thedrifter
08-19-07, 08:37 AM
Last Updated: 5:38 am | Sunday, August 19, 2007
Real way to support our troops
In the midst of troops fighting to stay alive in Iraq, it is painful news that 27 American soldiers took their own lives last year in the midst of warfare there. Another three killed themselves while deployed in Afghanistan.
All told, 99 active-duty soldiers committed suicide last year, the highest rate in 26 years of Army recordkeeping, according to an Army report released Thursday. While mental experts fear rising rates among Iraq veterans, no one can say for sure because the military has no method for tracking such numbers.
The new report dramatizes the need for stepping up mental health services for military members and their families. A Defense Department task force earlier this year issued a strongly worded report admitting military health services were inadequate and poorly positioned, still not geared up for wartime needs.
In particular, it called for more mental health professionals, easier access to mental health services for both troops and families, more attention paid to chronic, not just acute problems, and a rethinking of Defense Department policies that inhibited self-disclosure.
In essence, the Defense Department appears to be trying to figure out mental health treatment strategy in the midst of conducting a war. That's unthinkable.
Sending troops into chaotic situations and exposing them to unbearable stresses without adequate emotional support is as inexcusable as sending them into battle without adequate armor. Mental health services are an essential part of military preparedness; the Defense Department is failing this measure.
This is not a new problem. Reports of rising suicide rates among those serving in the Iraq war go back at least as far as 2004.
The problems caused by a lack of mental health and emotional support for our troops don't stay on the battlefield. A post-deployment assessment administered to troops three to four months back from Iraq showed 38 percent of soldiers reported psychological problems, 31 percent of Marines and 49 percent of National Guard members. While Thursday's report does not tie suicide rates to longer or multiple deployments, it does show that such deployments lead to higher rates of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Meanwhile, returning troops have found it tougher to get mental health counseling because military insurance has cut payment to therapists.
This post-deployment pain for our military personnel and their families is an intolerable form of collateral damage.
However divided Americans have been on the war itself, they have remained committed to supporting the troops. Providing adequate mental health support while those troops are deployed and when they return is one genuine way to do it. Anything less is beneath the American way.
Ellie
Real way to support our troops
In the midst of troops fighting to stay alive in Iraq, it is painful news that 27 American soldiers took their own lives last year in the midst of warfare there. Another three killed themselves while deployed in Afghanistan.
All told, 99 active-duty soldiers committed suicide last year, the highest rate in 26 years of Army recordkeeping, according to an Army report released Thursday. While mental experts fear rising rates among Iraq veterans, no one can say for sure because the military has no method for tracking such numbers.
The new report dramatizes the need for stepping up mental health services for military members and their families. A Defense Department task force earlier this year issued a strongly worded report admitting military health services were inadequate and poorly positioned, still not geared up for wartime needs.
In particular, it called for more mental health professionals, easier access to mental health services for both troops and families, more attention paid to chronic, not just acute problems, and a rethinking of Defense Department policies that inhibited self-disclosure.
In essence, the Defense Department appears to be trying to figure out mental health treatment strategy in the midst of conducting a war. That's unthinkable.
Sending troops into chaotic situations and exposing them to unbearable stresses without adequate emotional support is as inexcusable as sending them into battle without adequate armor. Mental health services are an essential part of military preparedness; the Defense Department is failing this measure.
This is not a new problem. Reports of rising suicide rates among those serving in the Iraq war go back at least as far as 2004.
The problems caused by a lack of mental health and emotional support for our troops don't stay on the battlefield. A post-deployment assessment administered to troops three to four months back from Iraq showed 38 percent of soldiers reported psychological problems, 31 percent of Marines and 49 percent of National Guard members. While Thursday's report does not tie suicide rates to longer or multiple deployments, it does show that such deployments lead to higher rates of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Meanwhile, returning troops have found it tougher to get mental health counseling because military insurance has cut payment to therapists.
This post-deployment pain for our military personnel and their families is an intolerable form of collateral damage.
However divided Americans have been on the war itself, they have remained committed to supporting the troops. Providing adequate mental health support while those troops are deployed and when they return is one genuine way to do it. Anything less is beneath the American way.
Ellie