Veterans Continue to Get Shafted Again and Again and…

The continued tragicomedy regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs tabulation of cases of suicides continues in Washington. Watching senators and representatives express indignation at the treatment of veterans is good political theater but is unlikely to change anything. Senior staff of numerous senators and representatives have been aware of the documented mistreatment of veterans for years. This is not limited to suicide but also general mental health and traumatic brain injury. No one gets fired, no one gets their pensions reclaimed, and no medical staffer has his or her license revoked. General Kiley was responsible for leaving wounded troops in the snow and he will retire with a full pension and works out of nice office in the Pentagon.

The DoD, VA and Tricare happily represent to our elected officials that everything is being done. Pure nonsense!!! The suicide issue only warranted political action because the VA got caught lying to CBS News. Politicians should transfer all spending on suicide, traumatic brain injury and mental health to an independent commission led by scientists, physicians and psychologists who are not connected to any government agencies. I have no doubt that our research and teaching hospitals can and could have provided excellent treatment and triage without the unneeded expense of attempting to rebuild the VA. A plan of this nature was presented to the Dole commission but was ignored. The civilian medical system is and was prepared to accept patients to clear the backlog and apply the most appropriate technologies to serve our warriors.

Let’s face it. There is a premium on holding the casualty count down and making sure that disability payments are not made. Field medical officers of the military knew what preparations should be made before deployment to Afghanistan especially to address likelihood of neurological insult and psychiatric disorders. As early as 2004, field medical officers in all three branches knew that it was time to start ramping-up psychiatric services as a large number of troopers were returning with depression, anxiety and PTSD. The chain of command did not care and to this day is manned by medically unqualified officers. You will find so-called experts at the DoD include a homeopathic dentist, general practitioners, a PhD in physical rehab. What they know about suicide, mental health or TBI is questionable. Where are the neurosurgeons, the neurologists, psychiatrists and the neuropsychologists? The DoD does not use the people most qualified practitioners because they will not follow a political agenda driven by Washington.

We have no more time for special blue ribbon panels, for veterans’ organizations with their heads in the sand, for politicians blabbering without backing up their words with action. Hundreds of thousands of vets are wounded and can be treated. Stop the nonsense – identify the wounded and treat them. The technology and methodology exist; it simply needs to be applied by parties more concerned with serving the people than a bunch of bureaucrats. It will be cheaper than the costs of incarceration, mortuary services, alcohol treatment, substance abuse treatment and long-term unemployment. The bill is due, and it is time to pay.

One In Five Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Suffer from PTSD or Major Depression

The Rand Corporation published a study today that states that nearly 20 percent (300,000) of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression.

Only slightly more the half reporting symptoms sought treatment. The reasons most often sighted for not seeking treatment were the potential negative effect on career progress. Of those who sought treatment approximately half received minimally acceptable levels of treatment.

In addition, researchers found about 19 percent of returning service members report that they experienced a possible traumatic brain injury while deployed, with 7 percent reporting both a probable brain injury and current PTSD or major depression.

"There is a major health crisis facing those men and women who have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Terri Tanielian, the project's co-leader and a researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Unless they receive appropriate and effective care for these mental health conditions, there will be long-term consequences for them and for the nation.

Researchers also found an urgent need to train more mental health providers throughout the U.S. health care system on delivering evidence-based treatments to service members and veterans. While many opportunities for treatment exist for active-duty personnel, there is no system in place to monitor the quality of those services to ensure they are getting the latest science-based forms of treatment.

Researchers suggest special training programs are needed to instruct mental health providers in the military, veterans and civilian health systems about the type of evidence-based treatments needed by service members. Only providers with such training should be eligible to treat service members and payment programs should be retooled to reward providers who use science-based treatments. "It's going to take system-level changes — not a series of small band-aids — to improve treatments for these illnesses," Tanielian said.

