Reserve medical Airmen learn about PTSD

Reserve medical Airmen learn about PTSD
by Airman 1st Class Madelyn McCullough
446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

6/7/2013 - MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. -- Anywhere from 11 percent to 20 percent of servicemembers who deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan return with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That includes reservists here, who often transition from a deployed environment to their civilian lives in only a few days time.

To better understand how to help Airmen with PTSD, reservists from the 446th Airlift Wing medical squadrons participated in resiliency training June 1. The Stress of Combat Medicine, presented at the 446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron auditorium, covered a variety of mental challenges medical professionals may experience while deployed. One of those conditions was PTSD.

"There is a misnomer out there that somehow medical people are given some sort of specialized training that protects them or insulates them from combat trauma and there really isn't," said Ed Hrivnak, a former flight nurse with the 446th AES, who provided the training.

According to Lt. Col. (Dr.) Keith Brown, 446th Aeromedical Staging Squadron officer in charge of mental health here, PTSD may stem from experiencing combat directly to driving in a convoy every day.

"In my 20 years being in the military, most of that being in the 446th Airlift Wing, my deployment in 2003 by far was the hardest and most significant thing in my life," said Hrivnak, a published writer and retired Air Force Reserve captain. "But it was also the most rewarding. It's an experience I would not want to give back. I consider it the high-water mark of my military career taking care of those soldiers and bringing them home.
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Group helps soldiers when the military can’t

Group helps soldiers when the military can’t
SCOTT FONTAINE; The News Tribune • Published May 04, 2009


Tacoma – Service members contact Trisha Pearce in need of counseling. Spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends, relatives are welcome to get in touch with her, too. They may feel burnt out and worn down by the experience of fighting a war – or of loving someone who has.

But Pearce and her Puget Sound area organization are completely outside the military chain of command.


“By the time people call us,” the psychiatric nurse said, “they’ve already tried to get help elsewhere. Or they just want to be away from the whole military system. Whatever their reason, we get them help.”


It’s the work of Soldiers Project NW, a 14-month-old program that aims to help veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who, for whatever reason, aren’t comfortable using the numerous mental-health programs the military medical system provides.


Pearce asks for basic information and links the caller with a nearby therapist, who offers free sessions.


The military isn’t notified.


Pearce, who has 30 years experience in the mental health field, has been the project’s director for the past six months. She organizes meetings every few weeks to draw support from therapists across the area.


“I just think that we, as a community, need to get behind the military and help them out,” she said.


Forty-two therapists have signed up in Western Washington, but many are in the Seattle area. Pearce is from Stanwood.


More providers are needed in the South Sound area, Pearce said, where they can help service members from Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base. There are currently 11 providers in the South Sound.


Some patients have met regularly with their therapist for more than a year, while others show up for only one session. It’s not uncommon for a person to skip the first appointment with no explanation.


Only licensed therapists can offer services through the program, and meetings take place at a neutral site away from the service member’s installation.
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Group helps soldiers when the military cannot