Freeze Frame 4 Vets

They are the invisible wounds of war, the battered minds and bruised spirits we have come to recognize as posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. By one estimate, more than 300,000 of the nearly 2 million U.S. servicemen and -women deployed since 9/11 suffer from the often-debilitating condition, with symptoms that include flashbacks and nightmares, emotional numbness, relationship problems, trouble sleeping, sudden anger, and drug and alcohol abuse. The number of cases is expected to climb as the war in Afghanistan continues, and could ultimately exceed 500,000, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University. Mental-health experts say PTSD is the primary reason suicides in the military are at an all-time high; 256 soldiers took their own lives in 2008, the highest number since that data was first tracked, in 1980.

 

As NEWSWEEK and others have reported, the Department of Veterans Affairs has struggled to address this mental-health crisis, and thousands of veterans have suffered as a result. Now, thanks to new leadership and a new openness to collaboration, things appear to be changing at the VA, if slowly. Veterans still often face insufferably long waits for treatment and steep bureaucratic hurdles when filing disability claims. But there is a new sense of urgency under Eric Shinseki, the retired four-star Army general appointed to head the agency by President Obama, to change the culture within the 77-year-old VA. Shinseki has made PTSD a priority, with efforts underway to address concerns from the way claims are processed to the development of new, more effective treatments. "Brain injuries and the psychological consequences of battle are not new to combat," Shinseki tells NEWSWEEK. "We know from past wars that with early diagnosis and treatment, people can get better."

The agency has already trained more than 2,000 mental-health clinicians to administer PTSD treatment using new, evidence-based treatments. Among the most surprising steps the VA has taken is to reach out to mental-health professionals in the private sector, something that never happened under past regimes. Just last month the agency launched a joint venture with the Boston Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital to treat potentially tens of thousands of PTSD sufferers and their families in the Boston area. The VA also recently began what press secretary Katie Roberts called a "collaborative relationship" with Give an Hour, a national nonprofit network of some 4,500 therapists that provides free counseling to returning troops and their families. Barbara Van Dahlen, a psychologist who founded Give an Hour four years ago, says that when she contacted the VA in the past she was turned away. "The VA finally gets that PTSD is a public-health crisis," Van Dahlen says. "They still haven't taken full advantage of the fact that we have 4,500 therapists eager to help, there isn't really a collaborative relationship yet, but the new leadership is showing sincere interest. That's a start."

To read the full article, please click this link: http://www.newsweek.com/id/216534