My latest ltte printed re:help for veterans and soldiers with ptsd

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2010/06/27/opinion/doc4c26ecc863935477826999.txt


Letter: ‘Help for our troops’
Published: Sunday, June 27, 2010 1:41 AM CDT
To the Editor,

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan approach their 10th anniversary, there is an increasing casualty among veterans of these conflicts. Deaths of veterans by suicide and over medication for post-traumatic stress disorder are accelerating at an alarming rate. As a member of Veterans for Peace and the mom of a four-time vet of Iraq and Afghanistan, I feel it necessary to explore the causes, neglect and treatment if we are to finally bring some true peace to our troops.

After nearly a decade of war – with many troops making multiple deployments – psychiatrists estimate that one in three U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq or Afghanistan may develop PTSD. The majority of soldiers were exposed to some kind of traumatic, combat-related situations, such as being attacked or ambushed (92 percent), seeking bodies (94.5 percent), being shot at (95 percent) and or knowing someone who was seriously injured or killed (86.5 percent). This increased with every deployment.

Both DoD and VA lack a sufficient number of mental health professionals on staff to diagnose, treat and provide compensation to patients with PTSD. The VA needs to increase the number of mental health professionals in order to diagnose and treat PTSD patients. And they must hire and train additional claims reviewers so that disabled veterans don’t have to wait months and years to receive their benefits. This, unfortunately, has been substituted with a myriad of drugs that do more harm than good. These drugs have led to a subset of troops dying in their sleep from drugs meant to “treat” PTSD.

Multiple studies have shown that a combination of one-on-one, group and family therapies with the careful use of medication when required are the best means for dealing with PTSD. An excellent series of research on this is available through RAND (http://www.rand.org/multi/military/veterans/). You may also call Military OneSource at 1-800-342-964 (https://www.militaryonesource.com ) if you are active duty,Vet Centers: Confidential readjustment counseling for combat veterans and their families at 1-800-905-4675 (http://www.vetcenter.va.gov/) and The VA Medical center in Dallas, attn: Thelma Lowe at [phone] (http://www.ptsd.va.gov/)

As citizens, we can contact our elected officials and insist they demand better treatment for active duty and veterans military. These troops have seen more than most of us will ever know and deserve the support of our nation. Contact Congressman Barton and Senators Cornyn and Hutchison and encourage their aggressive support of our troops.

[midnight]

1. K&R The longest cake walk in history.

[HereSince1628]

2. The VA has a huge interest in PTSD and cPTSD

Which is not to say that qulity services are uniformly available.

Although the public attention immediately turns to the need for medical center staff, there is also need for outreach and transportation to VAMC's from across a VA service region. The Mental Health Units of Medical centers, like Zablocki VAMC in Milwaukee, provide good treatment...if a vet can get there.

If you are writing letters and want to state specific needs, mention $upport for mental health screening by county and State governments, and transportation for veteran outpatients needing to travel to treatment centers from small towns and rural areas.

[w8liftinglady]

3. I agree-and living in a rural area,I see an overwhelming amount of vets

that go without treatment due to lack of transportation and LONG waits for treatment.Up until recently,the forms to enter the VA were 26 pages long....which is a huge problem for PTSD,TBI and those with poor resources.I have written COPIOUS abounts of letters encouraging vets and their families to use resources,and always include the resource numbers for these people.This is close to my 100th letter just on vets that has been printed since 2005.I try-really,I do.Unfortunately,the VA hasn't kept up with the overwhelming number of veterans(1 million new applications predicted)

[HereSince1628]

4. I entered the VA Medical System via an ER visit last October...

It's probably true that getting handed off from the county mental health agency facilitated that, and the VA did conditionally accept an old photo copy of my DD 20 and my oral service history until I could get them a notarized copy of my DD 214 from the federal records archive in St. Louis. I think the receptionist entered all my admission information in about 10 minutes.

All in all I walked in on a Wednesday at 9 am and walked out at 10:30 having an appointment for Monday of the following week with a psychologist and appointments within the month for primary medical care and a psychiatrist.
Yes, it was a day of filling out more paperwork...a few pages of medical history, a psych trauma survey and such, but probably not more than 8-10 pages in all.

I'm not claiming my circumstance was typical. What I'm saying is that getting VA help isn't always a long painful process. The reality seems to be that the process of getting help is like anything else...it starts with first steps and sometimes those initial steps require a lot of one caring person's encouragement and help.

But, God Bless all the folks who do care.

[w8liftinglady]

6. I agree...there are a lot of folks that DO want to help....

I'm glad you got the help you needed,and that you,in return,are encouraging other vets to re-apply...

[VenusRising]

5. Off to the Greatest Page.

PTSD is serious, and no one should have to suffer needlessly.