National Veterans Foundation

Time
by Mark Thompson

For the first time in history, a sizable and growing number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants to calm nerves strained by repeated and lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The medicines are intended not only to help troops keep their cool but also to enable the already strapped Army to preserve its most precious resource: soldiers on the front lines. Data contained in the Army's fifth Mental Health Advisory Team report indicate that, according to an anonymous survey of U.S. troops taken last fall, about 12% of combat troops in Iraq and 17% of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope. Escalating violence in Afghanistan and the more isolated mission have driven troops to rely more on medication there than in Iraq, military officials say.

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By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 16, 2008

A psychologist who helps lead the post-traumatic stress disorder program at a medical facility for veterans in Texas told staff members to refrain from diagnosing PTSD because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments for the condition.

Problems Present Long, Hidden Toll; Help Often Avoided

Wall Street Journal
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
April 30, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused heightened stress, depression and sleeplessness among some military personnel and their families, a new report says.

The survey by the American Psychiatric Association, set to be released Wednesday, found that 32% of military members believe their tours in the two war zones had "at least some negative impact" on their mental well-being. Among military spouses, 40% believed their mental health was hurt by their husband's or wife's service overseas.

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By JASON WITZ
Assistant Englewood Editor

Eric Hall would often pinch his lapel to his lips and whisper, as if a microphone was transmitting the cryptic message.

No one knew what to make of the gesture.

A friend would ask the baby-faced Marine whether he needed anything. Hall would release his shirt and smile, downplaying the episode. Nothing more was said.

"During the last seven years, this administration has nickled and dimed our vets," said U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-FL . "It seems to me if we are going to continue to call on people to serve, we need to treat them like gold."

Since the Iraq War started in 2002, Marine, Army and National Guard troops have faced extended deployments, with little rest in-between. Mahoney believes the additional tours increase the risk of soldiers developing mental stress later.

"We have put a burden on them that we have never asked soldiers to do before, and we are seeing the repercussions of it," he said.

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Vet: VA Psych Ward 'Worse Than Hell'

April 16, 2008
Dallas Morning News

The voices in Jack Edenburn's head began soon after he returned from Vietnam. They told him to end it all.

He ignored them for almost 40 years, until the day he stood at the railroad tracks near his Lancaster home, fantasizing about stepping in front of a train. That's the day he went to Dallas VA Medical Center. And some days, he says, he regrets that decision.

"Imagine hell," he said of his five days in the psychiatric unit, "then think worse."

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By Peter Spiegel,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- More than a quarter of high-ranking enlisted soldiers showed signs of having mental health problems after being sent to war zones for the third or fourth time, a sharp increase over those on their first or second deployments.

The findings, contained in a new report on the behavioral health of soldiers in Iraq issued by the Army on Thursday, are the first to quantify the stress of repeated deployments on combat soldiers. The data are likely to increase calls by senior Army leaders to cut down the length of combat tours and increase the length of time soldiers have in between deployments.

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Star Community Newspaper
By Lynn Proctor Windle, Staff Writer

In the hours leading up to Pat Ahrens’ death, he waged a desperate attempt to draw attention to what he described as the indifferent way the Veterans Administration treats veterans with mental issues.

Ahrens died Saturday night at a Plano hospital from a heart attack, family members said Monday. Details leading up to Ahrens’ heart attack were not released.

His crusade against the Veteran Affairs hospital began immediately after the death of another veteran, a man whom he had met only days before at the Dallas VA Medical Center where they were both patients in the hospital’s psychiatric ward. Ahrens had found the body of Christopher Nicholas Demopoulos hanging from the second story balcony of a local hotel.

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San Francisco Chronicle
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, January 11, 2008

Veterans' advocates can proceed with a lawsuit claiming that the federal government's health care system for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan illegally denies care and benefits, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti, a conservative jurist and a World War II veteran, rejected Bush administration arguments that civil courts have no authority over the Department of Veterans Affairs' medical decisions or how it handles grievances and claims.

If the plaintiffs can prove their allegations, Conti said, they would show that "thousands of veterans, if not more, are suffering grievous injuries as the result of their inability to procure desperately needed and obviously deserved health care."

He said federal courts are competent to decide whether those injuries were caused by flaws in the health care system and the VA's grievance procedures.

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Knight Ridder
Military.com

Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are increasingly running afoul of the law, bringing the stress of war to Colorado Springs' streets.

Most of it is small-time stuff. But some of the allegations against Soldiers in the past three years have been serious. This month, police said a crime ring of Fort Carson Iraq war veterans was responsible for the deaths of two GIs.

The volume of military-related crime off-post is beginning to tax civilian law enforcement authorities. Felony El Paso County jail bookings for service members have jumped from 295 in 2005 to 471 so far this year. During that time, the number of Soldiers assigned to the post stayed about the same, around 17,500.

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Payments vary greatly for new veterans with mental illness
By Chris Adams

WASHINGTON — Veterans coming home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with debilitating mental ailments are discovering that their disability payments from the government vary widely depending on where they live, an exclusive McClatchy analysis has found.

As a result, many of the recent veterans who're getting monthly payments for post-traumatic stress disorder from the Department of Veterans Affairs could lose tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits over their lifetimes.

The Bush administration has sought to reassure soldiers that they'll be treated fairly, but veterans in some parts of the country are far more likely to be well compensated than their compatriots elsewhere are, the analysis found.

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