Active-Duty Soldiers Take Their Own Lives at Record Rate
Active-Duty Soldiers Take Their Own Lives at Record Rate
Army report: suicides down, but violent crimes up
WASHINGTON – A new Army report says the number of suicides among soldiers has been leveling off, but there has been a dramatic jump in domestic violence, sex crimes and other destructive behavior in a force that has been stressed by a decade of war.
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said Tuesday that violent sex crimes and domestic violence have increased more than 30 percent since 2006 and child abuse by 43 percent. Chiarelli was releasing a 200-page report on the health of the troops and the Army’s efforts to address the problem.
It said that 278 soldiers in the active duty, Guard and Reserve committed suicide in the budget year ended in September, compared to 304 the previous fiscal year.
Medical Schools to Increase Focus on PTSD, TBI
WASHINGTON — Medical schools will soon include more course work on post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other common military ailments as part of a White House-led effort to prepare future physicians for the next generation of veteran patients.
First Lady Michelle Obama and officials from the Association of American Medical Colleges will announce the plans Wednesday afternoon. The effort includes more shared research and clinical trials among 130 medical and osteopathic schools around the country, including Ivy League and other major collegiate research institutions.
Officials from the association on Tuesday told reporters the goal is to ensure that young medical professionals are familiar with the signature wounds of war, and able to more effectively treat the millions of veterans who will struggle with those issues for decades to come.
White House officials said more than half of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans receiving treatment for mental health issues rely not on Department of Veterans Affairs physicians, but instead on private medical practices.
For some students, that will likely mean standalone courses on topics like PTSD and TBI, as well as other common battlefield injuries.
The effort is part of the first lady’s Joining Forces campaign, designed to highlight the sacrifices and needs of troops, veterans and their families. Program officials said no federal money is being used for the college coordination efforts, but Defense Department and VA officials will assist with planning and information sharing.
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First lady tackling medical treatment for vets
First lady tackling medical treatment for vets
By Julie Pace
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama has gotten a new commitment from medical schools to boost training and research for the treatment of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health injuries.
The initiative is part of the first lady’s Joining Forces `campaign, which focuses on issues affecting veterans and their families.
Risk Factors for Posttraumatic Stress Symptomatology
Risk Factors for Posttraumatic Stress Symptomatology in Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans Similar to Those Observed in Vietnam Veterans
Women Veterans Face New Risk Factors
Nov 10, 2011
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2203
Just By Listening, Civilians Can Help Veterans Heal – 11-07-11
Culture of Stress: Why are service members taking their lives at such an alarming rate?
Culture of Stress: Why are service members taking their lives at such an alarming rate?, 31 July 2011, Patriot-News Op-Ed
By: Mike Reid
Mike Reid, left, is shown with his father after returning from one of his deployments to Iraq. Reid grew up in the Harrisburg area and served in the Army for six years. He now lives in Georgia and works as a personal trainer
The most important thing to know about me is what I was doing during the years 2002 to 2008. In that time, I became “Army Strong” and spent nearly three of those years in Iraq.
It’s never made clear exactly what the Army slogan “Army Strong” means. I believe that I have the most accurate and truthful interpretation of what it stands for, and it has nothing to do with the commercials you see daily.
America’s service members feel the need to end their own lives at an alarming rate. It’s time we started talking about this, not to mention the increased amount of domestic violence and child abuse.
The armed forces suicide rate is double the national average. More American troops committed suicide in 2009 than died in combat in Afghanistan that same year: That is 381 suicides compared to 319 combat deaths. The statistic alone should make your stomach turn.
Those 381 suicides are spread among all four branches of the military — Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy — although 162 of them were Army soldiers. The military doesn’t count the suicides from Reservists or National Guard personnel, only active duty.
In 2010, the Army suicide number jumped up to 245, more than half of the 434 suicides militarywide. In 2011, just through the month of May, the number was already at 163 for the Army alone. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs says roughly 600 military and former military personnel take their own lives each year.
Now, try to stomach this one. For every suicide in the military, at least five more service members are hospitalized for attempting to kill themselves.
