Montana National Guard puts focus on PTSD

Guard's road show puts focus on post-traumatic stress
By ZACH BENOIT
Of The Gazette Staff

In an effort to increase awareness and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in military personnel returning from combat, the Montana National Guard has been holding a series of public presentations in 20 communities across the state.

At St. Vincent Healthcare's Marillac Auditorium on Wednesday night, the Guard presented resources and information on PTSD and talked about what people can do to help those afflicted with it.

"If you understand what the signs and symptoms are and you know somebody who may be suffering, you can refer them to get help," Col. Jeffrey Ireland said. Ireland is the director of personnel and manpower for the Montana National Guard.

PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can occur after someone experiences or witnesses traumatic events. Many returning soldiers develop PTSD, and it often goes untreated. Efforts to increase awareness of PTSD in Montana began after the suicide of Guardsmen Christopher Dana of Helena in March 2007. He had been home from duty in Iraq for 16 months when he shot himself. Family members said he was suffering from PTSD.

After Dana's death, the Guard and state officials vowed to re-evaluate PTSD treatment in Montana and work to prevent more such tragedies, said John Allen, a Montana Air National Guard chaplain from Great Falls.

"The governor appointed a task force to look into it," he said. "The National Guard also appointed a working group to find out about the processes we go through to see if there's any way we can do a better job."

Studies and evaluations determined that the Montana Guard was meeting or exceeding the basic requirements for returning soldiers and airmen, but Guard officials wanted to do more.

It took a number of steps to aid in recognizing and treating PTSD. In every other state, troops undergo a post-deployment assessment within 90 to 180 days of returning. Montana standards now include more frequent and longer monitoring for up to two years.

"Those that come back don't develop PTSD right away," Ireland said. "We don't want to let anyone slip through."

Crisis response teams in Helena and Great Falls were created, the Guard mandated enrollment into the Veterans Affairs system upon returning from duty, created suicide prevention and PTSD training programs, beefed up reintegration programs to help troops return to daily life and expanded family resource centers across the state to aid military members and their families.

"We've accomplished a tremendous amount of things in the last few months," Ireland said. He added that the Montana National Guard has become a leader in diagnosing and treating PTSD.

At the presentation, Ireland showed a DVD produced by the Montana National Guard called "Picking Up the Pieces. Operation Outreach: A Community Effort." The DVD details the effects of PTSD on service members and their families. It includes detailed interviews with several Guardsmen who have undergone or are in treatment for PTSD. It also includes interviews with Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother. Ireland said the Montana National Guard hopes to use the video to help returning soldiers and airmen and increase community awareness.

"We are very proud of this," he said. "It's so useful in sending a message to service members and the community. We use it to tell our story."

Ireland said one of the most important steps in treating PTSD is erasing the stigma often associated with seeking treatment.

"We have so many that are reluctant to step forward because they're afraid of seeming weak," he said. "But we treat it as we would any other battle injury."

Presentations on PTSD by the Montana National Guard will be tonight at 7 in Malta, Miles City, Livingston and Missoula. On May 28, they will be in Helena and Butte and in Great Falls and Belgrade on May 29, all at 7 p.m.


Published on Thursday, May 22, 2008.
Last modified on 5/22/2008 at 1:19 am


Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/05/22/news/local/38-ptsd.txt

The death of Chris Dana changed Montana National Guard

From NamGuardianAngel.com
List of Names Gone Too Soon

While I posted on PTSD on my blog (link above) and on my newer blog Wounded Times Blog, I try to spotlight what comes after this kind of tragedy. Families step up and go to Washington to offer testimony to congress. Regular people decide to start programs, groups and foundations to try to keep other families from experiencing what they had to live thru.

I was doing research for the video on suicides, Death Because They Served, when I found some pretty remarkable stories. Regular people suffering after the tragedy of a suicide death usually causes people to become more introverted. There are others willing to do whatever it takes to try to stop it from happening to others. In the next series of posts, I want to spotlight some of these great stories of what came after the loss of some amazing warriors.



The life of Chris Dana from the Montana National Guard is one of those stories because of what came after his life ended.

CHRIS DANA 23 MONTANA GUNSHOT FORT HARRISON - 3/4/2007

It took several months of pushing, but finally, Chris Dana was ready.

The 23-year-old veteran of the Iraq war, who served with the 163rd Infantry Battalion, Montana National Guard, agreed to see a counselor for post-combat stress.

Members of his family, concerned for months about his change in behavior, believed they were starting to get through to him. Their son and brother promised to seek the help they all knew he so desperately needed.Then Dana canceled the appointment. He began screening his calls. He stopped showing up at drill with the National Guard.

He quit his job at Target, cleaned his car and the trailer he shared with a friend. And then, on March 4, he shut himself into his bedroom, put a blanket over his head, and shot himself.
Chris Dana

When you read about the backlog of VA claims, you may not stop and think about what waiting is doing to the veteran and their family. It's not just about the financial compensation they need to pay their bills because they can no longer work. It's about justice. On one hand the VA doctors and DOD doctors will tell them it's PTSD but the administration end of the VA tells them to prove it beyond a doubt then wait to have the decision made on their case. This brings either an approval or a denial. They have to fight a denial feeling as if they just received a knife in their backs. The VA says that legitimate claims are honored, which is true, but what they don't say is how claims can be turned down because the paperwork is not filled out right or they don't have all the paperwork they need.

Suicide shocks Montana into assessing vets' care

Chris Adams
December 28, 2007 1:25 PM
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
HELENA, Mont. - Chris Dana came home from the war in Iraq in 2005 and slipped into a mental abyss so quietly that neither his family nor the Montana Army National Guard noticed.

He returned to his former life: a job at a Target store, nights in a trailer across the road from his father's house.

When he started to isolate himself, missing family events and football games, his father urged him to get counseling. When the National Guard called his father to say that he'd missed weekend duty, Gary Dana pushed his son to get in touch with his unit.

''I can't go back. I can't do it,'' Chris Dana responded.

Things went downhill from there. He blew though all his money, and last March 4, he shot himself in the head with a .22-caliber rifle. He was 23 years old.

As Gary Dana was collecting his dead son's belongings, he found a letter indicating that the National Guard was discharging his son under what are known as other-than-honorable conditions. The move was due to his skipping drills, which his family said was brought on by the mental strain of his service in Iraq.

The letter was in the trash, near a Wal-Mart receipt for .22-caliber rifle shells.
All across America, veterans such as Chris Dana are slipping through the cracks, left to languish by their military units and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA's ability to provide adequate care for veterans with mental ailments has come under increasing scrutiny, and the agency says it's scrambling to boost its resources to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, prevent suicides and help veterans cope. It's added more mental health counselors and started more suicide-prevention programs.

But the experience in Montana, which by some measures does more than any other state to support America's wars, shows how far the military and the VA have to go.

''The federal government does a remarkable job of converting a citizen to a warrior,'' said Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat. ''I think they have an equal responsibility converting a warrior back to a citizen.''

''I can't imagine that it's only Montana that's experiencing this,'' Schweitzer added. ''Our men and women are part of this country, and we have common experiences.

It's not as though the water we drink and the air we breathe in Montana make our experience completely different than everywhere else.''

McClatchy Newspapers analyzed a host of VA databases and records, and found that mental health treatment across the country remains wildly uneven. While mentally ill veterans in some parts of the country are well tended, those in other places - especially Montana - are falling by the wayside.

The data and records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, included all 3 million VA disability claims in the nation and 77 million medical appointments in the agency's health system in fiscal 2006.

At a U.S. Senate committee hearing last summer in Great Falls, Mont., a top VA official touted the success of the department's mental-health operations in the region that includes Montana. But the agency's records indicate that it ranks below most other regions in measures of access and success.

In fact, Montana veterans trail far behind their peers around the country on the two main VA functions:

-By several measures, the agency provides less specialized mental-health care in Montana than it does in most other states. Veterans seeking to enter the mental health system at Montana's only VA hospital had longer waits and received fewer visits than veterans did at almost any other VA hospital in the country.

-Recent veterans in Montana with mental ailments receive far lower payments, on average, from the VA disability system than veterans in almost any other state do.
Adam Olivas, from the central Montana town of Laurel, had his post-traumatic stress disorder payment cut this month.

Olivas had been regular Army, and had come home from Iraq with a Purple Heart, shrapnel in his left side, ringing in his ears, back problems and the nightmares, hair-trigger responses and survivor's guilt that are hallmarks of PTSD.