Regrettably much of this problem was foreseen and preventable. Health professionals across the services recognized the potential for both cognitive and psychological injuries before the first deployment to Afghanistan. For years and to this day the DoD, VA and Tricare have actively avoided applying technologies that would have screened, identified, cataloged and tracked these wounded service members. For Rand to suggest the DoD, VA and Triacare to be left entrusted with supervising the care of the service members is laughable. The leadership of these entities have failed to address either psychological or cognitive injuries for seven years. In addition, Congress, the Senate and Veterans Organizations have been aware of both the problem and solutions for years and have done nothing to fix the problem. Casualty counts will increase by an order of magnitude, treatment costs will explode and disability payments will sore. No one wants Instead, many of these service members will end up on the streets, in the penal system, in morgues, alcoholic and/or drug addicted. Well done.

It is time to remove the current leadership for all elements or military and veterans’ medical care. Further, the commanders responsible for this gross maltreatment of our service members should be identified, have their pensions reclaimed, be reduced in rank, cashiered and have their medical licenses revoked for negligence. When the Walter Reade scandal broke, General Kiley, the US Army Surgeon General, suffered no injury. He was given an office in the Pentagon and will retire as a full three star general. It sent the message to all line officers that regardless of how you treat the wounded as long as you keep the costs down you are only risk public ridicule. If you fight for better treatment for our service members, you are making a career limiting decision.

Expect no change, no one cares. It is an election year, and vets are like puppies. You got to love them publicly but who cares when they are out of sight.

The report is titled "Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery." The full report and several summaries are available at http://veterans.rand.org/
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March 10th through the 16th is Brain Awareness Week

Brain Awareness Week is an international effort organized by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives to advance public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. The Dana Alliance is joined in the campaign by partners in the United States and around the world, including medical and research organizations; patient advocacy groups; the National Institutes of Health, and other government agencies; service groups; hospitals and universities; K-12 schools; and professional organizations.

For More Information:
Brain Awareness Week
Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives
745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 900
New York, NY 10151
(212) 223-4040
(212) 593-7623 Fax
bawinfo@dana.org
www.dana.org/brainweek
Materials available
Contact: Kathleen Roina

March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month

Head injury is commonly associated with falls and automobile accidents. In addition, a large cohort of new type of head trauma resulting from injuries suffered during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan Wars is being presented by its veterans (the number and extent of these injuries remains un-researched and unknown). The field of trauma research and rehabilitation demands our support.

Take some time this month to learn more about Brain Injury and its consequences.

How many people suffer from TBI?

Of the 1.4 million who sustain a TBI each year in the United States:
50,000 die; 235,000 are hospitalized; and 1.1 million are treated and released from an emergency department.1

The number of people with TBI who are not seen in an emergency department or who receive no care is unknown.

What causes Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?

The leading causes of TBI are:
Falls (28%);
Motor vehicle-traffic crashes (20%);
Struck by/against (19%); and
Assaults (11%).
Source: BIA

War related head trauma - unknown

For More Information:
National Brain Injury Awareness Month
Brain Injury Association of America
8201 Greensboro Drive, Suite 611
McLean, VA 22102
(703) 761-0750
(703) 761-0755 Fax
info@biausa.org
http://www.biausa.org/
Materials available
Contact: Communications Coordinator

The Treatment of Returned Wounded Service Members and Veterans is a Travesty

As Veterans’ Day approaches, The Healing Project wishes to call attention to the appalling level of treatment that our returning wounded service members and veterans are receiving at the hands of a government that is obligated to take care of them.

As of October 26, 2007
Official DoD Count of Troops Killed in Iraq: 3,830
Troops Killed in Afghanistan: 445
Wounded in Action: 30,035

The US Military is composed of on all volunteer force that is stationed on remote federal reservations across the country. Less than 1 ½% of the US population is affected by military deployments. These patriots are subjected to poor pay, long deployments and a general lack of support. It is time we stand up for the people willing to serve this country.

The sacrifices made by these men and women are best articulated by Ben Stein.



