smells can calm people down or they can hurt. This article makes sense to me and I hope it will to you as well now that you are open to reading it.

Pentagon tries aroma therapy to ease combat stress
FORT RILEY, Kansas
Sat May 8, 2010 8:31pm EDTFORT RILEY, Kansas (Reuters) - The U.S. military is experimenting with aroma therapy, acupuncture and other unorthodox methods to treat soldiers traumatized by combat experiences, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday.


He said the experiments showed promise.

Gates touted possible treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during a meeting with the wives of servicemen at Fort Riley, Kansas, when one woman asked him to explain why chiropractic and acupuncture therapies were not covered under her military health care plan.

"We have an experimental unit ... treating soldiers with PTS (post-traumatic stress) and using a number of unorthodox approaches, including aroma therapy, acupuncture, things like that, that really are getting some serious results, and so maybe we can throw that into the hopper as well," Gates said.

The Pentagon has seen a sharp increase in the number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder during and after long deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here
Pentagon tries aroma therapy to ease combat stress

ROGERS: Are meds covering up PTSD crisis

ROGERS: Are meds covering up PTSD crisis?
By RICK ROGERS - For the North County Times Posted: May 7, 2010 12:00 am

It's been a dance of convenience between the military and post-traumatic stress disorder over the years. I remember a particularly nifty two-step by U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Joseph Dunford five years ago while he was assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division. Dunford is now the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force commander and a three-star general.

It was March 2005, and the Department of Veterans Affairs had just released an analysis of nearly 50,000 troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the report found that up to 17 percent had been diagnosed with major depression, anxiety or PTSD. It concluded that Marines and soldiers were nearly four times more likely to report PTSD than sailors and airmen. The findings paralleled findings in Vietnam War veterans.

Yet Dunford held a press conference to declare that none of these numbers even remotely resembled Camp Pendleton's situation. A scant 3 percent of his Marines needed mental health care, he said, attributing the tiny number to the superior counseling his Marines received before going to fight in places like Ramadi, Najaf and Fallujah.

Why was Dunford so sure of this? Because his troops had told him so: Three percent had self-identified in their post-deployment questionnaire.

I don't recall the general appreciating a question suggesting that, just maybe, 1st Marine Division troops weren't self-diagnosing because they wanted to go home on leave and didn't want to appear weak.

About a year later, official tenor on the subject changed. Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert, who retired last year as the Marine Corps Installations West commander, told me then that constant combat deployments were indeed eroding Marines and their families, though he didn't spell out how.

Combat stress, Lehnert said, was endemic to combat, and only a psychopath could return from war unchanged by the experience.

Amen, brother.

So the Marine Corps culturally embraced "combat stress," but not PTSD. The former was a normal reaction of an honorable warrior to the horrors of war.
go here for more
Are meds covering up PTSD crisis

Did the military's own negligence contribute to the slayings?

While I don't think it was all the fault of the military, it is easy to say that what they did not do added to all of this. Just think about knowing repeat deployments incresed the risk of PTSD but no one seemed to be bothered by this fact at all even though this report came from the Army. Think of the lack of programs proven to work instead of as one provider told me, "better than nothing" when it came to addressing the never ending stress on these men and women. Then remember how they saw over 22,000 needing mental health care, asking for it, but being kicked out of the military with dishonorable discharges, leaving them unable to get any help at all or any benefits. If you think that did not make things worse for the attitude of the troops, you may be of like mind with military leaders and part of the problem as well.

The Fort Carson Murder Spree
Soldiers returning from Iraq have been charged in at least 11 murders at America's third-largest Army base. Did the military's own negligence contribute to the slayings?
L. CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Posted Nov 06, 2009 9:58 AM

It was just after closing time on Saturday night when the four soldiers staggered out of the Rum Bay nightclub ("Southern Colorado's largest supply of rum!"), piled into a gray Audi A4 and lit a blunt. Since they had returned from fighting in Iraq, where they had seen some of the bloodiest action of the war, nights like this had become common. There are more than 50 bars in downtown Colorado Springs, and on some nights thousands of people, many of them troops from nearby Fort Carson, pour out onto the streets after last call, looking for trouble. Rum Bay was one of the worst dives in town: Infamous for brawls involving drunken soldiers, locals called it "Fight Club." That night, the bar offered a special dispensed by shooter girls in denim cutoffs, who carried trays filled with test tubes of vodka mixed with apple schnapps. "We drank an ungodly amount," one of the men, Kenneth Eastridge, later recalled. "Like, hundreds of shots."

