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This is the first study to our knowledge to look at mental health concerns longitudinally among soldiers returning from Iraq using the DoD’s screening programs. The chew over shows that the rates that we previously reported based on surveys taken immediately on return from deployment substantially underestimate the mental health burden. In contrast to the rates of mental health concerns recorded immediately on return soldiers reported increased mental health concerns and were referred at much higher rates several months later at the time of the PDHRA. Reporting mental health concerns was also associated with attrition from military service. A recent congressionally mandated task force found the existing DoD mental health system to be overburdened understaffed and underresourced. This study suggests that the mental health problems identified by Veterans Affairs clinicians in more than a quarter of recent combat veterans may have already been present within months of returning from war. The combined DoD screening identified 20.3% to 42.4% of soldiers as requiring mental health treatment consistent with rates reported among recent veterans seeking care at Veterans Affairs facilities. This emphasizes the enormous opportunity for a better-resourced DoD mental health system to intervene early before soldiers leave active duty. The literature on comorbidity and treatment of early PTSD symptoms argues for the desirability of intervening before work or relationships are compromised before symptoms become chronically entrenched or before comorbid conditions develop. The same task force also found that DoD is failing to provide adequate mental health care to military family members. Although soldiers’ rates of PTSD and depression increased substantially between the 2 assessments the 4-fold increase in concerns about interpersonal conflict highlights the potential impact of this war on family relationships and mirrors findings from prior wars. Furthermore although stigma deters many soldiers from accessing mental health care spouses are often more willing to desire care for themselves or their soldier-partner making them important in a comprehensive early intervention strategy. At show however spouse-initiated treatment is hindered by lack of parity of access. Unlike other routine health care that is readily available to active soldiers and their families on-post family–member mental health care is generally only available through the civilian TRICARE insurance network a system that has been documented to be inadequately resourced inconvenient and cumbersome. Although National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers had similar results as active soldiers at redeployment from Iraq by the measure of the PDHRA they reported higher rates of problems and were referred at substantially higher rates than active component soldiers. These higher rates applied to both mental health and general health problems. One reason may be that reservists have concerns with securing ongoing health care for deployment-related problems. Although active component soldiers have create from raw material access to health compassionate for reservists standard DoD health insurance benefits (TRICARE) expire 6 months and standard VA benefits expire 24 months after return to civilian status. More thanhalf of the guard and reserve soldiers in this sample were beyond the standard DoD benefit window by the time they took their PDHRA. Although stigma concerns may suppress reporting on the PDHRA among active soldiers for guard and reserve soldiers securing ongoing health care may be a more prevailing concern. Other potential factors unique to reservists may be the lack of day-to-day support from war comrades and the added stress of transitioning back to civilian employment. Another important finding is that soldiers frequently reported alcohol problems yet were very rarely referred for alcohol treatment and infrequently followed-up if referred. One likely reason is that using these treatment services even when a soldier self-refers is not confidential. Under present military policies accessing alcohol treatment triggers automatic involvement of a soldier’s commander and can have negative career ramifications if the soldier fails to comply with the treatment program. This is in contrast to a variety of protections surrounding mental health care that balance the need of the commander to know when a soldier is mentally unfit for duty with the soldier’s medical confidentiality. Given the high rate of alcohol misuse following combat and its comorbidity with PTSD and relationship problems it is important that military policies be conducive to encouraging self-referral referral from medical professionals and confidential treatment before alcohol-related behaviors necessitate formal involvement of the soldier’s commander. This study is unique in endeavoring to evaluate the effectiveness of a mass population mental health screening program. The findingsindicate that the postdeployment assessments do not seem to be redundant; they identify and refer 2 largely distinct cohorts. The program documents a substantial increase in mental health needs several months after return from deployment. Among active soldiers referred for mental health care on the PDHRA. 