Iraq veteran wants us to know he had to pass a background check

I received an email from an Iraq veteran with a video on Vote Vets.

I needed to pass a background check to join the Marine Corps and carry an assault weapon in Iraq. We should require the same of anyone who wants to carry one at home. As veterans, we're familiar with these weapons and why its so important we keep them out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. That's why I'm proud to appear in VoteVets latest 30-second ad on the issue. With the Senate set to vote on gun legislation in a few weeks, watch the ad and tell your Senators that you support universal background checks.

Glenn Kunkel said that he had to pass a background check before he could carry his weapon. Why shouldn't everyone else?
Glenn Kunkel
Iraq War Veteran
Purple Heart Recipient

Institute of Medicine study shows why DOD and VA not helping

"The IOM study reports that 44 percent of veterans have had "readjustment difficulties," 48 percent have dealt with "strains on family life," 49 percent have experienced post-traumatic stress, and 32 percent have felt "an occasional loss of interest in daily activities." Those figures were plucked from an earlier Pew Research Center survey."

Rough landings: DOD, VA sluggish helping returning veterans, study says
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor

Nearly half of the 2.2 million U.S. troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have struggled to readjust to American life in part because the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have been sluggish in helping those coming home in droves, according to a sweeping report released today.

After examining veteran suicides and unemployment as well as the military’s handling of sex assaults, women in uniform and same-sex family issues, the Institute of Medicine said returning service members deserve “timely and adequate care,” yet it cited cases in which the DOD and VA are using unproven diagnostic and therapy tools.

The tool DOD uses to assess cognitive function following a head injury – Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) — carries “no clear scientific evidence” to show that it works.

One of the VA’s “first-line treatments for depression” — Acceptance and Commitment Therapy — similarly “lacks sufficient evidence” to show its efficacy. read more here

Where has all the money gone on Suicide Prevention?

These are just some of the grants going into PTSD and Suicide Prevention.
*editors note: If you are a reporter, I left the links out because I am tired to doing the work for you. If you want to verify them, you just have to find them on this blog.

February 2007

But in 2005 and 2006, despite telling Congress that it was setting aside an additional $300 million for expanding mental-health services, such as PTSD programs, the VA didn't get around to spending $54 million of that, according to the Government Accountability Office.”

Jan. 3, 2008

BATTLEMIND Title:Battlemind Transition Office Role:Prime Contractor Contract Number:VW81XWH-07-D-0011-0001 Contracting Agency:US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity Type:IDIQ Period of Performance: 30-SEP-2007 through 29-SEP-2010 Customer:

News American Forces Press Service ‘Battlemind’ Prepares Soldiers for Combat, Returning Home By Susan Huseman Special to American Forces Press Service STUTTGART, Germany, – Every soldier headed to Iraq and Afghanistan receives “Battlemind” training designed to help them deal with combat experiences, but few know the science behind the program. Consequently, Dr. Amy Adler, a senior research psychologist with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research’s U.S. Army Medical Research Unit Europe, in Heidelberg, Germany, visited Patch Barracks here, breaking down the program, which is a system of support and intervention.

April 2008

By 2008 another $2.7 million was handed over to a contractor to make phone calls. Yep~phone calls! 570,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were supposed to be called to find out why they hadn’t gone to the VA.

October 2008

“The Army and the National Institute of Mental Health have begun a five-year, $50 million research program into the factors behind soldier suicides and how to prevent them, Army Secretary Pete Geren told reporters at the Pentagon.

April 2009

“The Army's alarming suicide trend continues this year, said David Rudd, the chairman of Tech's psychology department who will head the $1.97 million Defense Department study.

March 23, 2010

Dr. Thomas Insel, director of National Institute of Mental Health gave testimony to congress on March 23, 2010. “In Fiscal Year 2009, NIMH spent over $41 million in 97 grants, in 23 states, dedicated to helping veterans. We are working with DoD, VA, and academic clinicians and researchers to focus on the mental health needs of active duty, National Guard, and Reserve service personnel, as well as veterans and their families.

December 2011

The $125-million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program requires soldiers to undergo the kind of mental pre-deployment tests and training that they have always had to undergo physically. Already, more than 1.1 million have had the mental assessments.

$11 million Department of Defense grant to test two different types of exposure therapy combined with the drug D-Cycloserine (DCS) for the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).Emory University School of Medicine

March 2012

$3.5 million grant for a research project to more effectively treat post-traumatic stress disorder and ultimately prevent it from occurring.