Since Olivas left the military, his life has been a blur of sleepless nights, drowsy days, nightmares, flashbacks, constant fatigue, spotty memory, counseling sessions and medication. He goes to work, goes home and rarely sees other people.

''I married Adam right before he went to basic training,'' said his wife, Shannon. ''The only reason I am married to this man is because I know who he was before he went to Iraq.''

His PTSD was rated a 50 in the VA's complicated system, and with his other injuries he was entitled to a monthly disability check for $1,567. Earlier this year, however, the Montana VA benefits office sent Olivas a letter proposing to drop his PTSD rating from 50 to 30. It would cost him $2,600 a year.

PTSD is rated at zero, 10, 30, 50, 70 or 100, and the VA office in Montana, the McClatchy analysis found, is less likely to rate recent war veterans 50 or above than any other office is. The McClatchy analysis zeroed in on veterans who've left military service recently and most likely had combat experience in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The lower rating was a slap in the face, to both Adam and Shannon Olivas, who said that the last four years had been ''absolutely horrific.''

Adam Olivas, who works in hospital security, and his wife, a schoolteacher, drove three hours to Helena to appeal the decision, assisted by experts from two veterans groups. A representative from the American Legion said that Olivas' PTSD rating probably should go up, not down.

But the Montana VA office said that Olivas' symptoms weren't severe enough to warrant a 50, and that he'd gotten it only because of a quirk in the rating rules.

The Montana office dropped the rating after it was allowed to do so.

Olivas doesn't know how he'll handle the cut in income.

''I can't afford to pay for the gas to go to all these meetings and counselings and all this stuff,'' he said. ''Which probably isn't going to be the best thing for me.''

More than 2,500 members of the Montana Air National Guard and Montana Army National Guard are among the 10,000 men and women from the state who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan or elsewhere in the war on terrorism, according to Department of Defense numbers.

''When they were called to active duty, they were running a business, driving a truck, working at a mill, teaching school,'' Gov. Schweitzer said. ''When they returned from being a soldier, they didn't go back to a military base. . . . They don't have people they can talk to. They are 300 miles away from their detachment, and everybody where they work didn't experience what they've gone through.

''In fact, nobody where they work experienced what they've gone through. Their family doesn't understand it well.''

Montana has more veterans per capita than any other state, and they return from war to a vast expanse with few hospitals and miles between the ones that do exist. The VA has only one hospital in the state.

Chris Dana's suicide roiled Montana, which set up a task force to determine how a Guardsman had slipped through the cracks. It concluded that the Montana National Guard was following the national standard program, designed by the Department of Defense, to catch mental health issues as soldiers return from war.

But the task force also found that the national program is ''deficient'' because it doesn't provide the vision or the resources necessary to pinpoint veterans' mental heath problems.

Among other things, the task force said, the standard demobilization process is ''ineffective for identifying mental health issues,'' and coming-home briefings include such a blizzard of paperwork that things get lost in the shuffle. It noted that veterans are reluctant to disclose their mental health problems and that counseling is lacking and uncoordinated in many parts of the state.

Guard members themselves - more than 40 percent in a survey the task force conducted - said they didn't think that they were getting sufficient information about the health benefits and services available to them.

The Montana Guard is working to beef up its demobilization process significantly, hoping to keep better tabs on its soldiers as they return to their small towns and their businesses, farms, schools and families.
---
(c) 2007, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

In Chris Dana's case, he was one of the over 20,000 discharged under "less than honorable" when it was PTSD that was causing the problems. I would still love to know who is looking at all of those discharges to find out what happened to them or at least to find out if they have PTSD or not.

The following was posted on my blog but I cannot give the link to the Great Falls Tribune. The link must have moved and I cannot find it.

Montana Guard confronts post-combat stress head-on in wake of suicide

Great Falls Tribune
By ERIC NEWHOUSE
Tribune Projects Editor

HELENA — Montana's National Guard is becoming a model of how to help service members adjust to post-combat stress.

"Montana has gone beyond the level of other states in the country, and I applaud that," said Capt. Joan Hunter, a U.S. Public Service officer who was recently designated the director of psychological health for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.



"They saw an emergency need, studied the problems and make some significant improvements," Hunter said Friday.

State Adjutant General Randy Mosley said that the effort stems from a former Montana soldier who didn't get the help he needed and who killed himself a year ago.

"We want to make sure we're doing everything we can to help our people and their families pick up the pieces for the problems that may have begun during their deployment in Iraq," Mosley said last week.

"The Guard has done an unbelievable job in changing," said Matt Kuntz, a Helena attorney and stepbrother of the late Spc. Chris Dana, who killed himself March 4, 2007. At the time, Dana was having trouble handling weekend drills after returning from combat in Iraq. He was given a less-than-honorable discharge and then shot himself a few days later.

"It takes a lot for a big organization that does a lot of things right to look for what they did wrong and address those flaws," Kuntz said. "I'm really impressed with what they've done."

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Montana National Guard, Picking Up The Pieces
Picking up the Pieces (PDHRA)
This is the link to the video the Montana National Guard is showing. I've been posting about it for a couple of days now and it is very important that it not only be seen, but duplicated across the country.

Guard stresses PTSD symptoms at meetings
By ERIC NEWHOUSE
Tribune Projects Editor
May 21, 2008
LEWISTOWN — Montana's National Guard expanded its PTSD outreach efforts this week, hosting a series of 20 public meetings in armories across the state.

As part of its effort to familiarize the public — and veterans in particular — with post-traumatic stress disorder, it played a video produced at Fort Harrison entitled "Picking Up the Pieces."

That had Tiffany Kolar wiping her eyes."It raised a lot of questions for me," Kolar said after Monday night's meeting. "I have a brother who served with the Idaho National Guard and who later committed suicide. Now I'm learning a lot about what must have been happening."Kolar's husband is currently serving his second tour of duty in Iraq, and she and her mother-in-law need to understand the danger signs, she said.

"There were some things we didn't recognize the last time he came home, so we want to be better informed this time," said Darlene Kolar, his mother.Only a handful of people showed up for the meeting here, but the Guard's personnel officer, Col. Jeff Ireland, said he was happy for any attention."If these meeting are able to help even one person, for all the time and effort we've expended, it's been worth it," Ireland said.

The Guard has sent out personal invitations and videos to 2,000 behavioral health care specialists in Montana, as well as to all the veterans' organizations, he said. Next on the list is a mass mailing to all ministers and religious leaders in the state, he added.The meetings are the result of the suicide of Spec. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself in March 2007 after returning from combat with the 163rd Infantry. He was not able to handle weekend guard drills, and was given a less-than-honorable discharge as a result.As a direct result, Ireland said, Montana is now providing longer mental health assessments after return from combat, strengthening its family support units, creating crisis readiness teams to investigate abnormal behavior, requiring a personal investigation by the adjutant general before any soldier is discharged less than honorably, and producing and promoting its own video.

This is what I wrote on my blog about this program.

The video interviews hit all the points. Getting the clergy involved, how it hits the members of the family trying to understand and be supportive, what goes on inside of the veteran, how it's not their fault. The beginning of the video, I have to say I was no impressed. The graphics moved too fast and blurred when on full screen but as soon as the interviews began, I knew they hit the mark. Get passed the beginning and pay attention to the value in the interviews. It's a shame more people did not attend this.

This is what came after because Chris Dana's life meant something to the family and to the National Guard enough that they said there needed to be more done to hit PTSD head on.

Spc. Chris Dana's story told to Obama by step brother
Stepbrother tells guardsman's story to Obama Helena soldier took his own life after tour of duty in IraqBy LAURA TODEOf The Gazette StaffMontana National Guard Spc. Chris Dana will never know the impact his life and ultimately his death may someday have on the lives of veterans nationwide.Dana took his life in March 2007, less than two years after returning from a tour in Iraq. His family believes he was a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on by his combat experience.Since Dana's death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post-traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans.Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he's been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park, Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife, Sandy, and their infant daughter, Fiona.

Obama promises to repeat Montana's National Guard PTSD work nation wide
Obama Pledges Nationwide Use of PTSD Program
Eric Newhouse
Great Falls Tribune
Aug 28, 2008August 28, 2008 - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised Wednesday to expand Montana's pilot program to assess the mental health of combat vets nationwide, if elected.The Montana National Guard has developed a program to check its soldiers and airmen for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first two years after returning from combat, then once a year thereafter.