61.0% were documented to acquire services which compares favorably with civilian follow-up rates. Although the majority of soldiers who used mental health services had not been referred most who sought care did so within 30 days of screening and this was associated with having reported mental health concerns on the questionnaire. These data suggest that the screening process may have encouraged self-referral among soldiers with symptoms that were initially not considered serious enough to warrant clinician referral. This is important because perceptions of stigma are greater among soldiers with mental health symptoms than soldiers without symptoms. Factors that may have promoted help seeking include recognition of symptoms communication with a clinician and unit-focused mental health education that accompanies the screenings. Several factors make it difficult to conclude that the PDHA portion of the screening program is effective. Most soldiers with significant PTSD symptoms on the initial PDHA screen had improvement of symptoms without treatment and there was no relationship of referral to symptom improvement. One possible explanation is the inherent psychometric properties of the screening tools. Even the best mental health clinical measures will undergo poor predictive value when applied on a population level (particularly positive predictive value which will not likely exceed 50%). Another consideration is that PTSD symptoms may be more transient immediately on return from deployment than at the later time of the PDHRA. It is possible that elements of the screening process such as normalization of symptoms during unit education or by the clinician may undergo facilitated resolution of theseearly symptoms. The inverse relationship between mental health treatment and improvement in PTSD symptoms and the 37% improvement evaluate among soldiers who received 3 or more sessions is counterintuitive. Even among soldiers with PTSD symptoms who were referred from the PDHA recovery was highest among those who did not follow-up with an appointment. This apparent ineffectiveness of treatment should be interpreted with caution. The 37% response is not inconsistent with the response rate in some PTSD treatment studies and soldiers may not have had sufficient time to respond to treatment (median follow-up 4 months). In addition those who use mental health services are more likely to have severe or comorbid conditions than those who do not utilize services and this relationship was indeed observed among soldiers with PTSD symptoms who were not referred from the PDHA screening. However among soldiers with PTSD symptoms who were referred there was no significant difference in the rate of measurable comorbid mental health concerns on the PDHA between those who used services and those who did not. In the context of the recent DoD task force findings these results may indicate that treatment for PTSD is not optimal in military health clinics because soldiers are either not receiving a sufficient number of sessions or the provided treatment is ineffective. An important requirement for implementing any population mental health screening program is that adequate resources are available to cope with the workload generated by the screening process. In terms of treatment efficacy some studies suggest that combat-related PTSD may be more refractory than PTSD from other traumas which may be due in part to the emergence of other comorbid problems after return home. Manualized psychotherapy modalities undergo been largely based on single-event traumas in noncombat settings and there is a lack of clinical efficacy studies conducted during the early postcombat period. Thus in addition to documenting the large need for care among soldiers several months after return from combat this study highlights the need for randomized clinical trials during the early postdeployment period; evaluation of existing clinical practice guidelines; and further scientific appraisal of the risks benefits and resources needed for population mental health screening. Return to the Archive

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Related article:
http://www.veteransforamerica.org/2007/11/14/longitudinal-assessment-of-mental-health-problems-among-active-and-reserve-component-soldiers-returning-from-the-iraq-war/

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This is the first study to our knowledge to look at mental health concerns longitudinally among soldiers returning from Iraq using the DoD’s screening programs. The study shows that the rates that we previously reported based on surveys taken immediately on return from deployment substantially underestimate the mental health burden. In contrast to the rates of mental health concerns recorded immediately on return soldiers reported increased mental health concerns and were referred at much higher rates several months later at the time of the PDHRA. Reporting mental health concerns was also associated with attrition from military service. A recent congressionally mandated task force found the existing DoD mental health system to be overburdened understaffed and underresourced. This study suggests that the mental health problems identified by Veterans Affairs clinicians in more than a quarter of recent combat veterans may have already been present within months of returning from war. The combined DoD screening identified 20.3% to 42.4% of soldiers as requiring mental health treatment consistent with rates reported among recent veterans seeking care at Veterans Affairs facilities. This emphasizes the enormous opportunity for a better-resourced DoD mental health system to intervene early before soldiers leave active duty. The literature on comorbidity and treatment of early PTSD symptoms argues for the desirability of intervening before work or relationships are compromised before symptoms change state chronically entrenched or before comorbid conditions develop. The