May 2012

$10 million to outsource PTSD and TBI care. Congressmen Mike Thompson of California and Pete Sessions of Texas announced an amendment to create a five year “pilot program” to allow military patients to from civilian healthcare facilities. “Utilizing an array of leading-edge successful therapies to treat TBI and PTSD for the 2013 budget.

June 4, 2012

“Master Resilience Trainer” is placed into an Army unit after 10 days of training. They were “charged with equipping fellow soldiers with thinking skills and strategies intended to help them more effectively handle the physical and psychological challenges of military life, including, most especially, combat operations.” The analysis added this, “However, the public that has paid over $100 million for the CSF program and, even more, the one million soldiers who are involuntarily subjected to CSF’s resiliency training deserve much better than the misrepresentations of effectiveness aggressively promoted.”

$31 million no-bid contract to Seligman’s positive psychology center at the University of Pennsylvania for CSF development

June 12, 2012

The Pentagon has not spent much of some $8 million Congress has provided for suicide prevention because the funds are allocated only for “in-house,” or hospital, care — not education and outreach programs, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

July 2012

Army Comprehensive Soldier Fitness is a $125 million program that seeks to make troops as psychologically fit as possible. But a group of psychologists says there’s no proof that the program — or similar resilience-building efforts in the other services — works.

August 18, 2012

Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act Signed Authorization of Appropriations.--For the purpose of carrying out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2005, $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2006, and $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2007.''. 108th Congress Public Law 355 The US Army has awarded a scientist at the Indiana University School of Medicine $3 million to develop a nasal spray that eclipses suicidal thoughts. Dr. Michael Kubek and his research team will have three years to ascertain whether the nasal spray is a safe and effective method of preventing suicides. US Army grants $3 million for anti-suicide nasal spray research

August 2012

UCLA School of Dentistry, has received a $3.8 million research grant to develop a salivary-biomarker approach for identifying individuals at future risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following a traumatic event.

Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center a five-year grant of $4.1 million to establish an Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention (ICRC-S).

$2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the effect of the Transcendental Meditation

Sept. 2012

VA, DOD to Fund $100 Million PTSD and TBI Study From a Department of Veterans Affairs News Release WASHINGTON, – The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense today announced they are investing more than $100 million in research to improve diagnosis and treatment of mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. This year, approximately 3,400 researchers will work on more than 2,300 projects with nearly $1.9 billion in funding. Specific information on the consortia, including the full description of each award, eligibility, and submission deadlines, and general application instructions, are posted on the Grants.gov and CDMRP websites.

Fort Detrick is receiving $100 million in federal grants to fund research into post-traumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury.

$7.7 million grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) to study the most effective way to implement Prolonged Exposure therapy, an effective and efficient treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among mental health practitioners who treat soldiers suffering from this disorder.

October 31, 2012

Department of Defense Military Suicide Research Consortium decided they had $677,000 laying around and thought it would be good to spend in on finding out how 100 military families felt after the suicide loss of someone they loved and it would be worth the two years it would take thee the University of Kentucky to do it.

Camp Lejeune's Marine families may have to wait longer

Camp Lejeune's water woes keep growing worse
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 26, 2013

Evidence of one of the worst cases of drinking water contamination in American history continues to build at Camp Lejeune. So, unfortunately, does the record of disastrous responses by federal authorities.

In August, President Barack Obama signed a bill to open up more health care resources for an estimated 1 million Marines and family members exposed to carcinogens at the base in Jacksonville, N.C., during a 30-year period ending in 1987.

But officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs now say it may take until next year, or even early 2015, before the law is fully implemented.

In the meantime, it appears the VA is doing little to accelerate benefit claims; since December 2010, the department has rejected 75 percent of the 1,483 veterans who've sought benefits.

News of the delay arrives amid a new study showing that the contamination began earlier than previously thought. Drinking water from wells tainted by leaking fuel tanks and an off-base dry cleaner have been linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems.
read more here

Camp Pendleton "new suicide prevention" program?

I guess 900 programs is just not enough.

New suicide prevention training
By Cpl. Derrick Irions
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton
March 25, 2013
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.

In accordance with Marine Corps Order 1720.2, a recently released MarineNet activation announcement, indicates every Marine Corps battalion and squadron must appoint a Suicide Prevention Program Officer (SPPO).

Each SPPO is required to complete MarineNet course MFCSPPO001.

The MairneNet course will educate SPPOs in prevention, intervention, reporting and response for suicide related incidents within their commands.

The course’s USMC SPPO Distance Learning Module includes the USMC Suicide Prevention Program and Suicide Prevention Program Officer Responsibilities.