The program exceeds national standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The pilot program was created in response to the suicide of former Army Spc. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself on March 4, 2007, days after being given a less-than-honorable discharge because he could no longer handle attending drills following a tour in Iraq.

"He (Obama) told me he understood why we need to have additional screenings for PTSD," said Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, who was among a small group invited to meet with Obama on Wednesday in Billings. "And he told me when he is elected president, he will implement Montana's pilot program nationwide.

"Kuntz, who recently gave up his job as a lawyer in Helena to advocate for the mentally ill and their families, said he was invited to brief Obama on how Montana had become a national model for assessing the mental health of its combat vets.Besides the additional screenings, the Montana National Guard has developed crisis response teams that include a chaplain to investigate behavioral problems among its troops, and TriWest Healthcare pays to have four part-time counselors on hand to talk with soldiers and airmen during weekend drills.

After the briefing, Obama spent about 20 minutes telling several hundred veterans and their families that, if elected as president, he will be committed to meeting their needs.


Obama win also means PTSD work gets new hero
This is one of the biggest reasons I am so delighted that Senator Obama will be President Obama. In August, he visited the Montana National Guard because he heard about the great work they were doing on PTSD. He was so impressed that he promised to take their program nationally.Up until now, PTSD has only recently become a hot topic. President Bush surrounded himself with people who either had no clue what PTSD was or denied it was real. This prevented years of research not being done and programs that could have been created sooner, to not even be dreamt of. Thousands of our veterans and troops, guardsmen and reservists died as a result, not by enemy hands but because of the enemy within them.

Military families and veteran families have a new hero coming to fight for them and I'm sure when you get to know exactly how much he does care, plans to act, you will feel the same way too. He's been on the Veterans Affairs Committee and has paid attention to all that is going on.

Thankful for the Montana National Guard and Major General Randy Mosley

I am thankful for President Elect Obama going to meet with Matt Kuntz and see the outstanding work being done there to help the Guardsmen with PTSD. Major General Mosley is also a hero in my book. Because of the suicide of Chris Dana, they are moving mountains out of the way and came up with their own program. Here are just a few of the stories on the work being done. Click the links if you want to read more.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Obama promises to repeat Montana's National Guard PTSD work nation wide
Obama Pledges Nationwide Use of PTSD Program
Eric Newhouse
Great Falls Tribune
Aug 28, 2008August 28, 2008 - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised Wednesday to expand Montana's pilot program to assess the mental health of combat vets nationwide, if elected.The Montana National Guard has developed a program to check its soldiers and airmen for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first two years after returning from combat, then once a year thereafter. The program exceeds national standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense.The pilot program was created in response to the suicide of former Army Spc. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself on March 4, 2007, days after being given a less-than-honorable discharge because he could no longer handle attending drills following a tour in Iraq."He (Obama) told me he understood why we need to have additional screenings for PTSD," said Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, who was among a small group invited to meet with Obama on Wednesday in Billings. "And he told me when he is elected president, he will implement Montana's pilot program nationwide."Kuntz, who recently gave up his job as a lawyer in Helena to advocate for the mentally ill and their families, said he was invited to brief Obama on how Montana had become a national model for assessing the mental health of its combat vets.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Matt Kuntz of Montana NAMI took up PTSD cause after death of stepbrother
Fighting for proper care - State NAMI head took up cause after losing stepbrother to PTSD, suicideBy MARTIN J. KIDSTON of the Helena Independent RecordHELENA - As a child, Matt Kuntz lost a friend to an eating disorder. When he entered Capital High School as a teen, he lost classmates to suicide.Mental illness had always been there; it was always something he'd seen. But it wasn't an issue Kuntz stopped to consider for very long.Then last spring, he watched helplessly as his stepbrother, Chris Dana, lost a battle with post-traumatic stress disorder and ended his life in suicide. That, Kuntz said, changed everything.More than 17 months into his unplanned but energetic campaign to improve mental health care in Montana, Kuntz is working to change the way mental illness is perceived by the public.

Spc. Chris Dana's story told to Obama by step brother
Stepbrother tells guardsman's story to Obama Helena soldier took his own life after tour of duty in IraqBy LAURA TODEOf The Gazette StaffMontana National Guard Spc. Chris Dana will never know the impact his life and ultimately his death may someday have on the lives of veterans nationwide.Dana took his life in March 2007, less than two years after returning from a tour in Iraq. His family believes he was a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on by his combat experience.Since Dana's death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post-traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans.Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he's been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park, Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife, Sandy, and their infant daughter, Fiona. click post title for more

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Montana National Guard Maj. Gen. Randy Mosley moving mountains
I think I have a crush on Maj. Gen. Randy Mosley of the Montana National Guard. I love to post about what he is doing on PTSD. Spc. Chris Dana's suicide caused massive changes instead of just talking about "doing something" and much of it is owed to Mosley. I think above all, the frustration that comes with the fact taking care of the troops and the citizen soldiers should have been a guarantee. With some of the best minds in this country when it comes to waging war, you'd think they'd be able to put that kind of brain power behind taking care of the wounded caused by war, but they didn't think of any of this. The warriors are the ones who have been paying for it simply because they survived. I know I've been proven wrong before when I found hope in what some commanders have said they would do only to find they have done nothing more than talk about it but this time, Mosley has earned it already.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Montana National Guard, Picking Up The Pieces
Picking up the Pieces (PDHRA)
This is the link to the video the Montana National Guard is showing. I've been posting about it for a couple of days now and it is very important that it not only be seen, but duplicated across the country.
Guard stresses PTSD symptoms at meetingsBy ERIC NEWHOUSE • Tribune Projects Editor • May 21, 2008
LEWISTOWN — Montana's National Guard expanded its PTSD outreach efforts this week, hosting a series of 20 public meetings in armories across the state.As part of its effort to familiarize the public — and veterans in particular — with post-traumatic stress disorder, it played a video produced at Fort Harrison entitled "Picking Up the Pieces." That had Tiffany Kolar wiping her eyes."It raised a lot of questions for me," Kolar said after Monday night's meeting. "I have a brother who served with the Idaho National Guard and who later committed suicide. Now I'm learning a lot about what must have been happening."

Montana National Guard gets support from Austalia

Here are just a few stories covered over the years on the Montana National Guard. This is something the cable news does not cover but is very important in the fight to save their lives. There are over 30 posts on the Montana National Guard's efforts to save the men and women we sent into combat.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Why Montana National Guard is taking PTSD head on


Monday, December 1, 2008

The death of Chris Dana changed Montana National Guard

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Obama win also means PTSD work gets new hero

Yellow ribbon program supports Montana National Guard
By Louisa Barber

Sidney Herald
Published on Sunday, September 19, 2010 7:09 AM MDT
They served this country, and they won’t be forgotten for it. Not through the Montana Yellow Ribbon Program, a year-old program dedicated to assisting the state’s Army National Guard soldiers through deployment.

On tour throughout the state, representatives of the National Guard visited Sidney for a luncheon and meeting in an attempt to reach out to the public to earn its support of its members. “Ultimately, this is the way to see success,” Ryan Luchau, outreach and marketing coordinator, said.

The Montana Yellow Ribbon Program, created in January 2009, is geared to assist service members and families going through deployment or those recently returned from a deployment. The program stemmed from reintegration issues and includes a three-step process. First is the pre-deployment academy in which soldiers and their families go through a workshop to discuss what to expect during and after deployment.

The second phase takes place during deployment. Families left behind are offered support through activities and training for when their loved one returns. It also includes monthly morale checks with returning soldiers and identifying at-risk service members. Being prepared and aware of who families can call to get assistance is a great asset.

The third phase is conducted once the service member returns and includes two steps: the 30-day post-deployment, which is re-establishing connection with family, the employer and the community, and the 60-day post-deployment which focuses on discussing problems, going through anger and stress management as well as suicide prevention.
read more here
Yellow ribbon program supports Montana National Guard

Senator Baucus sponsored another military suicide prevention bill

Senator Baucus sponsored another military suicide prevention bill
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
December 2, 2012

Don't count me among the people thinking another suicide prevention bill is a good thing. Some people in this country may be really hopeful over this but for me, I've been tracking all of this too long to gain any hope when they show no signs of changing anything.

