Change Is Coming to the Veterans Administration

President-elect Obama has announced his new Secretary of Veterans Affairs and it is Gen. Eric Shinseki. He was severely wounded in Vietnam and spent 11 months in the hospital General Shinseki was the US Army Chief of Staff and was forced to retire by Donald Rumsfeld because he was not acting like part of the team. He dissented vigorously regarding the prosecution of the invasion of Iraq. His resolve cost him his job, and he has since been proven right.

His resolve will be tested again as the Bush Administration filled the VA with hacks, incompetents and apologists. James Nicholson followed the Bush party line right off a cliff. Then, General James Peake became Secretary. General Peake when in uniform, as the US Army Surgeon General, failed to acknowledge, prepare and deal with either Traumatic Brain Injury and mental health issues. As a civilian, he continued the policy as it might expose his incompetence. Hopefully, he will quickly retire from the practice of medicine, his tenure has been a disgrace.

General Shinseki should first resolve to clean-up the VAs administrative mess that fails to screen, admit and treat our wounded warriors. The VA would make Soviet apparatchiks blush with its indifference and ineffeciency. Second, he should immediately demote and fire the entire senior management of VA in mental health and traumatic brain injury. The signature injuries of OIF/OEF can be acknowledged and treated. The very capable staffs of many VA sites can be supplemented with civilian resources to get these service members squared away. The policy of denying benefits based on phony science and mindless research by both the DoD and VA can quickly come to an end. Finally, he must seek to chart an independent path; the DoD has an agenda quite seperate from treating and honoring our warriors.

Hopefully this action will signal to Military Health Systems that it is time to clean its house.

MILITARY PERSONNEL WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY AT RISK FOR SERIOUS LONG-TERM

The Institute of Medicine reported this week Military personnel who suffer severe or moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) face an increased risk for developing several long-term health problems. This evidenced based study reported that conditions include Alzheimer's-like dementia, aggression, memory loss, depression, and symptoms similar to those of Parkinson's disease. Even mild TBI is associated with some of these adverse consequences, noted the committee that wrote the report.

In addition, the report notes that brain injuries sustained as a result of exposure to the force of an explosion without a direct strike to the head -- one of the most common perils for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan -- may be underdiagnosed due to the lack of research on blast injury. It calls for the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to step up clinical and animal studies of blast-induced neurotrauma (BINT).

The Healing Project would go further and immediately screen and database the 300,000 to 400,000 service members exposed to blasts.

"Explosive devices and other weaponry have become more powerful and devastating throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are seeing much higher rates of nonpenetrating traumatic brain injury and blast-induced injury among military personnel who have served in these countries than in earlier wars," said George W. Rutherford, professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine and vice chair, department of epidemiology and biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "It is important to identify and understand any long-term health effects of these injuries so that wounded service members do not lose valuable time for therapy and rehabilitation."

Studies conducted in Iraq by the Air Force Medical Service with the Headminder system would argue that up to 5% of exposures, that is 15,000 to 20,000 m-TBI injuries, would require additional follow-up. The DoD is only reporting 5,500 injuries total traumatic brain injuries. Furthermore, while animal studies are useful, replicating injuries in animals models are unlikely to provide necessary data to provide human clinical guidance. It is time to implement a web-centric longitudinal screening technology to track the evolution of these injuries in an epidemiologically sound fashion.

While we agree with the Institute in broad strokes, scientists and clinicians have been aware of the injuries and the likely outcome of these injuries since 2004. Neither the DoD or the VA has demonstrated any real interest in identifying or treating M-TBI dealing with its attendant co-morbidities. Both organizations have used research to delay the identification of and/or deny the very existence of the injuries. The report makes it clear blast concussion is not like a sports injury nor is it PTSD (two of the DoDs and VAs favorite excuses why they do nothing). Now that we have a change of government, it is time for Secretary of Defense Gates to clean out DoD HA and US Army Medcom. The delayers, the deniers and the dinosaurs need to be quickly cashiered and replaced by people who will get the job done now.

A Proven Technology Detects mild-Traumatic Brain Injury in Combat

On October 12 at the International Conference on Behavioral Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center, Paterson, NJ, HeadMinder, Inc., presented results of the first Military IRB-approved prospective study to be conducted in-Theater.

The study compared the HeadMinder Cognitive Stability Index (CSI) computerized test battery and the Department of Defense (DoD) Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric (ANAM) with the Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Symptoms (RBANS), a paper-and-pencil neurocognitive test currently used by the DoD to screen soldiers.

