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Ilona Meagher

The Boston Globe | The military's post-traumatic stress dilemma - 0 views

  • I was in Iraq in 2004. From the day we had arrived home to the day we were scheduled to return to Iraq was exactly nine months. The pressure to prepare ourselves quickly was intense. When the first Marine came to my office and asked to see the psychiatrist about some troubling issues from our time in Iraq, I was sympathetic. I said, "No problem." When another half dozen or so Marines approached me with the same request, I was only somewhat concerned.But when all of them and several more returned from their appointments with recommendations for discharge, I'll admit I was alarmed. Suddenly I was not as concerned about their mental health as I was about my company's troop strength.
  • As all those Marines in my company began filtering out, some from essential positions, I started to worry about the welfare of those remaining. I worried, quite naturally, that if the exodus continued, we might not have enough to accomplish our mission or to survive on the battlefield. My sympathies for those individuals claiming post-traumatic stress began to wane. A commander cannot serve in earnest both the mission and the psychologically wounded. When the two come in conflict, as they routinely do as a result of repeated deployments, the commander will feel an internal and institutional pressure to maintain the integrity of his unit. I did. And there begins a grassroots, albeit subconscious, resistance to Mullen's plan to destigmatize the people who seek help. Because as much as I cared about my Marines, it was difficult to look upon those who sought to leave without suspicion or even mild contempt.
  • Where psychological and traumatic brain injuries can still, to some extent, be doubted and debated, and when their treatment stands in opposition to troop strength and to mission accomplishment, the needs of those wounded service members will be subordinated.The result by necessity, which we are already witnessing today, will be dubious treatment protocols within the military aimed at retention, diagnosed soldiers returning to the battlefield, and a slowly diminished emphasis on screening. It will happen. It has begun already. There will be no policy shift. There will be no change in the language we hear from our leaders. But we will know all too well that our soldiers are still not being properly treated by the ever-increasing number of suicides that occur.
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    WITH ARMY and Marine Corps suicide rates climbing dramatically, surpassing even those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan last month, the nation is increasingly disturbed and demanding treatment for veterans. But these suicide reports highlight an important distinction: A significant portion of those returning from war are not yet veterans; they are still active or reserve service members, which means, above all, that they probably will be going back to one of our theaters of operations. And that means that any treatment for post-traumatic stress will be positioned in direct conflict with the mission itself. As a former Marine captain and rifle company commander, I witnessed this conflict firsthand.
Ilona Meagher

Acupuncture Today | Weighing the Costs - 0 views

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    Advocates for the integrated approach in the treatment of PTSD at both Ft. Hood (El Paso, Texas) and Ft. Bliss (Killeen, Texas) were convinced that the traditional methods of treating PTSD weren't long enough in duration, intense enough or comprehensive enough. A program was created that would address all aspects of PTSD and treat the whole soldier. This integrative approach treats many of the symptoms of PTSD that are not addressed through the standard mental health protocols, including cognitive-behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy. The concept eventually led to the implementation of the Ft. Bliss Restoration & Resilience Center and the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program at Ft. Hood that incorporated medical massage, meditation, yoga, acupuncture, marital/family therapy and reiki with the standard treatment protocols of cognitive-behavioral and cathartic psychotherapies and pharmacotherapy.
Ilona Meagher

Naval Center Combat & Operational Stress Control | Women & PTSD - 0 views

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    In the population at large, women are more than twice as likely as men to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although the reasons why are not clearly understood. There are several theories that often are mentioned: * The most common trauma for women is sexual assault or childhood sexual abuse, and women are more likely than men to suffer these offenses. * Women also are more likely to be the victim of domestic violence or to have a loved one suddenly die. * There are differences in the way men's and women's brains work in processing emotions and actions and this, too, might be a contributing factor. Certain PTSD symptoms seem to be more common in women than men, according to the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Women with PTSD are more likely to be jittery and anxious and to have more trouble feeling emotions. Men are more likely to feel anger and to have trouble controlling their anger. They also are more likely to experience the nightmares and flashbacks associated with PTSD. Men with PTSD are more prone to alcohol and drug abuse, while women are more likely to suffer from depression. One good statistic that women have going for them when it comes to PTSD: They are more likely than men to seek treatment for their symptoms. Some studies also indicate that women respond faster to treatment than do men.
Ilona Meagher

Hartford Courant | Lawmaker: Courts Should Take Veterans' Problems Into Account - 0 views