In 2008 when most people in this country focused on the election of President Obama as the "first black President" in good ways as well as bad ways, I was focused on PTSD and military suicides.

For me that was the issue that matter to me the most.

In May of 2008 I broke my own rule about posting an entire report when I posted U.S. must battle against stigma of mental war wounds because all too often important reports are lost in the archives of newspapers. This one came out of The Billings Gazette. I just checked the link and it is not working, much like the rest of the things I hoped for have not worked.

Senator Max Baucus sponsored another suicide prevention bill along with Senator Tester. In his speech, Senator Baucus mentioned what Montana has been doing to get ahead of military suicides. It made me cry.

Baucus Secures Military Suicide Prevention Program in National Defense Bill
Senator Continues Longstanding Battle Against PTSD
Posted: Thursday, November 29, 2012

(Washington, D.C.) - Montana's senior U.S. Senator Max Baucus secured an amendment to the National Defense Reauthorization bill that will create a comprehensive and standardized suicide prevention program for military service members. This is the latest step in Baucus' longstanding efforts to address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. Baucus took to the Senate floor today to raise awareness of the need to provide mental health care and support for troops and veterans. The Amendment was also co-sponsored by Montana Senator Jon Tester.

"When duty calls, Montanans answer proudly. This is about taking care of these men and women, just as they have taken care of us. These people have put their lives on the line in the name of freedom. And we have a responsibility to do everything we can to help them return to their families and lives back home," Baucus said on the Senate floor today.

"Montana's military men and women make tremendous sacrifices on the battlefield, but too often they return home with wounds unseen," Tester said. "This measure makes sure we live up to our responsibilities to them and puts everyone on the same page when it comes to making sure our hard-working men and women get the care they earned."

Baucus also inserted a provision in the 2010 Defense Authorization bill that implemented a successful PTSD screening program at the Montana National Guard nationwide. This year's defense bill builds on that provision and advances Baucus' efforts to get Montana veterans and service members get the mental health care they deserve.

The amendment passed the week is known as the Mental Health ACCESS Act. The provision will:

·Create a comprehensive, standardized suicide prevention program within the Department of Defense;
·Expand eligibility for VA mental health services to family members of veterans;
·Create more peer to peer counseling opportunities; and
·Require the VA to establish accurate and reliable measures for mental health services.

This is who Senator Baucus was talking about.

What They Found in the Wastebasket
Suicide shocks Montana into assessing vets' care
Chris Adams
McClatchy Newspapers

HELENA, Mont. — Chris Dana came home from the war in Iraq in 2005 and slipped into a mental abyss so quietly that neither his family nor the Montana Army National Guard noticed.

He returned to his former life: a job at a Target store, nights in a trailer across the road from his father's house.

When he started to isolate himself, missing family events and football games, his father urged him to get counseling. When the National Guard called his father to say that he'd missed weekend duty, Gary Dana pushed his son to get in touch with his unit.

"I can't go back. I can't do it," Chris Dana responded.

Things went downhill from there. He blew though all his money, and last March 4, he shot himself in the head with a .22-caliber rifle. He was 23 years old.

As Gary Dana was collecting his dead son's belongings, he found a letter indicating that the National Guard was discharging his son under what are known as other-than-honorable conditions. The move was due to his skipping drills, which his family said was brought on by the mental strain of his service in Iraq.

The letter was in the trash, near a Wal-Mart receipt for .22-caliber rifle shells.

All across America, veterans such as Chris Dana are slipping through the cracks, left to languish by their military units and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The link to the above story still work so you'll be able to read the rest of this report.

Back then they were not reporting military suicide numbers. Think Progress has this military suicide report still up on their site. Take a look at what the numbers turned out to be when the DOD actually had to start reporting the suicides.

Did you see how the numbers went up? I had such high hopes in 2008 when President Obama was elected because unlike McCain, he was paying attention to military suicides and PTSD. I still think he cares but with cold hard facts proving what they have been doing since 2008 have not worked at all, repeating another bill based on the same thing is heartbreaking.

Here are some facts you should know. These reports are from my blog.

Suicide death of Spc. Chris Dana causes change in Montana National Guard
Montana Guard confronts post-combat stress head-on in wake of suicide
By ERIC NEWHOUSE
Tribune Projects Editor

HELENA — Montana's National Guard is becoming a model of how to help service members adjust to post-combat stress.

"Montana has gone beyond the level of other states in the country, and I applaud that," said Capt. Joan Hunter, a U.S. Public Service officer who was recently designated the director of psychological health for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.

"They saw an emergency need, studied the problems and make some significant improvements," Hunter said Friday.

State Adjutant General Randy Mosley said that the effort stems from a former Montana soldier who didn't get the help he needed and who killed himself a year ago.

"We want to make sure we're doing everything we can to help our people and their families pick up the pieces for the problems that may have begun during their deployment in Iraq," Mosley said last week.

"The Guard has done an unbelievable job in changing," said Matt Kuntz, a Helena attorney and stepbrother of the late Spc. Chris Dana, who killed himself March 4, 2007.

In Billings, Obama blames GOP for veteran troubles
By TOM LUTEY
Billings Gazette

BILLINGS - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, speaking Wednesday in Billings, faulted Republican leaders for chronically underfunding veteran services for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I have some significant differences with McCain and George Bush about the war in Iraq,” Obama said. “But one thing I thought we'd agree to is when the troops came home, we'd treat them with the honor and respect they deserve.”

Several trends indicate veterans are not getting the health care and other benefits they need to succeed at home, Obama told a group of around 200 people during an invitation-only morning listening session in Riverfront Park.

Armed services veterans are seven times more likely to be homeless than Americans who don't serve. In Montana, roughly half the veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder go untreated for the psychological condition, Obama said.

Before speaking, the candidate met for several minutes with the family of Spec. Chris Dana, a Montana National Guard veteran suffering from PTSD who committed suicide in March 2007, several months after returning from Iraq. Dana's stepbrother, Matt Kuntz, became a vocal advocate for better treatment of PTSD after Dana's death.

Obama promises to repeat Montana's National Guard PTSD work nation wide
Obama Pledges Nationwide Use of PTSD Program
Eric Newhouse
Great Falls Tribune
Aug 28, 2008

August 28, 2008 - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised Wednesday to expand Montana's pilot program to assess the mental health of combat vets nationwide, if elected.

The Montana National Guard has developed a program to check its soldiers and airmen for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first two years after returning from combat, then once a year thereafter. The program exceeds national standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The pilot program was created in response to the suicide of former Army Spc. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself on March 4, 2007, days after being given a less-than-honorable discharge because he could no longer handle attending drills following a tour in Iraq.

Obama win also means PTSD work gets new hero
November 5, 2008
This is one of the biggest reasons I am so delighted that Senator Obama will be President Obama. In August, he visited the Montana National Guard because he heard about the great work they were doing on PTSD. He was so impressed that he promised to take their program nationally.

Up until now, PTSD has only recently become a hot topic. President Bush surrounded himself with people who either had no clue what PTSD was or denied it was real. This prevented years of research not being done and programs that could have been created sooner, to not even be dreamt of. Thousands of our veterans and troops, guardsmen and reservists died as a result, not by enemy hands but because of the enemy within them.

Military families and veteran families have a new hero coming to fight for them and I'm sure when you get to know exactly how much he does care, plans to act, you will feel the same way too. He's been on the Veterans Affairs Committee and has paid attention to all that is going on.

I still think he's paying attention but the problem is the experts the congress has been listening to have not provided the relief these veterans need but instead of doing something differently, they repeat the same thing hoping for different results and leaving more and more families grieving by a graveside and blaming themselves.

The crisis for veterans is not new

The crisis for veterans is not new
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 27, 2014

The crisis for veterans is not new and apparently are not even worthy of the news reporting facts instead of claims made year after year.

There are so many reports on PTSD and suicides tied to the military that it is hard to keep up with all they get wrong.

First, what Senator Walsh got right was that the VA covers veterans for the first 5 years after leaving the military. The second thing he got right is most of the time symptoms of PTSD are often not acknowledged until many years later.

The rest of the claims in this article are pretty much wrong.

Calling suicide among veterans a crisis, Sen. Walsh proposes reforms
Billings Gazette
By Tom Lutey
March 26, 2014

Calling the high suicide rate among America’s combat veterans unacceptable, U.S. Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., on Wednesday laid out a plan to deal with the crisis.