The study was designed by Lt. Col. (sep.) Gerald Grant, MD (USAF), Maj. William Isler, PhD (USAF), Maj. Monty Baker, PhD (USAF), David Erlanger, PhD (Chief Scientific Officer and co-Founder of HeadMinder), Tanya Kaushik, PsyD, and Col. Robert Seegmiller (USAF). The objective was to determine the validity and reliability of both computerized screening measures as compared to the RBANS. The CSI was accurate in assessing the severity of cognitive compromise following concussive blast injuries. The CSI Total Score correlated very strongly with the RBANS Total Score (.789) and also showed strong concurrent validity with the RBANS in the domains of Attention (.706) and Memory (.680), domains critical in the assessment of blast-related concussion. ANAM was not useful for identifying memory problems, the domain most frequently impaired on the RBANS, and only a subset of ANAM measures seemed useful for screening attention problems.

The CSI is a 30-minute, Internet-based, computerized test that provides automated, objective measures of attention, memory, response speed, and processing speed for initial evaluation of cognitive functioning. The CSI produces standardized reports that enable triage and decision-making appropriate to a user's qualifications – from medic to neuropsychologist to neurologist and other treatment team members.

Dr. David Erlanger, Chief Scientific Officer of HeadMinder, commented, "The CSI has now been shown, under combat conditions, to be the only telemedicine tool capable of serving the needs of the armed services. Especially given the large backlog of unscreened service members exposed to blasts, the HeadMinder System offers a simple, accurate, and objective screening method that can play a key role in identifying and treating servicemen and servicewomen with undiagnosed brain injuries. The CSI is unique in its ability to track improvement over time as soldiers travel between the Military Health System and the Veterans Administration and civilian medical resources. We believe the HeadMinder platform provides the Department of Defense the opportunity to fully comply with the Wounded Warriors Act by screening and tracking exposed service members' long-term well-being. If implemented today, the entire backlog could be cleared in less than two years."

After 5 years of ducking the issue, the DoD can get off their collective bottoms and start screening the 400,000 troops that have been exposed to blasts in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the study in no way implied that every service member exposed suffered m-TBI, it did imply that approximately 20,000 service members have suffered the injury. It is time to identify them and treat them. There is no need for mindless dead-end research projects.

Since S. Ward Casscells, MD , Undersecretary of Defense - Healthcare, has actively and willfully avoided detecting and treating both m-TBI and mental health issues, it is time to contact your representatives to start getting answers (find your representative, find your senator). His desire to deny disability payments and under report causalities is repellent.

A special note if you are represented by any of the following members:

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
Congressman Jack Murtha (D-PA)
Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
Congressman Todd Platts (R-PA)

make an effort to contact them as they have taken leading positions to help service members with mild-Traumatic Brain Injury, PTSD and mental health issues.

The study was initially funded by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation. After funding was discontinued, the study was completed with funding provided by PanMedix, Inc., and HeadMinder, Inc.

PanMedix was founded in New York City in 1999. Initially focused on the development and deployment of assessment software, the company has evolved to encompass a full range of pharmaceutical and medical assessment services.

Founded in New York City in 1999, HeadMinder is a technology company that is dedicated to the development of Internet-based neurocognitive assessment tools. HeadMinder tests have been shown to be valid and reliable instruments for evaluating cognitive deficits in a range of injuries and illnesses, including concussion, mild-to-moderate TBI, Multiple Sclerosis, ADHD, Alzheimer's Disease, and chemotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction in cancer patients.

Veterans Administration Saving Pennies by Failing to Diagnos PTSD

The Veterans Administration was caught again running roughshod over our service members.

A few weeks ago we posted an item about the VA and DoD avoiding dealing with the suicide problem. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and VoteVets release email telling VA staff to “refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out.” Please take a moment and read the e-mail. James Peake, MD, the head of the VA, repudiated the employee, but she remains on the job.

Well done. If you get caught doing what the boss wants done (General Peake has been party to ignoring PTSD and Mental Health since his days as the US Army Surgeon General), we will make a public statement and you keep your job (Dr. Peake make sure she gets a bonus for all those cost savings).

I gather the next revelation will be regarding traumatic brain injury. All the phony screening, bogus research, delay in disabilities payments has been ochestarted by the DoD and US Army since the beginning of OIF/OEF. General Peake and his flunkys at AMEDD rejected a series of proposals to fully screen all troopers for TBI pre-OEF. If you don't identify the injured, don't treat them, you need not pay for them.

Look at how much money we save. DoD and the VA have had the support of the highest reaches of government in this despicable mistreatment of American citizens. The Legislative Branch's inability to deal with these matters for years is almost equally distgusting.

Somewhere between 300,000 and 700,000 troopers have suffered PTSD, Mental Health Problems, and/or TBI. But knows knows who they are or the treatment they have received. The time for special committees, centers of excellence, blue ribbon commissions, fake research conducted by politically connected charlatans is over.

Call your Senator or Representative and demand investigations and prosecutions.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman accuses VA of criminal negligence, he should have included the DoD as well.