  • Advocates for veterans report an increase in the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans facing charges such as domestic violence, firearms violations, breach of peace and drunken driving.A Connecticut lawmaker says the court system should be able to identify troubled veterans and refer them to mental health specialists, the same way family courts and drug courts work."Our troubled veterans may not need to be locked up if their combat experience has led to psychological wounds," said Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat who has introduced legislation to create a separate criminal docket for veterans.This mirrors actions elsewhere in the country. Some states are setting up veterans' courts or enacting laws to deal with veteran offenders. In 2008, Buffalo, N.Y., created the first Veterans Treatment Court after a judge noticed that hundreds of veterans were showing up in his courtroom facing minor charges. California and Minnesotahavepassed legislation to allow nonviolent veterans to forgo jail time if they can prove that their combat experience played a role in the criminal behavior.Looney said he introduced his bill after hearing stories about returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in Connecticut and across the nation ending up in jail. Connecticut also is using a $2 million grant from the federal Center for Mental Health Services to devise a program that will keep veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder out of jail.
  • Reluctant To Report SymptomsPeople with experience in overseas conflicts, or who work with those who have recently returned, often refer to one overriding symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder in recent veterans."Anger is a really big problem," said Jay White, an Iraq veteran and counselor at the Hartford Vet Center in Rocky Hill. It's one aftermath of the "high-octane environment" veterans experience in war, he said.According to the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs, 16,500 state residents have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That number includes soldiers in the Connecticut Guard, the reserves and active duty personnel. The high number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder presents a large challenge for the criminal justice system. And given that President Barack Obama last week authorized an additional 17,000 troops to go to Afghanistan this year, the number of people who could eventually experience PTSD is likely to increase.PTSD, triggered by an event or events so extreme that they cause trauma, can shatter a soldier's sense of safety and trust and cause a constellation of reactions, in addition to anger.
  • Tom Berger, former chairman of the PTSD committee of the Maryland-based Vietnam Veterans of America, said post-traumatic stress can easily manifest itself in criminal behavior. "It interferes with your thinking process. You have high anxiety. You do strange things like taking U-turns, or carrying loaded weapons in your car," said Berger, who has worked to change the criminal justice system for veterans. James Campbell's experience may typify that of many veterans. The 28-year-old Middletown resident now works as a veterans' employment representative for the state Department of Veterans Affairs. He said he returned home in a hyper-vigilant, ready-for-battle state of mind. Road rage and driving drunk were problems."When I got back, I felt I was indestructible, especially when I was drinking. I didn't care whether I would get into a car and drive drunk," he said. Berger said jail diversion programs should include treatment and recovery and a mentoring component. He said some Vietnam veterans incarcerated when they returned home from war remain in jail. Jim Tackett, director of veterans' services for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said the state's jail diversion program will work closely with mental health officials, the veterans administration and the criminal justice system to identify veterans who need help. "Some veterans who commit minor crimes that are the direct result of traumatic wartime experiences need treatment, not incarceration," Tackett said.
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    Jason Haines was in survival mode in 2005 when a car pulled out in front of him on a side street in New Britain. In his mind, Haines was still patrolling the streets of Baghdad in a Humvee with the U.S. Army, firing his .50-caliber shotgun at enemy insurgents who set off roadside bombs. Haines beeped his car's horn, but the driver wouldn't speed up. In a rage, Haines began tailgating the car - which, he soon discovered, was an unmarked police cruiser. Haines wasn't arrested that day, but he came close to joining hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans nationwide whose untreated war-related emotional and mental afflictions - usually termed post-traumatic stress disorder - lead to minor criminal arrests.
Day Spa Adelaide

Premiere Day Spa Service - 1 views

I have been working straight for a year now and yet I have not given myself the chance to relax and unwind. My friend told me about Shantai Wellness Spa, a day spa in Adelaide that is using only na...

started by Day Spa Adelaide on 16 Oct 12 no follow-up yet
Day Spa Adelaide

A Gratifying Day Spa Experience - 1 views

All my friends were raving about this day spa in Blackwood Hills called Shantai. They do mas-sages, waxing, body treatments, facials, and lots of other day spa stuff. It is so great, you feel total...

started by Day Spa Adelaide on 20 Sep 12 no follow-up yet
Ilona Meagher

Behavioral Healthcare | Learning from the 'drama' of police encounters - 0 views

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    "Deinstitutionalization dramatically shifted the locus of mental healthcare from psychiatric hospitals to the community. Concurrently, law enforcement officers' role as frontline responders to mental health crises increased considerably. This development is daunting for both law enforcement and mental healthcare providers. Without special knowledge and skills, police response to complex mental health crises often results in greater risk of violence, arrest, and incarceration (or control) of persons with mental illness, rather than referral to mental health services for treatment.1 Both criminal justice and mental health systems consider these risks unacceptable."
Ilona Meagher

Military Times | Special Report - Living With PTSD - 0 views

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    "This series uses the experiences of several troops suffering from PTSD to delve into the biology of the disorder; substance abuse among victims; the stress that the disorder places on spouses and children; treatment options and availability; the specter of suicide among PTSD sufferers; what current research may mean for the future, and many other issues."
Ilona Meagher

Soldiers' Stress | What Doctors Get Wrong about PTSD: Scientific American - 0 views

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    * The syndrome of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is under fire because its defining criteria are too broad, leading to rampant overdiagnosis.\n * The flawed PTSD concept may mistake soldiers' natural process of adjustment to civilian life for dysfunction.\n * Misdiagnosed soldiers receive the wrong treatments and risk becoming mired in a Veterans Administration system that encourages chronic disability.\n
Ilona Meagher

