Monday, April 2, 2012

Suffolk program supports vets with PTSD

Suffolk program supports vets with PTSD
April 1, 2012
By PAUL LAROCCO
Photo credit: John Roca State Senator Lee M. Zeldin announcing the creation of the PFC Joseph Dwyer Program. (April 1, 2012)
As they battled post-traumatic stress disorder, Army veterans Joseph Dwyer and John Jennings had plenty of concerned family and friends.

Still, there were few people the Long Island natives could actually talk to -- few fellow war-scarred service members able to break through. Both died from accidental drug overdoses, and Sunday, their loved ones gathered at a Sayville American Legion post to back a new program creating support groups for veterans with PTSD.

"Hopefully people won't have to go through what Joe did," said Brian Dwyer, whose brother, originally of Mount Sinai, died in North Carolina in 2008. "The whole system has just been overwhelmed." As part of the state budget approved last week, Suffolk is one of four counties getting $200,000 to set up the Pfc. Joseph Dwyer Program, in which eight to 10 veterans diagnosed with PTSD or traumatic brain injury -- under a professional's supervision -- will help each other cope.

The idea for the program grew out of a series of meetings of the John P. Jennings Veterans' Advisory Panel, convened last year by Sen. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), an Iraq War veteran. Jennings, 34, an Army National Guard lieutenant, returned from Iraq in 2005 and died at his Calverton home in January 2011. read more here

Vets say declaring national monument could help vets with PTSD

Vets say declaring national monument could help vets with PTSD
April 1, 2012
By Samantha Manning
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Veterans said declaring the Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks region a national monument could help vets coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to the Unites States Department of Veterans Affairs, between seven and eight percent of people are estimated to have experienced PTSD in their lives, and the chances are among the greatest in veterans.

Some veterans said that a key method of dealing with the condition once they're back home is to spend time in the great outdoors. "It's very important to me to be able to decompress a little bit," Vietnam veteran Peter Ossorio said. Ossorio's daughter is an Iraq war veteran. read more here

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Tricare web base mental health program shutting down

Tricare to close online mental health program
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Mar 31, 2012

 The Tricare Assistance Program for behavioral health counseling is being shut down due to lack of use, Tricare officials said Friday. The $3 million demonstration program, launched in August 2009, was designed to test use of Web-based video conferencing for mental health counseling.

The instant messaging and Web-based chat program facilitated communications with patients and counselors on non-medical concerns ranging from deployment anxiety and work stress to family and relationship issues. The program logged 5,109 calls during a two-year period, with 89 percent coming from the Tricare West region, according to Tricare spokesman Austin Camacho. Only 1,188 were initial calls, while the rest were follow-ups, he added. read more here

Atheism-themed concert held at Fort Bragg

Atheism-themed concert held at Bragg
By Tom Breen -
The Associated Press Posted :
Sunday Apr 1, 2012
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — For the first time in history, the U.S. military hosted an event expressly for soldiers and others who don’t believe in God, with a county fair-like gathering Saturday on the main parade ground at one of the world’s largest Army posts. The Rock Beyond Belief event at Fort Bragg, organized by soldiers here two years after an evangelical Christian event at the eastern North Carolina post, is the most visible sign so far of a growing desire by military personnel with atheist or other secular beliefs to get the same recognition as their religious counterparts.

The purpose was not to make the Army look bad, organizers said, but to show that atheists and other secular believers have a place in institutions like the military. “I love the military,” said Sgt. Justin Griffith, main organizer of the event and the military director of American Atheists. He added, “This is not meant to be a black eye.” Griffith said he and other non-religious soldiers are not permitted to hold atheist meetings at the post and have so far been rebuffed in their efforts to change that. They feel their beliefs marginalize them.

Organizers were hoping for a crowd of about 5,000. At least several hundred people gathered on the parade ground by midday Saturday. Rainy weather for most of the morning may have affected the turnout. Fort Bragg officials said they would provide a crowd estimate later. read more here
Military funeral held for homeless veteran in Westlake Village
By Rachel McGrath
Posted March 30, 2012
PHOTO BY CHUCK KIRMAN, VENTURA COUNTY STAR Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel Stephens presents a U.S. flag to retired Army Lt. Col. Richard Kohlbrand at the military funeral for Richard Keachie of the Air Force at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Mortuary and Cemetery in Westlake Village on Friday.
Homeless veteran Richard Keachie, who died in Los Angeles on Jan. 29, received a military funeral Friday at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks in Westlake Village. All that is known about Keachie, whose remains were unclaimed, is that he was born in New Orleans on Feb. 24, 1933, and enlisted in the Air Force in 1952, serving until 1954. "He left this Earth in a way that we would not want him to leave this Earth, with nobody to be there for him on his final day,"

Valley Oaks operations manager Chester Perry said to the small group in the veterans area of the Memorial Park. "But you are here. You are his family this day," Perry said.