First, The Healing Project wishes to extend its support and recognize the extraordinary effort made by forward field medical teams deployed by the US Army, US Navy and especially the US Air Force. The doctors, nurses and medics as well as the medical evacuation teams have pushed the survival rate of injured service members to a level unprecedented in military medical history. It represents the culmination of nearly 70 years research and clinical development that demonstrates when resources and will are combined with leadership and initiative the United States can deliver a level of medical treatment unparalleled anywhere in the world. A recent The Navy Times article illustrates the type of heroic efforts made by military medical personell make on behalf of the wounded.

Nonetheless, both the DoD and Veterans Administration have failed those who have returned. Both the executive branch and the legislative branches of the US government have failed to provide the material assistance, human resources and most importantly the dynamic leadership to ensure the proper treatment of the returning wounded. No less than 9 commissions were empanelled by various organs of the US government and yet nothing has been done to address the needs of those that have been wounded. A story in the Charlotte Observer highlights only some of the problems.

Let’s be clear, the reported casualty figures reflect the number of traditional physical injuries. It is not an accurate reflection of the true number of casualties suffered by our service members. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety disorders, suicidal tendencies, substance abuse, family violence and various severe mental disorders are triggered by the conditions experienced with repeated extended combat tours thousands of miles from their families. Inexplicably, both the VA and DoD failed to prepare for the enormous number of service members requiring treatment. The experience of returning veterans of the Vietnam War coupled with reports as early as 2005 would have led any epidemiologist to predict a large increase in demand for medical services. The claim that the neither the DoD nor the VA can provide treatment due to a lack of trained personnel is nonsense. This country has more than enough trained personnel in the civilian medical sector to be pressed into service to treat these men and women immediately.

Even more incredible has been the lack of treatment afforded to service members that have suffered combat traumatic brain injury (C-TBI). C-TBI injury has been called the signature injury of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Advances in body armor coupled with tactics and weapons employed by our adversaries led to an extraordinary number of injuries that have not been experienced in earlier conflicts. While technologies have existed since before the conflicts to screen and track these injuries, the DoD actively avoided its use. Research dollars have been allocated to projects that will neither benefit the treatment of veterans nor lead to a greater understanding of the injury.

The willful and wanton neglect of our wounded service members by the DoD borders on criminal. The attempt to paint this C-TBI as some sort of mirage is insulting both to those suffering the injury and also those who have spent years trying to characterize it and define its treatment. Pentagon research strongly argues that many service members impacted by combat traumatic brain injury in the next 20 years will develop Parkinson’s-like syndromes and dementia. Of course, much like many of the medical discharges that have been made since the beginning of Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, compensation will be denied based upon a pre-existing condition.

The DoD seems to be attempting to delay the understanding and cataloging of this injury as it did with Gulf War Syndrome to avoid the costs of disability payments. Regrettably, the service members who develop long-term neurological illnesses will be reduced to penury because bureaucrats in Washington refuse to accept the responsibility for injuries suffered defending our democracy.

It is unacceptable.

The Healing Project hopes you will take action.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has created a petition to address the most basic medical issues for our wounded warriors.

IAVA Petition/IAVA Action Commercial



From IAVAAction's Site:

As a recent report from the Government Accountability Office reveals, seven months have passed since the Walter Reed crisis and serious problems in veterans' care remain.

As of October 1, the veterans' budget is late. Until it is approved, the VA will be forced to ration care.

Now, it's up to the President and Congress to approve the budget. Add your name to the statement, and demand they take action.

Please sign and let your friends and Representatives know that our wounded warriors demand the best treatment that can be afforded.

Regardless of how one feels about the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, our service members and verterans deserve and demand your respect and it is time to stand with them.

Scientists: Brain injuries from war worse than thought

USA Today's Greg Zoroya published an extraordinary and troubling article indicating that large numbers of American Servicemen may experience long-term neurological impairment due to exposure to concussion.

This is a serious issue that will likely afflict tens of thousands of troops over the course of the next four decades.