Veterans' Mental Health Needs Intensify (PTSD and Iraq Veterans News)

[Maddy McCall]

Vets' Mental Health Needs Intensify
Monday, April 03, 2006
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos


WASHINGTON — Blaming what they say is a shortsighted, under-funded system that does not learn from past mistakes, some advocacy groups say they are concerned that the federal government is unprepared to help the wave of troops returning from Iraq seeking mental health care.

"We should have been ready for this," said Steve Robinson, director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, a veterans advocacy organization. "It's simple math: If there is an increase in demand, and there is not an equal increase in dollars to hire new people to buy more equipment or provide more services, the person who suffers is the returning veteran."

He and other critics point to recent Army statistics indicating that 35 percent of soldiers and Marines returning from Iraq sought mental health care and 19 percent were diagnosed with a mental disorder like post traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety within a year of coming home.

"The high rate of using mental health services among Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans after deployment highlights challenges in ensuring that there are adequate resources to meet the mental health needs of returning veterans," reads the study, published by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the March 1 Journal of the American Medical Association.

....

"How loudly we cheered them onward as they laced up their boots has no relevance once they've done their job," said I.L. Meagher (editor of PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within). "It's how well we took care of them when they return that really defines our true moral character."


More at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190396,00.html
(Sorry that it's Fox...but keep reading the rest of these articles, please.)

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PRESS RELEASE: New Bipartisan Mental Health Caucus Announced by U.S. Senators Domenici, Kennedy, Smith and Harkin

Members of President's New Freedom Commission Reconvene on Capitol Hill; Mental Health Groups Honor Rosalynn Carter, Sen. Smith, Rep. Kennedy


WASHINGTON, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Senators Pete V. Domenici (R-NM), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Gordon H. Smith (R-OR) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) have announced establishment of a Senate Caucus on Mental Health Reform.

The Senate Caucus, intended to increase national awareness of mental health issues, was announced in conjunction with a March 29, 2006 meeting on Capitol Hill of former members of the President's 2002-03 New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. The reconvening was sponsored by the Campaign for Mental Health Reform (CMHR), a coalition of 16 national mental health organizations, and included panels on: (1) mental health needs of returning veterans; (2) suicide as a national priority; and (3) mental health in the workplace.

According to CMHR, more than one-third of veterans returning from Iraq are seeking mental health treatment; 30,000 American lives are lost each year to suicide -- a largely preventable public health problem; and as much as $105 billion each year is lost in economic productivity due to mental illness.

The mental health commissioners heard from leading experts, including Dr. Frances Murphy of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA); Dr. Ileana Arias of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention; and Dr. Ron Finch, of the National Business Group on Health; as well as Stefanie Pelkey, who shared the tragedy of losing her husband Captain Michael Pelkey, an Iraq veteran, to a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and a college student, Marley Prunty-Lara, who survived early onset bipolar disorder and a suicide attempt to become a leading national advocate for mental health reform.

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Dr. Murphy noted "(T)he numbers of veterans seeking VA care for behavioral health conditions is rapidly increasing. For example VA reports a 30% increase in PTSD diagnoses....(Recent data) suggest that current estimates of utilization of healthcare services including mental health and substance abuse...may be significantly higher than originally estimated." Joy Ilem, of the Disabled American Veterans, concluded that "VA must be sufficiently funded to treat newly returning veterans with mental health issues without displacing older veterans with chronic mental illnesses."

Ms. Pelkey told commissioners that "although PTSD is evident in (her husband's) medical records...the Army has chosen to rule Michael's death a suicide without documenting this serious illness....He is a casualty of war....He came home from war with an injured mind....There are so many soldiers suffering from this disorder and so many families suffering the aftermath....(G)ive our Armed Forces the...funding they need to take care of our soldiers. I don't want my Michael to have died in vain."

Much more at: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-03-2006/0004332664&EDATE=

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Remember the "Marlboro Marine?" Even that tough guy is facing down the monsters of PTSD.

..."The more and more I talk to (other guys), the more I found out there were a lot of Marines that are going through same or similar emotions. It's tough to deal with. Being in Iraq is something no one wants to talk about."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/03/earlyshow/main1174711.shtml
Jan. 2006 articles related to "Marlboro Marine" Blake Miller included in this LBN thread to demonstrate how PTSD affects returning soldiers.

..."But when it comes out and there's actually a personality behind that picture, and that personality, he has to deal with all the war, and all he's done, people don't want to know how hard it actually is," his wife Jessica said.

"This is the dark side of the reality of war. ... People don't want to know the Marlboro Man has PTSD."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/29/MNGMHGVCEV1.DTL

As noted on truthout http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_020206O.shtml , Miller has turned against the war for which he once was an icon.

Then:


Now: