IRAQ VETS FIGHT BRAIN INJURIES WITH UNIQUE VA PROGRAM
The brain boosters group is an opportunity
for veterans to not only learn about brain injury,
but to learn about what aspects they can
control to improve their brain function."
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Iraq veterans fight brain injuries with unique VA program
Reported by: Leslie Aleman
Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are now using computer games and puzzles to help them recover from brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Neuropsychologists at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center are employing a specialized approach through their "Brain Boosters" groups to help veterans like William Green, a former Marine corporal from Chandler, and Grace Grubbe, an Army veteran from Peoria, to recover from brain injury.
It starts with screening that asks a few simple questions to identify returning veterans that may have subtle forms of brain injury, such as whether a veteran has been exposed to any blasts during his or her duty, and whether he or she has ever felt dizzy or confused since then.
Other clues are headaches, short-term memory loss and trouble with bright lights.
The screening tool is based on one developed at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System a few years ago, which was adopted by the VA nationwide and updated to reflect current clinical knowledge about blast injury.
According to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, 64 percent of soldiers wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom sustain blast injuries, such as those caused by Improvised Explosive Devices.
These blasts often result in closed head injuries that, unlike penetrating head wounds may not be diagnosed immediately.
Even in the absence of physical injuries, soldiers and marines may come home with residual concussions from repeated exposure to blasts, possibly accompanied by PTSD, and suffer from insomnia, memory loss and difficulty focusing.
All returning veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan are screened by a physician at the PVAHCS for brain injury.
A more detailed follow-up screening helps find those veterans who need specialized treatment.
Neuropsychologists Kathleen Goren, Ph.D., and Mary Lu Bushnell, Psy.D., lead small groups of up to eight veterans in weekly sessions that meet for ten weeks, educating them on how the brain works and how injuries, post-traumatic stress and sleep deprivation can affect their cognitive, or thinking, processes.
"The brain boosters group is an opportunity for veterans to not only learn about brain injury, but to learn about what aspects they can control to improve their brain function," said Bushnell.
VA clinical staff then helps them use everyday tools to strengthen their abilities to focus, reason through problems and remember.
"We provide hands-on activities so veterans can practice the new skills they have learned in the group," said Bushnell.
"This is a computer generation," noted Goren, and the VA program has an extensive list of games and puzzles to help with memory, concentration and problem solving that can be accessed on the internet.
What's more, she said, the fact that the games are fun means veterans will keep practicing their skills and improving.
"The brain is much like a muscle that needs exercise," added Goren.
"Although the Brain Boosters group is relatively new, both Dr. Bushnell and I are very enthusiastic about its potential. We're getting very positive feedback from the veterans who have participated."
The VA Medical Center is starting more Brain Boosters groups, some focusing on specific areas, such as memory, communication skills, sleep and dealing with pain.
Former Marine William Green, who was in Iraq during the first several months of the war and was exposed to repeated blasts, has had problems with memory and attention, as well as nightmares, since he returned home.
He participated in a 10-week group that recently wrapped up. He says that learning about the parts of the brain that are affected by blasts and PTSD was helpful, as were techniques to help calm himself and overcome the frustration of not being able to focus or remember.
He will use Sudoku to practice and strengthen his abilities.
Grace Grubbe, a 10-year Army veteran who served alongside her husband in an engineering unit at the start of the war in Iraq, has physical and neuropsychological injuries stemming from her service.
She also suffered from memory loss, as well as difficulty sleeping. "I think it's gotten a lot better because of participating in the group," she said.
She especially appreciated the detail shared by the doctors on how the brain functions: "It helped us focus more on healing that part of the brain that was not working well. The people at the VA are very caring and concerned. They answered all our questions and got us what we needed."
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
IRAQ VETS FIGHT BRAIN INJURIES WITH UNIQUE VA
WAGING INTERNAL WAR --
WAGING INTERNAL WAR --
The Army's suicide rate is at a
high, and kin say that multiple deployments are to blame.
Some troops with mental illnesses are cleared to serve in Iraq.
Deemed suicidal in boot camp, Virgadamo was still shipped to Iraq with a prescription for Prozac when he turned 18. After continuing to struggle with depression in Iraq, his prescription was switched and he was put on a week of "stress management," his grandmother said. When his gun was returned to him, he shot and killed himself. (photo: Special to The Denver Post )
For a previous story about Travis Virgadamo, click here...
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R08/nf030408-3.htm
Story here... http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10310152
Waging internal war
The Army's suicide rate is at a high, and kin say that multiple deployments are to blame. Some troops with mental illnesses are cleared to serve in Iraq.
By David Olinger and Erin Emery
The Denver Post
Chad Barrett's war on terror started in the hours after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when he was called to help dig bodies out of a smoking Pentagon.
It ended Feb. 2, 2008, in Mosul, Iraq, when his roommate awoke to find him gasping and gurgling, with foam coming from his mouth.
Barrett had been cleared for a third combat tour in Iraq despite a recent suicide attempt, crushing headaches and a mental illness treated with medication for anxiety and depression. Two months after he arrived, he killed himself by swallowing an unknown number of pills.
He was the sixth soldier from Fort Carson to commit suicide in Iraq. At least 10 others have killed themselves in the U.S., nine after returning from the war.
"There is no way in hell he should have been deployed. The Army saw him as just another set of boots on the ground," said Barrett's widow, Shelby. "From the second tour on, he changed 180 degrees. Three deployments is two too many. The Army took my husband from me. The Army destroyed my husband."
After five years of war in Iraq, Army suicide rates have reached their highest level since the Army started keeping such records in 1980. Reported suicide attempts jumped 500 percent from about 350 in 2002 to 2,100 last year, an increase the Defense Department says may be partly attributable to better compliance with reporting requirements.
Personal issues such as relationships, work and financial problems are among the main causes of suicide, Army officials say. But they also acknowledge that multiple deployments are contributing to the suicide rate — and to the stress in personal and family relationships.
"Army leaders are fully aware that repeated deployments have led to increased distress and anxiety for both soldiers and their families," said Secretary of the Army Pete Geren.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Army provided The Denver Post with names of 123 soldiers who killed themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to early 2008.
An analysis of the information showed that:
• Army suicides in Iraq tripled in three years, from 10 in 2004 to 32 in 2007.
• In 2006 and 2007, 20 of the 59 soldiers who killed themselves in Iraq were deployed from a single base — Fort Hood in Texas.
• Fourteen of the soldiers who killed themselves in Iraq were 19 years old. Nearly half were 23 or younger.