“Our men and women have given a life commitment to serve our country and we need to make sure we’re taking care of them for the rest of their lives,” Walsh told The Gazette.

Roughly 22 veterans across the country commit suicide daily, according to the Veterans Administration. As a percentage, the rate is double that of the general population. Montana’s suicide rate among veterans was the highest per capita in the nation.

Walsh, a former Montana National Guard adjutant general, said undiagnosed combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries play major roles in the crisis. In some cases, it may take months for symptoms to emerge. By that time, veterans are often disconnected from their combat units and military personnel who might otherwise recognize symptoms.

In some cases, veterans struggling with PTSD or a combat-related brain injury end up receiving a wrongful discharge, meaning from the military’s point of view they suffer from a personality disorder. With that type of discharge, veterans lose their benefits, including care for combat-related mental health issues.

Walsh is proposing a seven-point plan for addressing the suicide crisis, beginning with a review of wrongful discharges, which may number more than 31,000 since the beginning of the Afghan War.
read more here

The crisis for veterans is not new. It has been going on for far too long. Chris Dana committed suicide at the age of 23 with a .22 caliber rifle.

As Gary Dana was collecting his dead son's belongings, he found a letter indicating that the National Guard was discharging his son under what are known as other-than-honorable conditions. The move was due to his skipping drills, which his family said was brought on by the mental strain of his service in Iraq.

The letter was in the trash, near a Wal-Mart receipt for .22-caliber rifle shells.

All across America, veterans such as Chris Dana are slipping through the cracks, left to languish by their military units and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA's ability to provide adequate care for veterans with mental ailments has come under increasing scrutiny, and the agency says it's scrambling to boost its resources to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, prevent suicides and help veterans cope. It's added more mental health counselors and started more suicide-prevention programs.

But the experience in Montana, which by some measures does more than any other state to support America's wars, shows how far the military and the VA have to go.

By September of 2007 TriWest and Montana Veterans Administration had a PTSD video conference.

"Family practitioners and community-based health care providers are integral in helping Montana's returning National Guard troops cope with the emotional and mental health issues resulting from serving in combat," explained David J. McIntyre, President and Chief Executive Officer of TriWest Healthcare Alliance. "This video conference is the first of its kind to combine the resources of the VA and TriWest to reach rural providers caring for these service members as they reintegrate into mainstream civilian life."

While the links to the original source of these reports are long gone, you can read what remains here.

When the battalion's tour of duty ended in late 2005 after 18 months away from home, Specialist Dana was rapidly processed through Department of Defense demobilization facilities to expedite his return home and reintegration into civilian environment. This expedited approach is standard operational procedure for Reserve Component (National Guard and Reserve) units whose tour of duty supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom has ended.

However. Chris Dana's suicide-as well as the many others that have occurred nationwide in the aftermath of National Guard and Reserve combat veterans' return to mainstream civilian life-has prompted Montana's critical assessment of the PDHRA program's effectiveness in reintegrating combat veterans into civilian society.

At the time, President Obama was still a US Senator and on the Veterans Affairs Committee. While running for office, he traveled to the Montana National Guards and met with Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, because of the efforts of the Montana National Guards leaders on military suicides.

While still the Democratic nominee, Obama promised to expand Montana National Guards program nation wide to address the mental health needs of the troops.

"He (Obama) told me he understood why we need to have additional screenings for PTSD," said Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, who was among a small group invited to meet with Obama on Wednesday in Billings. "And he told me when he is elected president, he will implement Montana's pilot program nationwide."

Kuntz, who recently gave up his job as a lawyer in Helena to advocate for the mentally ill and their families, said he was invited to brief Obama on how Montana had become a national model for assessing the mental health of its combat vets.

Besides the additional screenings, the Montana National Guard has developed crisis response teams that include a chaplain to investigate behavioral problems among its troops, and TriWest Healthcare pays to have four part-time counselors on hand to talk with soldiers and airmen during weekend drills.

After the briefing, Obama spent about 20 minutes telling several hundred veterans and their families that, if elected as president, he will be committed to meeting their needs.

Despite Obama becoming President and keeping his promise to expand what the Montana National Guard was doing, apparently the screenings were flawed to the point where far too many were still being discharged instead of being helped.

Every year there were more and more less than honorable discharges, as Senator Walsh pointed out however, he is far from the true numbers of abandoned troops.

In the House Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz, a retired Minnesota Army National Guard Command Sergeant Major, wrote a bill to address 31,000 less than honorable discharges in March of 2013.

By May the Huffington Post had this Disposable Soldiers report
Colorado Senator Michael Bennet introduced a bill that would have the Government Accountability Office look into these discharges in November of 2013.

Associated Press reported in February of 2013 that there were 11,000 of these discharges from the Army in 2013.

Wanting to do something, our elected officials do anything instead of figuring out what has been wrong all this time.

Saying military/veteran families are tired of excuses is not enough. As more "efforts" are done while more graves are filled, they are losing hope that other families will not have to endure the same heartbreak.

Tracking these reports for Wounded Times for almost 7 years, everyday, regretfully I surrendered the hope that all we had to do was help veterans become aware of what they needed and why they needed it. All of that, while a start to save their lives is wonderful, the deplorable fact is, the help they are getting has been abysmal and no one is doing anything about it.

Reporters just keep repeating what they are told and fail to discover the facts. The article by the Billings Gazette offers false hope as well as false information. How could they report "which may number more than 31,000" since the start of two wars when last year alone there were 11,000 from the Army itself?

The troops and veterans deserve facts if nothing else.

The American Statesman reported in December of 2012 that the VA would track how veterans died.

Using autopsy results, toxicology reports, inquests and accident reports from more than 50 agencies throughout the state, the Statesman determined the causes of death for 266 Texas veterans who served in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and were receiving Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits when they died. It was the first time a comprehensive view of how recent Texas veterans are dying has been produced.

The Billings Gazette did a report on Ret. Sergeant Ryan Ranalli's battle with PTSD and the fact that 7 of the men he served with committed suicide. They followed up the report with veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide than civilians.

That wasn't enough considering Navy SEAL Robert Guzzo returned from Iraq, he feared seeking treatment for PTSD would endanger his career and committed suicide. His death was reported by The Washington Post, The Fold and they were also the first to report that 22 veterans a day were committing suicide.

"Every day about 22 veterans in the United States kill themselves, a rate that is about 20 percent higher than the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 2007 estimate, according to two-year study by a VA researcher."

But as you can see by this part of the article, what was done before had not worked.

” The number of suicides overall in the United States increased by nearly 11 percent between 2007 and 2010, the study says.

This outcome was after everything was reported to to prevent suicides tied to military service. Now you know the rest of the story.

Montana National Guard Maj. Gen. Randy Mosley moving mountains

I think I have a crush on Maj. Gen. Randy Mosley of the Montana National Guard. I love to post about what he is doing on PTSD. Spc. Chris Dana's suicide caused massive changes instead of just talking about "doing something" and much of it is owed to Mosley.

I think above all, the frustration that comes with the fact taking care of the troops and the citizen soldiers should have been a guarantee. With some of the best minds in this country when it comes to waging war, you'd think they'd be able to put that kind of brain power behind taking care of the wounded caused by war, but they didn't think of any of this. The warriors are the ones who have been paying for it simply because they survived. I know I've been proven wrong before when I found hope in what some commanders have said they would do only to find they have done nothing more than talk about it but this time, Mosley has earned it already. kc

IR photo by Martin Kidston - Maj. Gen. Randy Mosley, adjutant general of the Montana National Guard, center, briefs Gov. Brian Schweitzer, right, on the completion of 14 recommendations passed down by a special task force dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder among soldiers coming home from war. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Ireland, left, spoke about the Guard’s ability to better care for its soldiers and their families.

Guard reaches goals for addressing PTSD
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record - 08/20/08

The Montana National Guard has achieved its plan to better watch for post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers who return from war, military leaders said Tuesday.

The announcement, given at a briefing in the State Capitol, comes 18 months after the suicide of a Helena soldier prompted Gov. Brian Schweitzer to challenge Montana’s senior military leaders to scrutinize the Guard’s post-deployment atmosphere.

“We will do whatever it takes to make our soldiers whole,” Schweitzer said at Tuesday’s briefing. “I’m proud that our National Guard has taken the lead. We’re not perfect and we won’t be perfect, even after this war. But we’ll learn, we’ll modify and we will change.”

