Every Veteran Deserves the Best Care
Military.com reports on our over-stretched military and the health impacts and risks in “Health Care System Puts Troops at Risk” [emphasis added]:
<!The military is putting already-strained troops at greater risk of mental health problems because of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, a Pentagon panel said Thursday in warning of an overburdened health system.
Issuing an urgent warning, the Defense Department’s Task Force on Mental Health chaired by Navy Surgeon General Donald Arthur said more than one-third of troops and veterans currently suffer from problems such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
With an escalating Iraq war, those numbers are expected to worsen, and current staffing and money for military health care won’t be able to meet the need, the group said in a preliminary report released Thursday.
“The system of care for psychological health that has evolved in recent decades is not sufficient to meet the needs of today’s forces and their beneficiaries, and will not be sufficient to meet the needs in the future,” the 14-member group says.
[...]
Many base mental health programs have had to limit their practices to active-duty military, shutting family members out or forcing them to try to access civilian providers through the cooperative program known as Tricare. But in many places, the list of Tricare providers is small, inadequate or even incorrect.
Both the VA and the Pentagon in recent weeks have acknowledged a need to improve mental health treatment. Jan Kemp, a VA associate director for education who works on mental health, has estimated there are up to 1,000 suicides a year among veterans within the VA system, and as many as 5,000 a year among all living veterans.
A recent investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that just 22 percent of U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who showed signs of PTSD were being referred by Pentagon health care providers for mental health evaluation, citing inconsistent and subjective standards in determining when treatment was needed.
Study: 1-in-5 Iraq Vets Diagnosed with Migraines, Suffer Higher Rates of Depression and PTSD
From Health Day News (via WaPo):
Almost one in every five U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq is being diagnosed with migraines, and this group has nearly double the risk for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric troubles, a new study finds.
[...]
According to the researchers, 19 percent of the veterans were found to suffer from migraine headaches, 32 percent tested positive for depression, 22 percent met the standard for PTSD, and 13 percent tested positive for anxiety.
Half of the soldiers who suffered from migraines were also clinically depressed, compared to just 27 percent of those without the painful headaches, the researchers reported. And 39 percent of migraine sufferers were also deemed to have PTSD, compared to just 18 percent of soldiers without migraines. Anxiety disorders were also higher among migraine-prone veterans (22 percent) compared to those without the headaches (10 percent). ...
[Quick note: PTSD Combat is written by Illona Meagher and she has long recognized JK’s leadership on veterans issues. The website is an in-depth resource site for combat-related PTSD sufferers and their friends and families. Ilona’s new book about PTSD and the needs of our Iraq and Afghan vets, “Moving a Nation to Care”, is out and she has an appearance scheduled for Waltham, MA. Check the details at PTSD Combat if you’re interested in attending.]
We’ve talked before on the johnkerry.com blog about the shortage of resources to care for our returning vets. Some of those services are provided by VA Vet Centers which offer readjustment counseling and outreach services to all veterans who served in any combat zone. A report by the House Veterans Affairs Committee Democratic staff found that in nine months, between October 2005 and June 2006, the number of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who turned to Vet Centers for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) services doubled.
JK led an initiative to include $20 million in funding for the nation’s VA Vet Centers as part of the Fiscal 2007 Supplemental Appropriations bill that the President just vetoed. Seven Massachusetts Vet Centers would have benefited from the additional funding which the President has just denied.
But as JK says, “Every Veteran Deserves The Best Care“
Recently, we’ve heard media reports suggesting that our brave returning military service members are getting inferior care at Walter Reed Medical Center and other facilities when they return from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s unacceptable to me and it should be unacceptable to all of us… I intend to make sure that our bravest from Massachusetts get the care they deserve.
I encourage any returning service member or family of a service member who is having trouble getting the kind of health-care or counseling assistance from the military of VA system that they need to reach out to my office. We are here for them and we will do everything we can to insure that everyone gets the help they need.
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Here’s the result of lack of adequate mental health care and extended and repeated deployments of our troops.
This is from a DoD study.
http://www.nbc6.net/news/13260739/detail.html
This is what happens when you send men and women to fight a war that’s based on a lie, when they’re subject to multiple deployments and inadequate care and support, and when they can’t see light at the end of the tunnel.
These soldiers and Marines need a policy that’s equal to their sacrifice. The administration has failed them on every front.
It should be no surprise to anyone that this is the result.
This is a hard issue to talk about, I am finding as I try to form my thoughts. But I am so happy to see this topic brought up here now. Thank you, Violet.
It’s so important that we provide proper health care for our veterans. This is an area I have always felt a special care and concern for, that our soldiers receive the proper care and attention so that any physical or mental ailments coming out of their service are not ignored upon returning home.
Personally speaking, I actually came of age during the last throes of the Vietnam War, still too young really to be on equal terms with the returning soldiers but old enough to feel compassion for their plight. I remember that I wore one of the bracelets of a Prisoner of War, and I was very proud to wear it. So many years later, I still wanted to do something to repay the service of our veterans; and so I volunteered at a Veterans Hospital. I was hoping to provide comfort for badly injured veterans, those who were unable to care for themselves. And I am sure there were many who could have benefited by my attentions. But instead I just ended up going on a shopping spree with a disabled veteran. I assume he was disabled; although he seemed well to me. Even now, when I see homeless people, I sometimes wonder whether they are veterans who somehow got lost in the red tape.
You know, I feel that it is such a terrible abandonment of our own when we don’t offer them the care that they need after they have put their lives in jeopardy to protect us. Especially when you consider how much money is spent by our government on keeping the war alive.
Actually, GV, they don’t need a policy that is “equal to their sacrifice.” I’ve heard those words before, and maybe even from Senator Kerry. But just in reading your post, something popped out at me about another interpretation of the meaning of those words, and in that interpretation it is saying that we need a policy that “neutralizes” their sacrifice. It’s just one of those little details of interpretation. So let me just make it clear that I am sure nobody wants to “neutralize” the sacrifices of our soldiers. What we want to do is honor the sacrifices of our soldiers. But in working with this situation, there is almost no way to speak to it without causing an unwanted aftermath. I am sure this is true for many of us. So all I want to do is acknowledge that I understand that other little detail of interpretation, and that, I am sure, is not what was meant when that phrase was originally spoken.
A bit OT:
I just came across a post by Sheryl Crowe and as I was reading it I realized that we have a battle on our hands no matter what the issue, be it healthcare, Iraq, global climate change. One of our biggest hurdles is the media and some way some how we need to either change it or shut it down.
I support a Draft. I support the Iraqi’s drafting all Iraqi’s from 18-36 years old so they can protect, defend and secure their own country and we can be out of there in months instead of years!
Cindy in Calif