This is the first in a series of posts on the ethical issues associated with treating post-traumatic stress disorder and …
PTSD
Veterans Are Only Part of the Challenge
Our active-duty military is in the midst of a mental-health crisis: the suicide numbers are climbing and the volume of psychotropic medications prescribed is multiplying.
While both President Obama and Mitt Romney have plans …
The Survivors Gather
This weekend, relatives of many of the U.S. troops who have killed themselves in the suicide epidemic gripping the American military are gathering in San Diego. They’re coming together to support one another and figure out how to move on with life. It’s the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors’ National Military Suicide Survivor …
A Better Way Forward
The recent headline on the Drudge Report screamed, MORE AMERICANS NOW COMMIT SUICIDE THAN DIE IN CAR CRASHES. In a Wall Street Journal opinion article last week, we read about the life of Peter Wielunski, a veteran who, while …
The Military’s Anti-Suicide Push: Old Wine, New Bottles
September is suicide prevention month. The military has focused again on reducing suicide, which is absolutely appropriate. But I am troubled by the use of old, already tried/tired (failed?) methods for reducing suicide.
Soldiers and other service members do not need more suicide awareness-type campaigns. They are smart, and well …
Battling PTSD and TBI
Somehow seems fitting on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 to note that the Pentagon has just announced it is funneling $100 million into a pair of new efforts to try to find out how better to fight the scourge of post-traumatic …
Military Mental Health: An Outsider Takes a Peek Inside
Marjorie Morrison is a San Diego psychologist who took time out of her busy private practice to provide “pro-active” mental-health counseling to more than 500 Marines at the recruit depot there. Such counseling removes stigma …
Hey, Mr. President: Here’s How to Really Help Hurting Vets
I was initially excited by President’s Obama executive order entitled Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families. But then I was disappointed as I read the details.
The …
Crisis Intervention Teams For Vets: Sure Beats Jail
Las Vegas — About 2.5 million troops have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s a lot of people who have seen war up close and personal. It can affect some of them adversely when they come back home. That’s why …
One Concrete Thing
Years now. Almost 11 years into the war in Afghanistan, and with Iraq mostly behind us, we’re still unable to get our hands and our minds around the military suicide rate.
July marked the highest number of suicides among …
Of “Green-on-Blue” Killings, and Army Suicides
Battleland was invited to be on Friday’s PBS NewsHour, but this invitation had a twist that made it different than all that had come before. Host Jeff Brown and his producer, Dan Sagalyn, wanted a two-fer: first, they wanted to …
This Isn’t Funny…
The Army’s failure to cut down on its suicide rate makes it a target for people without taste. Alas, the July figures due out shortly are unlikely to help.
As someone who has covered military suicides, and the folks waging the …