Eastridge and the others were members of the same Army unit, and they had all served together in Baghdad during the most volatile phase of the war. A 24-year-old specialist known as a "crazy bastard with no remorse," Eastridge had been court-martialed for stockpiling 463 pills of Valium in his barracks. Two of his buddies from Charlie Company carried equally sketchy reputations: Bruce Bastien, a 21-year-old medic who had been arrested for beating his wife while on leave, and Louis Bressler, a 24-year-old private who "started acting like King Kong," in the words of a fellow soldier, after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Tucked beneath the driver's seat of the Audi was a .38 revolver registered to Bressler's wife.
read more here
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/30794989/the_fort_carson_murder_spree/

Missouri Veterans Commission Holds Listening Post

Missouri Veterans Commission Holds Listening Post

Reported by: Brian Richardson
Thursday, Oct 22, 2009 @08:45pm CDT
Violence overseas is taking its toll on our service men and women.

The Missouri Veterans Commission held a listening post in Springfield Monday night to make sure those returning from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are not forgotten.

It's estimated that 80% of the men and women returning from those conflicts suffer from some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The post allowed veterans of previous wars to come together and learn how they can serve those who are returning home.

Twenty-two years in the Marines gave Eric Olson a lot to talk about, but most of those stories are disturbing.

"The worst was seeing the kids that were getting hurt." Olson said. "The next worse was seeing your buddies getting hurt. A lot of the screaming going on. You'd see your friends getting blown away."

With massive numbers of other soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, Olson says they could be fighting a different kind of war, their memories.

"One of the few good things to come out of the wars that we're fighting now in Iraq and Afghanistan is the recognition that combat stress and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are serious injuries," Olson said.
read more here
http://ozarksfirst.com/content/fulltext/?cid=198402

National Veterans Foundation

Thank you for your interest in the National Veterans Foundation's (NVF) programs, serving the crisis needs of all U.S. Veterans and their families.
We need your help today to spread the word about the critically important work we are doing.
Every day, it seems, news breaks about returning Vets from the current wars, struggling with their transition to civilian life. Unemployment, homelessness, Traumatic Brain Injury, post-traumatic stress, and drug and alcohol abuse are issues that too many of our returning Veterans face after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, they are dealing with these problems without proper support from their government and their communities.
Our Veterans and the National Veterans Foundation need the support of people who care about Veterans more than ever.
The NVF's programs and services for Veterans in crisis rely on people like you to continue. The more supporters who are aware of the plight of Veterans and the solutions the National Veterans Foundation provides, the more resources we have to continue our important work.
Please share information about the National Veterans Foundation with your friends and family today.
Thank you so much for your support!
Sincerely,
Floyd "Shad" Meshad
Founder and President

Tricare programs offer online counseling

Tricare programs offer online counseling
By Mark Abramson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, August 27, 2009
Servicemembers and family members in the States can now see marriage counselors and psychologists online from home, thanks to two new Tricare programs.

The Tricare Assistance Program, or TRIAP, was launched on a trial basis on Aug. 1 and allows servicemembers and family members ages 18 and older to use Skype and a webcam to go online at home or anywhere that has Internet access to see and talk with a counselor.

TRIAP users have access to marriage counselors and other similar professionals to help them deal with stress, family and relationship problems, anxiety and other issues.

“The [TRIAP] system now is low-level counseling without a diagnosis,” said Tricare Management Activity’s Kathleen Larkin.

Tricare Assistance and the similar new Telemedicine program, which has psychologists to help people deal with depression and other mental health conditions, prescribe medication and make diagnoses, are not modeled after other programs that use online counseling; they are just ways to add to the services Tricare provides, Larkin said.
read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64410

Impact of VCS-VUFT Lawsuit against the VA

This was part of the reason I resigned from the NAMI Veterans Council. They gave Dr. Katz an award for what he was forced to do when it came to the suicides of our veterans.

This is from an online report about the NAMI Convention

Veterans Affairs Mental Health Program

by
Cole Buxbaum
There has been an increase in homelessness, criminalization, and suicide among veterans. 14% of service members are now suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) During the last few years 1.6 million veterans have had a psychiatric diagnosis. The Veterans Affairs Department has called for post-deployment periodic evaluations for all combat veterans.

Since 2006 the VA has hired over 4,000 new mental health practitioners to deal with the growing demands, and more new hires are planned. In late 2008, the VA issued a directive to all VA health care facilities to significantly restructure their mental health programs, establishing scores of new approaches to help veterans transition, reintegrate and recover.

The key speaker at this workshop was Ira Katz, M.D., director, Office of VA Mental Health, Washington, D. C.

