2006 VFW Magazine - Veterans of Foreign Wars

toward mental health services, with $100
million for Afghanistan and Iraq vets.
While VFW Commander-in-Chief
Jim Mueller calls this “a significant step
in the right direction,” VFW acknowledges
that the budget does not fully
address the present needs of returning
vets. “By now, VA should know what
mental health problems veterans face,
both immediately following service and
years later,” said Jerry Manar, deputy
director of National Veterans Service.
“Now is the time for VA to aggressively
treat those with psychological symptoms
so their problems can be resolved and
not become chronic conditions requiring
treatment throughout their lives.”
VA has been able to help struggling
vets through its storefront Vet Centers.
In response to the rise in demand, the
centers, which charge no co-payments
or fees for their services, increased their
number of group sessions and staff.
In 2004, 50 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans
were hired to work at the Vet
Centers as outreach counselors, and 50
more were hired in 2005. The counselors
were hired for three-year periods in
which they will brief veterans about VA
benefits and services, encourage them to
use Vet Centers as a point of entry into
VA, visit military installations and coordinate
with family assistance centers.
Another source of help for those
experiencing PTSD symptoms is Military
One Source. This 24-hour toll-free
information and referral telephone service
(1-800-342-9647) is available to all
active-duty, National Guard or Reserve
troops, and provides a variety of information
including resources dealing with
PTSD.
If GIs think they might need to talk to
someone about their problems, the service
can provide referrals to civilian
counselors for up to six free sessions. In
addition, its Web site (www.militaryonesource.com)
offers various tools,
assessments, articles and a place to
order free educational information.
Individual units are continuing to recognize
the importance of PTSD, and are
not allowing it to stigmatize GIs. The II
Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp
Lejeune launched a campaign to encourage
communication, counseling and
Study Measures Use
of Mental Health Care Services
Results of a new study on PTSD were recently published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association and provide a preliminary idea of the mental
health burden of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study surveyed 303,905
soldiers and Marines who completed a post-deployment health assessment
between May 1, 2003, and April 30, 2004. It measured the effects of combat
experiences on mental health and the use of mental health care services after
deployment. Here are some key findings about the vets:
IRAQ AFGHANISTAN
Met risk criteria for a mental health concern . . . . . . . . 19% . . . . . . . 11%
Accessed mental health services within
one year of returning home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35% . . . . . . . 22%
Received diagnosis of mental health problem . . . . . . . 12% . . . . . . . 10%
Combat Experiences
Any. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65% . . . . . . . 46%
Witnessed wounded or killed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50% . . . . . . . 38%
Discharged weapon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18% . . . . . . . 6%
Felt in great danger of being killed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50% . . . . . . . 25%
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, March 1, 2006.
eliminating combat stress before it develops
into PTSD. Navy Cmdr. Thomas C.
Armel, the assistant director of mental
health services at Naval Hospital Camp
Lejeune, said, “The chain of command
from here to Washington [D.C.] is 100%
behind this. The bottom line is we need
people to get the help they need.”
Dr. Thomas Greiger, a Navy captain
and senior scientist at the Center for the
Study of Traumatic Stress, believes “it
would be appropriate to maintain surveillance
on anyone involved in combat.”
Research also is being done to find
new ways to deal with PTSD. Dr. Roger
Pitman, a Harvard medical school psychiatry
professor, has conducted studies
with a drug called Propranolol, a betablocker
that could be used to fight
PTSD. The drug can dampen hormones
like adrenaline that take part in forming
vivid memories of traumatic events,
thereby lessening the intensity of the
memory formed.
Testing is still in early stages, and there
could be logistical challenges in administering
it to GIs in the war zone, but it
sends the message that PTSD is taken
seriously in the medical community.
Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, psychiatric
consultant to the Army surgeon
general, says emotional casualties are a
problem that “society as a whole must
work to solve.”
In that vein, one of the most important
aspects of dealing with PTSD is giving
veterans a welcoming place to come
home to. Dr. Alfonso Batres, the head of
VA’s Readjustment Counseling Service,
says, “The more conflicted the community
that sent you, the more difficult is
the readjustment period.” So it is society’s
obligation to support returning
veterans, if for no other reason than to
increase their chances of remaining
healthy and mentally sound.
David H. Marlowe, former chief of
military psychiatry at the Walter Reed
Army Institute of Research, said it best
when he told the New York Times that
the legacy of Iraq will depend as much
on how service members are received
and understood by the society they
return to as on their exposure to the
trauma of war.
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