MilitaryHealth

White, 37, of Cromwell, is an outreach counselor at the Hartford Vet Center in Rocky Hill. He is a member of a new breed of counselors hired by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in an attempt to avoid the Vietnam-era mistake of ignoring post-traumatic stress disorder and other readjustment problems experienced by soldiers returning from war zones. He was hired in 2004, one of about 50 counselors recruited because they had served in Iraq.

Mullen plans to ask his staff whether limiting the number of concussions servicemembers can receive while deployed can reduce the number of troops whose resulting injuries prevent them from returning to duty.

Feturing TAPS offers peer-based support, crisis care, casualty casework assistance and grief and trauma resources, all free. Unlike most programs offered through the military, TAPS provides ongoing help to anyone grieving the death of a loved one in the military, regardless of the relationship to the deceased, where they live, or the circumstances of the death.

Officials in the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing have developed a unique program called the Body Mass Reduction Program which is designed to aid Airmen in achieving a healthy lifestyle while improving their mission capability and contributions to the wing.

A survey of soldiers returning from Iraq found that as many as 1 in 4 had some level of hearing damage. A study in the American Journal of Audiology found that soldiers deployed to Iraq from April 2003 to March 2004 were 50 times more likely to suffer acoustic trauma than those who were not deployed. Such statistics have prompted the military to rethink how it handles hearing cases, and Ft. Carson, Colo., is on the front lines of that change.

Medical personnel headed overseas, plus students here, learn to face emergencies, make decisions and take action.

More than 80 U.S. military personnel contracted malaria last year despite all the medications and precautions made available to the forces, according to a recent Pentagon study.

For two soldiers who lost limbs in Afghanistan, the chance to become certified scuba divers has changed their lives.

Research from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC), http://www.dvbic.org/, indicates as many as 10 to 20 percent of U.S. troops who had combat exposure may have sustained a concussion during the time they were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Casscells is using the MHS site to establish the criteria to select his He's polling members of the military health community for candidates, and using a dialogue in the site's Healthy Debates section, which asks readers to define the qualifications and expertise that Defense's next Top Doc should have.

Doctor uses music's healing power PBS special titled "Healthy Minds," a 13-part educational series in its second season on New York's WLIW 21. The show will focus on how soldiers deal with post traumatic stress disorder and how military and medical personnel are helping alleviate it. The program will focus on music, and how it helps patients come to terms with their war memories and experiences. The doctor's poetry, another element inspired by her therapeutic sessions, will also be featured on the program.

Warrior Adventure Quest, a program that uses outdoor recreation to help soldiers deal with post-deployment stress. Recently returned soldiers all over Europe, including more than 3,500 members of 2nd Cav, are doing activities such as rock climbing, scuba diving, cross country skiing, high ropes courses and mountain biking as part of the program.

A new study of US veterans suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and metabolic syndrome, the group of symptoms that increases heart disease and diabetes risk, may be linked. Dr Pia S. Heppner of the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health System in La Jolla and her colleagues found that the more severe a person's PTSD symptoms, the more likely they were to also have the metabolic syndrome. Evidence is mounting that exposure to trauma can worsen physical health, including increasing heart disease risk, Heppner and her team note in the journal BMC Medicine.

The number of troops diagnosed as overweight or obese has more than doubled since the start of the Iraq war.

HEIDELBERG, Germany - New training intended to reduce post-combat psychological distress provides "small but significant" improvements in soldiers' mental health, according to a study.

Wilford Hall Medical Center will merge its inpatient services with Brooke Army Medical Center. A new outpatient clinic will replace it.

A word on suicide prevention and support programs from Army Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, commander, Division West and Fort Carson, Colo.

The service has 3,463 slots, but just 3,195 nurses, a shortfall of 268, according to Col. Donnalee Sykes, Director of AF Nursing Services. To help alleviate the shortage, the Air Force is offering enlisted airmen the chance to earn their nursing degree and become an officer in exchange for a four-year commitment as a nurse

Spouses of service members killed in combat would receive free military health care for life under a bill introduced Monday by Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. The chief effect of the legislation would be to prevent surviving spouses from being charged the same as retirees for using Tricare health benefit beginning three years after a service member's death, which is the case under current law.