Award for Dr. Katz slaps veterans

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I still believe in NAMI but I no longer believe in the NAMI Veterans Council. The decision to award Dr. Ira Katz for suicide prevention is akin to awarding a vampire for testing blood. Katz, as reported here (on Wounded Times) countless times, was refusing to admit there was a problem with veterans committing suicide. Everything he did, what they are awarding him for, he was forced to do. The Veterans Council is giving him an award for what it took an act of Congress to do!

This is one of the stories about a soldier that committed suicide.

The Life and Lonely Death of Noah Pierce
text and photos by Ashley Gilbertson, from the Virginia Quarterly Review

Noah Pierce’s headstone gives his date of death as July 26, 2007, though his family feels certain he died the night before, when, at age 23, he took a handgun and shot himself in the head. No one is sure what pushed him to it. He said in his suicide note it was impotence—one possible side effect of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was “the snowflake that toppled the iceberg,” he wrote. But it could have been the memory of the Iraqi child he crushed under his Bradley. It could have been the unarmed man he shot point-blank in the forehead during a house-to-house raid, or the friend he tried madly to gather into a plastic bag after he had been blown to bits by a roadside bomb, or it could have been the doctor he killed at a checkpoint.



Noah grew up in Sparta, Minnesota, a town of fewer than 1,000 on the outskirts of the Quad Cities—Mountain Iron, Virginia, Eveleth, and Gilbert—on the Mesabi Iron Range. Discovered on the heels of the Civil War, the range’s ore deposit is the largest in the United States. Around the clock, deep metallic groans come out of the ground and freight trains barrel through, horns screeching. Locals are proud of their hardworking, hard-drinking heritage. There are more than 20 bars on Eveleth’s half-mile-long main street. On a typical night last May, loudspeakers affixed to lampposts blared John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” and Harleys thundered through town. One bar closed early, when a drunk got thrown through the front window.

Noah was a quiet, sensitive kid. He kept a tight circle of friends and passed time with them building tree forts and playing army in the woods. Noah’s biological father separated from Noah’s mother shortly after she became pregnant, but Tom Softich, Noah’s stepfather, treated the thin-skinned boy as his own. When Noah turned 6, Tom took him hunting, and by 13 Noah had his own high-powered rifle. For practice, they went rabbit shooting together at a small clearing a mile from their house. It became such a regular place to find Noah that his family and friends began referring to the clearing simply as “the spot.”

When Noah went missing in July 2007, after a harrowing year adjusting to home following two tours in Iraq, police ordered a countywide search. His friend Ryan Nelson thought he might know where to look. When he pulled up to the spot, he immediately recognized Noah’s truck. Inside, Ryan found his friend slumped over the bench seat, his head blown apart, the gun in his right hand. Half a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Special Blend lay on the passenger seat, and beer cans were strewn about. On the dash lay Noah’s photo IDs; he had stabbed each photo through the face. And on the floorboard was the scrawled, rambling suicide note. It was his final attempt to explain the horrors he had seen—and committed.



In April 2008, Ira R. Katz, deputy chief patient care services officer for mental health at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, became embroiled in scandal when a memo surfaced in which he instructed members of his staff to suppress the results of an internal investigation into the number of veterans attempting suicide. Based on their surveys, along with tabulations from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control, Katz estimated that between 550 and 650 veterans were committing suicide each month. It pains Noah’s family and friends that the Pentagon will never add him—nor the thousands like him—to the official tally of 4,000-plus war dead.

Likewise, PTSD and minor traumatic brain injuries (MTBI) are excluded from the count of 50,000 severe combat wounds—even though PTSD and MTBI often have far greater long-term health effects than bullet wounds or even lost limbs. A study by the RAND Corporation found that approximately 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans—one in five—suffer from depression or stress disorders and another 320,000 suffer from MTBIs that place them at a higher risk for depression and stress disorders.

Noah’s mother, Cheryl Softich, believes her son’s death could have been avoided had he received counseling. Statistically, veterans outside the VA system are four times more likely to attempt suicide than those within the system. Now Cheryl’s mission is to have a clause inserted into every standard military contract that would require veterans to visit a therapist every two weeks of the first year after a combat deployment. “Soldiers are taught to follow orders,” she says. “It needs to be mandatory. Noah was an excellent soldier, and if it was mandatory, he would have gone faithfully to every appointment.”
http://www.utne.com/print-article.aspx?id=25408

