Paul Sullivan is executive director for Veterans for Common Sense, and he is cited as stating recently that “the VA’s budget request for 2009 … does not pay adequate attention to chronic problems facing Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, such as drug and alcohol addictions.”
Here is the Veteran Administration’s mental health care website.
However, it needs to be noted that there is currently a backlog of 400,000 medical claims at the VA.
On the other hand, as of last Autumn 2007 it is reportedly a bit easier to have a claim reviewed. (Also, budget expenditures on the VA have increased a little bit over the past year.)
Meanwhile, Dr. Gerald Cross of the Veterans Administration notes that already 68,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan wars have or will have post-traumatic stress disorders.
The same ARAB TIMES article (cited above) noted that 120,000 veterans have filed a class action suit which is now holding hearing in the U.S. courts.
AL-WATAN DAILY in Kuwait also ran these headlines on a related set of recent reports from Washington, D.C: “U.S. Troops in Iraq, Afghanistan Find Harder Time Getting Mental Health Care”.
In this article (printed in a country where nearly 35,000 U.S. troops are regularly based), it is noted:
“More than 27 percent of troops on their third or fourth combat tour [in Iraq or Afghanistan] suffered anxiety, depression, post-combat stress and other problems. That compared with 12 percent among those on their first tour.”
In rugged Afghanistan, many soldiers have had a particularly tough time getting mental health treatment. In 2003, three soldiers who were veterans of Afghanistan occupation & fighting returned home and killed their wives.
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