This year, the Army reported that 76 percent of suicide attempts in Iraq and Afghanistan were deployment-related, and 61 percent of the soldiers who killed themselves in 2007 had been deployed at least once to Iraq or Afghanistan.
"There appears to be a direct relationship between the incidence of suicide and the number of deployments, which, of course, is no surprise," said Dr. Bob Scaer, a neurologist who served as medical director at the Mapleton Rehabilitation Center in Boulder.
Army leaders say they are striving to reduce suicide risks, identify signs of stress and encourage troubled soldiers to seek help.
"The Army is making great strides in treating soldiers with post-traumatic psychological symptoms as well as decreasing the stigma associated with treatment for these symptoms," Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum said when its yearly suicide report was released in May.
Some soldiers and their advocates question whether that message is getting through, particularly at Fort Hood.
Bryan Hannah, a soldier being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder at Fort Hood, said two people at its mental-health center told him, "We're not here to make you better; we're here to make you deployable."
At Fort Hood, anyone seeking mental- health treatment "can kiss any hope of promotion goodbye," he said. "Everyone treats you like crap. There's a huge stigma to asking for help."
Carissa Picard of the Fort Hood-based group Military Spouses for Change agreed.
She said soldiers tell her that if they go for help with PTSD, the clinic looks for other problems first — such as alcoholism. " 'Oh, you've got a drinking problem. You go through that first, and then you can come back to mental health,' " she said. "But the real problem is the PTSD. The real problem is the mental-health condition."
Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatrist and medical director of the Army Strategic Communications Office, said the Army does not treat soldiers simply to redeploy them.
"The goal is to make them better," she said. "Now making them better may mean taking them from a non-deployable to a deployable status. Obviously, there's a war going on, but the goal is making them better."
A second opinion to deploy
On Sept. 11, 2007, an Army psychologist decided Chad Barrett might get better if he left the Army. Barrett had been deployed to Iraq twice and attempted suicide once. The psychologist recommended discharging him for medical reasons.
A career soldier, Barrett fought to stay. In mid-November, he met with military doctors, asking them to stop his medical evaluation and let him return for a third combat tour in Iraq.
At a post struggling to find enough healthy soldiers to fill a brigade, Barrett found a willing taker. Fort Carson doctors re-evaluated him and cleared him to go. He left for Iraq with prescriptions for Ambien and Lunesta to sleep; Klonopin, for anxiety; an antidepressant, Pamelor — and a medical profile specifying that he should not carry a weapon or go anywhere "remote from definitive psychiatric care," his wife said.
In March 2003 — 18 months after witnessing the carnage from the Sept. 11 attacks — Barrett had been assigned to a unit that invaded Iraq. During that tour and a second, he "saw some pretty horrific things," and "anything that burned reminded him of the sights and sounds of picking up bodies at the Pentagon," his wife said.
A gunner, he was exposed to numerous blasts from improvised explosive devices. After two tours, "Chad would get very severe migraines that would knock him to his knees," his wife said.
In June 2007, he tried to kill himself for the first time, swallowing an orange juice glass full of pills in front of his wife after she came home from a night out with friends. He survived at an Army hospital, then spent three days in a lockdown facility.
On his third tour, Barrett was assigned to work from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the radio room at the Mosul base. On Jan. 28, 2008, he came in to hear choked-up voices crackling over the radio. A convoy had been hit by a roadside bomb, and when the survivors jumped out, they were sprayed by machine-gun fire from a mosque. Five soldiers died.
When he called his wife two days later, "he was definitely wigged out," she said. "He knew three of the five."
He called again on Feb. 1 to wish his wife a happy birthday and to tell her that he loved her. That was his last call.
His roommate found him dying at 9:20 the next morning. His wife said an autopsy ruled his death a suicide from "multiple-drug intoxication" and "heavy lungs." Two drugs were found in his system: Pamelor and sleeping pills.
"He died a hero," his wife said. "He served his country for 12 years. He went through more hell in one year than you and I will in a lifetime."
Army officials would not comment directly on Barrett's death.
But "the Army takes suicide prevention very seriously. We are honor-bound to ensure we do everything possible to minimize potential risks," spokesman Paul Boyce said — including training for soldiers and leaders to recognize signs of suicidal behavior and helping people at risk.
Psychiatric visits via HDTV
To meet growing demands for mental- health treatment, the Army has added more than 190 contract behavioral-health providers to work on its installations. It is also treating more soldiers with "telepsychiatry" — providing a psychiatrist by video conference on a high-definition television set instead of face-to-face meetings.
Jonathan Berry, a 19-year-old soldier from White Cloud, Mich., with a history of suicidal thoughts, had three weekly televised conversations with a psychiatrist last month while assigned to an Army behavioral-health clinic in Maryland, according to his fiancee and an Army source.
He jumped out of a window after the third, killing himself.
Marla VerDuin, Berry's fiancee, said he told her that he "just had to sit and talk to someone over a TV" once a week.
"I thought, well, if that's how they're going to treat you, at least you're talking to someone," she said. "Obviously, that didn't help him."
VerDuin said he had no roommate in his last days there and was not permitted to socialize with other soldiers. "I know that he was by himself. He sat in his room and played a video game."
Jeffrey Castro, a spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command, said the command is investigating Berry's death and will not comment.
Ritchie and Dr. Michael Lynch, the director of Walter Reed Army Medical Center's telepsychiatry program, also said they could not discuss an individual case.
But they agreed the Army is increasing its use of telepsychiatry as a treatment tool, particularly when soldiers are stationed in places where psychiatric care is not readily available.
Lynch said some patients prefer televised conversations to face-to-face meetings, and a comparative Army study found "the outcome, as well as patient satisfaction, was the same."
Ritchie called telepsychiatry a useful tool that can serve an Army facility lacking psychiatrists, speed up a medical board evaluation or enable a pediatrician to consult a child psychiatrist.
But "it's not a magic bullet," she said, and there are disadvantages to telepsychiatry. For one, doctor-patient relationships are "a little harder to maintain or develop."
Visible warning signs
Parents of several of the soldiers who reportedly committed suicide after deploying from Fort Hood say warning signs were missed or overlooked by an Army bearing the brunt of a prolonged war in Iraq.
Two were women who had reported being raped. A third woman was killed by a jealous soldier who then killed himself.
When 19-year-old Amy Duerksen shot herself in Iraq, her diary was left open to a page describing how she had been raped at a training session before Fort Hood deployed her.
Her mother, Michelle Duerksen, said Amy's unit ignored clear signs that she was feeling suicidal.
