Casey frustrated by increase in suicides
Casey frustrated by increase in suicides, 15 Mar 2010, Army Times
Staff writer
Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey expressed his frustration earlier this month over the service’s inability to reduce the number of soldier suicides. “I’m personally frustrated with the effort that we have put on this over the last three years, and particularly over the last year, that we haven’t stemmed the tide,” Casey told members of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee March 3.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/03/army_suicides_casey_031410w/
Troops: Ops tempo challenges mental care
Troops: Ops tempo challenges mental care, 12 Mar 2010, Army Times
By Brendan McGarry – Staff writer
Service members and veterans praise legislation that would expand access to mental health care — but they question the military’s ability to improve treatment given the challenges of today’s high operations tempo. One proposal in the House would require all returning combat veterans to undergo confidential, face-to-face mental health screening. Another would allow direct access to mental health counseling without a referral from a primary care physician
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/03/military_mentalhealth_031110w/
Description of Risk and Resilience Factors among Military Medical Personnel before Deployment to Iraq
Description of Risk and Resilience Factors among Military Medical Personnel before Deployment to Iraq
Military medicine ISSN 0026-4075 CODEN MMEDA9
2008, vol. 173, no1, pp. 1-9 [9 page(s) (article)]
Author(s) MAGUEN Shira ; TURCOTTE Diane M. ; PETERSON Alan L. ; DREMSA Theresa L. ; GARB Howard N. ; MCNALLY Richard J. ; LITZ Brett
Military medical personnel preparing for deployment to Iraq (N = 328) participated in a survey concerning pre-deployment risk and resilience factors. Participants reported exposure to an average of 2.5 potentially traumatic events before deployment and 76% (n = 229) reported at least two current concerns about pre-deployment stressors.
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=19979038
Female Veterans’ PTSD Goes Untreated
Female Veterans’ PTSD Goes Untreated, 16 December 2009, Essence.com
The fastest growing group of homeless war veterans is female vets with kids. One of the main reasons for their downfall is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Unfortunately, according to CNN, many female veterans are not getting the treatment for PTSD they need because women’s roles in wars are commonly non-combat. However, although many female soldiers have been in or have witnessed combat outside the wire, priority for therapy that re-assimilates soldiers goes to the male soldiers who can prove that they’ve been in battle. Furthermore female vets with children often feel pressure to return to their role as a caretaker immediately after serving.
http://www.essence.com/lifestyle/health/female_veterans_ptsd_goes_untreated.php
Back from Iraq war, and alone
Back from Iraq war, and alone, 10 March 2010, Special to CNN
By Mike Scotti
A few days after I had returned from a six-month deployment to Iraq, my second sojourn in the Middle East since 2001, I remember feeling like I was an alien creature from some other planet. It was 2003, and I was attending a friend’s wedding. As I sat at the table listening to the conversation, I suddenly realized that someone who had never been in combat could never even remotely understand what I had just been through.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/10/scotti.war.veterans/?hpt=C1
Soldiers need help with the emotional toll of war
Soldiers need help with the emotional toll of war, 3 Mar 2010, USA Today
By M. David Rudd
The military is a unique culture that treasures strength, resilience, courage and individual sacrifice. As the slogans “Army Strong” or the Marine Corps’ “The Few. The Proud” reveal, soldiers are trained to be warriors.
The military is not a culture that embraces perceived weakness or illness; it’s contrary to the notion of an effective fighting force. Perhaps that fact not only highlights the escalation in military suicides — an almost 40% increase in the Army alone from 2007 to 2009 — but the apparent ineffectiveness of traditional approaches. It’s time that the Department of Defense and Army, despite their best efforts, think more creatively.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/03/column-soldiers-need-help-with-the-emotional-toll-of-war-.html
The War Within
The War Within, 8 Mar 2010, Time
What does it tell us that female soldiers deployed overseas stop drinking water after 7 p.m. to reduce the odds of being raped if they have to use the bathroom at night? Or that a soldier who was assaulted when she went out for a cigarette was afraid to report it for fear she would be demoted — for having gone out without her weapon? Or that, as Representative Jane Harman puts it, “a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1968110,00.html
Military suicides are causing civilian casualties, too
Military suicides are causing civilian casualties, too, 28 Feb 2010, Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20100228/pl_mcclatchy/3438030
VA to reconsider benefits for ill Gulf War vets
VA to reconsider benefits for ill Gulf War vets, 26 Feb 2010, Associated Press Writer Kimberly Hefling
WASHINGTON – The Veterans Affairs Department says it will look again at the rejected claims of veterans who say their Gulf War service caused a mysterious illness, the first step toward potentially compensating them nearly two decades after the war ended.
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the decision is part of a “fresh, bold look” his department is taking to help veterans who have what’s commonly called “Gulf War illness” and have long felt the government did little to help them. The VA says it also plans to improve training for medical staff who work with Gulf War vets, to make sure they do not simply tell vets that their symptoms are imaginary — as has happened to many over the years.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100226/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_gulf_war_illness