Since 2001, the Montana Guard has seen more than 245,000 service-member deployments in the war on terror.

From 2004 to 2006, as many as 1,400 state soldiers deployed to Iraq, triggering concerns back home that the Montana Guard, like much of the nation’s military, was ill-equipped to deal with the mental-health consequences of war.

Those concerns came to light in March 2007 when Spc. Chris Dana killed himself several months after returning from Iraq. The loss pressed Dana’s family to call for change, and triggered action by state and military leaders.
click post title for more

Obama talks about Montana National Guard at Columbia University

Columbia University Presidential Forum
LIVE VIDEO: Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain make a joint appearance at Columbia University to discuss civic engagement in the post 9/11 world.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22886841#22886841

At about half way through Senator Obama's question and answer session, he brings up the Montana National Guard and their PTSD program. I know I must be boring some readers with this but it is one of the best programs in the country.

Obama promises to repeat Montana's National Guard PTSD work nation wide
Obama Pledges Nationwide Use of PTSD Program

Eric Newhouse

Great Falls Tribune

Aug 28, 2008 - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised Wednesday to expand Montana's pilot program to assess the mental health of combat vets nationwide, if elected.The Montana National Guard has developed a program to check its soldiers and airmen for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first two years after returning from combat, then once a year thereafter. The program exceeds national standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense.The pilot program was created in response to the suicide of former Army Spc. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself on March 4, 2007, days after being given a less-than-honorable discharge because he could no longer handle attending drills following a tour in Iraq.

"He (Obama) told me he understood why we need to have additional screenings for PTSD," said Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, who was among a small group invited to meet with Obama on Wednesday in Billings. "And he told me when he is elected president, he will implement Montana's pilot program nationwide."Kuntz, who recently gave up his job as a lawyer in Helena to advocate for the mentally ill and their families, said he was invited to brief Obama on how Montana had become a national model for assessing the mental health of its combat vets.

click above for more

I've done a lot of posts on the Montana National Guards program.
http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/search?q=Montana+National+Guard

The other point Senator Obama made, aside from how good this program is, is that Chris Dana's brother gave up his career to take on the cause of PTSD suicides and do something about it. Obama said that he never asked Matt if he was a Democrat or a Republican and he didn't care. All he cared about was that there was a need and Matt stepped up to fill that need.

Now, wouldn't it be great if we all managed to do that?

I am very grateful to Obama for going to Montana to talk to the family of Chris Dana and find out what kind of great work can be done. I was really excited when I read about this knowing that his attention would lead to national attention on this. Now, with this national spotlight on him tonight on MSNBC, I'm sure there will be.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Montana Guard to hold PTSD public meetings

Montana Guard to hold PTSD public meetings
Posted on May 16




HELENA - The Montana National Guard will have public meetings throughout state in May to discuss Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the steps it has taken to help returning and deploying soldiers and airmen of the Montana Guard.

The meetings will take place during the week of May 19. Four separate teams of

soldiers and airmen will conduct the meetings, according to Col. Jeff Ireland, director of personnel and manpower for the guard.

"We want to take this information to the people of Montana so that they understand what

PTSD is and what they can do to help their friends, neighbors or relatives that may be affected by it," he explained.

The meetings will run from 7 to 8 p.m. on the following dates in western Montana:

May 19, Libby, National Guard Armory, 1004 Treasure Ave.; Dillon, National Guard Armory, 1070 Highway 41 N.

May 20, Kalispell Armed Forces Reserve Center, 2989 Highway 93 N.

May 21, Hamilton, National Guard Armory, 910 W. Main St.

May 22, Missoula, National Guard Armory, 2501 S. Reserve.

"The Montana National Guard is dedicated to ensuring that all Montana's soldiers and airmen are taken care of before, during and after a deployment in support of our state and nation," Ireland said. "Our efforts are to reach out to the people of this state and get their help."

The meetings schedule will include the viewing of a 30-minute video about PTSD and its impact on service members and their families. In addition, a question-and-answer period will be included to get feedback from attendees.

The public is encouraged and invited to attend the meetings.

For more information: Capt. Jeremy Hedges, 406-324-3986, or the "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon" campaign http://www.montanaguard.com.
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/05/16/bnews/br84.txt

Montana National Guard's proactive PTSD program becoming national model

Montana National Guard's proactive PTSD program becoming national model
By ERIC NEWHOUSE • Tribune Projects Editor • March 1, 2009


HELENA — Two years after former Army Spc. Chris Dana committed suicide after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, the Montana National Guard is spending approximately half a million dollars a year to make combat deployments easier for its soldiers and their families.

The Montana Guard's Yellow Ribbon program has become a model that the rest of America should adopt, said U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.

"We're getting terrific responses to the program from the families of our soldiers, but also some great suggestions," said Col. Jeff Ireland, chief of manpower and personnel for the Montana Guard. "For instance, we were told it would be useful to have a special breakout session for spouses.

Ireland said officials believe the session was a great idea.

"We plan to act on it and other suggestions until we meet all the needs we're aware of," he added.

With the approval and funding of the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., the Montana National Guard is adding five positions and spending approximately $500,000 to fund the Yellow Ribbon program, Ireland said.

The core of the program is twofold: mental health assessments every six months after deployment and crisis response teams that can be activated immediately to check out concerns about the emotional wellbeing of a soldier.

"The genius of the Montana screening model is that it happens every six months," Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last week during testimony in Washington.
click link for more

Montana Model for Assessing Returning Vets for PTSD and TBI

Before Barack Obama became President, he met with Matt Kuntz because he heard about the great work the Montana National Guard was doing to prevent suicides and address PTSD. President Obama gave me the most hope I've ever had the PTSD will be taken seriously, finally, and that the DOD and the VA will be given what they need to address it. Readers of this blog know this is one of the biggest reasons I supported him and still do.

We talk a lot about the death count when wars are going on but we hardly mention the true tally when they come home wounded by what they went through. So far, no other president has taken any of this untold price paid seriously enough. Had any of them been as involved in PTSD, there would be very few suicides of veterans, no veteran being discharged under Personality Disorder or other misdiagnoses, no veteran turned away when they seek help and total public awareness of what PTSD is. PTSD is a killer and it is time it was treated like the enemy instead of the men and women it wounds.

Barack Talks to Vets in Billings
By Zach in Helena - Aug 28th, 2008 at 1:52 pm EDT
Senator Obama spoke to a group of veterans and military families yesterday at Riverfront Park in Billings. He spoke at length on the failures of the current administration to take care of the nation’s veterans, before taking questions from the audience on a variety of issues. You can watch his remarks about veterans, energy, and the VA system here.
What's going on right now, the simple fact is we're not doing right by our veterans. Not here in Montana, and not anywhere in the United States, and I want you to know that one of the reasons I'm running for president of the United States is because I want to make sure that today's veterans are treated like my grandfather was, when he came home, he got the GI Bill and was able to go to college and got FHA loans to go to school and was treated with honor. As President I'm going to make sure that the VA system in Montana gets the oversight, direction, and resources it needs to do the job. [Watch the video]

Before he spoke, Senator Obama talked privately with the family of Spc. Chris Dana, a Montana National Guard veteran who suffered from Posttraumatic stress disorder and committed suicide in 2007, shortly after returning from Iraq. His stepbrother, Matt Kuntz, has became an advocate for better treatment of PTSD.

Montana Model for Assessing Returning Vets for PTSD and TBI
Wednesday 18 February 2009
by: Eric Newhouse, t r u t h o u t Perspective
Montana is becoming a model state for assessing its returning combat vets for PTSD and TBI.

Following the suicide two years ago of a recently deployed combat vet, Montana has become a model for accessing and assisting veterans who show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). While the plan doesn't go nearly far enough, it's one that I understand the Obama administration is seriously considering for nationwide implementation - and it would be an excellent first step.

Montana's reforms started after Chris Dana, a specialist with the 163rd Infantry of the Montana National Guard, returned from combat, began isolating himself from family and friends, and quit attending Guard drills. His commanders told him to get his act together or they'd run him out of the Guard. Dana received a less-than-honorable discharge a few months later and put a bullet through his brain on March 4, 2007. That occurred as I was flying to New York City to help judge the Pulitzer Prizes at Columbia University; after I got back to Montana, I've covered this story ever since.