This is from the convention

NAMI VETERANS COUNCIL DEDICATION TO VETERANS MENATL HEALTH CARE AWARD

Ira Katz, MD

Dr, Ira Katz left a comfortable position at the University of Pennsylvania and the VA Medical Center to join the Department of Veterans Affairs. Within two years of his arrival, members of Congress and the press were calling for his resignation or termination over the issues of rising suicides among veterans-especially veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In spite of blistering criticism, Dr. Katz worked tirelessly behind the scenes to launch the VA's first ever suicide prevention initiative, including a nationwide crisis call line in conjunction with SAMHSA that has intervened in thousands of potential suicides by veterans. While managing this delicate task and fending off critics, Dr. Katz spearheaded VA-wide approval of a dramatic reform of its mental health programs to embrace recovery principles. All veterans receiving mental health care in the VA are better served today because of the work of Dr. Ira Katz. We are proud to honor him for his dedication to improving the mental health and the mental health care of veterans.

"Proud" is what they were but the fact is, none of what happened with the VA and steps taking would have happened without these law suits and Congress getting invovled. If the NAMI Veteran's Council is so uninformed on what the facts were behind all of this they awarded one of the people responsible for the harm done, then we have to ask what else they have gotten wrong. What excuse can they have for not knowing? What can they say to the families of our veterans when they were so hopeless they committed suicide at the same time Katz was denying it was happening on national TV? These are not average citizens unable to know what's going on. They are supposed to be experts on what they are talking about. So how is it they didn't know what was behind all of this? How is it that they gave an award to Katz after all of this?

I cannot tell you how truly disgusted I am with this. I had such high hopes for the Veterans Council believing they were putting veterans first and knew as much about what was going on as I did. After all, they are the "experts" and were supposed to know. Yet given the fact I would receive emails with links to reports days after I had read them and posted them, as if it was big news and they never seemed to manage to send out links to the really big stories, that should have given me a clue they didn't really know much of what they should have know and been informing others on.

Again, I still believe in NAMI but after this award to Katz, I don't believe the Veteran's Council is about doing what is best for the veterans. If they were really interested in the truth then they would have given an award to Veterans for Common Sense or Veterans United for truth instead because their efforts were behind all of it.

Impact of VCS-VUFT Lawsuit
Two years ago Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth made history with our lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs.
We are tired of the endless delays caused by VA, including the fact that VA medical centers turned away suicidal veterans seeking mental healthcare - a dire moral outrage during a time our Nation fights two wars.While some at VA called our suit a nuisance, and VA tried in vain to have the suit dismissed, our lawsuit provided several victories for veterans.
The court ruled VA was harming our veterans with unreasonable delays in healthcare and benefits.

The court forced VA to release internal documents showing VA concealed a terrible and tragic suicide epidemic and even sought to block access to healthcare and disability benefits for veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.Your contributions makes a difference!

Please set up a monthly gift to VCS today so we can keep the heat on VA to improve access to timely services for our veterans.

Be a Part of History - Watch Hearing and Support VCS
This Wednesday at 9:30 AM, our attorneys in our case, Gordon Erspamer and Morrison & Foerster and Sid Wolinsky at Disability Rights Advocates, appear before the Ninth District Court of Appeals in San Francisco. C-SPAN will carry the case live.

Read our appeal brief here. How important is this lawsuit? Two widely respected veterans organizations, the Vietnam Veterans of America and Swords to Plowshares, wrote the Appeals Court and agreed that VCS and VUFT were right and that the current crisis demands court intervention to overhaul and reform VA.

How historic is this case?

Last week, Gordon Erspamer was presented with the prestigious pro bono attorney of the year award by the American Bar Association.

You can view a video about Gordon here.

After VCS and VUFT filed our lawsuit, VA set up a toll-free suicide prevention hotline at 800-273-TALK. So far, 150,000 distraught veterans have called, and VA performed more than 3,200 rescues, including a soldier on active duty in Iraq.

Your support keeps the needs of veterans front and center in the news.

Please donate to VCS today so we can improve how VA takes care of our veterans. Sincerely,

Paul Sullivan

Executive Director

Veterans for Common Sense

TV Shows Trauma and Mercy

Trauma

Executive producer Peter Berg delivers "Trauma," the first high-octane medical drama series to live exclusively in the field where the real action is. Like an adrenaline shot to the heart, "Trauma" is an intense, action-packed look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: first responder paramedics. When emergencies occur, the trauma team from San Francisco General is first on the scene, traveling by land, by sea or by air to reach their victims in time. From the heights of the city's Transamerica Pyramid to the depths of the San Francisco Bay, these heroes must face the most extreme conditions to save lives -- and give meaning to their own existence in the process.

Source: NBC



Mercy - NBC TV Show - Mercy Seasons, Spoilers, Cast, Pics


NBC's "Mercy," a new medical drama with a unique point of view, portrays the lives of the staff at Mercy Hospital as seen through the eyes of those who know it best—its nurses.

