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CALIFORNIA VETERANS HOME TO START PTSD PROGRAM
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Veterans returning from combat zones in
Afghanistan
and Iraq can soon opt to take part in a new
PTSD
treatment program at Yountville.
California Veterans Home at Yountville
Story here...
http://www.napavalleyregister.
com/articles/2007/06/21/news/local/
doc467a10bb31523099399584.txt
Story below:
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Vets Home gears up for PTSD program
Veterans of wars in Middle East can seek
post-combat care
By NATALIE HOFFMAN
Register Staff Writer
International media coverage of the Iraq war has helped to spread
awareness about post-traumatic stress disorder — a condition that can
leave former soldiers experiencing nightmares, panic, irritability,
anger, sleep disorders and other symptoms.
Veterans returning from combat zones in Afghanistan and Iraq can soon
opt to take part in a new PTSD treatment program at the Veterans Home of
California at Yountville.
A $5.6 million private grant will cover the fundamental costs of the
program — an enterprise of San Francisco’s Tides Center supervised by
the California Department of Veterans Affairs — and keep it up and
running for three years, according to a press release from the
California Department of Veterans Affairs. Called “The Pathway Home,”
the program will counsel and treat veterans facing a range of mental
health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Pathway Home program will offer assistance from a host of
professionals, including PTSD counselors, doctors, nurses, family
therapists, physical therapists and dietitians.
Steve Schilling, special representative for the Vets Home, said the
program will cost approximately $1.25 million annually, adding that Fred
Gusman of the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System will direct
the enterprise.
“We hope this will become a model program that will help link the
excellent work being done by the military services and the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs with additional resources and community
assistance at the state and local level,” said Marcella McCormack,
administrator of the Vets Home.
“Initially, the primary focus will be post-traumatic stress syndrome and
any dual diagnosis that may come along with that. The government has
realized that there’s a great need. We’re doing well with amputees ...
but there are a huge number that don’t fall into that category. ... We
are trying to fit that great need with this program,” Schilling said.
The program, to be launched in August, will be held at Madison Hall on
Vets Home grounds and can accommodate up to 40 people at a time.
McCormack said veterans will reside at the Vets Home for treatment from
30 to 120 days and then return to their communities. After the
completion of treatment, she said, veterans will keep in close contact
with program counselors.
“We will be looking from the very first day for additional funding and
it will be ... private donors and the Veterans Administration itself. We
want to become partners with them, the Department of Defense and
certainly the state of California if we prove to be as successful as we
know we will be,” Schilling said.
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Larry Scott --
