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THE SUFFERING OF SOLDIERS: AN EDITORIAL FROM
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- "If this country
gave back to
wounded troops even a fraction of the commitment
and service
that it has received from them, they will be well
cared for."
Editorial here...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/1
1/opinion/11sun2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
Editorial below:
-------------------------
Editorial
The Suffering of Soldiers
Several years into a pair of wars, the Department of Veterans Affairs is
struggling to cope with a task for which it was tragically unready: the
care of soldiers who left Afghanistan and Iraq with an extra burden of
brain injury and psychic anguish. The last thing they need is the toxic
blend of secrecy, arrogance and heedlessness that helped to send many of
them into harm’s way.
“Shh!” said the e-mail in February from Dr. Ira Katz, head of mental
health services for V.A., to a colleague. “Our suicide prevention
coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among
the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should
(carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone
stumbles on it?”
Dr. Katz’s hushed-up figure was nowhere near the
number he gave to the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee last year; he said
there had been 790 suicide attempts in all of 2007, and denied there was a
suicide epidemic. The veterans affairs secretary, James Peake, apologized
for Dr. Katz’s “unfortunate set of words” and promised more candor and
transparency.
Give some credit, anyway, to Mr. Peake for realizing that there is no hope
of denying or wishing away this problem. As the economists Joseph Stiglitz
and Linda Bilmes made clear in “The Three Trillion Dollar War,” their
analysis of Iraq, the medical toll of a war rises in a
 swelling
curve for many decades after the shooting stops. The current suicide
figures include a large proportion of aging and ailing veterans of
Vietnam. Suffering for that long, on that scale, will not be covered up.
A study by the Rand Corporation last month found that nearly one in five
service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, or about 300,000,
have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression. About
19 percent reported having a possible traumatic brain injury from these
bomb-afflicted wars.
Alarmingly, only half have sought treatment, the study found, and they
have encountered severe delays and shortfalls in getting care. The V.A.’s
inspector general has faulted the agency’s case management of
brain-injured veterans, and a federal lawsuit by veterans’ groups in San
Francisco seeks to force the V.A. to streamline and improve treatment.
Fortunately, the solutions are clear: more money for mental health
services, closer tracking of suicides and more aggressive preventive
efforts, more efficiency at managing veterans’ treatment and more help for
their families. If this country gave back to wounded troops even a
fraction of the commitment and service that it has received from them,
they will be well cared for.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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