The question on almost everybody’s mind is, what is causing all of these American troops to do this?
FULL ARTICLE AT: http://blog.pennlive.com/editorials/print.html?entry=/2011/07/culture_of_stress_what_are_ser.html
Federal government has a responsibility to take care of nation’s troops
Federal government has a responsibility to take care of nation’s troops, 1 AUG 2011, Sun Editorial
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., will close down at the end of the month, ending a century of service to the military.
Officials held a ceremony marking the closure last week, and the hospital’s patients and services will be transferred to other military facilities in the next few weeks. The move was ordered by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005 as part of the military’s consolidation efforts. Many services will be transferred to the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, which is scheduled to open next month at the site of the Navy’s hospital in Bethesda, Md.
The best-known medical facility, Walter Reed has a long legacy. It has treated everyone from rank-and-file soldiers to sitting presidents. The quality of the medical care has been top notch, and the facility has become particularly well-known for its work in prosthetics.
However, the facility’s reputation was tarnished in 2007, after a Washington Post series detailed how wounded troops recovering at the hospital were facing terrible living conditions. That led to quick changes in the way the Army handles and treats wounded soldiers.
The importance of quality care for the troops cannot be overlooked. More than 2 million Americans have served in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the country has a responsibility to take care of those who were wounded during service.
FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/aug/01/federal-government-has-responsibility-take-care-na/
Cost of Treating Veterans Will Rise Long Past Wars
Cost of Treating Veterans Will Rise Long Past Wars, 27 July 2010, NY Times
By: James Dao
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
WASHINGTON — Though the withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan will save the nation billions of dollars a year, another cost of war is projected to continue rising for decades to come: caring for the veterans.
By one measure, the cost of health care and disability compensation for veterans from those conflicts and all previous American wars ranks among the largest for the federal government — less than the military, Social Security and health care programs including Medicare, but nearly the same as paying interest on the national debt, the Treasury Department says.
Ending the current wars will not lower those veterans costs; indeed, they will rise ever more steeply for decades to come as the population of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan expands, ages and becomes more infirm. To date, more than 2.2 million troops have served in those wars.
Studies show that the peak years for government health care and disability compensation costs for veterans from past wars came 30 to 40 years after those wars ended. For Vietnam, that peak has not been reached.
In Washington, the partisan stalemate over cutting federal spending is now raising alarms among veterans groups and some lawmakers that the seemingly inexorable costs of veterans benefits will spur a backlash against those programs.
Even if cuts to veterans programs do not occur, the current mood of budgetary constraint seems likely to force the Department of Veterans Affairs to make do without the large spending increases it has received from Congress in the recent past.
That means efforts by veterans groups to expand existing health care programs, provide additional benefits to Vietnam veterans or institute new research into things liketraumatic brain injury or hearing loss will face difficult uphill battles, lawmakers and veterans advocates say.
“No one is thinking about the lifetime costs this country is responsible for,” said Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat who is chairwoman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “I’m really worried.”
FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/us/28veterans.html?_r=2
Mental Problems Of Soldiers’ Kids Tied To Wars
Mental Problems Of Soldiers’ Kids Tied To Wars, 4 July 2011, Reuters.com
By Alina Selyukh
U.S. Marines of Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines are silhouetted against the sunset during a joint patrol with Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers along Helmand river near the Camp Gorgak in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, July 3, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Shamil Zhumatov
WASHINGTON — The longer U.S. soldiers were deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, the more likely their children would be diagnosed with mental health problems, according to a study published Monday.
The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, analyzed medical records of 307,520 children of active-duty Army personnel, aged 5 to 17 years old. It found almost 17 percent of them exhibited mental health problems.
“Children of parents who spent more time deployed between 2003 and 2006 fared worse than children whose parents were deployed for a shorter duration,” the study’s researchers wrote.
The lead researcher was Alyssa Mansfield, who was at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the time the study was conducted.
The U.S. Army reported some 562,000 members in active duty and more than 570,000 children of such members in 2010. Just under two-thirds of all active-duty servicemen and women were married and 15 percent were raising children as single parents.
FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-military-idUSTRE7634XD20110704