"She had stopped eating," her mother said. "She was telling people she was going to kill herself."
Michelle and her husband, a retired Army chaplain, adopted Amy at age 4, a girl who had been severely abused and neglected and who would struggle with depression as a teenager.
After Amy was raped, "she had evidently told people about the history of abuse," because her commander knew about it, her mother said.
At the end, "her commander was yelling at her," she said. "She was laughing and singing — she was sent with a male to the chaplain. The chaplain couldn't speak very good English, told her to start obeying orders. It was a series of people who could have done something better."
When she and her husband read the investigative report on their daughter's death, they learned one soldier had commented, "Duerksen finally did it," upon hearing the gunshot.
"Reading the investigation was just horrifying to us," Michelle Duerksen said. She regards her daughter's death as "friendly fire — because they failed to take care of a fellow soldier."
Last August, Paul Norris became the 20th Fort Hood soldier to commit suicide in Iraq, according to records provided by the Army.
Norris, a 30-year-old veteran of combat tours in Bosnia and Iraq, shot himself. But first he shot and killed Kamisha Block, a 20-year-old woman who had spurned him.
Military officials announced both deaths as "noncombat" incidents under investigation.
Kamisha's parents, Jerry and Jane Block, say Norris had stalked and assaulted their daughter before he killed her, and she had reported the assaults to the Army.
"He just kept doing it. He was 'in love' with her. She was trying to get away from him," Jerry Block said.
"He verbally and physically assaulted her. It was reported to the higher command," Jane Block said. "He was e-mailing her and e-mailing her and e-mailing her. She wouldn't answer his e-mails. He went into her room, killed her, and then he killed himself."
She said Army officials have never explained why officers who knew of Norris' assaults and harassment failed to protect her daughter. The Army did give them a hefty investigative report that included sworn statements from other soldiers "that he was out of control," she said.
"The last time he assaulted her, he drove around looking for her. That was probably a week or two before he killed her," she said. "I asked, 'After the second assault, what did y'all do then?' The only thing they told me was a lot of mistakes were made."
Suicide-prevention programs
Army officials did not respond to the comments of parents whose children killed themselves or were murdered after deploying from Fort Hood. Nor did they comment directly on the high number of reported suicides in two years among soldiers deployed from a single base.
Instead, they emphasized the efforts already underway — training for all soldiers on traumatic brain injuries and combat stress, policies to reduce the stigma of seeking help, family life chaplains, a video program called Battlemind that shows soldiers what they are likely to see, hear and feel in a war and how to cope as a warrior.
Fort Hood will soon launch a new ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) program to broaden those efforts. Although that program has not officially begun, "chaplains are constantly working to prevent suicide at every level, most importantly at the soldier level," said Army spokesman Boyce.
In November 2006, the Defense Department issued new guidance for "deployment-limiting" psychiatric conditions and medications.
The new policy lists psychotic and bipolar disorders, and the medicines used to treat them, as disqualifying for deployment. It also states that "caution is warranted in beginning, changing, stopping and/or continuing" other drugs prescribed to stabilize or improve mood, mental status or behavior.
That policy — allowing deployment on psychotropic drugs with caution — enabled Chad Barrett to embark on a third combat tour with Klonopin and Pamelor.
It also enabled Travis Virgadamo, an 18-year-old soldier from Nevada, to take Prozac to Iraq.
Virgadamo's grandmother, Katie O'Brien, said he joined the Army as a 17-year-old after his father married a Filipino woman and moved to the Philippines.
At Fort Stewart, Ga., "he had a difficult time in boot camp," she said. "They sent him to anger-management classes. Feeling somewhat deserted by his father — he was so young. They had also put him in suicide watch in boot camp."
When he turned 18, "they deployed him to Iraq. Taking Prozac," she said. "That is a suicidal medicine, especially with teens. I was livid. I just couldn't believe they put him on Prozac."
The Army does not discuss suicides of individual soldiers. But spokeswoman Cynthia Vaughan said it is wrong to call Prozac a suicidal medicine.
While there is an increased risk of suicide in the early treatment phase for depression, particularly among young adults, "both Prozac and Paxil are in the class of medications called SSRIs, which are a very safe category of antidepressants," she said.
Virgadamo told his grandmother he was put on a suicide watch again in Iraq.
In July 2007, he came home for a rest-and-relaxation break. He talked to his grandmother about terrible things he'd seen and said he couldn't go back. He talked of fleeing to Canada. She asked if he wanted to spend the rest of his life as a fugitive, looking over his shoulder.
Virgadamo went back. Last August, on his 19th birthday, he called his grandmother from Iraq. She urged him to go to a doctor and demand to stop taking Prozac.
"Grandma, I did that," he told her, "and they put me on something else. They changed my medicine, gave me a week of stress management."
On Aug. 30, the Army gave Virgadamo his gun back, and "he killed himself that night," she said.
"I don't think he should have ever been sent there. Why would you deploy someone who was a danger to himself and maybe others? When they know, it's just unacceptable, pushing them out there."
Outside the Fort Carson gate, a stone memorial lists the names of all its soldiers who gave their lives in Iraq.
Shelby Barrett visited the memorial for the first time last month. She looked down the long list of names, recognizing those of a dozen soldiers she once knew. She knelt and ran her fingers over the name at the bottom of the last stone: Chad Barrett — Feb. 2, 2008.
That's when she noticed something odd. Her husband's name was out of sequence, chiseled beneath those of two other soldiers who died more than a month later.
"It looks like an afterthought," she said.
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Not To Be Forgotten
Not To Be Forgotten
by Anthony Swofford
In anticipation of "Securing America's Future" night at the DNC, the author of "Jarhead" and "Exit A" explains how Democrats can improve their standing with veterans.
Post Date Wednesday, August 27, 2008
When Tammy Duckworth takes the stage tonight for the DNC tribute to veterans, she'll be representing not only veterans of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also those from peacetime and all of America's conflicts. Duckworth is an Iraq War double amputee from Illinois who in 2006 made a spirited but unsuccessful bid for Congress and is currently director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. The theme for the day is "Securing America's Future," and Duckworth joins a roster of heavyweight Democratic voices speaking that day, Bill Clinton and V.P. nominee Joe Biden among them.
During the vets tribute we are certain to see a video featuring injured service members going through arduous rehab, homecoming shots of reunited families, and photos from Obama's recent Middle East trip highlighting his rapport with soldiers. Vets don't want or need this video, or even a "tribute." In the military they call this a Dog and Pony Show: You shine the brass, mow the lawns, and paint the rocks for the general's drive-by--but nothing changes. The Democrats want to prove to vets that things have changed, that their guy can be an effective Commander-in-Chief, that they can be the party of the fighting man and woman. It can be done. But it will take more than trotting vets in front of a convention hall full of delegates wearing funny hats and sunglasses.
