Today's blog posts devoted to giving thanks

For today there will be no posts on trauma or tragedy. I have the other 363 days of the year to do that because I don't plan on posting them on Christmas day either. I'm doing this because while it is so easy to find things to complain about, stories the media covers under the rule of "if it bleeds it leads" and tragedies around the world, it is often hard to find the hopeful stories. There are many I've found this year and I'll be re-posting them today.

I can't take credit for this idea. I was watching CNN and saw the promo for the Hero's night for broadcast tonight.

CNN HEROES
Tonight at 9 ET on CNN
Grammy winners Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys and John Legend perform for CNN Heroes

I thought of how wonderful it was they picked tonight to do this honor for wonderful people. Pop back in often today and read some of the stories that were covered this year on this blog. Then try to remember when your feast is over as you lay down in bed tonight to give thanks for what is good in your life but also what is good in this world.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare

International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://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

L.A. County mental health chief says he will try to rely less on police

L.A. County mental health chief says he will try to rely less on police

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:35:14 AM

Marvin J. Southard's office can't force crowded hospitals to accept its emergency patients, so it sends them to law enforcers who can. He tells county supervisors he's looking for other options.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
November 26, 2008
Los Angeles County's chief mental health official said Tuesday that he is working to reduce the number of times his staff forwards emergency assistance calls involving the mentally ill to police, a practice that has grown over the last year as fewer hospital beds have been available to treat such patients.

Marvin J. Southard, called before the Board of Supervisors after news reports highlighted the problem, told the board he is in talks with county health officials to find better options.

"This issue is really an issue of indigent care at the county hospitals," Southard told Supervisor Mike Antonovich during questioning. "We contract with private hospitals to provide indigent care, but there are some patients only county hospitals will accept."

Mental health workers have increasingly turned to law enforcement officials to handle emergency calls because hospitals are required by law to take emergency mental health patients transported by police. If a county mental health worker brings people in for treatment, facilities are not compelled to accept them.

As of last month, there were 2,562 beds available for mental health patients in Los Angeles County, records show, and only about 200 of them were at county hospitals, which are required to admit poor and uninsured patients.
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Disney worker dies from accident injuries

Disney worker dies from accident injuries
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
11:04 AM EST, November 26, 2008
An electrical power technician working for Walt Disney World has died from injuries sustained in a power maintenance accident earlier this month.

Douglas Howell, 54, of Rockledge, died earlier this week from injuries sustained in a Nov. 5 accident at a substation near the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort. The Orange County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration were notified at the time of the accident and OSHA is investigating.

Non-combat death in Iraq

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

1st Lt. William K. Jernigan, 35, of Doraville, Ga., died Nov. 24 in Baqubah, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to Headquarters Company, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.
http://icasualties.org/oif/

Scores die in India rampage with hostages held

Scores die India rampage; hostages held
Gunmen have targeted nine locations in south Mumbai, including two luxury hotels. A state spokesman put the death toll at 78. Gunmen are holding hostages at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, police said. One witness told reporters gunmen had tried to find people with U.S. or British passports. developing story
iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos
Mumbai hotel 'under siege' Videos
Truck opens fire; bystanders duck Photos
Witness: 'I was splattered with blood'

Lawsuit: Police forced vets to lick ground

Lawsuit: Police forced vets to lick ground

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Nov 26, 2008 13:59:29 EST

MADISON, Wis. — Two Iraq war veterans allege in a federal lawsuit they were forced by small-town Wisconsin police officers to lap up what was thought to be urine.

Wisconsin National Guardsmen Anthony Anderson and Robert Schiman filed the suit against the city of Wisconsin Dells, its police chief and three officers last week in U.S. District Court in Madison.

The guardsmen, both of whom have served two tours of duty in Iraq, were in the Dells for weekend training. Two police officers stopped them in the early morning of June 1.

The suit says officers Wayne Thomas and Collin Jacobson accused the guardsmen of urinating in public and pointed out a wet spot in an alley that they thought was urine. The guardsmen denied having relieved themselves there.

In order to prove that it was not their urine and avoid citations, the officers made Anderson and Schiman lick the ground, the lawsuit claims. Schiman also was made to eat a plant that was drenched in the liquid, it states.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_lickgroundlawsuit_112608/

UK PTSD:Coping with the trauma of warfare

Coping with the trauma of warfare
BBC News -

By Caroline Wyatt Defence correspondent, BBC News

"I started drinking, I started fighting and I was more aggressive - but I didn't care. I couldn't sleep, my chest felt tight, I felt sick - and then there were the flashbacks.

"I got diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by my unit's medical officer - and that was it.


"There was no treatment. And they still sent me to fight in Iraq."


Ian, a 27-year-old veteran of Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Northern Ireland and Iraq, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 1999, but went on to fight in several more campaigns.