Nurse Veronica Callahan (Taylor Schilling, "Dark Matter") returns to Mercy from a military tour in Iraq—and she knows more about medicine than all of the residents combined on NBC's "Mercy." Together with fellow nurses Sonia Jimenez (Jamie Lee Kirchner, "Rescue Me") and Chloe Payne (Michelle Trachtenberg, "Gossip Girl"), Callahan navigates through the daily traumas and social landmines of life and love both inside the hospital and out in the real world on NBC's "Mercy."

The cast of NBC's "Mercy" also includes: James Tupper ("Men in Trees") as Dr. Chris Sands, a new doctor at the hospital who complicates Veronica's life; Diego Klattenhoff ("Supernatural") as Mike Callahan, Veronica's husband; and Guillermo Diaz ("Weeds") as Nurse Angel Lopez.

NBC's "Mercy" is a Universal Media Studios/Berman Braun production. Joining writer/executive producers Liz Heldens (NBC's "Friday Night Lights") and Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts ("Pushing Daisies," "Pepper Dennis") are executive producers Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun. Emmy Award winner Adam Bernstein (NBC's "30 Rock," "Rescue Me") is the director for the pilot of NBC's "Mercy."
TV Shows Trauma and Mercy

It's really odd to finally see TV shows coming out addressing trauma after all these years, but it's wonderful they are finally being done.

Quiet heroes we depend on everyday to take care of us when parts of our life beyond our control spiral into chaos. Car accidents can change our lives in a second. Natural disasters strike leaving us in total confusion wondering where we're supposed to live, find clothes, food, how we are supposed to put our lives back together again. Fires wipe out everything we thought we valued, needed to make us happy and obliterated sentimental reminders of our lives captured in pictures lost forever.

We tend to not think about these people we need when traumatic events happen but we're sure glad they show up when they do.

Firefighters, emergency responders, police officers and Chaplains show up when they are needed the most then return into the background of our lives. It never dawns on us to wonder how they do it, how they face all these events, risk their own lives for the sake of strangers, then go back to their own lives without asking anything in return except a simple thank you and their paycheck, because they were "just doing their jobs" for the rest of us.

They go back home after working to save us, risking their lives to do it, then have to take out the trash, do the laundry, go food shopping, deal with kid's homework, dust furniture and vacuum the rugs. They deal with the usual mundane problems and family relationships all the while they are remembering they just saved a life, wondering why simple events in life can take on so much importance to the people they love the most. Someone died in their arms a little while ago but they have to deal with an argument over who was supposed to unload the dishwasher. They saved the life of a child but have to go home and tell their own kid to clean their room.

We see them everyday but never really notice any of them until we need them. We never think about their own lives once we are done needing them.

These TV shows may make us think more about them while reminding us of the trauma they face daily. Mercy will show us what it's like to be sent into combat then have to come back home living like the rest of us but being oh so much more than we could ever dream of.

Casualties of War, Part II: Warning Signs

Casualties of War, Part II: Warning Signs
Monday 27 July 2009

by: Dave Philipps Visit article original @ The Colorado Springs Gazette


After coming home from Iraq, 21-year-old medic Bruce Bastien was driving with his Army buddy Louis Bressler, 24, when they spotted a woman walking to work on a Colorado Springs street.

Bressler swerved and hit the woman with the car, according to police, then Bastien jumped out and stabbed her over and over.

It was October 2007. A fellow soldier, Kenneth Eastridge, 24, watched it all from the passenger seat.

At that moment, he said, it was clear that however messed up some of the soldiers in the unit had been after their first Iraq deployment, it was about to get much worse.
read more here
http://www.truthout.org/072809C

read more of this series here
Related Stories/Links

Casualties of War, Part I: The hell of war comes home
EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution
Fort Carson report: Combat stress contributed to soldiers' crimes back home
Fort Carson report (.pdf document 126 pages)
Complete military coverage
Audio: Interview with Kenneth Eastridge
John Needham letter alleging war crimes

You are either thinking we have a serious problem or this is just media hype. If you think it's hype, your dead wrong and history proves that. It was easier to ignore all of the price paid by those we send when we were talking about Vietnam or any of the earlier wars in our history. The difference is the Internet. You can't hide much of it anymore.

While it was easier to hide the truth, it was a lot harder to deal with any of it even though it was all there. It was also much harder to live with feeling as if you no longer existed to the rest of the nation turned obliviously against you while you suffered in silence. You were no longer a soldier and thus obsolete. It was easy to ignore the suffering of so many so because it was easy to hide all of it from the attention of the general public.