For me, the Max Cleland et al vets rollout in 2004 had the feel-good vibe of a funeral for a disliked uncle: Everyone showed up and most of them were uncomfortable. Like most minority groups, veterans shun attention and want only to be allowed to work hard and succeed. Being a veteran myself, I loathe the tag. Vets don't want to be called out as exceptional and deserving of praise or preferential treatment simply for doing a job they signed up for. When injured or in dire straits, they expect assistance for the service they gave their country.
Tonight, I'd like to hear a fierce commitment to VA funding and long-term care. Democrats have recently outshone Republicans in this realm--the Jim Webb overhaul of education benefits has tremendous potential to change lives in the same way the GI Bill did after World War II--and they now have a chance to cement support from a group that has historically been aligned with the Republicans.
I'd also like to hear the outlines of a disciplined foreign policy that makes clear where America stands in relation to its allies and enemies. No population should be paying closer attention to this policy than veterans and active duty military. How the military is used directly affects how the veteran is treated in later years. Unpopular wars tend to drop out of the news cycles and the daily psychic lives of the majority of Americans, those who, thanks to an all-volunteer army, are never directly touched by combat and its various trials.
After a number of years in which force has often been the first response, veterans and military members should look forward to an Obama foreign policy approach that puts a premium on diplomacy and the belief that America has a thematic power just as great as its guns. Our fighting men and women are deeply patriotic, and many are painfully aware that our international reputation has taken a beating in the last half dozen years. They rightfully believe that that reputation can be restored and burnished. Perhaps that's why despite Obama's scant attachment to the military and military culture--Bill Clinton at least dodged a draft and opposed a war--he is $55,000 ahead of war hero John McCain in donations from military members.
Tammy Duckworth will be a brave and committed national face for the American veteran Wednesday night. If on veterans' issues the Obama campaign can harness some of the same strength and tenacity that Duckworth embodies, they'll be on their way to gaining the respect, and the votes, of veterans and military personnel. The video? They can just keep that in the bank. What veterans want is not to be forgotten when the rest of the country moves on from this war.
Anthony Swofford is a Marine Corps veteran and the author of the books Jarhead and Exit A.
Not To Be Forgotten
Kansas legislators grill veterans agency
Kansas legislators grill veterans agency
TOPEKA — An audit released Tuesday found relationships between the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs and veterans service groups are strained, prompting lawmakers to tell the state agency to make some changes.
“After speaking with the commission staff and some veterans service organization staff, we concluded that the relationship exists between them — especially at the leadership level — could be characterized more as adversarial than cooperative in nature,” auditors concluded.
Rep. Tom Burroughs, a Kansas City Democrat, expressed concern the ongoing sour relations could cause problems for veterans, who rely on the commission for help getting their benefits.
“We need to send a strong message that there needs to be a more cooperative working relationship, that veterans know that we care about the care they are receiving,” Burroughs said.
Commission Executive Director George Webb acknowledged relations between the agency and such groups as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion have been tense since 2005. That’s when the state ethics commission found problems with an employment agreement for veterans commission employees who helped veterans file federal claims for cash aid and medical services.
For decades until 1997, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion had helped veterans. Then, in 1997, the groups signed an agreement with the Commission on Veterans Affairs that called for commission employees to help the veterans. But the employees were also paid by veterans groups, allowing those groups to have access to the veterans.
In September 2005, the state ethics commission said the arrangement violated conflict-of-interest laws, and lawmakers sought to change it. The organizations were concerned Webb wasn’t supporting them in the legislative process, and their relationships with the state agency haven’t improved since.
Now, veterans can seek help from either group or the commission. A state grant program administered by the commission pays the groups to hire staff to help the veterans.
Webb, who is leaving his post after more than four years, said the commission would seek to improve relations.
“It’s a two-way street,” he said, adding that his door was always open to veterans groups, but few have come talk with him directly during his tenure.
Webb didn’t offer specifics on how the commission would mend fences with the veterans groups, which did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Burroughs said he was hoping for specifics.
“I’m a little suspect of the comments,” he said.
It wasn’t the first time legislators have shown concern about the veterans commission. During the 2008 session, funding for the agency was stripped from initial budget bills over worries about relations with veterans organizations and the commission’s operations.
Eventually, legislators restored the commissions $22 million funding and added more money to expand outreach programs.
The audit also raised concerns about the commission’s ability to maintain adequate staffing levels at the Kansas Soldiers’ Home in Dodge City. Webb noted the agency used increase funding from the Legislature to beef up the home’s staff after it was cited for substandard conditions due in part to a shortage of nurses. The home has an average of 150 residents, Webb said.
The commission has more than 550 full-time staff positions, including staff at the Dodge City facility, the Kansas Veterans Home in Winfield, state veterans cemeteries and service field offices.
More than 250,000 veterans live in Kansas, which is home to Fort Leavenworth, Fort Riley and McConnell Air Force Base.
Kansas legislators grill veterans agency
Kansas legislators grill veterans agency
TOPEKA — An audit released Tuesday found relationships between the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs and veterans service groups are strained, prompting lawmakers to tell the state agency to make some changes.
“After speaking with the commission staff and some veterans service organization staff, we concluded that the relationship exists between them — especially at the leadership level — could be characterized more as adversarial than cooperative in nature,” auditors concluded.
Rep. Tom Burroughs, a Kansas City Democrat, expressed concern the ongoing sour relations could cause problems for veterans, who rely on the commission for help getting their benefits.
“We need to send a strong message that there needs to be a more cooperative working relationship, that veterans know that we care about the care they are receiving,” Burroughs said.
Commission Executive Director George Webb acknowledged relations between the agency and such groups as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion have been tense since 2005. That’s when the state ethics commission found problems with an employment agreement for veterans commission employees who helped veterans file federal claims for cash aid and medical services.
For decades until 1997, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion had helped veterans. Then, in 1997, the groups signed an agreement with the Commission on Veterans Affairs that called for commission employees to help the veterans. But the employees were also paid by veterans groups, allowing those groups to have access to the veterans.
In September 2005, the state ethics commission said the arrangement violated conflict-of-interest laws, and lawmakers sought to change it. The organizations were concerned Webb wasn’t supporting them in the legislative process, and their relationships with the state agency haven’t improved since.