Keachie's funeral service and burial at Riverside National Cemetery were made possible through the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program, a collaboration among Dignity Memorial funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers, Riverside National Cemetery, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and local veterans organizations and veterans advocates. read more here

Fort Carson Wife in ICU after hit and run driver took off

Family: Children Of Hit-And-Run Victim Witnessed Crash

Neighborhood children, including her own, witnessed the devastating hit-and-run crash that has left a soldier's wife in ICU.
Posted: 12:22 PM Mar 31, 2012 Reporter: KKTV

Neighborhood children, including her own, witnessed the devastating hit-and-run crash that has left Cassandrea Thorn in ICU. "Her pelvis was crushed," Cassandrea's father-in-law Paul Thorn told 11 News. "Most of her back muscles and skin have been separated from the tissues of her bone." The crash occurred on Remagen Road, which is on Fort Carson, Thursday evening. read more here

Camp Pendleton Dogs poisoned with anti-freeze

More Dogs Poisoned on Camp Pendleton 
By San Diego 6 News Reporters
Mar 31, 2012

OCEANSIDE - As she sits in a park near Camp Pendleton, two small wooden boxes are by Janessa Pierce's side. "This is sassy and this is Zoe." Besides pictures and memories, the ashes inside the box are all that's left of Pierce's two dogs. "My kids still cry and ask for our dogs almost daily," said Pierce as she held back the tears. "It's unimaginable to think someone could do this to other people." Janessa then pulls out two pictures, one is a yellow lab mix with her and her husband, a child sits close in tears. Another pictures how a black Lab mix, her eyes closed on a hospital bed. These are pictures of Sassy and Zoe, they passed away two weeks ago, someone poisoned them. "We have evidence of the food that was put in the backyard," said Pierce. Reports from the Veterinarian also confirm the dogs died from Anti-freeze Toxicity.

It shows Sassy was taken the hospital one night before Zoe and passed away the next morning. She had been vomiting for two days. Zoe was also suffering from similar symptoms, she died after the Pierce's made the decision not to give her dialysis. Even with the treatment, she would have only had a 20% chance of survival. What's most disturbing to Janessa is, the poisonings are happening again. "There were other dogs on our street that were poisoned in the last couple of days and those dogs died as well." said Janessa. read more here

National Guards 182nd Soldiers Become Civilians Again

The Impact Of War
SAT MARCH 31, 2012
Home Front: Soldiers Become Civilians Again
Members of the 182nd Infantry Regiment sit through a briefing at Camp Atterbury during the demobilization in Columbus, Ind. Tom Dreisbach / NPR
By EDITOR Over the next year, Weekend Edition will be spending time with the men of the National Guard's 182nd Infantry Regiment as they make the transition from soldiers to civilians in a series called "Home Front."

 We first met the soldiers of the 182nd Infantry Regiment of the Army National Guard about a week ago, on an airport tarmac. They had just landed in the United States after wrapping up a year-long deployment to Afghanistan. The plane touched down in Indiana in the middle of the night. It was raining, but the soldiers bounding down the stairs couldn't have cared less. They were almost running, pausing only when they realized a couple of one-star generals were standing at the bottom of the stairs ready to welcome them back to the U.S. The 600 or so soldiers filed into a noisy airport hangar, their backpacks and M-4 rifles in tow. Under the drone of fluorescent lights, an officer shouted instructions. read more here

Documentary shows how program gives veterans an outlet for healing

Documentary shows how program gives veterans an outlet for healing

Mar. 31, 2012
Written by KRISTEN CATES

When 28-year-old Great Falls native Jesse Scollin signed up for the U.S. Army 10 years ago, he knew that he would go into combat at some point. "I was just ready to go," he said. "I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into."

What the 2002 C.M. Russell High School graduate got was work as a combat medic in Iraq in 2003, experiencing things he struggles to describe even seven years after being medically discharged from the military. He and other veterans are getting the chance to tell their stories through a new documentary being produced by a Great Falls-area native and Iraq war veteran about a relatively new program in Missoula that gives wounded and traumatized soldiers a sense of peace.

"A Brotherhood Reforged" was created by Sun River alumnus, recent University of Montana graduate and Army veteran Dan West. read more here

Lifetime Traumatic Stress Linked to Heightened Inflammation

Lifetime Traumatic Stress Linked to Heightened Inflammation
By TRACI PEDERSEN
Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 31, 2012

The more traumatic stress a person is exposed to over the course of a lifetime, the greater the chances the person has elevated levels of inflammatory markers in his or her bloodstream, say researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) and the University of California, San Francisco.

The study is the first to examine the association between cumulative traumatic stress and inflammation. For the study, researchers looked at 979 patients (ages 45 to 90) with stable heart disease and analyzed their exposures to 18 different types of traumatic events, all of which involved either experiencing or watching a direct threat to life or physical integrity.