You may be reading this and think "ok well there have been 1.7 million sent into Iraq and Afghanistan, so what's a few "criminals" to worry about?" The problem is, they were not criminals before they were sent into combat and the likelihood of them committing crimes had they not been deployed into combat, then not taken care of properly, the odds are against them ever committing crimes at all. So when you look at it that way, you finally understand that while they fulfilled their obligation to this nation as they are often reminded of the fact "they volunteered" you need to notice that we did not live up to our obligation to them any better than we did the generations before them. Not such a pretty picture to hold in your mind now is it?

The real issue we need to be discussing is the fact that none of the men or women in the military since the Vietnam war were drafted and forced to go. Think of what that requires of all of them. Think of what kind of person it takes to be willing to put their own lives on the line. Then think about what they go through. Wouldn't you expect them to change? Wouldn't you change?

If we helped them recover with the same kind of understanding we seem to have when we send them to risk their lives, I doubt there would be many suicides or crimes associated with deployment. The fault is not their's entirely. It is partly our's. Yes they decided to commit the crimes but we decided to ignore their problems in the first place.

Carson soldiers say Iraq horrors led to crimes

Carson soldiers say Iraq horrors led to crimes

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jul 27, 2009 7:23:10 EDT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Soldiers from an Army unit that had 10 infantrymen accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter after returning to civilian life described a breakdown in discipline during their Iraq deployment in which troops murdered civilians, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Some Fort Carson, Colo.-based soldiers have had trouble adjusting to life back in the United States, saying they refused to seek help, or were belittled or punished for seeking help. Others say they were ignored by their commanders, or coped through drug and alcohol abuse before they allegedly committed crimes, The Gazette of Colorado Springs said.

The unit was deployed for a year to Iraq’s Sunni Triangle in September 2004. Sixty-four unit soldiers were killed and more than 400 wounded — about double the average for Army brigades in Iraq, according to Fort Carson. In 2007, the unit served a bloody 15-month mission in Baghdad. It’s currently deployed to the Khyber Pass region in Afghanistan.

read more here

Carson soldiers say Iraq horrors led to crimes

Mental health issues rising among vets

A couple of things to remember here. First the DOD and the VA have different numbers. The other is that this report points out two issues for the increase. One is the stigma is less than it was and the other is that many times PTSD can present a long time after the events causing it. The answer is, both.

The article also point this out and it's what has been repeated here over and over and over again,,,,,,,

The authors recommended targeted screening and early intervention to prevent chronic mental health problems.

Mental health issues rising among vets

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 22, 2009 16:26:06 EDT

A new study shows that 106,726 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans within the Veterans Affairs Department health care system have been diagnosed with mental health issues.

That’s 37 percent of the 289,328 veterans who have sought care. Of those, 62,979 — or 22 percent — have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

About 1.6 million troops have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The study notes that those numbers are far higher than a military study showing that only 12 percent of active-duty combat veterans received mental health diagnoses from the Military Health System.

That may be because PTSD can show up years after a person experiences a traumatic event.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/07/military_mentalhealth_072209w/

VA's Suicide Prevention Message Carried on 21,000 Buses

VA's Suicide Prevention Message Carried on 21,000 Buses



WASHINGTON (June 19, 2009) - The telephone number for the suicide
prevention "lifeline" of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is now
being carried on more than 21,000 city buses in 124 communities across
the United States and will run until Sept. 1, 2009.



The advertisements carry a message of hope for those who have served
their country and are undergoing an emotional crisis.



"We continue to look for new, innovative ways to reach our Veterans,"
Assistant Secretary Tammy Duckworth said. "VA wants to make sure to
exhaust all avenues to reach those in need of our services."



VA is partnering with Blu Line Media, an outdoor advertising company
which specializes in helping businesses and government tell their
stories through educational outreach campaigns, cause-related social
marketing and integrated communications.



Since its inception in July 2007, the VA Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1
800-273-TALK, has rescued more than 3,000 Veterans and provided
counseling for more than 120,000 Veterans and their loved ones at home
and overseas. The lifeline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week
by trained mental health professionals prepared to deal with immediate
crises.



Marketing the lifeline through mass transit campaigns was piloted in the
Washington D.C. area during the summer of 2008 with great success.



VA has also promoted awareness of the toll-free number through national
public service announcements featuring actor Gary Sinise and television
journalist Deborah Norville. The bus advertisement and public service
announcements are available for download via YouTube and at
www.mentalhealth.va.gov/suicide_prevention
.