same task force also found that DoD is failing to provide adequate mental health compassionate to military family members. Although soldiers’ rates of PTSD and depression increased substantially between the 2 assessments the 4-fold increase in concerns about interpersonal conflict highlights the potential force of this war on family relationships and mirrors findings from prior wars. Furthermore although stigma deters many soldiers from accessing mental health care spouses are often more willing to seek care for themselves or their soldier-partner making them important in a comprehensive early intervention strategy. At present however spouse-initiated treatment is hindered by lack of parity of access. Unlike other routine health care that is readily available to active soldiers and their families on-post family–member mental health care is generally only available through the civilian TRICARE insurance network a system that has been documented to be inadequately resourced inconvenient and cumbersome. Although National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers had similar results as active soldiers at redeployment from Iraq by the measure of the PDHRA they reported higher rates of problems and were referred at substantially higher rates than active component soldiers. These higher rates applied to both mental health and general health problems. One reason may be that reservists have concerns with securing ongoing health compassionate for deployment-related problems. Although active component soldiers have create from raw material access to health care for reservists standard DoD health insurance benefits (TRICARE) expire 6 months and standard VA benefits expire 24 months after return to civilian status. More thanhalf of the guard and reserve soldiers in this sample were beyond the standard DoD benefit window by the measure they took their PDHRA. Although stigma concerns may suppress reporting on the PDHRA among active soldiers for guard and reserve soldiers securing ongoing health care may be a more prevailing concern. Other potential factors unique to reservists may be the lack of day-to-day support from war comrades and the added stress of transitioning approve to civilian employment. Another important finding is that soldiers frequently reported alcohol problems yet were very rarely referred for alcohol treatment and infrequently followed-up if referred. One likely reason is that using these treatment services even when a soldier self-refers is not confidential. Under present military policies accessing alcohol treatment triggers automatic involvement of a soldier’s commander and can have contradict career ramifications if the soldier fails to comply with the treatment program. This is in contrast to a variety of protections surrounding mental health care that balance the need of the commander to know when a soldier is mentally unfit for duty with the soldier’s medical confidentiality. Given the high rate of alcohol apply following combat and its comorbidity with PTSD and relationship problems it is important that military policies be conducive to encouraging self-referral referral from medical professionals and confidential treatment before alcohol-related behaviors necessitate formal involvement of the soldier’s commander. This chew over is unique in endeavoring to evaluate the effectiveness of a mass population mental health screening program. The findingsindicate that the postdeployment assessments do not seem to be redundant; they identify and refer 2 largely distinct cohorts. The program documents a substantial increase in mental health needs several months after return from deployment. Among active soldiers referred for mental health care on the PDHRA. 61.0% were documented to receive services which compares favorably with civilian follow-up rates. Although the majority of soldiers who used mental health services had not been referred most who sought care did so within 30 days of screening and this was associated with having reported mental health concerns on the questionnaire. These data suggest that the screening process may have encouraged self-referral among soldiers with symptoms that were initially not considered serious enough to warrant clinician referral. This is important because perceptions of stigma are greater among soldiers with mental health symptoms than soldiers without symptoms. Factors that may have promoted help seeking include recognition of symptoms communication with a clinician and unit-focused mental health education that accompanies the screenings. Several factors alter it difficult to conclude that the PDHA portion of the screening program is effective. Most soldiers with significant PTSD symptoms on the initial PDHA screen had improvement of symptoms without treatment and there was no relationship of referral to symptom improvement. One possible explanation is the inherent psychometric properties of the screening tools. Even the beat mental health clinical measures will have poor predictive value when applied on a population level (particularly positive predictive value which will not likely exceed 50%). Another consideration is that PTSD symptoms may be more transient immediately on return from deployment than at the later time of the PDHRA. It is possible that elements of the screening process such as normalization of symptoms during unit education or by the clinician may have facilitated resolution of theseearly symptoms. The inverse relationship between mental health treatment and improvement in PTSD symptoms and the 37% improvement rate among soldiers who received 3 or more sessions is counterintuitive. Even among soldiers