Army 1st Lt. Jullian Philip Goodrum in his room in the Mologne House at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Goodrum suffers from PTSD. Nina Berman / Redux
Our European friends clearly see Bush for what he really is and what we refuse to acknowledge ~ a moral coward masquerading as a world leader.Posed on his wooden horse of hubris he has become a modern day Don Quixote flailing away at the windmills of the evil world he himself has createdand remaining in deliberate denial ofthe human chaosand unneccessary deaths he is reponsible for: Allen L Roland
And so our troops trudge on ~ fighting an enemy they can't see, fighting for an illegal occupation they don't believe in, fighting to stay moral and sane in a foreign country where they are despised and hated ~ is it any wonder that they turn suicidal when Bush extends or demands another tour so that he will not have to face hisincredible moralfailure on his own watch.
They have, in essence, become cannon fodder for Cheney and Bush's failedcriminal neocon pipe dream. Is it any wonder that they can see no way out ~ particularly in light of a timid self serving Congress who refuses to listen to the vast majority of Americans whowant them sent homenow.
And get this ~Last year, the VA's Inspector General issued a report estimating that 1,000 veterans under its care commit suicide every year.
They are, indeed, the walking dead and Aaron Glantz gives us a short update on this nightmare scenario.
05/17/07 - -- -SAN FRANCISCO, May 15 (IPS) - At the beginning of May, Corporal Cloy Richards tried to kill himself.
"He punched out all his windows and cut major arteries," his mother Tina Richards told IPS. "He had to go to the hospital because he almost bled to death."
Cloy Richards, who lives in rural Salem, Missouri, has served two deployments in the Marine Corps in Iraq. The military lists him as 80-percent combat disabled.
His mother says he has knee and arm injuries, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, and currently has a claim pending with the Army for a traumatic brain injury.
"It's something that affects us every single day," Tina said, "when he's 23 years old and he can't even climb the stairs. He has bad nightmares where he thinks he's back in Iraq."
Richards said her son sustained most of his injuries after his first tour in Iraq, adding that the family protested his second deployment to no avail. After four years on active duty, Cloy Richards is now in the individual ready reserve and faces the possibility of a third deployment to Iraq.
New guidelines released by the Pentagon in December allow commanders to redeploy soldiers suffering from traumatic stress disorders.
According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, service-members with "a psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual symptoms do not impair duty performance" may be considered for duty downrange. It lists post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a "treatable" problem.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to an event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. A person having a flashback may lose touch with reality and believe that the traumatic incident is happening all over again.
"It's just terrifying," said Dr. Karen Seal, a clinician at San Francisco's Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centre who treats soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological illnesses.
Seal told IPS that patients under her care have been deployed despite serious mental health conditions.
"I feel like writing them a medical excuse," she said, "but that's not my responsibility as a VA clinician. Because I'm a VA provider, I don't have the authority to do that."
According to a study co-authored by Seal and her colleagues at the Centre, about one- third of the more than 100,000 returning veterans seen at VA facilities between Sep. 30, 2001 and Sep. 30, 2005 were diagnosed with mental illness or a psycho-social disorder such as homelessness and marital problems, including domestic violence. Over half suffered from more than one disorder.
Other researchers suggest those statistics may only represent the tip of the iceberg. Many veterans, they note, don't come forward to seek care. The stigma associated with post- traumatic stress disorder may account for part of this gap, they say.
In addition, according to recent report by Linda Bilmes of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, waiting lists for returning veterans are "so long as to effectively deny treatment to a number of veterans."
In the May 2006 edition of Psychiatric News, Bilmes notes that VA Undersecretary of Health Policy Coordination Frances Murphy wrote that when services are available, "waiting lists render that care virtually inaccessible."
There is also the issue of geography.
"One of the disconnects and failures in planning for this war is that the Veterans Administration is essentially configured in an urban way," Bilmes told IPS. "That makes a lot of sense for recruiting specialists and staffing the facilities. However, recruiting for the military in this war tends to come primarily from small, rural America. So, what we don't have is enough mental health care for veterans in these rural communities when they come home."
Last Thursday, the VA's Inspector General issued a report estimating that 1,000 veterans under its care commit suicide every year.
The report also found that vets are at increased risk of suicide because many VA clinics don't have 24-hour care or adequate mental health screening, and lack properly trained personnel.
The report, which was requested last year by Rep. Michael Michaud, a Democrat of Maine, said clinics should work harder so veterans can seek treatment without feeling stigmatised, and recommended additional screening for patients with traumatic brain injury, a type of brain damage caused by projectiles like roadside bombs which many are calling the "signature injury" of the Iraq war.
