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Ilona Meagher

San Jose Mercury News | Returning veterans now battling at home - 0 views

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    As of 2007, the Military Health System had recorded 43,779 patients with traumatic brain injuries from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It had recorded 39,365 patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to a Department of Defense report to Congress. By the end of September 2008, the number of patients with a preliminary diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from Veterans Affairs doctors had risen to 101,882 - more than 10 percent of veterans who have left the military and more than 20 percent of those who have gone to Veterans Affairs for medical treatment, according to a spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs.
Ilona Meagher

DefenseLink | Shinseki Cites Collaboration in Mental Health Care - 0 views

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    "more veterans have committed suicide since 2001 than the number of servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan over that period. "
Ilona Meagher

Associated Press | Care of stressed Marines faulted - 0 views

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    "Marines treated at Camp Lejeune for post-traumatic stress had to undergo therapy for months in temporary trailers where they could hear bomb blasts, machine-gun fire and war cries through the thin walls, according to servicemen and their former psychiatrist. The eight trailers were used for nearly two years, until a permanent clinic was completed in September in another location on the base, said a Camp Lejeune medical spokesman, Navy Lt. j.g. Mark Jean-Pierre. The allegations became public after the dismissal of Dr. Kernan Manion, a civilian psychiatrist who says he was fired for writing memos to his military superiors complaining of shoddy care of Marines returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD, a condition that can make patients jumpy, fearful of loud noises and prone to flashbacks. "
Kenn Dixon

Marijuana May be Effective Treatment for Vets Facing PTSD - 0 views

  • first clinical examinations of the benefits of cannabis for veterans suffering from the debilitating effects of PTSD
  • They are hoping to do a three-month-long study of combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who are experiencing difficulties due to PTSD.
  • The researchers are now just one bureaucratic hoop away from gaining final approval of the study.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The research method would be tightly controlled, with participants smoking or vaporizing 1.8 grams a day – the equivalent of two joints. The research may be petitioned from the neighboring state of New Mexico, where the qualifying conditions to obtain a medical marijuana card include PTSD.
    • Kenn Dixon
       
      What happens to the side effects of the marijuana usage on the behavior of the veterans?  Every drug has a side effect, it is just which one has less.  
  • ut so far, the health benefits of cannabis for PTSD are only anecdotal and they are looking for a way to provide evidence that cannabis might be another tool to help returning soldiers from war.
  •   and in Germany, Switzerland and Spain they are currently researching the benefits of MDMA, or ecstacy on PTSD sufferers.
    • Kenn Dixon
       
      The use of these drug to fix a PTSD problem may be just putting a bandage on a deeper wound.  
Ilona Meagher

CNN | Pentagon to phase out unpopular 'stop-loss' program - 0 views

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    The military will phase out its "stop-loss" program, the contentious practice of holding troops beyond the end of their enlistments, for all but extraordinary situations, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday. Instead, the military will use incentives programs to encourage personnel to extend their service. Starting this month, the department will provide "special compensation of $500 per month" to troops whose tour has been extended, Gates said. "This special compensation will be applied retroactively to October 1, 2008, the date when Congress first made it available."
Ilona Meagher

CNN | King: Veterans' stories show cost of military service - 0 views

  • Tucker received a medical discharge from the Army last year and he now is Officer Chris Tucker of the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department. "You still get to serve your community and your country in other ways," he said. At age 26, he is a veteran of three combat tours. The patrol skills he learned on the streets of Baghdad, Fallujah and Sadr City come in handy as he drives his police cruiser around the neighborhoods of his Savannah precinct.
  • As the war hits the six-year mark, Tucker is part of a history -- and a legacy -- still being written as the military tries to better understand the depth of the damage to those exposed repeatedly to the violence. "I still have the nightmares and wake up and find myself downstairs and I don't know how I got there," Tucker said. "I still see and dream the same things. ... Faces. Kids' faces. People that you have engaged or you have had contact with. ... You see your colleagues blown up. Things like that." He left the Army with a sour taste. He was sent back for his third tour despite the nightmares, depression, major hearing loss and painful injuries to his back and both feet. Then, the Army decided to give him a medical discharge for his back issues even though Tucker believes he could have recovered with rehabilitation. But he tries not to dwell on his frustration. "I try to distance myself from it as much as I can, because for me, the more I think about it, the more I reflect on what happened and what we did, the more I think the dreams and the nightmares actually come back."
  • Police Cpl. Randy Powell is 50 years old and became a grandfather just last week. Watch Tucker and Powell tell their stories » Powell served nearly 20 years ago in the Persian Gulf War, then in 1992 took an early retirement package when the Army was downsizing after the war. The deal required him to stay on what the military calls the IRR -- the Individual Ready Reserve -- but even as troops were sent to Afghanistan after 9/11 and then to Iraq for repeat combat tours, Powell heard nothing. Then last year, nearly 15 years after leaving the military, he was told to report to a local Reserve center. Another request came in January of this year. Both times, after some perfunctory paperwork, Powell was sent home. But when he returned home from work one day last month, an overnight letter from the Army had arrived with orders that he was being activated for an Iraq deployment. First, starting next month, he'll have refresher training on radar systems at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.
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    Chris Tucker received a medical discharge from the Army last year and he now is Officer Chris Tucker of the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department. "You still get to serve your community and your country in other ways," he said. At age 26, he is a veteran of three combat tours. The patrol skills he learned on the streets of Baghdad, Fallujah and Sadr City come in handy as he drives his police cruiser around the neighborhoods of his Savannah precinct.
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