Preventing Soldier Suicides
Posted: Jan 10, 2012
Camp Shelby, MS (WDAM) - Suicide rates in the military have been rising for the past six years, but folks at Mississippi's Camp Shelby are trying an inventive new method to combat that trend.
They've made a video.
With the base as their stage, and the soldiers as actors, they're considering it a success.
"Everyone was a little bit nervous. We're soldiers by trade, so we're not starring in our first Hollywood debut," said Major Deidre Musgrave, Camp Shelby public affairs officer.
Soldiers from the base star in the 23 minute video they have produced; an attempt to make suicide a subject to talk about, rather than one that is taboo.
"You can see training videos all day long - it's getting the information out. But when you put a home base, or a hometown touch to it," said Staff Sergeant Jeannie Whaley. "They start paying more attention,"
The movie is geared toward soldiers specifically, and the problems they can sometimes have to deal with all at once.
Problems at home, being a parent, a new marriage, the stress of leaving home suddenly, and the pressures of being a soldier away from home.
At some moment in the video staff say soldiers laugh at a little bit because they may recognize an officer playing a character, but the staff say that's a good sign - it means they're paying attention.
Suicide among soldiers has been rising for the last six years.
read more here
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Community embraces wounded Iraq vet who thinks others deserve it more
Community surprises veteran with home renovation
6:59 PM, Jan 10, 2012
Written by
Jeffrey Wolf
BRIGHTON - A wounded Iraq war veteran now knows a bit more about the kindness of strangers after coming home Tuesday to a street filled with a lot of strangers.
Aaron Bugg came back from a fishing trip to Florida on Tuesday and while he was there, a secret plan went into effect. A big group of Denver-area businesses and volunteers conspired with a plan to show the veteran appreciation for his service.
Just after he landed at Denver International Airport, he came home to a completely redone home.
The surprise renovation was done as part of a television show that will air in February on the NBC Sports Network. The program is called the Ultimate Fishing Experience. It sends wounded vets on fishing excursions and adds a little surprise in the end.
The Patriot Guard Riders helped escort Bugg from DIA to his house. The injury he has made it difficult for him to walk on carpet, which is part of the reason for the renovation.
read more here
6:59 PM, Jan 10, 2012
Written by
Jeffrey Wolf
BRIGHTON - A wounded Iraq war veteran now knows a bit more about the kindness of strangers after coming home Tuesday to a street filled with a lot of strangers.
Aaron Bugg came back from a fishing trip to Florida on Tuesday and while he was there, a secret plan went into effect. A big group of Denver-area businesses and volunteers conspired with a plan to show the veteran appreciation for his service.
Just after he landed at Denver International Airport, he came home to a completely redone home.
The surprise renovation was done as part of a television show that will air in February on the NBC Sports Network. The program is called the Ultimate Fishing Experience. It sends wounded vets on fishing excursions and adds a little surprise in the end.
The Patriot Guard Riders helped escort Bugg from DIA to his house. The injury he has made it difficult for him to walk on carpet, which is part of the reason for the renovation.
read more here
Baptist working with post-traumatic stress syndrome
This all sounds great, but considering how long we've been hearing about steps taken, history shows they are just stepping back.
This is just one report going back to 2007
When I read the headline I hoped to read about how they were finally addressing the spiritual connection to PTSD but my heart sank when I read this is one more of a repeat study. While it is good idea for private doctors to get involved in all of this, since most of the veterans won't go to the VA, they should be looking at new ways to study PTSD and TBI so that we can actually do something to prevent reading more bad reports years too late.
Baptist working with post-traumatic stress syndrome
By: RICHARD CRAVER
Winston-Salem Journal
Published: January 11, 2012
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center are collaborating with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on a one-year study to use imaging technology to better understand post-traumatic stress syndrome and traumatic brain injury. Wake Forest Baptist is one of 35 clinical sites across the nation using the equipment.
Researchers compare the images of brain activity from individuals with PTSD and/or mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) with the images from individuals without the condition to see whether particular parts of the brain function differently.
"If we can find biomarkers of PTSD, there's hope that we'll be able to improve diagnosis and treatment," said Dwayne Godwin, a neuroscientist at Wake Forest Baptist and co-principal investigator on the project.
Researchers are using a high-tech tool for brain activity imaging called magnetoencephalography (MEG) to conduct neurological tests on military veterans with and without a PTSD diagnosis, and with varying levels of impairment.
Participants perform tasks, similar to games, which engage parts of the brain involved in "executive function" — determining what to do, how to do it, and assessing the relative risk of a situation — while sitting in the scanner.
In a sign of the growing focus on the disorders, first lady Michelle Obama will announce today a new physician-training initiative with 105 U.S. academic medical centers in 42 states, including Wake Forest Baptist. It involves the White House's wounded warriors and veterans programs.
read more here
This is just one report going back to 2007
Army Launches PTSD and TBI training chainThis is just one report from 2008
Posted THURSDAY, AUGUST 02, 2007
PTSD, Mild TBI Chain Teaching Begins at Pentagon
Aug 01, 2007
BY J.D. Leipold
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Aug. 1, 2007) - The Army launched its Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and mild Traumatic Brain Injury chain-teaching program at the Pentagon last week by training flag officers and Army senior executive service civilians how to recognize and help distressed Soldiers who may or may not recognize their unseen injuries.
Announced by the Army July 18, the PTSD and mild TBI program is mandatory for all active-duty and reserve-component Soldiers, from the highest to lowest levels in the chain of command. More than one million Soldiers are expected to receive the same training as the senior leaders within 90 days.
Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, director of the Army Staff, opened the training by telling his peers that the biggest teaching point he wanted to get out to the Army's leaders involved a cultural shift in thought - that leaders shouldn't assume that because Soldiers have no visible injuries that all is well mentally.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008So where did all this money and "research" take us? Right back to where we started.
PTSD and TBI getting $300 million worth of study
Pentagon spends $300M to study troops' stress, trauma
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
The Pentagon is spending an unprecedented $300 million this summer on research for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, offering hope not only for troops but hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The money — the most spent in one year on military medical research since a $210 million breast cancer study in 1993 — will fund 171 research projects on two of the most prevalent injuries of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Gregory O'Shanick, national medical director for the Brain Injury Association of America, says the funding initiative is "without a doubt … an all-time high" for spending by the government on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). He says civilian victims will benefit directly from the military studies.
By contrast, the National Institutes of Health, the world's largest government sponsor of medical research with an annual budget of $28 billion, spends about $80 million per year on TBI research, according to the NIH.
The Pentagon also will target new ways of delivering therapy to PTSD victims living in remote areas of the USA and reducing the stigma that can keep victims from seeking help, she says.
The military funding will go toward evaluating up to 20 different medications for TBI, she says, and studying ways of regenerating damaged brain cells.
Half of the $300 million in Pentagon funds have been distributed, and all will be paid out by Sept. 30, Kaime says.
Congress has provided an additional $273.8 million this year to study battlefield injuries, some of which will also go toward researching PTSD and TBI.
A study released in April by the RAND Corp. think tank estimates 300,000 current or former combat troops have PTSD or depression, and up to 320,000 may have suffered a brain injury.
"We're in the midst of an exciting era for those who have been damaged," says Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force.
read more here
When I read the headline I hoped to read about how they were finally addressing the spiritual connection to PTSD but my heart sank when I read this is one more of a repeat study. While it is good idea for private doctors to get involved in all of this, since most of the veterans won't go to the VA, they should be looking at new ways to study PTSD and TBI so that we can actually do something to prevent reading more bad reports years too late.
Friends remember Spc. Brandy Fonteneaux
Friends remember Houston soldier found murdered in Colorado barracks
by Brad Woodard
KHOU 11 News
Posted on January 10, 2012
HOUSTON – Students at Texas Southern University mourned the death of a graduate who was found murdered in Colorado last weekend.
“Wow. She’s gone,” said graduate student Herman Shelton. “She’s not supposed to be gone.”
TSU grad Brandy Fonteneaux, a 28-year-old Army Specialist, was found dead in her Fort Carson barracks Sunday morning in Colorado.
“She might have been small in stature, but big at heart,” said Shelton. “She was the life of the party, just a good person to be around.”
The Army is releasing very little information at this point. All it will say is that Fonteneaux’s death is being investigated as a homicide, and that it doesn’t believe there’s any further threat at Fort Carson. It also released a statement on behalf of Fonteneaux’s family members requesting privacy from the media. The statement comes after a Colorado Springs television station interviewed Fonteneaux’s sister here in Texas by phone.
read more here
original story
by Brad Woodard
KHOU 11 News
Posted on January 10, 2012
HOUSTON – Students at Texas Southern University mourned the death of a graduate who was found murdered in Colorado last weekend.
“Wow. She’s gone,” said graduate student Herman Shelton. “She’s not supposed to be gone.”
TSU grad Brandy Fonteneaux, a 28-year-old Army Specialist, was found dead in her Fort Carson barracks Sunday morning in Colorado.
“She might have been small in stature, but big at heart,” said Shelton. “She was the life of the party, just a good person to be around.”
The Army is releasing very little information at this point. All it will say is that Fonteneaux’s death is being investigated as a homicide, and that it doesn’t believe there’s any further threat at Fort Carson. It also released a statement on behalf of Fonteneaux’s family members requesting privacy from the media. The statement comes after a Colorado Springs television station interviewed Fonteneaux’s sister here in Texas by phone.
read more here
original story
Lance Cpl. Donald Hogan to be posthumously awarded Navy Cross
Marine from Camp Pendleton to be awarded Navy Cross posthumously
January 10, 2012
The secretary of the Navy next week will present the Navy Cross to the family of a Marine from Camp Pendleton killed while saving the life of other Marines in Afghanistan, officials announced Tuesday.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is set to present the medal Jan. 17 to the family of Lance Cpl. Donald Hogan in a ceremony at Camp Pendleton. The Navy Cross is second only to the Medal of Honor for combat bravery by Marines or sailors.
Hogan, 20, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, was killed Aug. 26, 2009, by a buried explosive device after pushing a Marine to safety and yelling warnings to other Marines. Hogan was on a walking patrol in Helmand province, long a Taliban stronghold.
According to the Navy Cross citation, Hogan spotted a trigger wire for a buried bomb and hurled himself into the body of the nearest Marine to push him away from the imminent blast.
read more here
January 10, 2012
The secretary of the Navy next week will present the Navy Cross to the family of a Marine from Camp Pendleton killed while saving the life of other Marines in Afghanistan, officials announced Tuesday.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is set to present the medal Jan. 17 to the family of Lance Cpl. Donald Hogan in a ceremony at Camp Pendleton. The Navy Cross is second only to the Medal of Honor for combat bravery by Marines or sailors.
Hogan, 20, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, was killed Aug. 26, 2009, by a buried explosive device after pushing a Marine to safety and yelling warnings to other Marines. Hogan was on a walking patrol in Helmand province, long a Taliban stronghold.
According to the Navy Cross citation, Hogan spotted a trigger wire for a buried bomb and hurled himself into the body of the nearest Marine to push him away from the imminent blast.
read more here
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