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Boondocksaint375
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OUR VIEW: Post-combat diagnosis, counseling need support
August 29, 2007 6:00 AM
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070829/OPINION/708290317
Psychological services for military personnel have long been inadequate. The lack of services can never excuse violence, like the physical abuse Freetown resident Michael Oliveira allegedly inflicted on his wife before barricading himself in his home with a cache of weapons on Sunday. He is responsible for his own actions.
Still, without better mental health services, some veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will face problems they might not be able to handle.
Though Mr. Oliveira's military record has not been verified, he and his family told police he is an Army Special Forces veteran. Special Forces train for some of the Army's most dangerous and mentally taxing missions, including guerilla warfare and covert infiltration of hostile areas.
Revisiting the issue of soldiers' mental health in February, the American Psychological Association released an analysis of various studies and surveys from the last four years. More than 30 percent of deployed personnel met the criteria for a mental disorder, the association said, but fewer than half of those sought help, and the numbers did not include personnel whose mental health issues surfaced after deployment. The APA also found a vacancy rate of 40 percent for active-duty military psychologists.
In the civilian world, stigma often prevents people from seeking help for mental and emotional problems. That stigma inevitably carries over into the military, where recruits are trained to be tough. Nowhere could that be more true than in the Special Forces.
Still, the honored veterans returning from war are human, with human sadness and anger and frailties. They have physical and emotional wounds that may take many years of treatment to heal — if they heal at all. When those wounds lead to anti-social behavior, the veteran's family suffers too.
News reports earlier this year exposed terrible conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which treats nearly one in four servicemen and women injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. A story in the Washington Post on Feb. 18 described Building 18, a Walter Reed outpatient facility outside the main gates, as a mouse- and cockroach-infested place to which soldiers discharged from the psychiatric ward with schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, paranoid delusional disorder and other problems were often assigned. The situation was so chaotic, the report said, that in some cases, soldiers with mental disorders were put in charge of others at risk of suicide.
Yet at least for those soldiers, their need for treatment had been identified. Most people who return from war never pass through the halls of a place like Walter Reed. Some get treatment at local Veterans Administration hospitals and clinics. For others, depression and anger can fly below the diagnostic radar and resurface many times during their lives. The Hollywood image of a man who won't talk about seeing death — or doing the killing — in World War II or Vietnam isn't far off the mark.
Americans like to think that because times have changed, veterans of the war in Iraq will get better support and be less hindered by social stigma if they need psychiatric treatment. But the facts suggest otherwise. The nation still has a long way to go to provide appropriate post-combat counseling, and the financial burden of providing it will be yet another toll of the war in Iraq.
August 29, 2007 6:00 AM
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070829/OPINION/708290317
Psychological services for military personnel have long been inadequate. The lack of services can never excuse violence, like the physical abuse Freetown resident Michael Oliveira allegedly inflicted on his wife before barricading himself in his home with a cache of weapons on Sunday. He is responsible for his own actions.
Still, without better mental health services, some veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will face problems they might not be able to handle.
Though Mr. Oliveira's military record has not been verified, he and his family told police he is an Army Special Forces veteran. Special Forces train for some of the Army's most dangerous and mentally taxing missions, including guerilla warfare and covert infiltration of hostile areas.
Revisiting the issue of soldiers' mental health in February, the American Psychological Association released an analysis of various studies and surveys from the last four years. More than 30 percent of deployed personnel met the criteria for a mental disorder, the association said, but fewer than half of those sought help, and the numbers did not include personnel whose mental health issues surfaced after deployment. The APA also found a vacancy rate of 40 percent for active-duty military psychologists.
In the civilian world, stigma often prevents people from seeking help for mental and emotional problems. That stigma inevitably carries over into the military, where recruits are trained to be tough. Nowhere could that be more true than in the Special Forces.
Still, the honored veterans returning from war are human, with human sadness and anger and frailties. They have physical and emotional wounds that may take many years of treatment to heal — if they heal at all. When those wounds lead to anti-social behavior, the veteran's family suffers too.
News reports earlier this year exposed terrible conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which treats nearly one in four servicemen and women injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. A story in the Washington Post on Feb. 18 described Building 18, a Walter Reed outpatient facility outside the main gates, as a mouse- and cockroach-infested place to which soldiers discharged from the psychiatric ward with schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, paranoid delusional disorder and other problems were often assigned. The situation was so chaotic, the report said, that in some cases, soldiers with mental disorders were put in charge of others at risk of suicide.
Yet at least for those soldiers, their need for treatment had been identified. Most people who return from war never pass through the halls of a place like Walter Reed. Some get treatment at local Veterans Administration hospitals and clinics. For others, depression and anger can fly below the diagnostic radar and resurface many times during their lives. The Hollywood image of a man who won't talk about seeing death — or doing the killing — in World War II or Vietnam isn't far off the mark.
Americans like to think that because times have changed, veterans of the war in Iraq will get better support and be less hindered by social stigma if they need psychiatric treatment. But the facts suggest otherwise. The nation still has a long way to go to provide appropriate post-combat counseling, and the financial burden of providing it will be yet another toll of the war in Iraq.