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SOLDIER'S FAMILY TRIES TO HEAL, FATHER SPEAKS OUT

ON PTSD -- "He could've gotten all the treatment in

the world and this still could've happened."

 

 

Story here... http://www.sunherald.com/mld/
thesunherald/news/special_packages/
renewal/long_beach/16973718.htm

Story below:

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Soldier's family tries to heal

Father speaks out on PTSD

By JOSHUA NORMAN
jdnorman@sunherald.com

Willy James Moore came back from Iraq to Pascagoula following his second tour with the Marine Corps less than a month after Hurricane Katrina.

On Jan. 21, the 23-year-old reservist and armored personnel carrier driver took his own life.

Eddie Moore, Willy's father, said Willy's case worker for post-traumatic stress disorder from the VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System in Biloxi called to follow up for the first time on the day of Willy's funeral.

Moore, however, said he is not bitter with the VA.

"He could've gotten all the treatment in the world and this still could've happened," Moore said. "I'm not out to blame anybody."

Edwin Cassell, spokesman for the Biloxi VA, said he could not talk about the case specifically, but there are federal rules governing the amount of time between initial contact and treatment.

"Once applied, (veterans are) seen within 30 days," Cassell said. "If there's a mental health issue, it should be quicker."

Moore said it took about 30 days between Willy's initial contact with the VA and his death.

Moore said he is reaching out to share the story of his son for three reasons: One, he wants the world to know of the danger of untreated traumatic stress. Two, he wants the public to be aware of the shortcomings of the VA in dealing with the mass of mental casualties coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Three, he wants to heal himself.

"I go over this stuff over and over in my mind," Moore said. "Sometimes I have to just push it aside. This (talking about Willy) is helping me to really heal."

Moore is an exception to the rule, said Dr. Thomas Yarnell of the Gulf Coast Counseling Center, because most family members of people who recently committed suicide will not talk about it.

"It's one of those things that is just not socially acceptable," said Yarnell, who has treated several suicidal patients and their family members. "There is a shame in that, 'I should have stopped it.' They really feel guilty. It's just safer not to talk about (it,) emotionally."

Moore, who served in the Navy, said his healing process begins with the idea of preventing other fathers and mothers from experiencing the same tragedy.

"I feel like I have to do something to cope with this," Moore said. "I see why people go on these crusades when something happens. Especially as a parent, you feel like you have to do something."

Moore said he hopes more people seek to treat their post-traumatic stress disorder, regardless of its origin. In military culture especially, it is not taken as seriously as it should be, said Moore, who has had other veterans describe the way his son's peers would talk about mental illness.

"It was a joke," Moore said. "They'd be doing drills and they'd mess up and one would say, 'Oh, you're just acting like the because you got PTSD.'

Additionally, the VA just cannot deal with the large amount of mental disorders in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Moore said.

"It's crazy to think we can send young men over there and expect them to come back OK," Moore said.

Like countless other family members who have lost someone to suicide, Moore said that, while he demanded his son seek help once he figured out he was depressed, he still did not see the end coming.

It was only in the last month, as has happened to thousands others on the Coast, that Willy really took a turn for the worst.

Moore said that is why he reaches out everywhere he can, especially now, to beg those in danger of succumbing to severe stress and depression to find a professional and deal with it.

"Even with his friends, we sit down and say, 'Look, if you're having problems, you need to seek help,'

" Moore said. "That's the best thing I can do for my son now."

Iraq, Afghanistan vets at Biloxi VA

Since the start of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Gulf Coast Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Biloxi has had 2,871 veterans enroll in their system; of those they have seen 2,672. There have been 392 confirmed veterans of those two conflicts enroll in that time frame and 352 of those have been seen.

- EDWIN CASSELL, SPOKESMAN, VA GULF COAST

VETERANS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN BILOXI

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Larry Scott  --