Dr. Ira Katz got caught lying to the press about suicide rates for veterans so he is now standing before the man. Of course James Peake, Veterans Affairs Secretary, defended Katz because he is largely responsible for the scandalous lack of preparation to handle troops returning from OIF/OEF with neurological and psychiatric problems. James Peake was the US Army Surgeon General from 2000 to 2004. During his tenure, his senior staff officers rejected the implementation of programs that would have dealt not only with mental health issues but also traumatic brain injury. US Army clinicians and researchers attached to Walter Read Army Medical were prepared to implement technology and protocols to deal with these issues before the Afghanistan deployment. AMEDD, the Army Medical Department, represented that they were prepared in 2002 even though it was not; and still isn't.

It is time for the Senate and House to call to account the entire chain of command from DoD and US Army Medcom as they have been responsible for one of the largest medical disasters in US history. Between 400,000 and 750,000 troops have been injured, gone unidentified and are untreated. No one knows who they are. Our jails, homeless shelters, drug rehab clinics and morgues will fill with veterans from these conflicts. This is a crime. It is medical negligence on a grand scale. It is time to go back an investigate the actions and lack of action taken by the DoD and US Army from 2001 forward. Senior officers, the rank of colonel or higher, responsible for epidemiology, traumatic brain injury and mental health should be called before the public, made to explain themselves, and summarily fired. If they are a member of the allied medical professions, their licenses should be revoked.

US Air Force Medcom should be empowered to take over these programs without the oversight of DoD or the involvement of the Joint Services “Red Cell.” The Air Force should further be directed to use the civilian medical sector, particularly the nation’s research hospitals, to treat the massive backlog of wounded active service members and veterans. (The VA should be left to deal with the aging veterans of past wars. It will take years to cure its gross mismanagement.) A hub and spoke system should be implemented similar to the highly successful NCCN cancer program. The objective would be to treat simple cases as close to the veterans homes as possible and complex cases at our finest medical centers that have the resources to handle the most complex injuries.

The $900MM of funding that congress allocated for mental health and traumatic brain injury is being squandered. Research has been delayed and solutions gone unimplemented. The Army’s objective has been to use faulty screening instruments (ANAM), faulty research (the problems related to TBI are transient and stress related), and faulty clinical practice (12 beds for patients in a vegetative state when there is need for 400 – the poly trauma centers are not what they were cracked up to be) in order to demonstrate that they are doing everything. It is pure nonsense.

This is not to say the VA, US Army, and US Navy don’t have some extraordinary practitioners. The field medical personnel of these wars should be lionized as they have demonstrated the resolve to do the undoable. Regrettably, these gallant men and women are not in-charge. Many are separating from the service as quickly as is practical due to incompetent leadership. People like the disgraced general, Kevin Kiley, are in-charge. Follow the party line, don’t report the wounded and don’t treat them. God forbid the Army may have to pay disability for injuries that don’t involve an amputation or blindness. TBI is like a sports injury. Sure! If they understood how serious many sports concussions can be, they would shut up. These blast injuries are far more complex and more serious, but research was repeatedly disrupted or blocked. I will not bother to rant about mental health as the military posture is so outdated it defies comment.

Call your congressmen and demand action. The current buffoons that have abused our troops will exit with this administration, but our active service members and veterans need help now.

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/
.

Gulf War Syndrome is Real and in Many Cases Explained by Chemical Exposure

The ArmyTimes reported in a story entitled, Review says chemicals caused Gulf War illness, today that a scientist’s review of the symptoms presented by many returning veterans can be explained by chemical families related to those found in pesticides, nerve agents and anti-nerve agents. Tens of thousands of troops were denied treatment, denied disabilities and identified as slackers after suffering a chemical insult.

The travesty is that as early as 1992 scientists and medical officers from within and without the US military strongly suspected that chemical insult was the cause of these reported maladies. The DoD and the VA should be held accountable for the mistreatment of our service members following the first Gulf War. There is no register of those who suffered chemical insult from that war and many more veterans will suffer unexplained debilitating neurological illnesses or explicable neurological illness early in life. It is unlikely that they will either find care or compensation if they were not identified in the early 90’s.

This issue is relevant because the DoD and VA are at it again. During OIF and OEF, tens of thousands troops were and are being exposed to blastwave concussion resulting from IED’s (roadside bombs) used to attack our troops. These injuries were dismissed for years as nothing more than concussion resulting from playing contact sports. The DoD elected to ignore its own experts who identified these wounds as serious in nature and as the signature injury of these conflicts. To great fanfare, $600MM was set aside to research and treat these injuries six years after the problem was identified. Regrettably the DoD and VA have used these funds for ill-considered research, outmoded instruments and pet projects of senior officials of Medcom. The result is that rather than using systems and technologies that were requested by field medical officers as early as December 2002 to screen and track neurological traumas in real-time, the nation lacks even a basic system to validity screen and analyze these injuries. While the DoD and VA deserve the bulk of the blame, Congress, the Senate, and Veterans Organizations all deserve a share of the blame because their lack of action has led to gross mistreatment of those that have served us.