Yet this is what the Veterans Council released for the award to Katz

NAMI Veterans Council Dedication To Veterans Mental Health Care Award

Ira Katz, MD

Dr. Ira Katz left a comfortable position at the University of Pennsylvania and the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia to join the Department of Veterans Affairs. Within two years of his arrival, members of Congress and the press were calling for his resignation or termination over the issue of rising suicides among veterans, especially veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In spite of blistering criticism, Dr. Katz worked tirelessly behind the scenes to launch the VA's first ever suicide prevention initiative, including a nation wide crisis call line in conjunction with SAMHSA that has intervened in thousands of potential suicides by veterans. While managing this delicate task and fending off critics, Dr. Katz spearheaded VA-wide approval of a dramatic reform of its mental health programs to embrace recovery principles. All veterans receiving mental healthcare in the VA are better served today because of the work of Dr. Ira Katz. We are proud to honor him for his dedication to improving the mental health and the mental health care of veterans.
NAMI Convention

[READ MORE +/-]

I am so furious over this that yesterday I resigned from the Veterans Council. I can no longer participate or support any group so oblivious to the facts, they saw fit to award Katz for this. NAMI giving award to Dr. Katz for being forced to change?

When you read the stories about other people in NAMI and how much they are doing for the veterans, this is an appalling decision. Matt Kuntz is a member of NAMI. He has done more for the troops and the National Guard, in turn, for the veterans as well. We tend to forget that when the members of the National Guard come back they are once again citizens and fall into the veteran role. This is what Matt Kuntz did.

Thursday, April 9, 2009
Support the The Post Deployment Health Assessment Act of 2009
Matt Kuntz, the keynote speaker at our upcoming Annual Education Conference, has asked us to take a few minutes to contact our Congressional Representatives and Senators to ask them to support comprehensive mental health screenings for our returning soldiers.Two years ago, Matt, the Executive Director of NAMI Montana and one of President Obama's "18 Ordinary Americans Making an Extraordinary Difference," lost his step-brother Chris Dana to a post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) induced suicide sixteen months after he returned from Iraq.

The events around Chris’s death led Governor Brian Schweitzer and the Montana National Guard to develop the premier program in the country for caring for National Guard members suffering from PTSD. Matt says, "The foundation of this successful system is a series of five face-to-face mental health screenings that every returning service member must complete upon their return home from combat."This broad screening program overcomes the traditional barriers that have kept service members from receiving treatment for PTSD. Over forty percent of the individuals that have completed the screening asked for help in dealing with their combat stress injuries.

Senator Max Baucus introduced “The Post Deployment Health Assessment Act of 2009” to implement this common sense screening program throughout our fighting force. The Act would require face-to-face screening before deployment, upon return home, and then every six months for two years. This basic and effective program will help safeguard the mental health of our entire fighting force for approximately the same price tag as a single F-22 Fighter. The Act is supported by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the National Guard Association, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

Please take a few minutes out of your day to contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators to ask them to support this critical legislation. Our military suicide rates are at record levels and climbing. We can’t afford to wait any longer to help our heroes get the care they deserve. You can follow this link to find your Representatives’ and Senators’ contact information: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/.

President Obama met with Matt while he was still a senator.

Barack Talks to Vets in BillingsBy Zach in Helena - Aug 28th, 2008 at 1:52 pm EDT

Senator Obama spoke to a group of veterans and military families yesterday at Riverfront Park in Billings. He spoke at length on the failures of the current administration to take care of the nation’s veterans, before taking questions from the audience on a variety of issues. You can watch his remarks about veterans, energy, and the VA system here.What's going on right now, the simple fact is we're not doing right by our veterans. Not here in Montana, and not anywhere in the United States, and I want you to know that one of the reasons I'm running for president of the United States is because I want to make sure that today's veterans are treated like my grandfather was, when he came home, he got the GI Bill and was able to go to college and got FHA loans to go to school and was treated with honor. As President I'm going to make sure that the VA system in Montana gets the oversight, direction, and resources it needs to do the job. [Watch the video]

Then Senator Obama laid blame where it belonged

In Billings, Obama blames GOP for veteran troubles
In Billings, Obama blames GOP for veteran troubles
By TOM LUTEY
Billings Gazette
BILLINGS - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, speaking Wednesday in Billings, faulted Republican leaders for chronically underfunding veteran services for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.“I have some significant differences with McCain and George Bush about the war in Iraq,” Obama said. “But one thing I thought we'd agree to is when the troops came home, we'd treat them with the honor and respect they deserve.”Several trends indicate veterans are not getting the health care and other benefits they need to succeed at home, Obama told a group of around 200 people during an invitation-only morning listening session in Riverfront Park.

Armed services veterans are seven times more likely to be homeless than Americans who don't serve. In Montana, roughly half the veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder go untreated for the psychological condition, Obama said.