Ian - not his real name - left the Army after Iraq, but he is sure many more British troops are silently suffering mental anguish from Iraq and Afghanistan than official figures suggest.

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"True Life: I Have PTSD” on MTV

I was sent this by email and it is an amazing thing to watch. This is what they are going through and not enough is being done to help them. When they have PTSD, the tears come because the wall that was protecting them from harm is being broken down. When you watch him break down, understand that he in the process of healing from great emotional turmoil.

Here is a clip from the episode that you can share with your readers:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0POxbds4do



And here is a description of the episode:



5pm - “True Life: I Have PTSD”- One in five veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan report symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a mental illness that causes depression, inability to trust, constant alertness, nightmares and fits of rage. If untreated, severe PTSD can last a lifetime and make it impossible to hold down a job, form a lasting relationship, stay sober or lead a satisfying life. Yet only half of veterans with symptoms seek treatment. In this episode of MTV’s “True Life,” viewers will see what it’s really like to live with PTSD through three young veterans who are struggling to get their lives back on track.

The Think Community at think.mtv.com will help educate and connect viewers with content and provide them with the necessary help with issues featured in the "True Life: I Have PTSD” episode. Viewers will also be able to comment on the show and the issues on think.mtv.com.

My new PTSD web site is almost done

http://www.namguardianangel.com/ is just about finished. The videos are up and running. It still needs a bit more work and more features are being added.



There are only a couple more videos to put up.

Features will have PowerPoints on two often requested videos, Wounded Minds and Death Because They Served. Both of these videos are long and the tiles contain important information for people doing presentations. Soon Wounded Minds will have translated tiles into Spanish for Power Point. A doctor in Argentina requested the tiles so that he can translate them and he'll be sending the Spanish version.

My book will also be available on the site, as well as on this blog.

There is a forum ready to go, but bear with me on that one because I'm still not too sure how it works.

I've done this because of YouTube and Google videos. The main reason is that the troops cannot access either one of them and they are missing the information in these videos. Plus considering how many videos there are on both sites, mine, well, let's just say they get buried. People are shocked once they finally find them and wish they found them a couple of years ago when I first started to do them.

There are two videos for female soldiers and veterans. Women At War and The Voice, Women At War.

There are two videos on the other causes of trauma as well for civilians because they also end up wounded by abnormal events. Those are PTSD After Trauma and IFOC Chaplain Army of Love.

There is a video for the citizen soldiers, the National Guards and Reservist, who end up coming back and going back to work for the police and fire departments across this country as well as back to regular jobs.

There are several videos for the Vietnam Veterans because they have been tugging at my heart since 1982. Naturally there are videos for the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two videos are for the family members who need to know what PTSD is and when the veteran needs more help than just love can give. Learn the signs and you'll be able to help them heal.

There is also a special video, PTSD Not God's Judgment. This video was created because of what veterans have found very hard to come to terms with. They want to know if God can forgive them. Yes, there is really no reason for them to feel that way, but when you consider what they go thru it's not that hard to understand. This video was also made after a very long argument I had with God. I get the ideas for the videos, find the music and the pictures to go with the message I feel is important. This one, kept nagging at me. I kept finding reasons to not do it. Reluctantly I put it together, put it up on YouTube and let the Good Lord take over from there. He did. When I was at the IFOC conference in Ohio, I found out that it has been used to help police officers and firefighters to heal by therapists. Amazing! I did not intend it to be used with them, but evidently God had other plans.

The work I do on this blog will still go on and trying to find out the best way to incorporate it with the new site, but Wounded Times is not going anywhere.

So, until the DOD blocks my site from being viewed by the troops, let them know the videos are there and more will be added. Tell the families and friends so they can understand what PTSD is as well. One more thing. Consider how many we're talking about. RAND Corp put the number at 300,000, but with all I know about PTSD after all these years, they are not even close. By 1978 there were already 500,000 Vietnam Veterans with PTSD. We have over 7 million people in the USA with PTSD from other causes. Too many suffer because they don't know what it is. Help me to help them. Spread the word about the videos if you can.

You won't be able to download them from the site but you can download them from Google and YouTube for now. If you need a DVD copy of one email me and I'll burn you one for a small donation.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.com

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

Widow settles VA hospital suit

Widow settles VA hospital suit
Her husband died after '07 surgery in Marion facility
By Deborah L. Shelton Tribune reporter
November 25, 2008
A widow who sued the U.S. government over her husband's death at the Marion VA Medical Center has accepted a settlement of almost $1 million.

Robert Shank III of Murray, Ky., died in the hospital after gallbladder surgery last year. His widow, Katrina, sued this year, alleging medical negligence and accusing the government of failing to adequately check the background of her husband's surgeon, Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez, before hiring him."It was a combination of negligence in the way he did the surgery and post-operative care, and institutional negligence for allowing him to practice there," her Chicago attorney, Dr. Stanley Heller, said Monday.

The suit was settled Nov. 13.
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