Tag: PTSD

Recently we at VT have been getting a lot of feedback both positive and negative on the Pentagon's experimentation with Virtual Reality War Simulations...

Shell shock, battle fatigue, operational exhaustion, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are all reiterations of the same condition which has been scientifically recognized since World War I. The issue itself may not be new, but we are only now realizing the extent of its influence. A recent explosion of such cases has many worried that not enough resources exist to help the returning heroes.

VCS Responds to AP: PTSD is Real, PTSD Fraud is Not Written by VCS - Republished on VT by permission from Veterans for Common Sense....

The folks at Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) are at odds with reporters at the Associated Press on what frankly should have been an...

During her yearlong tour of duty in Iraq Maj. Elizabeth A. Condon saw all manner of horror and heartbreak, from dead bodies in the street and memorials for fallen friends to “little babies with holes in their backs.” But it was a moment of tenderness, she said, that stuck with her most. It happened when she was helping to care for a young Iraqi woman, whose belly had been left ripped open and infected from an amateur cesarean.

As the political fallout continues over Allen Breed's AP hit job published over the weekend asserting that U.S. veterans and reformist DVA elements effectively collude to commit...

Just off the phone with a veteran who told me U.S. soldiers and Marines often take pictures in war zones of enemy dead in...

As PTSD claims soar, the systemic problem at the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs is the ease with which veterans file for disability benefit...

Veterans fighting to gain the benefits and care earned, deserved, and decades long over due!

Senators Propose TRICARE Dependent Coverage Extension Act A bill introduced to the U.S. Senate April 14 would, if passed into law, enable the dependent children...

Created in the wake of the scandal in 2007 over serious shortcomings at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Warrior Transition Units were intended to be sheltering way stations where injured soldiers could recuperate and return to duty or gently process out of the Army. There are currently about 7,200 soldiers at 32 transition units across the Army, with about 465 soldiers at Fort Carson’s unit.

WHISTLEBLOWERS REPORT IRREGULARITIES THREATENING EVERY ASPECT OF VETERAN CARE AND SAFETY VA ANSWERS LAWSUIT WITH POOR LEGAL PLOY, WANTS TO QUICKLY LOSE AND MAKE PROBLEM...

Authorities might never completely determine why Jesse C. Huff dressed in Army fatigues, walked to the steps of the Dayton Veterans Affairs Department’s Medical Center and shot himself to death Friday morning. Police said they found no suicide note and knew of no ominous statements he made to employees while inside the medical center hours before his death.

PAUL ERRERA DIES, UNNOTICED BY MOST, RENEGADE FIGHTER FOR VETERANS RIGHTS By Tom Horvath for VT Paul Errera MD has died on April 14th. Most people...

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently concluded that there is sufficient evidence of a causal relationship for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Persian Gulf War (PGW) veterans that would in turn explain their other physical ailments. What a slap in the face. When you look at only a select handful of research studies and discount most others, you can no doubt make a convincing case for PTSD as the primary cause of Gulf War Illnesses (GWI). Veterans from today’s wars as well as the 1991 Persian Gulf War know better. All one needs to do in order to find the truth is to use the internet.

One of the newest courses at Fort Jackson, the Army's biggest basic training and combat instruction outpost, is something called Master Resilience Training. The genesis for the course has been the rise of suicide in the military. Yesterday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, a vocal proponent of warrior resilience training, toured the South Carolina base and spoke about the novel 10-day program.

Revolving door of multiple tours linked to PTSD By SHARON COHEN (AP)  It wasn't his first tour in Iraq, but his second and third when Joe...

ust weeks after Chris Goehner, 25, an Iraq war veteran, got a dog, he was able to cut in half the dose of anxiety and sleep medications he took for post-traumatic stress disorder. The night terrors and suicidal thoughts that kept him awake for days on end ceased.

Between 2002 and 2008, nearly 50,000 veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars received diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder. But fewer than 10 percent of those completed the recommended treatment of 10 to 12 weekly sessions within four months; the number only grew to fewer than 30 percent over a year, the study authors found.

From Veterans for Common Sense: by Annie Bishop    - According to Veterans for Common Sense, a non-profit group based in Washington, DC, 47 percent of claims...

The small city of Canal Fulton, Ohio, rolled out the “red carpet” and flag waving crowds swelled along the streets in anticipation.  May 17,...