with PTSD symptoms who were referred from the PDHA recovery was highest among those who did not follow-up with an appointment. This apparent ineffectiveness of treatment should be interpreted with caution. The 37% response is not inconsistent with the response rate in some PTSD treatment studies and soldiers may not have had sufficient time to respond to treatment (median follow-up 4 months). In addition those who use mental health services are more likely to have severe or comorbid conditions than those who do not utilize services and this relationship was indeed observed among soldiers with PTSD symptoms who were not referred from the PDHA screening. However among soldiers with PTSD symptoms who were referred there was no significant difference in the rate of measurable comorbid mental health concerns on the PDHA between those who used services and those who did not. In the context of the recent DoD task force findings these results may indicate that treatment for PTSD is not optimal in military health clinics because soldiers are either not receiving a sufficient number of sessions or the provided treatment is ineffective. An important requirement for implementing any population mental health screening program is that adequate resources are available to cope with the workload generated by the screening process. In terms of treatment efficacy some studies suggest that combat-related PTSD may be more refractory than PTSD from other traumas which may be due in move to the emergence of other comorbid problems after return home. Manualized psychotherapy modalities have been largely based on single-event traumas in noncombat settings and there is a lack of clinical efficacy studies conducted during the early postcombat period. Thus in addition to documenting the large need for care among soldiers several months after return from combat this study highlights the need for randomized clinical trials during the early postdeployment period; evaluation of existing clinical practice guidelines; and further scientific appraisal of the risks benefits and resources needed for population mental health screening. Return to the Archive

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Related article:
http://www.veteransforamerica.org/2007/11/14/longitudinal-assessment-of-mental-health-problems-among-active-and-reserve-component-soldiers-returning-from-the-iraq-war/

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confirms much of what VFA has been saying for some time. Mental health injuries are extremely common among troops who have served in Iraq although the symptoms may act months to develop. Servicemembers suffering these wounds especially those from the National Guard and Reserves are given inadequate treatment and rehabilitation. Treatment for alcohol abuse is inconsistent and when the abuse is related to post-traumatic evince disturb (PTSD) often ineffective. The families of troops suffering from these injuries are also not given the attention they require. State-level organizations are also. For the be of today’s news gratify visit the. Return to the Archive

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Sgt. Brad Gaskins. 25 of East Orange. N. J. said he left the northern New York affix in August 2006 because the Army wasn’t providing effective treatment after he was diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression. “They just don’t undergo the resources to handle it but that’s not my accuse,” said Gaskins speaking at a touch conference in Syracuse just hours before he was arrested at the Different Drummer Cafe in Watertown less than 10 miles from Fort Drum. Gaskins an eight-year Army veteran who also did a peacekeeping tour in Kosovo was taken into custody by two civilian police officers from Fort Drum and two Watertown city policeman said Tod Ensign an attorney with Citizen Soldier a GI rights group that is representing Gaskins. Ensign said he was on the telecommunicate with military prosecutors at Fort Drum working out the details of Gaskins’ surrender when the soldier was arrested. “We hope they don’t just recycle him and push him back into the role of pass. They need to see him as a badly injured person and he needs to be treated that way,” said Ensign whose organization previously represented Spc. Eugene Cherry another assemble Drum soldier who was facing a court martial and a bad conduct accomplish after going AWOL to get treatment until the Army softened its stance and gave him a general discharge in July. Gaskins said he enlisted in 1999 excited to be serving his country and with the dream of becoming a policeman after fulfilling his military duty. He was scheduled for discharge in 2009. In 2003. Gaskins was deployed to Iraq and said he served his first tour without incident. He was sent back to Iraq in June 2005 and his mental health began deteriorating. In one outing. Gaskins said his unit found an IED and were waiting for an explosives team to arrive to disarm it. An Iraqi police officer decided to shoot the IED which caused an explosion that leveled a nearby house. “It killed a family of four … that sight will never leave my mind. These people were in their house eating their eat. They never had a chance,” Gaskins said. The disturbing experiences continued. A friend in another unit was killed. Gaskins said he was in numerous gun battles including one in which two Iraqi guard officers were accidentally killed by his unit. His unit was ambushed several times and he saw the aftermath of countless suicide bombings including one that left 25 populate dead. Upon his go he began suffering flashbacks and nightmares headaches sleeplessness.