Now, veterans can seek help from either group or the commission. A state grant program administered by the commission pays the groups to hire staff to help the veterans.
Webb, who is leaving his post after more than four years, said the commission would seek to improve relations.
“It’s a two-way street,” he said, adding that his door was always open to veterans groups, but few have come talk with him directly during his tenure.
Webb didn’t offer specifics on how the commission would mend fences with the veterans groups, which did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Burroughs said he was hoping for specifics.
“I’m a little suspect of the comments,” he said.
It wasn’t the first time legislators have shown concern about the veterans commission. During the 2008 session, funding for the agency was stripped from initial budget bills over worries about relations with veterans organizations and the commission’s operations.
Eventually, legislators restored the commissions $22 million funding and added more money to expand outreach programs.
The audit also raised concerns about the commission’s ability to maintain adequate staffing levels at the Kansas Soldiers’ Home in Dodge City. Webb noted the agency used increase funding from the Legislature to beef up the home’s staff after it was cited for substandard conditions due in part to a shortage of nurses. The home has an average of 150 residents, Webb said.
The commission has more than 550 full-time staff positions, including staff at the Dodge City facility, the Kansas Veterans Home in Winfield, state veterans cemeteries and service field offices.
More than 250,000 veterans live in Kansas, which is home to Fort Leavenworth, Fort Riley and McConnell Air Force Base.
A fellow POW speaks up about John McCain
Why I Will Not Vote for John McCain
As some of you might know, John McCain is a long-time acquaintance of mine that goes way back to our time together at the U.S. Naval Academy and as Prisoners of War in Vietnam. He is a man I respect and admire in some ways. But there are a number of reasons why I will not vote for him for President of the United States.
When I was a Plebe (4th classman, or freshman) at the Naval Academy in 1957-58, I was assigned to the 17th Company for my four years there. In those days we had about 3,600 midshipmen spread among 24 companies, thus about 150 midshipmen to a company. As fortune would have it, John, a First Classman (senior) and his room mate lived directly across the hall from me and my two room mates. Believe me when I say that back then I would never in a million or more years have dreamed that the crazy guy across the hall would someday be a Senator and candidate for President!
John was a wild man. He was funny, with a quick wit and he was intelligent. But he was intent on breaking every USNA regulation in our 4 inch thick USNA Regulations book. And I believe he must have come as close to his goal as any midshipman who ever attended the Academy. John had me "coming around" to his room frequently during my plebe year. And on one occasion he took me with him to escape "over the wall" in the dead of night. He had a taxi cab waiting for us that took us to a bar some 7 miles away. John had a few beers, but forbid me to drink (watching out for me I guess) and made me drink cokes. I could tell many other midshipman stories about John that year and he unbelievably managed to graduate though he spent the majority of his first class year on restriction for the stuff he did get caught doing. In fact he barely managed to graduate, standing 5th from the bottom of his 800 man graduating class. I and many others have speculated that the main reason he did graduate was because his father was an Admiral, and also his grandfather, both U.S. Naval Academy graduates.
People often ask if I was a Prisoner of War with John McCain. My answer is always "No - John McCain was a POW with me." The reason is I was there for 8 years and John got there 2 ½ years later, so he was a POW for 5 ½ years. And we have our own seniority system, based on time as a POW.
John's treatment as a POW:
1) Was he tortured for 5 years? No. He was subjected to torture and maltreatment during his first 2 years, from September of 1967 to September of 1969. After September of 1969 the Vietnamese stopped the torture and gave us increased food and rudimentary health care. Several hundred of us were captured much earlier. I got there April 20, 1965 so my bad treatment period lasted 4 1/2 years. President Ho Chi Minh died on September 9, 1969, and the new regime that replaced him and his policies was more pragmatic. They realized we were worth a lot as bargaining chips if we were alive. And they were right because eventually Americans gave up on the war and agreed to trade our POW's for their country. A damn good trade in my opinion! But my point here is that John allows the media to make him out to be THE hero POW, which he knows is absolutely not true, to further his political goals.
2) John was badly injured when he was shot down. Both arms were broken and he had other wounds from his ejection. Unfortunately this was often the case - new POW's arriving with broken bones and serious combat injuries. Many died from their wounds. Medical care was non-existent to rudimentary. Relief from pain was almost never given and often the wounds were used as an available way to torture the POW. Because John's father was the Naval Commander in the Pacific theater, he was exploited with TV interviews while wounded. These film clips have now been widely seen. But it must be known that many POW's suffered similarly, not just John. And many were similarly exploited for political propaganda.
3) John was offered, and refused, "early release." Many of us were given this offer. It meant speaking out against your country and lying about your treatment to the press. You had to "admit" that the U.S. was criminal and that our treatment was "lenient and humane." So I, like numerous others, refused the offer. This was obviously something none of us could accept. Besides, we were bound by our service regulations, Geneva Conventions and loyalties to refuse early release until all the POW's were released, with the sick and wounded going first.
4) John was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart for heroism and wounds in combat. This heroism has been played up in the press and in his various political campaigns. But it should be known that there were approximately 600 military POW's in Vietnam. Among all of us, decorations awarded have recently been totaled to the following: Medals of Honor - 8, Service Crosses - 42, Silver Stars - 590, Bronze Stars - 958 and Purple Hearts - 1,249. John certainly performed courageously and well. But it must be remembered that he was one hero among many - not uniquely so as his campaigns would have people believe.
John McCain served his time as a POW with great courage, loyalty and tenacity. More that 600 of us did the same. After our repatriation a census showed that 95% of us had been tortured at least once. The Vietnamese were quite democratic about it. There were many heroes in North Vietnam. I saw heroism every day there. And we motivated each other to endure and succeed far beyond what any of us thought we had in ourselves. Succeeding as a POW is a group sport, not an individual one. We all supported and encouraged each other to survive and succeed. John knows that. He was not an individual POW hero. He was a POW who surmounted the odds with the help of many comrades, as all of us did.
I furthermore believe that having been a POW is no special qualification for being President of the United States. The two jobs are not the same, and POW experience is not, in my opinion, something I would look for in a presidential candidate.
Most of us who survived that experience are now in our late 60's and 70's. Sadly, we have died and are dying off at a greater rate than our non-POW contemporaries. We experienced injuries and malnutrition that are coming home to roost. So I believe John's age (73) and survival expectation are not good for being elected to serve as our President for 4 or more years.
I can verify that John has an infamous reputation for being a hot head. He has a quick and explosive temper that many have experienced first hand. Folks, quite honestly that is not the finger I want next to that red button.
