Families and communities — the rest of us, in other words — can play a role in helping to cut down on the epidemic of military suicides. Dr. Elspeth “Cam” Ritchie, a Battleland contributor and former top Army psychiatrist, and Dr. Margaret Harrell, a military personnel expert at the Center for a New American Security — who …
Traumatic Brain Injury
Vets: Homeless for Thanksgiving
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 …
Dwell Time: Not So Swell?
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
…
PTSD Programs Proliferate Prodigiously
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 …
“Does Fear of Getting Mental-Health Help Drive Up Suicide in the Military?”
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 …
A Thought for Veterans Day: Isolation Kills and Community Heals
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 …
TIME Veterans Day Twitter Chat–2:30 pm (1430) under #TIMEVets
In honor of Veterans Day, we will be holding a special Twitter discussion about the disconnect between the U.S. military, veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the rest of American society under the hashtag #TIMEVets.
“Why Are There So Many Military Suicides?”
The problem of suicides continues to haunt Pentagon personnel officials. After 10 years of war, the suicide rate has climbed and remains stubbornly high despite numerous initiatives to bring it down. What’s behind the spike, and what — if anything — can be done to curb it? John Nagl, of the Center for a New American Security, and …
Hidden Wounds, Unhidden Costs
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. …
Beyond the Battlefield…
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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 …
How Do We Know If Someone Has PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the most troubling legacies of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of troops and their families are affected. How do we ensure the help – both medical and financial – is going to those who need it? Well, that requires, one would think, a uniform yardstick so folks …
Follow the Money 2.0
It was less than a week ago that we noted General Dynamics had landed a Pentagon contract to help tend to the bruised brains of troops suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury. We took note of it because we’ve seen big defense contractors increasingly move into the medical field in recent years. The latest evidence surfaced Tuesday, …
Ain’t Gonna Study War No More…
There’s a military-history professor down Texas way by the name of Joyce Goldberg who has given up teaching military history after nearly 30 years. Increasingly, she writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education, her classes have been filled with recent military veterans more interested in binding their own mental war wounds than …