Suicide Prevention
Suicide Prevention is everyone's business, and VA is enhancing its efforts in this vital area of veteran health.
Blue Ribbon Report on Suicide Prevention in the Veteran PopulationKnow the SignsWatch for these key suicide warning signs, and provide the Lifeline number to anyone exhibiting them.
Talking about wanting to hurt or kill oneself
Trying to get pills, guns, or other ways to harm oneself
Talking or writing about death, dying or suicide
Hopelessness
Rage, uncontrolled anger, seeking revenge
Acting in a reckless or risky way
Feeling trapped, like there is no way out
Saying or feeling there's no reason for living.
How to recognize when to ask for help (MS Word) Signs, Myths and Realities
Suicide Risk Assessment Guide (pdf pocket card)

VFW takes on PTSD and suicide

Helping Veterans Fight A Hidden?Enemy



by Glen Gardner

VFW Commander-in-Chief


(NAPSI)-America's veterans are helping past and present service members fight a subtle enemy that's devastating in the field and at home. That enemy is stress.

Despite the best of programs offered by the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration, since 9/11, more service members have committed suicide than the total U.S. dead from Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This tragedy is occurring partly because the need has overwhelmed the capacity of government and civilian mental health centers and partly because some people simply refuse to admit they need help.

More needs to be done to overcome the stigma that's unfortunately attached to seeking help, which Army Secretary Pete Geren called a significant challenge to the culture of the Army that places "a premium on strength: physically, mentally, emotionally."

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen asked his military leaders to set an example. "You can't expect a private or a specialist to be willing to seek counseling when his or her captain or colonel or general won't do it," he said.

Our government cannot battle this enemy alone, nor should a troubled young veteran. Every combat veteran has one thing in common that's very relevant to a new generation of warriors: We've walked in their shoes.
go here for more
http://www.napsnet.com/articles/61658.html

General Urges Service Members to Seek Help for Stress Disorder

General Urges Service Members to Seek Help for Stress Disorder

Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs

Story by Jim Garamone
Date: 04.06.2009
Posted: 04.06.2009 01:35



WASHINGTON - Service members at war can be confronted with traumatic, sometimes shocking, events that can cause long-lasting emotional and psychological wounds.

In some cases, service members develop what is called post-traumatic stress disorder. In past wars, the disorder was known by other names. In World War I, the medical profession called it shell-shock. In World War II and Korea, it was called battle fatigue. During and after the Vietnam War, it became PTSD.

No matter the name, the devastating effects remain the same, and the disorder can manifest itself in many ways. For Army Brig. Gen. Gary S. Patton, the dreams are the worst. Patton, now the Joint Staff's director for personnel, served as a brigade commander with the 2nd Infantry Division in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2004 and 2005. As a colonel, he commanded 4,100 soldiers who deployed from Korea to Iraq, and then redeployed to Fort Carson, Colo.

"It was a very tough neighborhood," he said during an interview. "It was a very active terrorist threat."

Patton calls the dreams "sleep disturbances," and said that was one of the reasons he sought mental health help. "I'll wake up in the middle of the night with a loud explosion going off in my head," he said. "Not only do you have the sound, but the recreation of the smell and taste that you get from being right there in an [improvised explosive device] explosion.

"That effect has diminished, but it's disturbing nonetheless."
go here for more
http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=news/news_show.php&id=32071

Gen. Peter Chiarelli at Fort Hood to address suicides, mental health in the ranks

Photo credit Chris Haug, III Corps PAO
Vice Chief of the Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli speaks to members of the media while visiting Fort Hood, Texas.

Vice Chief comes to Hood to address suicides, mental health in the ranks
Apr 01

By Heather Graham, III Corps PAO
FORT HOOD, Texas -- When Vice Chief of the Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli began an eight-day trip to seven Army installations across the country, his focus was on combating rising suicides in the ranks. After stops at the first few posts, the focus quickly broadened to include the overall mental health of Soldiers and their families.

Chiarelli and the suicide task force began visiting posts last week, looking at general trends in suicide and hoping to share best practices in prevention and treatment. The findings will be assembled in a plan that will be out soon.

What Chiarelli found is a stretched and tired force.

According to Department of Defense figures, 140 Soldiers killed themselves last year, an average of 20 Soldiers for every 100,000. This is the first time the Army has ever exceeded the Centers for Disease Control's most current statistic for the general population of 19 per 100,000, Chiarelli added.

This year has not started out well.

"We saw an alarming trend in the number of suicides during 2008, and the number - including those suspected, but not yet confirmed - for 2009 is still higher than average," Chiarelli said when he addressed the March 18, Central Texas and Fort Hood Chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army general membership meeting at the Killeen Civic and Convention Center.