It is also disappointing to see him take on and support Bush's war in Iraq, even stating we might be there for another 100 years. For me John represents the entrenched and bankrupt policies of Washington-as-usual. The past 7 years have proven to be disastrous for our country. And I believe John's views on war, foreign policy, economics, environment, health care, education, national infrastructure and other important areas are much the same as those of the Bush administration.
I'm disappointed to see John represent himself politically in ways that are not accurate. He is not a moderate Republican. On some issues he is a maverick. But his voting record is far to the right. I fear for his nominations to our Supreme Court, and the consequent continuing loss of individual freedoms, especially regarding moral and religious issues. John is not a religious person, but he has taken every opportunity to ally himself with some really obnoxious and crazy fundamentalist ministers lately. I was also disappointed to see him cozy up to Bush because I know he hates that man. He disingenuously and famously put his arm around the guy, even after Bush had intensely disrespected him with lies and slander. So on these and many other instances, I don't see that John is the "straight talk express" he
markets himself to be.
Senator John Sidney McCain, III is a remarkable man who has made enormous personal achievements. And he is a man that I am proud to call a fellow POW who "Returned With Honor." That's our POW motto. But since many of you keep asking what I think of him, I've decided to write it out. In short, I think John Sidney McCain, III is a good man, but not someone I will vote for in the upcoming election to be our President of the United States.
About Phillip Butler
Doctor Phillip Butler is a 1961 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a former light-attack carrier pilot. In 1965 he was shot down over North Vietnam where he spent eight years as a prisoner of war. He is a highly decorated combat veteran who was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legion of Merits, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Heart medals.
After his repatriation in 1973 he earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at San Diego and became a Navy Organizational Effectiveness consultant. He completed his Navy career in 1981 as a professor of management at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is now a peace and justice activist with Veterans for Peace.
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while not all veterans will agree with DR Butler, his 8 years as a POW has earned him the right to speak out.
VA Mobile Health Care Clinics Reach Rural Veterans
VA Mobile Health Care Clinics Reach Rural Veterans
Service Coming to 24 Counties in Six States
WASHINGTON (Aug. 27, 2008) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is
rolling out four new mobile health clinics outfitted to bring primary
care and mental health services closer to veterans in 24 predominately
rural counties, where patients must travel long distances to visit their
nearest VA medical center or outpatient clinic.
"VA is committed to providing primary care and mental health care for
veterans in rural areas," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James
B. Peake. "Health care should be based upon the needs of patients, not
their ability to travel to a clinic or medical center."
The pilot project is called Rural Mobile Health Care Clinics. It
features a recreational-type vehicle equipped to be a rolling primary
care and mental health clinic.
VA is currently in the process of procuring and outfitting the vehicles,
and officials expect the mobile clinics to be operational by early 2009.
Rural areas in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming will share a single mobile
van, while Maine, Washington state and West Virginia will each have a VA
mobile van.
The clinics are planned to serve:
* Colorado: Larimer, Jackson, Logan, and Weld counties;
* Maine: Franklin, Somerset and Piscataquis counties;
* Nebraska: Cheyenne, Kimball, and Scottsbluff counties;
* Washington state: Greys Harbor, Mason, and Lewis;
* West Virginia: Preston, Randolph, Upshur, Wetzel, Roane, and
Taylor counties; and,
* Wyoming: Albany, Carbon, Goshen, and Platte counties.
Factors considered in the selection of the participating sites included
a need for improved access in the area, the degree to which clinics will
expand services and collaborations with communities the clinics serve.
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I wonder what this will do for Senator McCains plan to give rural veterans credit cards to go to any medical treatment facility of their choice since there are not VA clcinics in their immediate areas.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Vets helping vets in Tri-Cities adjust to life back home
Vets helping vets in Tri-Cities adjust to life back home
By Joe Chapman, Herald staff writer
Herald
Geoff Smith of Kennewick, left, gets advice from Mike Black at the end of a recent veterans resource panel at Columbia Basin College.
The jungles of Vietnam are a long way from the sands of Iraq or the mountains of Afghanistan.
But in the Tri-Cities, veterans of those faraway wars have found enough in common to support each other as they readjust to life on the home front.
In particular, two veterans who served in Vietnam and Southeast Asia have been offering job assistance, educational advice and support to about six veterans of service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia for the past six months.
It's one of many ways the Tri-Cities' veteran community is coming together to pool resources and meet their respective needs.
Many of the newer veterans don't realize the variety of options they have or how to tap into the numerous resources available to them, said the mentors, Jack Carolla of Burbank and Mike Black of Kennewick.
"The young ones are clueless about what to do, where to go," Carolla said. "Older veterans that have scratched and clawed their way, they know where all the land mines are."
Carolla benefited from the help of an older veteran after getting back from Vietnam in 1969. He floundered for more than 10 years until a professor at the University of Idaho who was a former prisoner of war helped get him enrolled there.
Carolla and Black earned bachelor's degrees in engineering from the University of Idaho. Black went on to own a consulting business for 14 years until he sold it three years ago. Now the two are partners at Columbia Engineers, a civil engineering firm.
They often come into contact with younger veterans through Jeanie Nelson, a veterans advocate at WorkSource Columbia Basin. When she refers someone to them, they'll form a relationship with him, meeting him for lunch, getting together at his home or theirs, even rendezvousing at a parking lot just to exchange papers.
"It's not just a counseling office where a guy stops in," Carolla said. "You've got to make an effort one-on-one."
One such veteran, Scott Dawson, 26, of Kennewick, served with the Marines near Fallujah in 2004. He met Carolla at the VA's community-based outpatient clinic in Richland one day as they were both walking out.
Carolla overheard Dawson talking with Nelson about a land surveying class he was taking at Columbia Basin College, and Carolla ended up handing Dawson his card. A few days later, Dawson met Carolla and Black at a restaurant for lunch.
"I wish I'd met Jack and Mike when I got out of the service," Dawson said. Transitioning into civilian life was hard at the time, and it's still hard, he said.
"Those two being at least in the military and through some sort of hell, it makes things a lot better," Dawson said of their ability to relate to him.
Another veteran, Geoff Smith, 24, of Kennewick, said Black and Carolla don't presume to know exactly what it was like in the more recent wars.
"They always stress that 'This isn't about our war. This is about your war. This is about you guys and we don't want to leave you out in the wind like we got left,' " Smith said.
Smith served in Iraq almost all of 2005, working in convoy security about 60 miles south of Baghdad. Over that year, his convoy was hit by improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades 37 times, his own vehicle taking hits six times. Two years after he got out of the Army, he still struggles with problems of concentration, memory, anger and paranoia. When Nelson referred him to Black and Carolla, he had lost his job and was in danger of not having a place to live.