In a highly patriotic state - Montana has the second-highest ratio of vets in its population, trailing only Alaska - Dana's suicide was an outrage. His stepbrother Matt Kuntz, a former Army officer and attorney in Helena, stirred the pot with angry guest editorials in Montana's newspapers.

"I may sound pretty damn angry and bitter, and I am," Kuntz told me at the time. "We should have fixed this before. And the clock is ticking. If you think there aren't people out there right now staring at their guns, you're wrong."

Stung by the public reaction, Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Adjutant General Randy Mosley convened a panel, solicited suggestions for reform, and adopted them all within about 15 months. Many of the reforms broke new ground within the National Guard Bureau because they set a new standard. They also cost more money to implement.

Probably most important was that soldiers returning from deployment receive a mental health assessment every six months for the first two years after their return. Counselors probe for signs of stress, including anxieties, sleep disorders, family problems and excessive alcohol use. It's a mandatory requirement, so it reduces the stigma of a soldier reaching out for help with an emotional disorder. And it recognizes that many soldiers don't begin to experience the symptoms of PTSD or TBI until they've been home for six months to a year.

Second was the creation of crisis response teams made up of unit officers, NCOs, personnel officers and a chaplain. When a soldier quits coming to drill, they're activated to find out why and provide help. They can also respond to concerns voiced by family members of other soldiers.

In addition to that, TriWest Healthcare has provided the funding to station counselors with the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard during their drill weekends. They're on hand to talk with personnel and observe. The theory is that soldiers feel more comfortable talking with counselors in a less formal setting, and it seems to be working because TriWest has recently renewed its one-year pilot program.
click link for more

Military suicides twice the rate of civilians

Military suicides twice the rate of civilians
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 21, 2013

This is Suicide Awareness Month. Part of being aware of suicides we need to begin with facts and a little history lesson. The first one is there is a nice little trick being played on the press. When they interview military brass, they will get what the brass wants to tell them about enlisted troops but what they don't talk about are the number of discharged troops they no longer have to track. When they talk to VA heads about veterans suicides, again, they only talk about the veterans and not the troops. Each government group's numbers are shocking but when you put them together they are devastating.

A more troubling report is the number of attempted suicides that no one really wants to talk about. After all, they survived so no big deal. Right? Wrong. The attempted suicides are the canaries in the coal mine because we've seen it going back to Vietnam veterans.

They came home with nothing available for them so you'd expect to see their suicides at a high rate. As a matter of fact they are the majority of the suicides tied to military service plus the highest group in the VA claims backlog. With everything available for them now along with the new generation, no one seems to be asking why they survived all these years only to end their own lives now.

That is the question we need to be asking about all veterans and active duty troops. Why do they want to die after they survived combat? They wanted to live during it but they don't want to live after it? This doesn't seem to bother anyone enough.

When it comes to veterans the simple fact is they are twice the rate of civilian suicides. When you take the report of 22 a day committing suicide and then add in the latest number from the VA on attempted suicides, that means there are 55 veterans a day deciding they no longer want to live. Pretty bad considering how much has been done since 2008. Then we need to add in the number of military suicides but unlike the press reporting the numbers without Army National Guards and Army Reservists, which turned out to be at least 494 suicides for 2012.

As bad as that number was, we do not know how many attempted suicide but in the Suicide Event Report for 2011, the last report done, there were 915 no longer wanting to live.

2011 Air Force 50
241 attempted suicide

Army 167
440 attempted suicide

Marines 32
156 attempted suicide

Navy 52
87 attempted suicide

Department of Defense Suicide Event Report for 2011
For 2011 there were 935 attempted suicides in the military with 915 individuals trying to kill themselves. 896 tried once, 18 tried twice and 1 tried three times.

This morning I was reading a news report from KAJ18 News with this in it.

"Montana also has the highest rate of veterans per capita of any state in the United States. Veterans are twice as at risk for suicide as non-veterans," pointed out Kellie LaFave the suicide prevention coordinator at the VA hospital.

Soldiers are at higher risk for suicide because of their exposure to combat situations, isolation from their families and their intense training. This can lead to anxiety, chronic pain and sleep deprivation. All of these factors can lead to suicide.

"We have had our struggle here at the Montana National Guard, with suicide. And, one is too many, and that is really the message that we put out to our membership. Cause one suicide is just too many so we all need to what we can," Montana National Guard spokesperson Major Tim Crowe said.

If you read that and didn't know the history of the Montana National Guards then you'll just think it is a terrible story they are doing something about. This is nails on a blackboard to the families left behind because this just didn't happen. It started a long time ago and thanks to the digital world, there is proof of what they knew and when they knew it.

Spc. Chris Dana killed himself March 4, 2007. By 2008 the Montana National Guards decided to do something to prevent more soldiers like Chris from ending their own lives.

"Montana has gone beyond the level of other states in the country, and I applaud that," said Capt. Joan Hunter, a U.S. Public Service officer who was recently designated the director of psychological health for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.

"They saw an emergency need, studied the problems and make some significant improvements," Hunter said Friday.

State Adjutant General Randy Mosley said that the effort stems from a former Montana soldier who didn't get the help he needed and who killed himself a year ago.

"We want to make sure we're doing everything we can to help our people and their families pick up the pieces for the problems that may have begun during their deployment in Iraq," Mosley said last week.

I has a lot of hope back then that the military finally got it. They had to do more, which they seemed to have understood but it turned out to be more of the same.

The announcement, given at a briefing in the State Capitol, comes 18 months after the suicide of a Helena soldier prompted Gov. Brian Schweitzer to challenge Montana’s senior military leaders to scrutinize the Guard’s post-deployment atmosphere.

“We will do whatever it takes to make our soldiers whole,” Schweitzer said at Tuesday’s briefing. “I’m proud that our National Guard has taken the lead. We’re not perfect and we won’t be perfect, even after this war. But we’ll learn, we’ll modify and we will change.”

Since 2001, the Montana Guard has seen more than 245,000 service-member deployments in the war on terror.

From 2004 to 2006, as many as 1,400 state soldiers deployed to Iraq, triggering concerns back home that the Montana Guard, like much of the nation’s military, was ill-equipped to deal with the mental-health consequences of war.

This sounded so good that President Obama went to find out more about this program when he was still a Senator and on the Veterans Affairs Committee. The press did not follow him there. I found the report out of The Gazette.

Since Dana’s death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans. Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he’s been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife Sandy and their infant daughter Fiona.

Kuntz was heavy with emotion, but hopeful and eager to share Dana’s story, and tell the senator about his work to ensure other Montana veterans aren’t suffering from the same condition that made his step-brother take his life.

"He (Obama) told me he understood why we need to have additional screenings for PTSD," said Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, who was among a small group invited to meet with Obama on Wednesday in Billings. "And he told me when he is elected president, he will implement Montana's pilot program nationwide."

Kuntz, who recently gave up his job as a lawyer in Helena to advocate for the mentally ill and their families, said he was invited to brief Obama on how Montana had become a national model for assessing the mental health of its combat vets.

Besides the additional screenings, the Montana National Guard has developed crisis response teams that include a chaplain to investigate behavioral problems among its troops, and TriWest Healthcare pays to have four part-time counselors on hand to talk with soldiers and airmen during weekend drills.

After the briefing, Obama spent about 20 minutes telling several hundred veterans and their families that, if elected as president, he will be committed to meeting their needs.

That seemed so hopeful but even with Obama paying attention after election, no one has been held accountable when every year the suicides went up along with attempted suicides. Billions of dollars have gone into "prevention" but produced more funerals that didn't need to happen.

By 2012 Ryan Ranalli was grieving for the loss of 7 he served with in Iraq. They committed suicide. The report again came from the Gazette.

'You're taught in the military that you don't ask for help'

Ranalli, a retired U.S. Army sergeant, saw how the deaths gutted family members.

Despite struggling with the demons of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, Ranalli, 33, vowed that suicide would never be an option.

Yet about 9 p.m. on April 8, an angry and drunken Ranalli mumbled something to his wife, “I love you,” or “You know I will always love you” and sought refuge in the family’s garage.

There, the 200-pound, 6-foot, 3-inch veteran grabbed a parachute cord, wrapped it around his neck and slung it over a beam.

His horrified wife, Jamie, placed a frantic call to his parents who live two minutes away and then went to the garage to be with her husband of two years.

“I thought if I was standing there he wasn’t going to do anything,” Jamie said, choking back tears.