Before speaking, the candidate met for several minutes with the family of Spec. Chris Dana, a Montana National Guard veteran suffering from PTSD who committed suicide in March 2007, several months after returning from Iraq. Dana's stepbrother, Matt Kuntz, became a vocal advocate for better treatment of PTSD after Dana's death.

Jess Bahr, a Vietnam veteran, drove more than 200 miles from Great Falls to hear Obama. Before being bused to the event with a veteran-heavy crowd, Bahr said the number of homeless U.S. veterans was inexcusable and that the needs of retired warriors across the country were being ignored by communities.“In Great Falls, they're building a $6.5 million animal shelter and we don't have a shelter for veterans. What does that tell you about priorities?” asked Bahr, a 1967 Army draftee who survived the Tet Offensive, a nine-month series of battles that resulted in more than 6,000 deaths and 24,000 injuries among American and allied troops during the Vietnam War.
click post title for more

If you ever listened to the hearings on CSPAN, you would know what kind of a crisis the veterans were in. Joshua Omvig was one more of many committing suicide because the help they needed was not there. The suicide prevention Katz is being award for took and act of Congress to begin.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Bush Signs Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Bill into Law
With the stroke of a pen President George W. Bush signed the Joshua Omvig bill into law, ending a drawn-out political chapter that overcame a procedural hold in the Senate. The bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, who named the bill after one of his constituents, Joshua Omvig of Grundy Center. Omvig committed suicide in Dec. 2005 after returning from an 11-month deployment in Iraq.

“By directing the Veterans Administration (VA) to develop a comprehensive program to reduce the rate of suicide among veterans the law will help thousands of young men and women who bravely served our country,” Boswell said in a press release following Bush’s Monday signing. “The Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act not only honors Joshua’s service to his country but ensures that all veterans receive the proper mental health care they need.”

The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act (H.R. 327) is designed to help address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among veterans by requiring mental health training for Veterans Affairs staff; a suicide prevention counselor at each VA medical facility; and mental-health screening and treatment for veterans who receive VA care. It also supports outreach and education for veterans and their families, peer support counseling and research into suicide prevention. The VA had been implementing a number of these programs, but not in a timely manner, whereas the Joshua Omvig bill mandates these programs and subsequent deadlines as a means of expediting the process for returning veterans.

Bush Signs Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Bill into Law

It took law suits from groups to do, like Veterans for Common Sense, to call attention to the pain and suffering the veterans were going through.


With all of this, awarding Katz for what he was forced to do ignores what he did not do when he had the chance. Did he answer reporters questions honestly without trying to cover up the facts? No. He had the chance right there to fight for the veterans he was supposed to be working for instead of the administration causing the problems. All it would have taken was honesty. Imagine what that would have done for the veterans! If Katz put the veterans first instead of his job, he would have been a hero and truly deserving of such an honor. His courage would have caused such and uproar in this nation that there would be no way possible for him to be fired for doing the right thing for our veterans. He decided instead to fight for the administration and the veterans paid the price.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Tim Bowman

Mitchell takes on the stigma of vets' mental-health issues
The message reads: "It takes the courage and strength of a warrior to ask for help."It goes on to list the VA's suicide prevention hotline number: 800-273-TALK (8255).Mitchell takes on the stigma of vets' mental-health issuesby E.J. Montini - Jul. 22, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona RepublicLate last year at a congressional hearing in Washington, Rep. Harry Mitchell listened to a couple named Mike and Kim Bowman tell the story of their 23-year-old son, Tim, a soldier who had returned safely from his yearlong deployment in Iraq only to commit suicide at home."We already were hearing that suicide among veterans who were between 20 and 24 years old was 2½ times higher than non-veterans," Mitchell told me. "And I remember thinking to myself: 'We can't do this again.' "

Lucas Senescall

VA Refused Medical Care to Suicidal Veterans

July 20, 2008, Spokane, Washington - A distraught 26-year-old Navy veteran who had a history of mental illness hanged himself within three hours of seeking help at Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The July 7 death of Lucas Senescall was the sixth suicide this year of a veteran who had contact with the Spokane VA, a marked increase in such deaths.

Last year, there were two suicides among veterans treated at the local VA.

Last year I went to the NAMI convention and then interviewed Paul Sullivan over the law suit filed against the VA.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Paul Sullivan clears up rumors on VA law suit

What caused Veterans for Common Sense to file the law suit against the VA?

Jonathan Schulze and Jeffrey Lucey, two Gulf War combat veterans with PTSD, were refused VA medical care even though they physically came to VA medical facilities with their families and told VA staff they were suicidal. Congress may legislate and perform oversight, yet the Court can force immediate action: one of our top priorities was to force VA from turning away suicidal veterans.