Nearly eight years of combat on two fronts and multiple deployments have token a terrible toll on Soldiers and their families.
go here for more
Vice Chief comes to Hood to address suicides, mental health in the ranks/

General Carter Ham, hero in fight to heal

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, this man is a hero to all the troops and veterans because he's an example this is nothing to be ashamed of by showing no shame in himself. It's a human, normal reaction to abnormal events. Thinking, feeling people are often wounded by what they see and do.

A general battles post-combat stress
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, January 11, 2009
HEIDELBERG, Germany — Just back from a year in Iraq, Gen. Carter Ham got into the car with his wife, Christi, and began a strangely silent, cross-country drive.

“I probably said three words,” Ham recently recalled of the trip four years ago from Washington state to Washington, D.C.

His time in Iraq, what the future held for them, the sites along the way — that was a lot not to talk about, Christi thought, for her usually communicative husband.

It was almost like he resented being home.

“I sensed a huge feeling on his part that there wasn’t a huge purpose to his being here (with her) and there were important things being done (in Iraq), and that he wasn’t part of it,” she said.

The trip provided the first of several signs that would eventually persuade Ham that what had happened during his year in Mosul in 2004 had left him a changed man — and that to recover, he needed to talk.

Now the commander of U.S. Army Europe, Ham, along with his wife, discussed his post-combat difficulties in an interview just before Christmas. It was the second interview the pair have given to a newspaper. Their willingness to speak publicly about the issue is rare in traditional military culture, but they appeared entirely comfortable.

“Frankly, it’s a little weird to me that people are making a big deal about it,” Ham said of the response to his openness. “Like lots of soldiers I needed a little help, and I got a little help.” click link for more

Healing Combat Trauma: A Growth Benchmark of Our Own

Congratulations to Lily Casura of Healing Combat Trauma! Most of my readers know Lily is a wonderful friend of mine and couldn't be prouder of her. I know her work, dedication and her passion. I hope you visit her site so you can see what I mean. She really is an amazing woman.

December 01, 2008
A Growth Benchmark of Our Own
Today, we passed 100,000 page views on this blog for the year to date, a growth of 10,000x over last year, and 100,000x over the first full year of the blog, in 2006.

May it represent some sort of fulfillment of the intention here: To provide a framework of the therapeutic resources for healing combat trauma, and a way for veterans, their families, their providers and policy decisionmakers to take a look at some options besides the ordinary ones that may bring combat veterans some catharsis through their suffering. Fantastic if it does, and we believe it can.

go here for more

http://www.healingcombattrauma.com/2008/12/a-growth-benchmark-of-our-own.html

Military Bases brace for surge in stress-related disorders

Bases brace for surge in stress-related disorders
By LOLITA C. BALDOR (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
November 29, 2008 10:24 AM EST
FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky - Some 15,000 soldiers are heading home to this sprawling base after spending more than a year at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and military health officials are bracing for a surge in brain injuries and psychological problems among those troops.

Facing prospects that one in five of the 101st Airborne Division soldiers will suffer from stress-related disorders, the base has nearly doubled its psychological health staff. Army leaders are hoping to use the base's experiences to assess the long-term impact of repeated deployments.

The three 101st Airborne combat brigades, which have begun arriving home, have gone through at least three tours in Iraq. The 3rd Brigade also served seven months in Afghanistan, early in the war. Next spring, the 4th Brigade will return from a 15-month tour in Afghanistan. So far, roughly 10,000 soldiers have come back; the remainder are expected by the end of January.

Army leaders say they will closely watch Fort Campbell to determine the proper medical staffing levels needed to aid soldiers who have endured repeated rotations in the two war zones.

"I don't know what to expect. I don't think anybody knows," said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, as he flew back to Washington from a recent tour of the base's medical facilities. "That's why I want to see numbers from the 101st's third deployment."

What happens with the 101st Airborne, he said, will let the Army help other bases ready for similar homecomings in the next year or two, when multiple brigades from the 4th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division return.

Noting that some soldiers in the 101st Airborne units have been to war four or five times, Chiarelli said he is most worried the military will not be able to find enough health care providers to deal effectively with the troops needing assistance.

Many of the military bases are near small or remote communities that do not have access to the number of health professionals who might be needed as a great many soldiers return home.

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Linked from RawStory

PTSD:General's story highlights combat stress

Gen. Carter Ham, to call him a hero would be putting it mildly. He's a hero to the troops not just because he's a high ranking officer, but because he is willing to speak out on having PTSD. That is a kind of courage very few in his position are willing to do.

When men like my husband came home from Vietnam, they knew something had changed inside of them but they didn't know what it was. They suffered in silence just as generations before them suffered. When PTSD was first used in 1976 with a study commissioned by the DAV, news was slowly reaching the veterans. While they fought to have it recognized as wound caused by their service, it was very difficult to talk about. The perception that there was something wrong with them kept too many from even seeking help to heal.