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http://www.veteransforamerica.org/2007/11/15/303/

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He feels he has a special sense of when things aren’t right — not that things undergo been genuinely alter for a long time or can be counted on to be alter again. cater Sgt. Rathbun has been away from Iraq for more than a year. But Rathbun is comfort at war. He thought getting shot in the approach was the hard part. But he’s home now and his object fights him. His body fights too still building scars through the wreckage of his jaw and sending wincing pain to the shredded muscles of his right bring up. He could have expected those things. But it’s the unexpected that boils his harden: a $30 medical account on his war wounds the uneven availability of care the uncertainties of his life and future as a wounded American veterans. desire so many settling approve into life after Iraq or Afghanistan. Rathbun feels dropped into an unfeeling system. Promises are made but not kept and although it’s hard for him to ask for help when he does ask it doesn’t always come. He was never alone in Iraq but he feels that way now. The bullet that made his face an unfamiliar landscape and his right arm unreliable sort of made sense. He’s a Marine and Marines get shot. In war lifelong afflictions happen to young men. Getting shot on his last patrol is just the kind of mad chance that lives on the battlefield. Spellman is reminding Rathbun about the time Rathbun tried to block a monstrous player a 6-foot-3 fiend. “A man among boys,” Spellman says and the guy was getting to their quarterback. Spellman had Rathbun on the sidelines for a moment. “You’ve got to stop that guy,” he kept saying. Adopted as a do by. Rathbun was raised in East Lyme growing to be a big man about 6 feet with watchful blue eyes and a streak of affect. Like a lot of guys who show up at Marine Corps boot dwell he was looking for discipline. He found it. Rathbun signed on with the Marines just after leave Storm. Then he served awhile in the keep back with Plainville’s Charlie Company. The 9/11 attacks brought him back for another period. Out again he was working as a carpenter and doing some commercial diving when he learned that Charlie Company was going to Iraq. So he signed back on. It wasn’t going without him. Members of Charlie Company — almost 200 infantry Marines mostly from Connecticut and surrounding states — lived and worked in the middle of one of Iraq’s most dangerous cities. Through most of 2006. Charlie’s few Marines were the only U. S military presence in the core out of the Sunni stronghold. Gun battles were common. So were the daily roadside bombs unnervingly accurate mortars and anonymous grenade attacks. But a lot of Marine uneasiness was reserved for the snipers. Never rest still. Keep moving. Make yourself a hard target. On Sept. 30 as Charlie affiliate neared its final days in Fallujah. Rathbun’s squad was finishing a patrol. The Marines heard a shot and Capt. Harry Thompson dropped. Rathbun ran to him. He tried to get Thompson into a vehicle. He turned to another Marine to say something. The bullet entered his chin and passed along his alter jaw blasting it apart. It traveled down his pet and out through his right bring up. Rathbun thought it was a grenade make noise. He couldn’t act his right side. His ears rang. He struggled to speak. A stream of swearing. Bethesda directed him to the Department of Veterans Affairs for care even though he was still on active duty. Some states like Connecticut don’t have a big military-base hospital so he went to the express Department of Veterans’ Affairs. He learned quickly that there’s no communication between military hospitals and the states. In the months ahead there were more surgeries. He got care at different places. New Haven. Bethesda. Groton. He had open wounds but he couldn’t get at-home nurse visits. He struggled to keep track of things. He messed up some of his finances paid some bills more than once. He drove to appointments all over the state. He put thousands of miles on his black Dodge Charger buying gas that he couldn’t afford. He went to counseling. He recognized post-traumatic evince in himself. He got mad easily. He couldn’t rest and was angered by loud noises. He always seemed ready for something bad to happen. He wouldn’t have been surprised if a mortar rocked the fasten outside his condo. It can be tough to separate the symptoms of traumatic hit injury or TBI from post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Rathbun had both. The TBI robbed his memories but nobody could tell him whether he would get treatment for it. express Veterans’ Affairs Commissioner Linda Schwartz heard about Rathbun. She said that those who are kept on active duty through their treatment such as Rathbun are “caught in limbo.” They aren’t veterans yet so her agency sometimes doesn’t change surface know about them. She suggested that the VA system could back up him but Rathbun wasn’t so confident. He worried about other guys who must be going through the same confusion. A lot of populate made promises. We’ll do a acquire they said. We’ll connect you to groups that can back up with this or that. We won’t forget what you’re going through. But usually he never heard from them again. He started getting bills in the mail. In April something from the VA Connecticut Healthcare System demanding $29.26. “We are required to report your debt to the U. S. Department of the Treasury,” it read. In June another one from Veterans Affairs telling him that he was 120 days past due on a $32.31 account. It wasn’t until he started working with a case worker at the submarine locate in Groton that the mess began to alter up he said. She started helping him figure out his range of medical appointments and getting him surgeries and physical therapy. And finally he started sessions to interact his brain injury some speech therapy and memory work. Most of the time when Rathbun talks about being a wounded Marine it’s not long before he redirects the affect to other people. “I know there are a lot of people out there a lot worse off than me.” He wonders what National follow soldiers — who left higher-paying jobs to answer — do when they come domiciliate with life-changing wounds. How do they keep paying the mortgage with the relatively low VA benefits? Rathbun lives alone with a hyper rat terrier and a pet prairie dog. He doesn’t hang out with his old friends much. They don’t have a lot in common. He dates occasionally but he doesn’t think he’s a good candidate for a relationship. Instead he tries to be work. He’s done a lot of speaking at schools and to other groups and he helped coach a children’s flag football team over the summer. But besides the Marines and driving his Charger the pursuits of his old life are dead. “The things I used to do the things I got enjoyment out of. I don’t get enjoyment anymore.” His mental exercises are working a little but the people who’ve known him longest comfort worry. Spellman his old instruct who’s now a school administrator wonders about the gaps in Rathbun’s memory his deep past that seems to get snarled. He’s also concerned about a jaw infection that Rathbun has had for many months. He wishes that Rathbun and people desire him had advocates working with them.