VCS initially filed Freedom of Information Act requests earlier in 2007 about suicides, and VA responded that they had no information. VCS also filed suit because the number of disability claims waiting for review has doubled in the past few years, and the length of time has increased from five months to more than six months.

However, VA executives paid themselves nearly $4 million in bonuses for their dismal performance. Furthermore, VA’s IG reported three times that 25 percent of veterans waited more than one month to see a doctor. VA testified under oath twice that the figure was less than 5 percent. Clearly, VA has a capacity crisis – too many veterans and not enough doctors or claims processors. Furthermore, the 23-page claim form and several healthcare enrollment forms are overly complex, especially for our veterans with PTSD or TBI. For more detailed information, please go to http://www.veteransptsdclassaction.org/.




What caused Veterans for Common Sense to join forces with Veterans United for Truth?

VUFT is another non-profit veteran advocacy group, and they are based in California.



How were the emails from Dr. Katz discovered?


After more than 8 months of delays, the Federal Court ORDERED VA to turn over the e-mails to our attorneys in our lawsuit as part of the discovery process.



What did Dr. Katz say to explain these emails?


He admitted they were true and that he wrote them. You can read his testimony at the SVAC web site where he offers evasive explanations.



What were the facts discovered as a result of these emails being found?


1. VA says they are monitoring completed and attempted suicides to see if there is a difference in suicide rates between veterans, war veterans, and non-veterans.


2. VA essentially confirmed the CBS study that found veterans are more likely to complete a suicide, and for younger veterans aged 18 – 24, they were three to four times more likely to complete a suicide..


3. VA completes “suicide incident reports” and “root cause analysis” reports for each completed suicide, yet then declares them confidential “quality assurance” and places them off limits to Congress, veterans’ families, and attorneys. It is very important for Congress and the Courts and the public to see these reports (with privacy protections of course) so that we can better understand why the veterans killed themselves, and how VA can be improved to prevent and reduce suicides.



How many suicides does the VA know about since the beginning of the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq?


There is no national “veteran completed suicide” reporting system now, yet VA is under considerable pressure to begin working to identify all of them. VCS provided a methodology to Congress to identify as many as possible by starting with the list of 1.7 million deployed and then checking all federal, state, and local death certificates.


Currently, VA looks at death certificates where the document reports the person as a veteran. This is incomplete because many families do not know if a person was a veteran or the funeral home / coroner don’t ask. DoD only reports active duty suicides and excludes Reserve and National Guard suicides because they are not on Active Duty.. Our VCS methodology would identify all completed suicides among all 1.7 million, not just the incomplete pieces of the puzzle the DoD and VA currently look at.



How many attempted suicides does the VA know about during the same period?


See above. VA knows about attempted suicides only among those veterans receiving VA care, and that is about 1,000 per month, or 12,000 per year, based on Katz’ e-mail.



How did the emails end up with Senator Akaka and his committee?


The Katz e-mails were produced at trial in April 2008, and then journalists reported them to the public. I not exactly sure, yet I believe Sen. Akaka’s staff saw them in the widely reported press accounts of our trial.



Do you know about the Freedom of Information request to the VA by CREW and VoteVets?


Yes. It is too bad that VA still plays games with FOIA. VA should be forced to turn over the information. Embarrassing information is never a reason to deny a FOIA, as VA frequently does.



How did the email from Norma Perez end up in the hands of congress?


The Perez e-mail discouraging diagnoses for PTSD among veterans was sent by Perez to several VA staff, who in turn sent it to other VA staff, who in tern sent it to a veteran advocate in Texas. That person turned it over to VoteVets and CREW. VCS did not play a role in uncovering the e-mail, yet VCS did play a role in publicizing the e-mail.



What did the entire email suggest?


I would suggest reading the e-mail, as it speaks for itself.



How did that email end up with the congress and then incorporated into the law suit filed by Veterans For Common Sense?


The Perez e-mail and news articles were forwarded from me to our attorneys with a request that they investigate it. They did investigate it by sending a letter to the Dept. of Justice, who then authenticated it and confirmed that VA Secretary James Peake’s office knew about the Perez e-mail on April 7, 2008 – a full two weeks before our trial began, yet VA failed to provide it to our attorneys under discovery. Our attorneys then asked the judge to add the Perez e-mail to the body of evidence we introduced at trial. At a hearing earlier this month, the judge agreed with our attorneys, and the judge also admitted the entire Senate hearing transcript about the Perez e-mail into evidence – a victory for veterans. Sen. Akaka would know for sure, yet I believe he and his staff learned of the Perez e-mail from the press.



