22,500 soldiers with PTSD - VA absolved of responsibility for their care

[Guest guest]

In the past six years, more than 22,500 soldiers, most diagnosed with PTSD

or traumatic brain injury, have been dismissed from service with a diagnosis

of " personality disorder, " which, considered a pre-existing condition,

absolves the VA of all responsibility for their future care.

 

_http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/52443/_

(http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/52443/)

 

 

 

A rose for their graves ...

* David Fickel, a 25-year-old Minnesotan honorably discharged from the

Marine Corps after serving in Iraq, used a shotgun to take his own life on

Memorial Day, 2006

* Linda Michel, a 33-year-old Navy medic from Albany, who served at a

U.S.-run prison near Baghdad, returned to her husband and three children last

October and, two weeks later, shot and killed herself

* Jonathan Schulze, a 25-year-old from New Prague, MN, asked to be

admitted to a VA hospital on January 11 because he was thinking of killing

himself. Told he was No. 26 on the waiting list, he hung himself at his

parents'

farm, leaving behind his pregnant wife and a young daughter

* Michael Bramer, a 23-year-old from Boston who had served with the

Army's 82d Airborne Division, turned up the surround sound on his television on

January 17 and took his own life

* Jessica Rich, a 24-year-old Army Reservist and mother of a 7-year-old

son, despaired of leaving behind her nightmares and flashbacks of Iraq. On

February 8, she drove her car into oncoming traffic on I-25 outside of Denver

and died

* Chris Dana, a 23-year-old Iraq war veteran from Helena who friends

said wore his uniform and boots for weeks at a time, even to sleep, shut

himself in his bedroom in March, put a blanket over his head, and shot himself

It is only recently that I have come to think of myself as a war widow. When

my husband Daniel came home from Vietnam in 1970, the relationship between

combat-related stress and suicide was officially unrecognized. When Daniel took

his own life, it never occurred to me to blame the war. I thought that if

only I had been kinder, more patient, more vigilant, I might have prevented his

death. The shame and guilt on top of my grief were a terrible burden. It was

decades before I could find some compassion and forgiveness for that young

woman who had no idea what she was up against.

 

In the years since Daniel's death, there has been a steady stream of reports,

many from mainstream sources, claiming shocking numbers of suicides among

Vietnam veterans. Rather than tracking or investigating those claims, the

government has first refused to investigate and then used the lack of evidence

to

argue that the claims were untrue.

That disingenuous stance mirrors the current official response. While a

mental health advisory team was sent to Iraq in 2003 to investigate alarming

reports of suicides among American troops, the team concluded that soldiers were

killing themselves, not because of the horrors of combat, but for what was

labeled " underdeveloped life coping skills " . The Army's Surgeon General told

" Stars and Stripes " in December that he had " no evidence linking suicides with

multiple deployments or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder " " (W)e've had young

soldiers, " he elaborated, " who will get bad relationship news and walk right

into a Porta-Potty and end their lives. "

Since 2003, the suicide rate for active-duty soldiers has continued to rise.

The Army camouflages the real numbers as non-combat-related accidents.

Veterans' suicides are not included on official casualty lists because they are

not

considered service-related deaths.

This administration's policies regarding PTSD and combat-related suicide are

consistent with their claims to support the troops while making budgetary

decisions that endanger them. In the past six years, more than 22,500 soldiers,

most diagnosed with PTSD or traumatic brain injury, have been dismissed from

service with a diagnosis of " personality disorder, " which, considered a

pre-existing condition, absolves the VA of all responsibility for their future

care. Despite cries of foul from psychiatrists, veterans' rights groups,

injured soldiers and their families, and even the military officials required to

process these dismissals, the practice continues and successful appeals are

almost non-existent. " The Army Times " reports a backlog of some 600,000

veterans' benefits claims on appeal. On average, it takes the VA 177 days to

process

an original claim and 657 days to process an appeal. If psychically injured

veterans die with their case under appeal, the case dies with them.

Last week, a report from the inspector general of Veterans Affairs finally

acknowledged that veterans are at increased risk of suicide. Multiple and

extended deployments are causing more psychological problems that become lethal

in the absence of available care when they return. If we are to prevent another

epidemic of death like that which followed the war in Vietnam, the VA health

care system must provide immediate and quality care for our veterans.

Cheating citizens who have risked their lives for their country out of promised

and

desperately needed benefits will surely save the government billions of

dollars. Just as surely, it will push too many past the limits of their

despair.

As we remember our war dead on this Memorial Day, let us include the tens of

thousands of Vietnam veterans whose names are not on the Memorial Wall and

the soldiers and veterans of these current wars whose psychic injuries have

proved every bit as deadly as any bullet or bomb. David Fickel, Zackery Bowen,

Linda Michel, Jonathan Schulze, Michael Bramer, Jessica Rich, and my husband

Daniel are not just statistics. Their deaths were personal tragedies, but they

are also cautionary tales

 

Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam Veteran who took his own life after

coming home. Her latest book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder,

Suicide and the Lessons of War, was released on Memorial Day, 2006 (Beacon

Press).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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