Nearly 3,000 Individuals Have Responded to the CalVet Survey To Help Prioritize Services to California’s Veterans Sacramento – Nearly 3,000 individuals have responded to the...

VA-purchased equipment is flying down the slopes and gliding across the ice at the 2010 Winter Paralympics Games in Vancouver this week. Five Veterans are competing in Vancouver and the adaptive sports equipment they will use to compete and for day-to-day mobility (wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs) were provided by VA Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service (PSAS). This is the first Paralympics Winter Games in which athletes will be competing with equipment provided by VA.

According to recent VA statistics, PTSD and depression are the top disability claims among America's female veterans — many of whom served in Iraq and Afghanistan. But many of them have trouble proving that they saw combat — a key to getting treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

VA Planning To Expedite Agent Orange Claims Process. In continuing coverage, Government Technology (3/12, Wilkinson) reports, "In what's being touted as a major step to better serve Vietnam veterans," the US Department of Veterans Affairs "is planning to expedite the claims process for those with illnesses due to Agent Orange exposure."

THIS IS "BETWEEN US" By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor I just returned from the region after a REMF "combat tour" of my own, 5 star...

Medical researchers and veterans advocates eagerly await the findings of  a University of Wisconsin-Madison study on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) focusing on how brains...

Our country is in the middle of a health care crisis, the likes of which we have never experienced. At the center of this crisis is a silent wounding of our armed forces that often goes unrecognized. If you believe the Rand Corporation' s estimates, silent wounding may be affecting as many as 640,000 veterans.

Another veteran frustrated with the Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and suffering from PTSD after surviving three combat tours, lost it and allegedly "made a...

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT TO YIELD BETTER BENEFITS FOR THOUSANDS OF VETERANS SUFFERING FROM PTSD AND THEIR FAMILIES - Lawyers Serving Warriors Veterans must opt-in by...

The act of killing is as fundamental to war as oxygen is to fire. Yet it is also the one thing many combat veterans avoid discussing when they return home, whether out of shame, guilt or a deep fear of being misunderstood. But a new study of Iraq war veterans by researchers in San Francisco suggests that more discussion of killing may help veterans cope with an array of mental health problems stemming from war.

VA is known for its commitment to innovative quality and safety programs and for the transparency of results they achieve. In 2008, VA issued its first comprehensive facility-level report of quality and safety data, reporting on care provided in inpatient and outpatient settings, quality of care within specific patient populations, and patient satisfaction and outcomes. Improved and re-issued in 2009, the report is a comprehensive snapshot of the quality of care VA provides.

This post is related to my previous one on DryHootch coffee shops. Again although the focus is on Wisconsin, I wanted to give our readers...

"....take the money from your magnetic “support our troops” ribbon, or the money from a company putting that “support our troops” ad on TV;...

American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan were more likely to be medically evacuated for health problems such as a bad back than for combat...

At least 4,300 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who left the military because of post-traumatic stress disorder are eligible to have their cases reviewed to see if they were improperly denied benefits, a nonprofit veterans group said. The group, National Veterans Legal Services Program, said the law required service members who had been separated from the military at least in part because of post-traumatic stress must receive disability ratings of at least 50 percent to receive benefits.

By  THOMAS C. HALL, CHAIR, Vietnam Veterans of America, PTSD/SUBSTANCE ABUSE COMMITTEE Suicide rates in the active military and among veterans are on the rise....

# Salida, Colorado V.A. Opens Rural Telehealth Clinic in Salida # Albuquerque, New Mexico Vet's death highlights PTSD problem # Fort McCoy, Wisconsin Soldiers Transitioning Back Into Civilian Life # San Diego, California "The Two Star General Who Wasn't Pleads Guilty # Elmira, New York, New York Veteran's widow battles killer parasite from Vietnam

TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (TBI): JUST THE FACTS  By Carol Ware Duff MSN, BA, RN Injuries to the brain may be more common than you know. With exposure...

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) allows persons living with mental health disabilities to train their own psychiatric service dog.

Buzz words for the Epoch. In some small or major way we will all have experienced P.T.S.D in some form and to some degree in our life times. I first experienced P.T.S.D when I was all but 14 years of age as a young cadet with a militia group - the B.C.D.s (British Columbia Dragoons Army Cadet Corp.)

Instructional Protocol/Sensitivity during Interaction with PTSD Sufferers By Carol Ware Duff RN MSN University of Toledo School of Nursing The purpose of this teaching program it...