The Journal News | Vets with post-traumatic stress fight for aid - 0 views

  • It was during his first deployment in Iraq that Marine Cpl. David Tracy, 23, of Peekskill earned his Purple Heart."I was up top behind the gun when we stopped at a checkpoint and a roadside bomb exploded on the other side of the barrier," said Tracy, an infantryman who served as a machine gunner in Baghdad and Fallujah.
  • Legislation introduced recently by Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, would lift the burden of proof from veterans who served in combat zones and have a diagnosis of PTSD, allowing them to receive disability benefits without having to prove that a specific incident caused the disorder.In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars alone, more than 100,000 veterans have been found to have PTSD, but only 42,000 have been granted service-connected disability for their condition, said Hall, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs.The disability claims backlog at the VA tops 800,000. A large percentage of that number are Vietnam veterans seeking compensation for PTSD, Hall said.
  • Antonette Zeiss, deputy chief of the VA's Mental Health Services, said members of the current generation of veterans are being encouraged to come in sooner so they can get treatment, even if they are not eligible for benefits. State-of-the-art treatment should now be available without delays, she said.But PTSD is not the whole story, said Zeiss, a clinical psychologist. There are 442,862 veterans enrolled with the VA who have a diagnosis of PTSD out of a total 1,662,375 with some mental-health diagnosis, she said.Continuing conflicts mean those numbers will grow. Up to 17 percent of veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD, major depression or other mental-health problems, Dr. Joseph T. English told Congress last year. He is chairman of psychiatry at New York Medical College in Valhalla, which is affiliated with the VA hospitals at Montrose and Castle Point.
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    Legislation introduced recently by Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, would lift the burden of proof from veterans who served in combat zones and have a diagnosis of PTSD, allowing them to receive disability benefits without having to prove that a specific incident caused the disorder. In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars alone, more than 100,000 veterans have been found to have PTSD, but only 42,000 have been granted service-connected disability for their condition, said Hall, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. The disability claims backlog at the VA tops 800,000. A large percentage of that number are Vietnam veterans seeking compensation for PTSD, Hall said.
Ilona Meagher

San Jose Mercury News | Stanford program helps veterans who have 'fallen through the cr... - 0 views

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    "Vets Connect program, which the Stanford School of Medicine launched this summer. The program provides free mental health treatment and other services for veterans of the two ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom."
Ilona Meagher

Peoria Journal Star | Soldier Suffering From PTSD Finds Relief in Experimental Treatment - 1 views

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    Jason Brown
Ilona Meagher

Lancaster Eagle-Gazette | After veteran's suicide, brother defends VA center's treatmen... - 0 views

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    Jesse Huff
Ilona Meagher

WTOP | Gov't. commits a crime against you -- the taxpayers - 0 views

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    Schultz is a reporter with Public Radio station WAMU. Last Tuesday night, he was covering a public event at the V.A. Hospital in Washington, D.C. While interviewing one of the veterans about the poor treatment he was receiving at the hands of the V.A., Ms. Hairston demanded that Schultz stop recording the interview and hand over his recording equipment.
Ilona Meagher

Reuters | Brain scans may detect post-trauma stress sooner - 0 views

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    The scans of 42 U.S. soldiers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan in the recent past showed that, compared with healthy veterans, those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had marked differences in some areas of brain activity. The study, presented at the World Psychiatric Association Congress in Italy, suggested identifying certain brain patterns could one day help diagnose PTSD before symptoms appeared and better track treatment, the researchers said.
Ilona Meagher

DefenseLink News Article (June 9, 1999): New Programs Aim to Reduce Combat Stress, Prev... - 0 views

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    WASHINGTON, June 9, 1999 - President Clinton and DoD announced June 7 two new Defense Department initiatives aimed at improving the mental health of service members. The first, called the "combat stress control" program, seeks to help identify and manage stress during deployments before it adversely impacts service members' coping skills and effectiveness. The second initiative, aimed at suicide prevention, will take the existing Air Force suicide prevention pilot program and expand it throughout DoD by the end of this year. The Air Force program has been particularly successful, achieving a 50 percent reduction in suicides in only three years. The president announced the initiatives in conjunction with the first-ever White House Conference on Mental Health, held June 7 at Washington's Howard University and chaired by Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore. The president and Mrs. Clinton also participated in the all-day conference aimed at reducing the stigma associated with mental health disease and treatment and improving care throughout the nation.
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

Newsweek | PTSD: The VA's New Approach - 0 views

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    "Big changes underway at the VA could mean better treatment for thousands of vets. A bureaucracy in transition."
Ilona Meagher

PRLog | PTSD - Recruiting Volunteers to Help Vets with their Battle! - 0 views

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    "Barbara Tierney of Carmel, NY wants to help our Veterans find FREE and EFFECTIVE treatments in their battle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Psychiatrists, NLP practitioners, Yoga instructors, Bio-Feedback providers, Reiki practitioners, Social Workers, QiGong Instructors, Acupuncturists, Hypnotherapists, Cognitive Behavior Therapists, ANYONE that can help to ease the pain and trauma that our service men and women are dealing with. These people put their lives on the line so that WE can be safe. Why not do something to help them? "
Day Spa Adelaide

Gorgeous Day Spa Treatment - 1 views

started by Day Spa Adelaide on 19 Dec 12 no follow-up yet
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