Kunsan seminars target combat stress

[unhappycamper]

Kunsan seminars target combat stress
By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Tuesday, March 10, 2009

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — It was just supposed to be a quick lunch among colleagues. But it led to something much bigger — a program to help airmen cope with combat-related stress.

Kunsan Air Base’s mental health officer, the base chaplain and a counselor from the Airman and Family Readiness Center were lunching at the Korean Garden restaurant a few months ago when talk turned to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

They decided to hold monthly seminars to help members of the base community recognize PTSD and get treatment.

PTSD has been getting lots of attention from the U.S. military and from news media. And it’s been in focus at Kunsan, where a significant number of the 8th Fighter Wing’s 2,600 or so airmen have served in Iraq or Afghanistan..

Base officials say fewer than 1 percent of the wing’s airmen have shown any signs of PTSD.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61214