Fifteen years from now we will suddenly awake to thousands of veterans suffering from debilitating neurological illness that could have been avoided or compensated for if someone had bothered to consult and support efforts by experts in the military and not the people who brought us the mistreatment of troops at Walter Reed.

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

Iraq and Afghanistan War Casualties 66% Higher than Previously Reported.

The Healing Project has observed the poor treatment of our wounded warriors since our inception. Greg Zoroya in USA Today reports 20,000 Vets' Brain Injuries Not Listed in Pentagon Tally. In our view, this casualty count is the tip of the iceberg. So-called soft injuries including combat-traumatic brain injuries, PTSD, Depression, Suicide and Severe-Mental Illness have been ignored since the beginning of these conflicts.

While much attention has been focused on the gallant and extraordinary efforts of our field surgeons, medivac teams and medics that have driven survival rates to unprecedented levels; little attention has been paid to the bulk of the injuries in these conflicts. These injuries and illnesses are real. The research community has been perplexed for years (2003 forward) at the lack of preparation to deal with these ailments.

It is time to call on your Senators and Representatives and demand an explanation of how these injuries went undiagnosed and untreated for five years. If your Representative serves on the House Armed Services Committee or House Veterans Affairs Committee or your Senator serves on the Senate Armed Services or Veterans Affairs Committee, it is especially important to make your voice heard. These committees drive the legislation and control the budgets for the Department of Defense and the Veterans the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is time for accountability. $600MM was set aside in the June Supplemental Budget for the screening and treatment of PTSD and TBI. It would be useful to know how this money was spent, who spent it, and what are the results? If it has not been spent, why has it not been spent? It is no longer sufficient to believe that an increase in funding will result in any benefit of our warriors. The same people who understated the number of casualties are still in charge of the programs and there budgets intended to screen and treat the wounded; this is rewarding delay and inaction. This is not tolerable.

The Healing Project advocates the immediate mobilization of the civilian healthcare sector to relieve the backlog of wounded veterans. Our research hospitals and teaching hospitals have the diverse range of facilities and personnel to quickly triage and treat the bulk of these cases. Further, the latest systems and technologies should be employed to rapidly screen and identify these injuries. Finally, a request for volunteers (paid) should be publicly made to individual practitioners with appropriate training across the country, especially in mental health, to relieve the stress of the military and veterans medical system. Many, if not most, civilian medical personnel, are more than willing to serve their country and help those who have sacrificed so much on our behalf.

Monday is Veterans Day Please Show Your Support for those who have Sacrificed so much on our Nation’s Behalf.

The Healing Project hopes that everyone in our community demonstrates their support for those who defend or defended our nation. If one spends time with active duty service members or veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars; you will find intelligent, patriotic men and women of integrity who have served for years in far off lands. In return, these men and women have returned to substandard medical care, denial of benefits and a lack of employment opportunities. Whether you are for or against these wars, one must be for the warrior.

It is time to send a message to both the President and Congress and let them know that our veterans are not political pawns and should be treated in a manner consistent with their service. The Veterans Administration budget should be passed immediately with the full funding recommended by Congress. The Congress should stop tying non-related domestic spending to the VA’s budget.

Finally, reach out to the veterans of these wars. As Bob Woodruff, the ABC News Anchor wounded in Iraq, recently stated, “When he was a boy in Michigan, hr remembers people in his neighborhood were going off to Vietnam and returning from it. Many people today know no one who is going to war or who has returned from it.” These are wonderful young men and women. If you meet those who have served, especially those who have been wounded, you will be pleased to see them present themselves with a grace, elan' and honor that defines the best of what America can be. Many of these vets have been terribly damaged physically and mentally, but they stand steady, don't complain and ask for nothing. It is time not only deliver what is promised to them but also give them what they deserve. If you’re a citizen, remember to say thank you, call your congressional representative and show your support at local Veterans Day event. If you are an employer, give these men and women and opportunity. As Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq Veteran and Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, is found of saying, “these are people who have guaranteed their work with their lives. They will not disappoint you."

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.

Stories of Wounded Soldiers

If you have not had the opportunity to view Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq, you should. Hosted by James Gandolfini, this HBO presentation highlights the stories of 10 veterans wounded in Iraq.

These men and women who have sacrificed so gallantly to defend the United States relate the personal experiences of injury and recovery.

HBO has kindly made this Alive Day Memories available for viewing in its entirety on the web.