Next, researchers measured several clinical markers of inflammation that circulate in the bloodstream, and found a direct correlation between lifetime stress exposure and inflammation levels. “This may be significant for people with cardiovascular disease, because we know that heart disease patients with higher levels of inflammation tend to have worse outcomes,” said lead author Aoife O’Donovan, a fellow in psychiatry at UCSF. Five years later, researchers measured the surviving patients’ inflammation markers again, and discovered that the participants who had originally reported the highest levels of trauma still had the highest levels of inflammation. read more here

Run Raises Awareness For Soldier Suicide

Run Raises Awareness For Soldier Suicide 
Apr 01, 2012
By Molly Miles, Reporter

SLEEPY EYE, MN - Over the past five years, 24 soldiers with the Minnesota National Guard have committed suicide and the suicide rate among U.S. soldiers continues to rise. Suicide is sobering topic that people often run away from. But Saturday in Sleepy Eye people were running for it. Running for hope and a better future for the men and women that serve our country.

Jean Clark whose son is in the army says, "Show our support, and show our country that we support our troops." Running to raise awareness for the psychological wounds of war. New Ulm VFW Commander Wil Burdorf says, "We have to make people aware of the suicide rate of the veterans and this is one way we could make it more visible." Running because there are as many as 18 suicides per day among all U.S. veterans, and a veteran is 12 times more likely to die by his or her own hand after leaving the military than to be killed in action while on active duty. read more here

Aid efforts continue for injured Marine

Aid efforts continue for injured Marine

Chestatee security guard asks for support

By Jeff Gill

POSTED: April 1, 2012
While a security guard at Chestatee High School in northwest Hall, Rudy Guerrero took time out to encourage some students to join the Marines. Sean Adams, who wowed recruiters with his 100 pushups, followed through on his dream. And like Guerrero, an ex-Marine who served in Vietnam, Adams went straight to a war zone — for him, it was Afghanistan. While there, he met disaster.

While leading a patrol with other Marines on Feb. 10, the 2011 Chestatee graduate was injured by a roadside bomb blast and suffered life-altering injuries from the resulting blast. He is now a double amputee. “I feel bad because he’s a young guy, I knew him, I talked him into going into the Marine Corps,” Guerrero said. “He already had it planned out, but still I feel bad. And he’s a Marine, and we have to help him out.” Guerrero is trying to place donation cans in public locations, as a member of the Marine Corps League, Upper Chattahoochee Detachment.
Lending support Family members of Sean Adams have created a website and a Facebook page to provide updates on his condition. Email inquiries can be sent to pfcseanadams@yahoo.com.
read more here

Helpers sought to mentor Marines

Military briefs: Helpers sought to mentor Marines
9:00 PM, Mar. 31, 2012
 Written by Denise Goolsby
The Desert Sun

 The Desert Cities Mitchell Paige Medal of Honor Chapter, 1st Marine Division Association is calling for volunteers to mentor Marines of the Wounded Warrior Detachment at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms who are leaving active duty. The mentors will work on a one-on-one basis with Marines to help them transition to civilian life.

According to Lt. Col. Ted Wong, commanding officer of the detachment, the average age of a Twentynine Palms wounded warrior is 22. “Most joined the Marine Corps after high school graduation and were looking at the Marines as their career in life,” said chapter member Jim Sullivan, one of the program organizers. “Due to wounds and injuries, they now have to enter civilian life and need some help in making decisions as to going on to college, trade schools, or finding a job.” For more information or to volunteer, call (760) 901-5494.

Veterans treating veterans; a growing niche

Veterans treating veterans; a growing niche

Now that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down, this country can expect a tremendous influx of returning veterans. With this surge comes a greater need to treat the invisible wounds of war, namely posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and a host of other psychological issues.

A mental health crisis is likely in the next five to 10 years if appropriate attention is not given to war veterans and their families, according to Nicholas Covino, Ph.D., president of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. “The general idea that those with military trauma will be served by the VA (Veteran’s Administration) is not completely accurate. Some will, but only about 25 percent of the time,” he says. “Most of the military don’t go to the VA, especially those in the National Guard. They’ll continue to get health care from traditional sources, like hospitals and HMOs.”

To adequately serve the needs of these men and women, practitioners need to step outside their comfort zones and gain some understanding of the sequelae of combat, military culture and adjustment issues families face before, during and after deployment, Covino says. “We have to create responsibility among mental health professionals to do the right thing by the veterans.

A review of the literature suggests straightforward, common sense approaches that can and should be done by any mental health professional to address the problems of separation and reintegration,” he says, noting that families potentially face years of adjustment difficulties after a military parent returns from overseas. “Our profession has a responsibility to revise and rework our practices to learn about military culture and equip ourselves with techniques to deal with veterans and families presenting with complaints. This matches what we’ve learned in graduate school,” Covino says. Unresponsiveness because of the perception of inadequate skill sets will create social problems such as homelessness, divorce and alcoholism, in the future, he says. read more here