What a week. Actually, what a past few months.
There's been a bit of a backstory going on with the fight for the mental healthcare of our troops. I'm not just talking now about the mental care they receive as vets after they return home -- we're talking now about the actual healthcare decisions the DOD is making for our troops on the battlefield.
This week's first strike was the GAO Report [pdf] stating that only 22% (1 out of 5) troops who are at risk for developing combat PTSD -- as determined via a mental health screening form, the PDHA [pdf], administered by the DOD -- are referred for further mental health evaluations. The DOD then released its response following the less-than-flattering media's coverage of the report stating:
"The level of our effort and our outreach is unprecedented," he said. "We have broken new ground."
New ground, indeed. Stunning, unbelievable new ground. Get your steel toe shoes on, folks, and follow me for the full story on what the DOD dustup is all about...
And so, today comes the news that the Hartford Courant has completed a
report based on Freedom of Information Act requests which
concludes that "
U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness."
From the AP:
The Hartford Courant, citing records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act and more than 100 interviews of families and military personnel, reported numerous cases in which the military failed to follow its own regulations in screening, treating and evacuating mentally unfit troops from Iraq. In 1997, Congress ordered the military to assess the mental health of all deploying troops. The newspaper, citing Pentagon statistics, said fewer than 1 in 300 service members were referred to a mental health professional before shipping out for Iraq as of October 2005.
Twenty-two U.S. troops committed suicide in Iraq last year, accounting for nearly one in five of all non-combat deaths and the highest suicide rate since the war started, the newspaper said.
Some service members who committed suicide in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite clear signs of mental distress, sometimes after being prescribed antidepressants with little or no mental health counseling or monitoring, the Courant reported. Those findings conflict with regulations adopted last year by the Army that caution against the use of antidepressants for 'extended deployments.'
"I can't imagine something more irresponsible than putting a soldier suffering from stress on (antidepressants), when you know these drugs can cause people to become suicidal and homicidal," said Vera Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, a New York-based advocacy group. "You're creating chemically activated time bombs."
I
posted on this issue on March 20th on my blog,
PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within.
At the time, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the DOD was reinserting troops back into the battlefield while prescribed anti-anxiety medications. Senator Barbra Boxer was, in turn, planning to address the controversy through the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health that was scheduled to get underway in April. Well, that task force has yet to begin its work. Why?
We find the answer in last week's Stars & Stripes:
Democratic California Sen. Barbara Boxer blasted the Pentagon again Tuesday for missing a deadline to appoint a task force to study troops' mental health, saying the military faces a "mental health crisis." Defense officials acknowledged they missed the April 7 target but said the panel is being assembled quicker than comparable task forces, and will be in place in coming weeks.
Happen to catch that pattern? Again, the DOD responds that they're doing better than everyone else, so why are you complaining, Boxer? What's your hurry?
The task force, mandated by Congress in December as part of the 2006 military spending bills, is designed to be an independent voice on how the services handle mental health treatment issues. The 14-member board will be half military personnel and half civilian appointees, several of whom will be medical experts.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Boxer called the delay in appointing the task force "abhorrent," noting that post-traumatic stress disorder and related problems still are major concerns. She also pointed to 25 suicides among active-duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2005, up from 20 soldiers the year before. "I find it simply astonishing that the sheer magnitude of the mental health crisis facing our Armed Forces does not compel you to action," she wrote.
Where's the fire, Boxer? It's just the mental health of our troops on the battlefield!
[O]fficials with Boxer's office said the senator has not received any feedback from the DOD and won't be satisfied until the task force meets for the first time. They also said even if the group begins meeting soon, the department already is about a month behind schedule.
Task force members are required within a year of their appointment to submit a report to the defense secretary and Congress on a long-term plan on ways to improve the effectiveness of the military's mental health treatments, including ideas for new education programs and medical services.
Highly recommend taking a look back at my March
post for additional details on what's been going on with this issue behind the scenes. Back to the AP article:
"I'm concerned that people who are symptomatic are being sent back. That has not happened before in our country," said Dr. Arthur S. Blank, Jr., a Yale-trained psychiatrist who helped to get post-traumatic stress disorder recognized as a diagnosis after the Vietnam War.
Oh, see? The DOD was right, after all. They are breaking new ground! Feel better, America?
The Army's top mental health expert, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, acknowledged that some deployment practices, such as sending service members diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome back into combat, have been driven in part by a troop shortage. "The challenge for us ... is that the Army has a mission to fight. And, as you know, recruiting has been a challenge," she said. "And so we have to weigh the needs of the Army, the needs of the mission, with the soldiers' personal needs." Ritchie insisted the military works hard to prevent suicides, but said that is a challenge because every soldier has access to a weapon.
Commanders, not medical professionals, have final say over whether a troubled soldier is retained in the war zone. Ritchie and other military officials said they believe most commanders are alert to mental health problems and are open to referring troubled soldiers for treatment. "Your average commander doesn't want to deal with a whacked-out soldier. But on the other hand, he doesn't want to send a message to his troops that if you act up, he's willing to send you home," said Maj. Andrew Efaw, a judge advocate general officer in the Army Reserves who handled trial defense for soldiers in northern Iraq last year.
The mind, literally, boggles.
Still don't think we have a mental healthcare crisis on our hands because of this war? Then you haven't seen the incidents I've collected in the PTSD Timeline. This absolutely must be an issue we work our collective dander up on together.
Here's What WE Need to Do
Back in January, when Senator John Kerry first began posting diaries here at Daily Kos, I joined in with everyone to ask him a question about PTSD. I opened by mentioning my concern for our troops returning from combat, and I asked him, "What can we do to help really support our troops out here?"
This was his answer:
Of all the things I've thought most about over the last year since the election, what's most disgusting to me is how ignored and forgotten and discarded the people I fought for have been by Washington. I'd love to have a debate about whether patriotism is giving speeches about veterans and then having a 1.2 billion dollar hole in our veterans budget, or whether it's actually going out and providing for veterans who come home from a war with all kinds of scars from the battlefield, visible or invisible.
There's a lot more we need to do, but it will only happen if we raise hell about it and organize around it. I intoduced a Military Family's Bill of Rights as legislation in this Congress and I've been able -- piece meal -- to pass parts of it to do things like improve housing benefits and death benefits for military families. But talking about PTSD and funding treatment programs and counseling programs is something Washington remains pathetically incompetent at really getting done. It requires pressure -- real pressure -- to do it. Please follow what I'm doing on it, and what people like Rep Lane Evans and others are doing on it because we really need your voice on it. 2006 will be a moment of accountability on this issue if we make it so, and we can especially with so many Iraq War vets running as Democrats.
by John Kerry on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 12:38:56 PM CST
We don't have to use the troops for political advantange. We simply need to advocate for what's fair and what any compassionate nation would do for troops sent into war. We need to rally around this issue and hammer it home through our politics.
Here's What YOU Can Do
Since it's through politics -- via our legislators -- that programs, bills, and laws are made, making this issue a big part of our platform as we move forward is the surest way for us all to win. Thanks, Georgia10 for the first two links and actions, and the FP coverage on this issue today...
Don't Forget to Read the Groundbreaking Report
The Hartford Courant report is now up on their website (had to make do with the AP piece for the diary). It's an indepth article -- 5 pages long online -- so I would recommend everyone take a spin over to read through it if you're interested in this topic. Thanks, too, for the recommends. I hope we can make a difference on this one, guys...