"The problem is that traumatic brain injury, which is an anatomic, physiologic problem, sort of intermingles with post-traumatic stress disorder," Dr. William Schecter, the chief of surgery at San Francisco General Hospital, explained to IPS. "This is going to be a lifelong challenge for the individuals who have suffered these injuries." (END/2007)
Freelance Online columnist and recognized therapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio www.conscioustalk.net
Much more could be done for Veterans if more intelligent people like Mr. Roland could leave politics and War strategy 101 out of their articles; I am only very qualified to state this:
If this war ended tomorrow in total victory, and a few hundred thousand or so, veterans returned home in the next six months, what would we possibly do with them when presently we can not even help a few thousand?Doesn't anyone remember post-Nam? Just the very little County I live in had 11,000 returning veterans.Remember all the suicides’, the fights at clam bakes, bowling alleys or the bar?Our society is not the same now as it was in the seventies, and our jails are already very overcrowded, plus add twenty million illegal alien’s with amnesty (freedom for free and illegally!) to the equation, and you will have one very angry Veteran population.
We need to stop doing things backwards, a good start would be for every county, State wide to request extra funding based on their number of residents now on active duty.An article published in the Washington Post read;” “We know we have to make access easier in some areas," said Ira Katz, head of the VA's mental health services. "We're not sure we know what the best mechanism is to do that yet. But the important thing is for the VA and mental health providers to work together in the communities" “(WP 3-1-08 pg B10). This is the closest we can get where the VA is acknowledging they need the Communities help, especially in the mental health field. Communities must help now to save much money and lives in the future, amount many others those saving the most money would include; our Court system, drug and alcohol rehabs, Child protection services, domestic violence services. . .
by
Pat Smith (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 30 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 3:17:07 PM
But the important thing is for the VA and mental health providers to work together in the communities" “(WP 3-1-08 pg B10). This is the closest we can get where the VA is acknowledging they need the Communities help, especially in the mental health field.
I completely agree, Pat ~
Allen L Roland
by
Allen L Roland (808 articles, 7 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 331 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 3:50:23 PM
Allen,Thanks for agreeing, with a BA in the bs of political science I have wasted very little time trying to make other veterans realize that our issues are bipartisan, and our views on this war are as diverse as the whole veteran population is.Now how can the veteran population come together for the strength we need as one, while leavening out the politics?The answer to this question is worth more than a billion dollars, it’s worth millions of veterans lives.
by
Pat Smith (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 30 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 8:59:33 PM
Allen, thanks for helping me have the balls to write and post this, early this moring in The Huffington Post. I really needed to say this:
I wonder if there are any very old submarine veterans still alive to explain what salt-peter in your coffee everyday will accomplish.Rape has repeatedly occurred in the military since the civil war, now it’s being exploited JUST for political gain!Remember the suicide of the veteran who never had sex again because of the double circumcision he received from the Saigon prostitude who inserted a razor blade? What about male veterans that need counseling to deal with their guilt from raping someone or from just being in the vicinity and knowing a rape was occurring?This guilt and self-hatred is also a form of PTSD that must be dealt with.If repressed memory really is a severe form of PTSD; what about the female vet who after 27 years knows that the rape was the nicest of situations that happened to her?The VA certainly doesn’t have the answer.Veterans must unite as one while leaving their sex, politics, racism and views on this war at home or our issues will continue to be politically exploited.Our politicians need to get rid of their politically correct self-righteousness and provide American prostitutes to our troops or saltpeter in their coffee.
by
Pat Smith (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 30 comments)
on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 5:04:51 PM
My husband is one of them. Or maybe I should say future ex-husband. His whole personality changed after the Iraq war started. He's a 'Nam vet. In the last 5 years he has completely isolated himself, except of course to go the bar each evening. He lives alone in a dark little house with all the drapes drawn so nobody can see him. Sad.
The smartest thing to do is eliminate the causes of PTSD to begin with.
by
camanokat (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 28 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 8:19:59 PM
In the last 5 years he has completely isolated himself, except of course to go the bar each evening. He lives alone in a dark little house with all the drapes drawn so nobody can see him. Sad.
It is sad but it it also deep unworthiness . The only antidote for unworthiness is gratitude . You can help him come out of that darkness by connecting him to someone he really loves ~ and then build on it.
Alllen L Roland
by
Allen L Roland (808 articles, 7 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 331 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 8:44:34 PM