Ranalli’s father cut the cord to rescue his son.

He was transported immediately to the VA hospital.

The drunken episode was the first in about two years.

“I didn’t ever expect that to happen,” Jamie said. “That’s never been him. In my heart I don’t believe it was a serious attempt. I believe it was a cry for help. I believe he was just so overloaded with the feelings and the emotions. Of course, the drinking didn’t help any of that. I believe he was screaming to get him somewhere where he could unload all of this.”

Ranalli remembers nothing of that night, but recalls with precision the events that led to his alcohol-fueled decision.

He was a squad leader with the 502nd Infantry Brigade in March 2003 when it headed the 101st Airborne’s combat air assault into Iraq. The ninth anniversary of the invasion triggered memories of dates when comrades were killed and of defining firefights and battles. He recalled vivid images of combat, images he had suppressed and never discussed.

Wounded Times tracked these stories so that no one would be able to spin anything anymore. There is no way for the DOD or the VA to spin what the reality has been for military families.

Only way to reduce suicides tied to military is fix stupid solutions

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 14, 2014

There is only one way to reduce military/veteran suicides but in order to do it, they'd first have to fix what are stupid solutions.

Spc. Jacob Sexton committed suicide in 2009. His Dad went on a crusade to prevent other families from going through the same thing. Indiana WBNS 10 News reported that Jeff Sexton went to the State of the Union Address in 2014, invited by Senator Joe Donnelly.

In this video you'll hear about a Dad saying his son committed suicide in 2009. He talked about how his son Chance Kingsley had reported PTSD but was still sent back. He mentioned that if what was in the Sexton suicide prevention bill were in place back then, his son would still be alive. The trouble with this is, he was wrong.

There were many bills, rules and regulations in place pushed by parents with the same goal of sparing other families from burying their members due to suicide. A great example is the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act signed by President Bush in 2008. This was supposed to save lives too.

More bills followed and pushed for mental health screenings, pre and post deployment but the leaders of the military said they do not do post deployment screenings during a Senate Armed Forces Committee meeting in 2010. They excused themselves saying they didn't have the manpower or the time to do them.

While most are talking about the Clay Hunt Suicide act being held up, they pretty much ignored this one and all the others that sound good in a news report and a speech but will do little to actually save any lives.

The Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act Explained -- Washington, D.C. 6-22-13
Chicago Medical Innovations
Jun 27, 2013

Marta McLellan Ross, Military Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN), explains The Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act at "Visible Honor for Invisible Wounds" to commemorate National PTSD Awareness Day in Washington, D.C. on June 22, 2013.

The event was co-sponsored by Chicago Medical Innovations. Join Chicago Medical Innovations (http://www.chicagomedicalinnovations....) in the fight against Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and help spread the word about PTSD.

Chicago Medical Innovations is a Non-Profit 501(c)3 Organization that facilitates access to innovative treatment options for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans, sexual assault victims and others who have faced traumatic experiences and have been unable to achieve adequate relief from PTSD symptoms through existing evidence-based treatments.

Indiana National Guardsman committed suicide at movie theater
Spc. Jacob Sexton died because of war and because the military didn't make sure they were prepared to return home.

Guardsman home from war kills self in Ind. theater
Associated Press
7:12 p.m. CDT, October 13, 2009

MUNCIE, Ind. - The father of an Indiana National Guardsman who fatally shot himself inside a movie theater said Tuesday that the families of servicemembers returning home from war need to closely watch them for signs of stress.

Spc. Jacob Sexton, 21, showed no signs of being suicidal before shooting himself in the head, the guardsman's father, Jeffrey Sexton of Farmland, said.

"We just need to watch these boys and the girls coming back home. Something's just not right. Too much is happening," Jeffrey Sexton told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Muncie police said Jacob Sexton had argued with theater employees on Monday night over having to show identification to see the R-rated horror comedy "Zombieland." Twenty minutes into the film, a friend handed Sexton a 9 mm handgun, at the guardsman's request, and he then shot himself in the head, police said.

The Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act of 2014 would:

Require annual mental health assessments for all servicemembers, including members of the Active, Guard, and Reserve components. Right now, the best and most consistent screening is happening only for those within the deployment cycle which can leave non-deployed members of the Active, Reserve, and Guard components underserved.

Maintain strong privacy protections for servicemembers. We must ensure that seeking help remains a sign of strength by protecting the privacy of the servicemember coming forward. The privacy of servicemembers would be ensured by guaranteeing medical privacy protections for these mental health assessments.

Require a Pentagon report to evaluate existing military mental health practices and provide recommendations for improvement. This report, which is due to Congress within a year of enactment of the bill, would help identify which programs are working and which need to be fixed. A specific focus of the report will be identifying successful peer-to-peer programs that address the need for a more bottom-up approach to identifying warning signs and combatting stigma in each of the Services, with the intention of future expansion.

The Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act will come up for a vote as part of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act this year.

There have been years of repeated "efforts" that were supposed to reduce suicides while removing the stigma attached to admitting a soldier needs help to heal PTSD. One of the first of such efforts was spawned by the suicide of a Montana National Guardsman Spec. Chris Dana.

The Montana National Guard is taking steps to help returning and deploying soldiers and airmen deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The Guard hopes to equip citizens with the tools to reach out to friends, family members and neighbors who could be suffering from PTSD through statewide meetings.

The meetings outline symptoms of both PTSD and mild traumatic brain injuries and how to get help.

Col. Jeff Ireland: "We want to do everything we can to most importantly take care of our soldiers, our airmen and their families and if we have someone suffering from PTSD, helping them to get into a program that will help to get them better so that we can continue them as a resource for the guard and also be a productive citizen."

There were two PTSD meetings Wednesday -- one in Helena at the Armed Forces Reserve Center and the other in Butte at the National Guard Armory.

This caused then Senator Obama to travel to Montana to talk about the efforts.

Montana National Guard Spc. Chris Dana will never know the impact his life and ultimately his death may someday have on the lives of veterans nationwide.

Dana took his life in March 2007, less than two years after returning from a tour in Iraq. His family believes he was a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on by his combat experience.

Since Dana's death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post-traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans.

Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he's been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park, Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife, Sandy, and their infant daughter, Fiona.

And this was said before the election.

August 28, 2008 - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised Wednesday to expand Montana's pilot program to assess the mental health of combat vets nationwide, if elected.

The Montana National Guard has developed a program to check its soldiers and airmen for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first two years after returning from combat, then once a year thereafter. The program exceeds national standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The pilot program was created in response to the suicide of former Army Spc. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself on March 4, 2007, days after being given a less-than-honorable discharge because he could no longer handle attending drills following a tour in Iraq.

"He (Obama) told me he understood why we need to have additional screenings for PTSD," said Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, who was among a small group invited to meet with Obama on Wednesday in Billings.

"And he told me when he is elected president, he will implement Montana's pilot program nationwide."

Kuntz, who recently gave up his job as a lawyer in Helena to advocate for the mentally ill and their families, said he was invited to brief Obama on how Montana had become a national model for assessing the mental health of its combat vets.

Besides the additional screenings, the Montana National Guard has developed crisis response teams that include a chaplain to investigate behavioral problems among its troops, and TriWest Healthcare pays to have four part-time counselors on hand to talk with soldiers and airmen during weekend drills.

After the briefing, Obama spent about 20 minutes telling several hundred veterans and their families that, if elected as president, he will be committed to meeting their needs.

I was hopeful. So were a lot of others that things would change because Senator Obama served on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and knew what was going on. He was one a few politicians paying attention to the bitter battles they fought after combat and suffering needlessly. He was one of a few politicians we expected to hold people accountable for what they failed to do.

Suicides went up after more bills and more money was spent by Congress yet as President, he has held no one accountable for any of it.

When Dallas Morning News and NBC reported Injured Heroes, Broken Promises: Hundreds of Soldiers Allege Mistreatment at Army Warrior Transition Units being told to man up and being treated like fakes, it showed exactly where all the talk, all the promises and all the claims made about changing the culture ended. It all ended with a bunch of nonsense produced by leaders like General Ray Odierno.

Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations.

But it also has to do with where you come from. I came from a loving family, one who gave lots of positive reinforcement, who built up psychologically who I was, who I am, what I might want to do.

If leaders are this boneheaded then how can anyone expect a bill will reduce suicides when they are being pushed to blame themselves? Congressional Bills have yet to be written to fix stupid.