So they put him to work as a field technician at Columbia Engineers, and with their guidance, Smith plans to enroll at CBC this fall. On Wednesday, Smith attended a veterans forum at the college, at which Black was a panel speaker.
Veteran students and prospective students who attended learned about options such as the new Post-9/11 G.I. Bill that will go into effect next year, tuition waivers, and translating military training into college credits.
"Really, we have the support structures (for veterans) in place," said Jason Schlegel, CBC's director of student success and retention, who coordinated the forum.
"It's just the question is, are service members willing to take advantage of those and utilize those to help them? And I hope they do."
CBC itself could end up playing an even bigger role in serving veterans, Black said. He and Carolla are working on an arrangement to rent office space from CBC. With a more official home base from which to operate, they feel they could begin to reach hundreds of veterans.
And CBC could be in the cards as the Columbia Basin Veterans Coalition, which Black and Carolla support, continues exploring options for establishing a veterans resource center for the Tri-Cities, Black said.
Such a center would be a one-stop shop where veterans could get a variety of services, such as medical treatment, counseling, job assistance and educational resources.
We Are Soldiers Still - a book review
We Are Soldiers Still
I don't normally do book reviews in this blog, so this is unusual for me, but I happen to think that Joe Galloway is the finest war correspondent to have ever covered war. He is the only journalist ever awarded a bronze star w/valor for his action at La Drang valley in 1965, he is not an ordinary writer, he is the best friend that veterans and their families have. He continues to this date to demand accountability from DOD and the White House. This book will be worth reading......just my two cents........
Former foes from the Vietnam War meet in the middle, 30 years later.
By Brad Knickerbocker | August 26, 2008
We Are Soldiers Still By Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway Harper 272 pp. $24.95
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Brad Knickerbocker talks with Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway
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Writing a first-person book about the last big war in the midst of today’s war can be tricky. It could attract older vets thinking back to their days in combat as well as younger readers whose interest is piqued by the fighting today. Or it might just be seen as an irrelevant and perhaps wearying rehash, like old GIs retelling stories heard a hundred times.
In a presidential election year – especially when one of the candidates’ campaign narratives draws so heavily on his combat experience in that war fought decades ago –the picture becomes more complex.
Such is the case with We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to The Battlefields of Vietnam, by retired US Army Lt. Gen. Harold Moore and veteran military journalist Joseph Galloway. The book is a sequel to “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” the authors’ 1992 firsthand account of the battle of the Ia Drang Valley in what was then South Vietnam.
Fought near the Cambodian border in November 1965, it was the first major battle of the war, pitting several regiments of the North Vietnamese Army against US Army air assault units who’d helicoptered in looking for a fight.
When it was over a few days later, 305 Americans and several thousand Vietnamese had been killed and hundreds more wounded on both sides in a fight so intense it was literally hand-to-hand with fixed bayonets. In the film version, Mel Gibson starred as General Moore.
“We Are Soldiers Still” tells the more recent story of how Moore and Galloway organized meetings with the Vietnamese commanders they’d fought against so fiercely. (More than a passive bystander, journalist Galloway was decorated for rescuing wounded soldiers.)
Other American veterans of Ia Drang were there, too, for the remarkable meetings with their old enemies and for a haunting visit to the place the Vietnamese called “The Forest of the Screaming Souls.”
There is honor and a measure of military glory in the retelling and in the reunion. But it’s more heartbreaking than anything else – references to “old ghosts, old demons that … sent some of our comrades in search of a name for what ailed us.” That name, we now know, is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The meetings with their old foes stunned the Americans, who hadn’t known what to expect. They were warmly welcomed as they exchanged detailed memories of those horrific days in 1965. On an impulse, Moore gave his inexpensive Timex wristwatch to General Vo Nguyen Giap, who commanded the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).
“Giap held the watch in both his hands, looking at it with amazement, as tears gathered in his eyes and mine,” the American general writes. “Then he turned and clutched me to him in a full embrace. It was my turn to be stunned as this former enemy – arguably one of the greatest military commanders of the twentieth century – held me like a son in his arms for a long moment.”
It’s impossible to read this book without placing it in the context of the war in Iraq, now the longest American armed conflict since Vietnam.
“Most wars are a confession of failure – the failure of diplomacy and negotiation and common sense and, in most cases, of leadership,” the authors write.
A failure to study history, too, they assert. Moore, a West Point graduate who’d been a combat commander in the Korean conflict, learned that about Vietnam in his study of its history, especially France’s attempt to defend its inevitably doomed role as colonial overseer.
In the end, the general concludes in an essay he’s titled “On War,” “It was the wrong war, in the wrong place, against the wrong people.”
And what did those lessons tell him as the sabers began rattling again after 9/11?
“My instincts told me … that another American president was marching us off into the quicksand even as his lieutenants made the rosy and ignorant predictions – which come easily to those who have never worn a uniform and never heard a shot fire in anger – of just how swift and successful it was going to be….”
But in one thing, Moore would certainly agree with a chief supporter of the American military presence in Iraq, John McCain, who said, “War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.”
Monitor staff writer Brad Knickerbocker was a US Navy combat pilot in Vietnam.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
THE PRIVATE SCARS OF WAR
THE PRIVATE SCARS OF WAR
Injured troops return
home to deal not only with physical and mental
wounds but also with problems in the bedroom.
Maj. Eduardo Suarez, who has been married for 18 years to his wife, Jennifer, has done two tours in Iraq with the Minnesota Guard. (photo: TOM WALLACE, Star Tribune)
Story here... http://www.startribune.com/lifestyl
e/family/27300349.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDU
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Story below:
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The private scars of war
By GAIL ROSENBLUM, Star Tribune
Mike Mills didn't look in a mirror for two months after a land mine blew him out of his truck near Kirkuk, Iraq, in June 2005, cracking his clavicle, shattering his hip "like a jigsaw puzzle" and burning off half of his face. When he did, only one word came to him: "Freak."
Recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Mills worried about his two kids in Freeport, Minn. He worried about making a living. Mostly, he worried about Suhanna -- Suki -- his wife of nearly 20 years, who would surely leave him.
"How can I expect her to stay with me anymore?" said Mills, 43, a member of the Minnesota Army National Guard for 18 years. "She's not going to want to be intimate with a freak. Elephant Man. That's the way I saw myself."
Suki, 43, didn't leave.
"I'm too old to train in another one," she joked.