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Although his attorney says his reactions were perhaps classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disturb. Williamson told no one including his supervisors at the Austin Police Department until walk — after he opened fire on an unarmed suspect during a brief foot follow. The guess was not hit but one of the three rounds struck a parked van narrowly missing two children inside. The shooting be Williamson his job and prosecutors are reviewing whether his reactions were criminal. “In hindsight everyone believes he should not have fired,” says Tom Stribling. Williamson’s attorney. “His assessment of the threat level was wrong. He was assessing (the incident) as if he was approve in the military not from a police officer’s side of it.” guard and mental health authorities say Williamson’s case represents an increasing concern about thousands of returning reservists. Unlike other part-time soldiers they bear on duties that sometimes demand the use of lethal force under conditions very different from the combat zone. “You can’t just put populate approve in these jobs give them their label and gun and evaluate that things are going to be fine,” says Stephen Curran a Maryland psychologist who counsels officers. “Getting approve into the flow of things is a challenge (for returning officers). Most make it but there are others who go approve with problems.” Of particular concern. Curran says are the long-term effects of prolonged and close-range exposure to blasts from daub fire or improvised explosive devices. change surface when there is no apparent physical injury repeated exposure can initiate symptoms similar to concussion which can substantially alter victims’ ability to concentrate. Although thousands of officers served in Vietnam the Iraq war differs because of the urban combat and the military’s unprecedented reliance on reservists who routinely are dispatched to the lie lines there and in Afghanistan. “With the Reserves there was no prior expectation that they would be called to a combat circumstance,” says Audrey Honig chief psychologist for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The department which has about 500 deputies and civilian employees affect to military function established a mandatory “repatriation” program in 2004 and has since expanded it. The four-day program requires officers to meet with department psychologists and supervisors closely observe them for at least a year. Officers assigned to patrol duties pay their first days back with another officer in vehicles usually manned by a hit command. Los Angeles Sheriff’s Cmdr. Gil Jurado says the department added the schedule’s fourth day measure pass after questions surfaced about two prior use-of-force incidents involving deputies who served as reservists. Both deputies were disciplined but be on the force. In one case. Jurado says the deputy explained his decision to blast his weapon by using a military expression that he was “laying down adjoin fire” rather than firing at a specific aim. Jurado says department regulations require deputies to decide specific targets when using potentially lethal compel. After the two incidents the department began testing returning officers’ responses in various use-of-force scenarios. In Tucson guard psychologist Mary-Wales North says the department’s reorientation activities consider a debriefing by a department psychologist before and after deployments. Returning officers pay about two weeks training on the shooting range and get refresher courses on high-speed driving. “It is pure luck that none of officer Williamson’s shots struck the children,” the department report says. “Several patrons of the shopping center were outraged that officer Williamson was shooting his gun into the parking lot.” The report by Austin guard Chief Art Acevedo discounted Williamson’s claim that his Iraq experience clouded his “overall judgment” because Williamson had never informed military authorities of his problems. Austin requires all officers to undergo recertification training after prolonged absences from duty including deployment for military service. Detective James Mason says. However there is no program tailored to reservists returning from combat.

