thedrifter
10-04-08, 05:35 AM
October 4, 2008
Symposium addresses the stresses of current wars on those returning
By KIRK MOORE
STAFF WRITER
America needs to provide support for warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, who need medical and counseling services extending past 2060 — just like the generation of World War II veterans who are still coming to terms with their experiences, a top Marine Corps commander told social workers gathered at Monmouth University Friday.
"You're 18 years old, you've been Game Boying your whole life, and suddenly we throw you into raving mad combat," Maj. Gen. James L. Williams, commander of the 4th Marine Division, said of the youngest Marine infantrymen who fought in Iraq.
Now, he said, "the 20-somethings . . . will be in the system for 60, 65 years. You're going to see these individuals for a long time."
The high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, among veterans is "a normal reaction to an abnormal situation," said Ellen Foley, a licensed clinical social worker at Fort Monmouth and an adjunct professor at Monmouth University's School of Social Work.
"One of our faculty, Carolyn Bradley, felt we should do something about this issue," said Robin Mama, dean of the School of Social Work. After Bradley attended a conference about veterans' needs at Smith College in Massachusetts, the school began organizing Friday's event, titled "Coming Home: Social Work's Responsibility to Returning Combat Veterans and Their Families."
A morning panel presentation featured Williams, who was the deputy Marine commander of the Fallujah area in 2004 and 2005, and later negotiated with Sunni insurgent groups to achieve a major security pact in Al-Anbar province. In the afternoon, social work professionals held a brainstorming session "to decide what we should do as a school," Mama said.
Called shell shock or combat fatigue in earlier wars, PTSD was clinically defined among returning Vietnam veterans. The ancient Greek playwright Sophocles described the stress and emotions of combat survivors in two of his plays, "and that was 2,000 years ago," said Capt. Brian S. Pecha, division surgeon for the 4th Marines.
Civilian social workers need to understand military culture, Pecha said: "Without that, they may not even want to listen to your advice."
Studies show a clear correlation of PTSD incidence to the numbers of combat encounters that troops experience, Pecha said, with as many as 20 percent of Marines experiencing stress symptoms after three to five firefights with the enemy.
A long debate is continuing over whether PTSD is psychologically or biologically based, but Pecha concluded "it doesn't matter." Combat stress injuries can affect the same areas of the brain that are damaged with traumatic brain injury from roadside bombs, he said.
"Sometimes the military culture does not like to deal with illness, because that's not what we're about," Pecha said. But the link between severe PTSD and physical brain injuries can make it easier for veterans to accept the condition and advice for treating it, he suggested.
"A lot of them are over the stigma themselves . . . (but) they have trouble getting help from their commanding officers," said Rita Torres of the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center at the VA medical center in East Orange. "They complain their officers don't know what you guys know."
"At the beginning of this war, they weren't trained," Williams acknowledged. "We did not have enough people prepared for what this would mean."
The Marines use a training program for "combat operational stress" for teaching troops to recognize symptoms in themselves and others, while the Army has "battlemind training" for making the transition from combat theater to home.
The training is strength, based on the qualities of self-confidence and toughness that soldiers value, Foley said.
"Combat requires constant alertness," she said, and the training includes steps for calming the hypervigilance that accompanies some veterans home — like one soldier Foley recalled who insisted on making his family wait in the car while he "cleared the house" for potential intruders.
Disruptive dreams lead some patients to use alcohol to self-medicate, Foley said. "I don't want you to miss the workaholics," she told the social workers. "Using something, anything to not feel, to not process those feelings."
Ellie
Symposium addresses the stresses of current wars on those returning
By KIRK MOORE
STAFF WRITER
America needs to provide support for warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, who need medical and counseling services extending past 2060 — just like the generation of World War II veterans who are still coming to terms with their experiences, a top Marine Corps commander told social workers gathered at Monmouth University Friday.
"You're 18 years old, you've been Game Boying your whole life, and suddenly we throw you into raving mad combat," Maj. Gen. James L. Williams, commander of the 4th Marine Division, said of the youngest Marine infantrymen who fought in Iraq.
Now, he said, "the 20-somethings . . . will be in the system for 60, 65 years. You're going to see these individuals for a long time."
The high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, among veterans is "a normal reaction to an abnormal situation," said Ellen Foley, a licensed clinical social worker at Fort Monmouth and an adjunct professor at Monmouth University's School of Social Work.
"One of our faculty, Carolyn Bradley, felt we should do something about this issue," said Robin Mama, dean of the School of Social Work. After Bradley attended a conference about veterans' needs at Smith College in Massachusetts, the school began organizing Friday's event, titled "Coming Home: Social Work's Responsibility to Returning Combat Veterans and Their Families."
A morning panel presentation featured Williams, who was the deputy Marine commander of the Fallujah area in 2004 and 2005, and later negotiated with Sunni insurgent groups to achieve a major security pact in Al-Anbar province. In the afternoon, social work professionals held a brainstorming session "to decide what we should do as a school," Mama said.
Called shell shock or combat fatigue in earlier wars, PTSD was clinically defined among returning Vietnam veterans. The ancient Greek playwright Sophocles described the stress and emotions of combat survivors in two of his plays, "and that was 2,000 years ago," said Capt. Brian S. Pecha, division surgeon for the 4th Marines.
Civilian social workers need to understand military culture, Pecha said: "Without that, they may not even want to listen to your advice."
Studies show a clear correlation of PTSD incidence to the numbers of combat encounters that troops experience, Pecha said, with as many as 20 percent of Marines experiencing stress symptoms after three to five firefights with the enemy.
A long debate is continuing over whether PTSD is psychologically or biologically based, but Pecha concluded "it doesn't matter." Combat stress injuries can affect the same areas of the brain that are damaged with traumatic brain injury from roadside bombs, he said.
"Sometimes the military culture does not like to deal with illness, because that's not what we're about," Pecha said. But the link between severe PTSD and physical brain injuries can make it easier for veterans to accept the condition and advice for treating it, he suggested.
"A lot of them are over the stigma themselves . . . (but) they have trouble getting help from their commanding officers," said Rita Torres of the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center at the VA medical center in East Orange. "They complain their officers don't know what you guys know."
"At the beginning of this war, they weren't trained," Williams acknowledged. "We did not have enough people prepared for what this would mean."
The Marines use a training program for "combat operational stress" for teaching troops to recognize symptoms in themselves and others, while the Army has "battlemind training" for making the transition from combat theater to home.
The training is strength, based on the qualities of self-confidence and toughness that soldiers value, Foley said.
"Combat requires constant alertness," she said, and the training includes steps for calming the hypervigilance that accompanies some veterans home — like one soldier Foley recalled who insisted on making his family wait in the car while he "cleared the house" for potential intruders.
Disruptive dreams lead some patients to use alcohol to self-medicate, Foley said. "I don't want you to miss the workaholics," she told the social workers. "Using something, anything to not feel, to not process those feelings."
Ellie