She changed her husband's pus- and blood-soaked bandages, and helped him relearn how to shave and brush his teeth.
As the Mills family moves forward, the U.S. Defense and Veteran's Affairs departments are acknowledging that the physical and emotional scars that troops carry home present a sensitive challenge: sexual intimacy and body-image issues that most couples' therapists are ill-prepared to treat.
Many factors play a role. More than half of the troops -- 56 percent -- are married, many for decades. That means lots of spouses issuing ultimatums to get help or get out.
In addition, the war's ubiquitous battleground and multiple deployments have left an estimated 40,000 troops with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a syndrome unequivocally tied to marital distress, as well as brain injuries, burns and loss of limbs -- horrific injuries that, because of protective Kevlar vests, are no longer fatal.
The number of people returning with disabilities, is an "enormous problem ... an astonishing problem," said Eli Coleman, director of the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota. "Combined with the fact that returning vets are usually older and partnered, this is having a devastating effect on relationships."
Maureen Kennedy, a licensed psychologist with the Polytrauma Program at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, agrees.
"Women will say, 'He doesn't even touch me. He doesn't want to come close to me'" Kennedy said. "The man will say, 'I don't even feel like having sex anymore.' He has been conditioned to not feel emotions and may experience hypervigilance or anxiety when touched. ... Emotional detachment is a hallmark of PTSD."
No increase in divorces
One bright spot is that a predicted spike in divorce rates might have been overstated. A yearlong study by Rand Corp., published in 2007, found that after a brief rise beginning in 2001, divorce across all military branches stabilized at 3 percent in 2005, the same rate as in 1996. But the study's authors noted that no one can predict the long-term fallout for couples.
The short-term effect is evident. The Minneapolis VA Medical Center, which already provides couples therapy, has expanded to focus on sexual and combat trauma for couples, and is refining that treatment with data being collected from 50 military couples, said VA researcher Christopher Erbes.
Its work, among the first of its kind in the nation, is modeled after a successful treatment program at the VA National Center for PTSD in Boston. And sex was front and center at the Wounded Troops and Partners conference in Washington, D.C., in May.
While sexual problems might seem like a curious concern during wartime, the conference brought home the urgency: A failed intimate relationship was the reason cited for nearly three-quarters of last year's military-related suicides, said Mitchell S. Tepper, of the Center of Excellence for Sexual Health at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.
"The mirror is such a powerful experience," said Tepper, who is pushing for a national dialogue about how to support healthy intimacy among military couples. "The first time you see the reflection of your changed body, whether sitting in a wheel chair, or severely disfigured because of facial burns, it is shocking. People who are not married look down and ask, 'Will anyone ever be interested in me?' If they are married, they wonder, 'Will my partner still find me sexually attractive?' Facing issues of body image and sexual self-esteem are pretty universal."
Abby Jackson, 25, understands. Her Iowa National Guardsman husband, Robert Jackson, 27, returned home from Iraq with both legs amputated below the knee.
"I knew that I wanted to be intimate again," said Abby, quoted in a transcript from the Wounded Troops conference. "I knew that I definitely wanted to have more children, and I knew that he was not interested in me and so a big red flag to me was, Well, what did I do? Why does he not want to have sex? Why does he not want to touch my hand, or why is he not asking me to get in the bed? Am I the only one that is feeling like I want in the bed?"
Hardly. Candice Monson, deputy director of the Women's Health Sciences Division of the VA National Center for PTSD, said sleep disturbances are yet another problem for partners.
Sleep disturbances
"He had dreams that he didn't realize he was having," said Jennifer Suarez, 43, a dental hygienist married for 18 years to Maj. Eduardo Suarez, who has done two tours in Iraq with the Minnesota Army National Guard. "He was much more active during these dreams. Nothing that would keep me up but, yes, there was a part of him he couldn't control."
While the Suarezes remained in the same bed and are aggressively working to stay close, Monson worries about couples with fewer resources.
Without effective and targeted couples' therapy, Monson said, "this war can result in separate bedrooms and sexless, loveless marriages 25 years down the road."
The heartening news is that it is precisely these couples' longevity and maturity, having withstood challenges of child-rearing, financial stresses and aging parents, that can save them.
Even faced with physical disfigurement or an amputation, Kennedy said, "many couples are resilient and their relationships last, or may even be strengthened." The adjustment can be tougher for younger couples, she said, who might have less maturity and experience.
But all couples can benefit from support and guidance. Monson is beginning a two-year trial, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, designed to strengthen couple relationships and treat PTSD. Part of her process includes helping spouses avoid the easy way out.
"One woman sends her husband to the 'bunker' in the basement," Monson said. While understandable, "it's inadvertently sending a message that he can't handle it. Now he's less and less in the family picture. ... I ask, 'How are you together going to defeat PTSD? You, as a couple.'"
Hanging in there can pay big dividends. The Jacksons of Iowa did regain their intimacy, evidenced by a busy 2-year-old and a 6-month-old joining their two older children.
The Mills, parents of Aaron, 18, and Kenzie, 13, also continue to draw strength from each other. Three years after his traumatic injuries, Mike looks in the mirror now and says with a smile, "I was good looking before and I'm better looking now."
Suki has adjusted to the fact that her husband lost most of his left ear, two-and-a-half fingers and will have pins in his hips for the rest of his life. He can't quite wrap his left arm around her anymore, but she can still fit her head into the crook of his neck.
"My safe spot," she said.
Gail Rosenblum • 612-673-7350
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posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
Lynchburg's VA clinic to open soon
Lynchburg's VA clinic to open soon
The long-awaited opening of a Lynchburg Veterans Affairs clinic is approaching. Patient-care services at Lynchburg's Community Based Outpatient Clinic will begin Sept. 2 and will make obtaining basic care easier for veterans who now travel to facilities in Salem or Richmond.
The primary-care clinic will be a medical site for an estimated 6,300 of central Virginia's 14,000 veterans. The clinic, which also will offer general mental-health services, will be staffed and managed by the VA in Salem, which also will be the site for specialty referrals.
The 9,700-square-foot building across from Lynchburg College began taking shape with a groundbreaking in the fall. Landscaping crews have begun greening the area in recent weeks.
The clinic is open to enrolled veterans living in Lynchburg or Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford or Campbell counties.
At the November groundbreaking, Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, R-6th, said Lynchburg was one of the largest cities in the United States not to have a Community Based Outpatient Clinic or a VA medical center in an adjoining city.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Sept. 29.
For more information on registering for the clinic, call (540) 982-2463 or visit www.va.gov or www.salem.va.gov.