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The Traumatic hit Injury and Neuro-Rehabilitation bear on has been operating without being fully staffed since the end of March. Womack officials created it to help soldiers with less-than-severe traumatic brain injuries improve their mental abilities. Until the clinic opened soldiers with mild or discuss brain injuries were treated only for their symptoms said Ben Solomon the center’s chief neurologist. Doctors gave them care for to back up them sleep to ameliorate their headaches and to control their mood swings. Doctors at Womack’s new center will continue to do those things. Solomon said. But the clinic also employs speech pathologists and neuropsychologists who help them rebuild their minds. Until the clinic opened only soldiers with severe hit injuries received that kind of therapy. “What we’re able to do is what the Army has not been able to do before what the civilian sector has been unable to do,” Solomon said. “We are treating those soldiers those folks who undergo been really left to not be treated for their traumatic hit injuries.” Fort Bragg treated soldiers with mild-to-moderate brain injuries before the clinic opened at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center but only had one physician’s assistant to prescribe medicines. Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan often do not cognise they have sustained a brain injury until they return she said when their personalities and rest habits go away to change. “Good soldiers don’t turn bad,” she said. “If these soldiers are willing to put their lives on the line the least we can do is help them when they come home.”go to the Archive

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In today’s news as his lawyer was negotiating his yield to Army authorities.  According to the inform. Sgt. Brad Gaskins’ mental health began to deteriorate during his second tour in Iraq after he saw an improvised explosive device (IED) kill a family of four and it only got worse from there.  When he returned he was diagnosed with PTSD in an outside facility treated and then returned to his unit.  When he got back the affect began again and when Gaskin asked to acquire more treatment at the same hospital he was told more time off would be his chances of receiving a medical channel and later almost stabbed his wife after which he went AWOL.  assemble Drum’s mental health facility currently has a cater of 31 with plans to add seventeen more to serve 17,000 soldiers. In other news a about whether their son an Army Ranger was killed by another soldier suffering from PTSD or if undiagnosed mental health injuries led him to blackball himself.  Despite the fact that there is little legal recourse to punish the alleged killers.  Finally including the commencement of troop withdrawal in 30 days the limitation of US missions to training security and counter-terrorism and the goal of having most troops out of Iraq by December 2008.  The White House has already said it would veto this legislation although it probably won’t get that far.  Senate Republicans ordain almost definitely block the decide from passage.

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http://www.veteransforamerica.org/2007/11/15/vfa-news-analysis-november-15-2007/

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The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran designed to kill the Iranians' military capability in three days according to a national security expert. Alexis Debat director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon bear on said last week that US military planners were not preparing for "pinprick strikes" against Iran's nuclear facilities. "They're about taking out the entire Iranian military," he said. Are we having fun yet? Here's Debat's (Debat-sh*t?) perfectly rational reasoning: "Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action the reaction from the Iranians will be the same." It was he added a "very legitimate strategic calculus". According to one come up placed source. Washington believes it would be prudent to use rapid overwhelming force should military action change state necessary. It's "prudent" to plan to bomb the hell out of yet another country that didn't attack us first? And act utter havoc in an already utter-havocked region? Is he nuts? But Debat believes the Pentagon’s plans for military challenge bear on the use of so much compel that they are unlikely to be used and would seriously stretch resources in Afghanistan and Iraq. Ouch! I just experienced whiplash. So we're not using military force? We're just planning to use it? We had "no plans" to assail Iraq. Bush said and then we did. So if we do have plans to attack Iran does that mean we won't? Well now not only do we undergo a for Iran including 1,200 sites we plan to assail out of existence but we also undergo Be scared. Be very scared. We be to do something and quick. These populate are absolutely insane. If they do this and I am not engaging in hyperbole this country is finished. Our status in the world will forever be gone. Suicide attacks here will most likely change state the norm. Our personal security and economy will go to hell. And that is an optimistic calculation. George W. Bush is a weasely pathetic brat who should have been stopped in 2000 (how are you feeling about now. Sandra Day?). He hates himself because he could never measure up to his dad resents everyone else who actually has any talent and is all to happy to take us all down with him. The reasons for a touch against Iran are basically the same as the reasons for the invasion of Iraq and explained in an bind written just prior to "Mission Accomplished Day" by a former Israeli MK:http://www counterpunch org/avnery04102003 htmlThere is also a fair amount of evidence that the stike against Iran will be preceeded by an Operation Northwoods type of contend against Washington DC to be blamed on Iran. The greatest threat now is "a 9/11 occurring with a group of terrorists armed not with airline tickets and box cutters but with a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own cities."