After 26 years of doing outreach work and 24 years of marriage, my husband finally reached the point when he was ready for me to actually use my married legal name. Up until now it was almost as if he was ashamed to be wounded. Imagine that! What gave him the comfort was not anything I did. It came from seeing reports on the news and people he knows coming out, talking about it without any shame whatsoever. Hearing the courageous words from others is what brought him peace with PTSD. Because of great care from the VA, after a long battle with them, he's living a life instead of just existing in one slowly dying inside.

General Ham does not realize what he's just done by being willing to talk about this wound and normalize it. He's normal but combat and all other trauma related events are not part of normal life. It's all a normal reaction to abnormal events. Simple as that.

While there are still some commanders in the military today dismissing PTSD, calling it anything other than what it is, still exist and injure their troops, General Ham has shown what true care and leadership is. Plan on seeing a lot more veterans coming forward seeking help because of General Ham.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.com coming soon!
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Then-Col. Gary Patton salutes during a service for Staff Sgt. Thomas Vitagliano, Pfc. George Geer and Pfc. Jesus Fonseca. The men died Jan. 17, 2005, in Ramadi.
By Joe Raedle, Getty Images

General's story highlights combat stress
USA Today - USA

By Tom Vanden Brook

Gen. Carter Ham was among the best of the best — tough, smart and strong — an elite soldier in a battle-hardened Army. At the Pentagon, his star was rising.

In Iraq, he was in command in the north during the early part of the war, when the insurgency became more aggressive. Shortly before he was to return home, on Dec. 21, 2004, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mess hall at a U.S. military base near Mosul and killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. troops. Ham arrived at the scene 20 minutes later to find the devastation.

When Ham returned from Mosul to Fort Lewis, Wash., in February 2005, something in the affable officer was missing. Loud noises startled him. Sleep didn't come easily.

"When he came back, all of him didn't come back. … Pieces of him the way he used to be were perhaps left back there," says his wife, Christi. "I didn't get the whole guy I'd sent away."

Today, Ham, 56, is one of only 12 four-star generals in the Army. He commands all U.S. soldiers in Europe. The stress of his combat service could have derailed his career, but Ham says he realized that he needed help transitioning from life on the battlefields of Iraq to the halls of power at the Pentagon. So he sought screening for post-traumatic stress and got counseling from a chaplain. That helped him "get realigned," he says.

"You need somebody to assure you that it's not abnormal," Ham says. "It's not abnormal to have difficulty sleeping. It's not abnormal to be jumpy at loud sounds. It's not abnormal to find yourself with mood swings at seemingly trivial matters. More than anything else, just to be able to say that out loud."

The willingness of Ham, one of the military's top officers, to speak candidly with USA TODAY for the first time about post-traumatic stress represents a tectonic shift for a military system in which seeking such help has long been seen as a sign of weakness.

It's also a recognition of the seriousness of combat stress, which can often worsen to become post-traumatic stress disorder.
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UK: Seven stories after 7-7

Seven stories 7/7: three years on

Bombs set off by Islamist extremists in the capital three years ago killed 52 people and the four suicide bombers. Many of those affected are still scarred by the experience. Seven of them tell Emily Dugan how they are trying to rebuild their lives

Sunday, 6 July 2008


Elaine Young, 49: caught up in the Edgware Road bombing


"Until February this year I coped fine. It was very much: 'I was in it, I got out, I'm OK.' I'm in the pull-your-socks-up brigade, so I felt it was lesser people who got stressed and didn't want to admit how I was feeling. That's not been a good thing.

One day in February I just collapsed. I had worked myself to death, doing 80 hours a week just to shut it out [Elaine suffered minor physical injuries but was left deeply traumatised by the sight of so many people dying around her]. The day it happened I was at work and there was a big bang outside my window – probably just a crane dropping a skip – but it triggered something. I jumped up and ran to the loo, staying in the cubicle for ages and ages. I'm a master of pretending everything's fine, but when I got back from work that night I thought, 'I'm not getting the train again'. I haven't been back to work since.

I get an awful lot of flashbacks and nightmares, and I often get several panic attacks a day. I've been trying to get counselling for my post-traumatic stress disorder but there's nothing there for people like me. There was a fund for victims of the bombs, but when I tried to get it in February the money had run out.

I went to the GP, who referred me to the local hospital, which then referred me elsewhere. Now I've got an appointment to see if I'm eligible for counselling and then I'll be on another waiting list. It's been months of waiting. I'm not hopeful. All I want is to be able to get back to doing things the way I did before."
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/seven-stories-77-three-years-on-860868.html