I used to walk the halls of power, at the Capitol and the Pentagon, when I spoke on PTSD among Soldiers, as an active duty Army psychiatrist. Now, I take care of those in the public mental health system in the nation’s capital. Those halls are much murkier, even as we celebrate Thanksgiving.
Every day I take the Metro and walk …
I received a note from Rick Maze over at Military Times this morning commenting on an assertion I made here that things might be improving for veterans’ benefits claims over at the VA. Maze, who took the time to note he’s “only been covering military and veterans issues for three decades,” says that things are getting worse over at VA in …
Military leaders have been telling us for years that troops need to spend more time at home between combat deployments – dwell time, as it’s known – to help keep the detritus of war: depression, suicides, divorce, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental ailments, at bay:
When deployed for 12 months, we must get them to
…
It was only a couple of months ago we noted that the Senate had urged the military services to pare back their geysers of competing programs fighting with one another to fight the plague of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries afflicting U.S. troops. “They’ve launched dozens of programs with multiple …
The military has long known that many troops won’t take advantage of the roster of mental-health care options the military offers. That’s because they fear the stigma it might generate could hurt their career prospects. Does that aversion contribute to the military’s increased suicide rate? Dr. Margaret Harrell, a Center for a …
By Terri Pous
When soldiers are injured in combat, the healing doesn’t stop in the hospital. After they return home, the reality sets in. Whether they suffer physical injuries or the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), their caretakers and loved ones share their struggle.
By Joseph Bobrow
Founder and President, the Coming Home Project
Let me tell you a story from the book, Outliers: In the 1950’s a physician discovered a small town in eastern Pennsylvania where there was no heart disease under age 65, no suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, peptic ulcers, and very little crime. People died …
The public-health gurus of the American Public Health Association – all 13,000 of them – are meeting in Washington this week to figure out how we can all lead more healthy lives. It’s a noble pursuit, to be sure. Some of the studies and sessions investigate issues of interest to the nation’s troops. They may sound pretty …
Dear Mr. Capps,
We made a decision on your claim for service connected compensation received on July 22, 2010.
The letter came in today’s mail. Day 470; for me, Decision Day. Things have moved really quickly in the past week. On October 20th, I posted a note here that I had been waiting 15 months—463 days—for a decision on my …
Well, it’s been three months since my last examination at the VA hospital. Three months since the VA doctors completed my Compensation and Pension (C&P) exam. Three months beyond the twelve months it took to get me to that point.
That’s four-hundred-sixty-three days of waiting for the Department of Veterans Affairs to adjudicate my …
A new report out this week – combined with a new report out last week – suggest there will be hefty costs associated with taking care of the nation’s post-9/11 veterans. This week’s report, released Wednesday, says vets with mental-health ailments require a lot more treatment, at far higher cost, than those without such ills. …
There have been a raft of articles here recently about PTSD and veterans including one on the difficulty of diagnosing PTSD, the staggering number of new veterans seeking mental health care at the VA, and the both surprising and somewhat sobering news that younger veterans are more willing to ask for mental health care—this is …
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David Wood, a one-time Timester, now covers the military for the Huffington Post. He has just launched an ambitious effort into how the nation is tending to the wars’ worst-wounded. It’s well worth your while to check out the video above, and the opening piece of …