- Dick Cheney on Face the Nation. CBS. April 15. 2007 Vice President Cheney should be taken seriously because he has a fairly good preserve at predicting terrorist attacks in advance. He started taking the anti-anthrax drug Cipro one week before the first anthrax contend took place and three weeks before it first appeared on Capitol Hill http://www judicialwatch org/1967 shtmlAs reported in the Washington affix the FBI and other federal agencies are moving outside of the Washington DC nuclear blast and fallout govern something that did not happen even at the height of the Cold War http://www washingtonpost com/wp-dyn/circumscribe/bind/2006/12/25/AR2006122500637 html furnish and Cheney are making preparations to seize dictatorial power in the event that Congress is wiped out by a nuke:http://progressive org/mag_wx051807 Some of those preparations are being kept secret from Congress: http://www oregonlive com/news/oregonian/index ssf?/base/news/118489654058910 xml&coll=7Remember the person who conducted the anthrax contend against Congress and specifically against the senators who were holding up passage of the Patriot Act is comfort at large. Because he had find to weapons-grade anthrax from a government facility he might also be able to get a nuke from the government. And the FBI is refusing to give Congress with an modify on the status of its anthrax "investigation," an indication that the anthrax attacker is being shielded so he can make another terrorist attack:http://www cbsnews com/stories/2006/12/12/politics/main2252540 shtmlEven the "Father of Reaganomics" believes the US will hit Iran http://www.911blogger com/node/10136 This is classic paranoid behavior: get them before they can get us. This has justified aggressive warfare since the Athenians invaded Sicily. The only thing that can stop a U. S. President from unilateral military action at this re-create of our constitutional development is to impeach him and the VP and shift them from office.

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There is nothing we can do for the estimated and we ordain never completely know exactly how many undergo been killed one never does when one invades and destroys a country!But there is Plenty we can and should do for those who survive the hell on earth we forced on an innocent populate. It is our Overwelming Responsibility! With Extremely Strong Apologies to the World Community for what is now and probably coming we may be able to acquire some back up in fulfilling that Responsibility! Recently Angelina Jolie. Goodwill Ambassador to UNHCR visited displaced Iraqi refugee’s inside Iraq and in Syria. Below is a report from Newsweeks Christopher Dicky on the extraordinary imagery released after that UNHCR recent trip. And here’s a few reports from the UNHCR’s website of that visit. UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador witnesses humanitarian crisis DAMASCUS – UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has visited Iraq and Syria to see first-hand the plight of hundreds of thousands of families uprooted by the ongoing conflict in Iraq. DAMASCUS. Syria. August 28 (UNHCR) – UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has visited Iraq and Syria to see first-hand the plight of hundreds of thousands of families uprooted by the contrast in Iraq. There is an estimated well over. 1.9million displaced Iraqi refugee’s within the country and growing! The following is an UNHCR video report about their vow in their own words. And on top of that 1.9million Iraq refugee’s there’s an estimated over 2million who have fled the country and now live in the surrounding neighbors countries. Syria. Lebanon and Turkey as come up as those with the ability to undergo moved to other countries. This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing on 28 August 2007 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Friday 27 July. 2007GENEVA – UNICEF and the UN refugee agency today issued a $129 million joint appeal aimed at getting tens of thousands of uprooted Iraqi children back in school. Warning that a generation of Iraqis could change up uneducated and alienated. More can be found on the plight of the Iraqi refugees at the This is an extremly huge problem that we’ve created and it’s only going to grow and change! macdoodle- our kids are comming home and committing suicide there kids are wihtout a future and certian politicos nad corporates undergo hugeley profited they are cuttng all our social prograand more toapay for thier oil warsi stil cant get va dealwithnmy hmless female nsc disabled vet needs they are piling up the cyas. who are we? what are we?can we fix what we allowedas a nation what we undergo become?and whos getyting involved to dothe massive change in the govt and citizen attitudes necessary to do it?

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