Top Army Doc: Returning GIs Need More Help

Army Surgeon General Says Troops Aren't Being Sent To Mental Health Counseling Often Enough

(AP)  Mental health screening isn't consistent for U.S. troops returning from war, and if they don't say they need help they often don't get it, the Army's top medical officer said Friday.

“If an individual checks nothing, (or) I have no mental health issues, they're not necessarily being sent to mental health counseling,” said Army Surgeon General Kevin Kiley, speaking at a hearing on military medical readiness before the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

It is estimated that about 17 percent of returning war fighters have post-traumatic stress disorder or severe anxiety and depression, compared with about 6 percent or 7 percent of the general population, Kiley said.

Studies show some troops fear being stigmatized if they acknowledge they have problems such as nightmares, hyper vigilance or anxiety. Or, some want to spend time with their families instead of getting mental health help.

To help catch them, Navy Surgeon General Donald Arthur said some of the mental health screening has been delayed a couple of months so that troops can first spend time with their families.

Kiley said the amount of face-to-face counseling of returning troops is increasing, and those who seek help are getting it. In recent years, the military has implemented programs that encourage troops to seek mental help if they need it.

Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., asked if shortening deployment lengths could help. Many troops spend more than a year deployed in a war zone.

Arthur said deployment length and the effect it has on a soldier's health is under review, but the consensus is that the effect varies with the intensity of the deployment.

“If you are on the front lines going door to door in Fallujah ... perhaps three months is an appropriate time,” Arthur said. “If you are in Kuwait or Djibouti as many of our folks are, then perhaps a year is all right, so we're trying to tailor those deployment lengths to the length of the threat.”

Charles Marmar, chief of staff for mental health at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, recommended that federal money be used to develop a brain screening that would help identify when a returning soldier potentially has mental health issues.

After the hearing, Murtha said he supports that recommendation. While things have improved, it will be a long time before the stigma in the military associated with seeking mental health help goes away, said Murtha, a decorated Vietnam war veteran and retired Marine colonel.

For troops today, “unless you want to be helped, they aren't going to get help is what it amounts to,” Murtha said.

[frankbowers]

Fact: the military voted in a 70% ( this is a known and publish fact) for the republican party as a whole. So I say to them you are getting what you wanted do not complain pull up your boot straps and get in lock step with gw bush and cheney you have got what you wanted and you knew what you did when you voted for him and his office. I as a DAV, I saw it and I am not half as well advised as U were.Where/when were they in the trenches. where the hell was he and cheney in 72 I can assure you not Vietnam as J. Kerry was who has 3 purple hearts to wear not gw bush and *** cheney you voted for two lying sleeze bags so enjoy. i have not even a prayer for any of you. The best of good byes

[grumpas]

I won't hold my breath until George W Bush gives them any help! He never has managed to get the proper equipment to fight it yet! It's a national disgrace this brain dead imbecile is even in office! It tell's me something about American's and it isn't the slightest bit pretty!

[mh4cbs1]

Is America at War?? NO !

America is at the Mall
America is watching "reality" TV
America is cashing in massive tax-cuts (if you are very wealthy of course)
America - 99.8% - is not sacrificing AT ALL

The TROOPS are at WAR.
The TROOPS - our middleclass kids - are being maimed and killed for the NeoCom War Profiteers

That is why there is a "volunteer" Army
That is why tuition has skyrocketed and student loans have dried up.
That is why we pay a few BILLION in military recruitment costs.

It is EASY to run a needless horrific WAR for power and profit when you can isolate the real impact to 0.2% of the population

[macusweil]

GIs once they have served have nothing to do with Gas, Oil & Petroleum so the GOP has left them twisting. Leave it to them Dems to do right by our heros.

[al_v_in]

Treatment of mental problems can be treated in
a POSITIVE manner. Current practices are not
effective. Time to make them so. Much easier
than realised.

[al_v_in]

The world is full of info on Mental Health. Cause
and effect. Nothing re cure or restoration to normality. Why? Is it because accepted treatment is ineffective? .. that it is NEGATIVE? and that
it ought to be POSITIVE? It is time to get some
thing right. That is easier than than it might first appear. The problem is NOT unsolveable.
Ex patient.

[al_v_in]

The world is full of info on writings re Mental
Health. And full of ideas but ..nothing of cure
or restoration to normality! Why? Could it be a
failure to understand the nature of treatment?
That maybe current ideas of this are completely
ineffective? There are a lot of bright prople
about so lets see if they can be POSITIVE. That
current treatments are NEGATIVE! Easier than it
might first appear. Ex patient who thinks.

[rharrin1]

They will not get any help as long as bush is in office.

[cruzn66]

So what else is new???? The soldiers of this country continue to serve as fodder for the NeoCons in Washington, to fight their "holy war", and to whip a little western-style democracy on the Middle-East. They failed to plan to rebuild Iraq, why would or should anyone be surprised that they also have failed to plan for the physical and mental casualties that continue to pile up in VA hospitals around the country? Another national disgrace is being heaped on the good men and women who bravely go where their Commander in Chief sends them, yet their commander continues to be an imbecile, locked in his own mental struggles to define his "mission". Maybe its times for the President to submit to a psychological analysis as to his fitness to hold his office?

[webdepot]

This administration has been systematically reducing benefits for the servicemen for the past 6 years... "Support the troops" is only a lip service sound bite for these pr|cks...

[feelfree1]

The members of the Bush regime place no value on human life, with the exception of the 1/2 of 1% of Americans that they represent, and a handful of pro-Israeli fanatics.

The Bush regime has worked very hard to reduce bennefits to U.S. veterans. I'm sure that they prefer that U.S. soldiers return dead, rather than damaged. Much better for their profit margins.

[migrainegram]

Maybe they don't ask for help because it is perceived as a sign of weakness; in the military it is unacceptable to be weak.

Mental health wounds can't be treated as easily as physical wounds or injuries.