What is your view of these findings regarding the treatment of our veterans by the VA after these emails were discovered?


Nearly all VA employees are well-intended and want to assist veterans. I know this because I worked at VA and still know many VA employees. However, the system is overly complex, the system is overloaded, and the system is mired in a deep financial, leadership, and capacity crisis.

Compounding the problem is the disappointing fact that the current political appointees in Washington are incompetent at best, and malicious toward veterans at worst. This combination causes very serious adverse problems for VA, veterans, and families. The solution remains the obvious. VA needs an massive overhaul immediately.


VA needs new leaders, full mandatory funding, and significantly streamlined procedures so veterans can get fast and high-quality medical care and benefits. The situation is bad now, with 325,000 new and unplanned casualties from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars flooding into VA hospitals and clinics, plus 288,000 unanticipated disability claims from recent war veterans. If the crisis is not addressed immediately with aggressive action, the current administration will be held responsible for crashing VA on the rocks.


Although VA had systemic problems in the 1990s and early 2000s, the situation spiraled out of control when Jim Nicholson became Secretary in early 2005. Nicholson, who had no experience with VA, healthcare, or disability claims, served as Karl Rove’s and Grover Norquist’s personal partisan wrecking ball to tear apart VA, bust up the unions, and privatize it. In the end, our only recourse was to file suit because veterans were literally completing suicide, yet VA leaders appeared oblivious to this life-or-death crisis.


In my view, we can learn the lessons from the Vietnam and Gulf wars, where many veterans with psychological trauma were neglected, and improve the situation. Or, we can take the current approach by VA: pinch pennies, bury your head in the sand, and leave the disaster to the next administration. The decision to fix VA was straightforward, yet the battle to fix VA is very hard.


Paul Sullivan
Executive Director
Veterans for Common Sense
Post Office Box 15514
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 558-4553
Paul@VeteransForCommonSense.org
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/




I want to thank Paul for his time and for all he has done for the veterans in this country. Think about the numbers of veterans his actions will make a difference for. He doesn't want more families to have to bury another son or daughter because the VA just didn't have room for them when they needed their wounds to be treated. We've all read too many stories like Jonathan's and Jeffrey's, or Tim Bowman, or Joshua Omvig, along with the hundreds of others we found in the media. Far too much suffering that did not need to happen.

Saving lives because it was the right thing to do came from other people and not Katz. By the interviews he had done, it's obvious that had he not been forced to act, he would have been happy denying the problem and "staying the course" as Bush often loved to say.

So what exactly is behind this award? Why award it to Katz of all people? Can the NAMI Veterans Council be so oblivious to the facts and what was behind what Katz was forced to do, they think he's the one to glorify? Can they be that ignorant? I doubt it. I met a lot of the people on the council and they are bright as well as deeply committed to our veterans. There are heroes all over this country doing great work for our veterans and they are on the council. So what is behind all of this? Are they sucking up to the VA? If this was the case then I'm sure they could have found someone else more worthy of this award in the VA. Whatever the reason behind this, whatever excuse for it, they have just done more damage to our veterans and slapped suffering families in the face. They have just decided that families like the ones you just read about are insignificant. If they really wanted to give an award to a hero they could have picked Matt or Paul Sullivan or any of the families with the courage to stand up and talk about their heartbreak.
cross post on Peace Tree and Wounded Times"

Spc. Kenneth Jacobs death a year ago and tragedy goes on

"This is a cross post in full. A soldier's widow needs help for justice.

Soldier from Holly Springs dies
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

HOLLY SPRINGS (WTVD) -- The Army is investigating the death of a Schofield Barracks soldier from North Carolina found dead on base earlier this week.

Spc. Kenneth Jacobs, a 22-year-old from Holly Springs, N.C., was found unconscious and not breathing Monday.

Paramedics tried to revive him but were unsuccessful and declared him dead at the scene.
Jacobs was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team. He moved to Hawaii in 2006. He returned in October from a deployment to Iraq.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6228338

I receive a lot of emails, heart tugging emails, and once in a while the sender is begging for help. They feel they are out of hope and out of help. This is one of them. I was asked to post this and I'm doing it praying someone out there can help this widow get the justice denied her husband.

Huffing deaths are not suicide. They are doing it to seek relief. Spc. Jacobs was put on Zoloft and we all know there are problems with this. You can't give them medication this strong and simply hope for the best without any kind of therapy. Yet when Spc. Jacobs was found dead in the barracks, that was the end of it. There were no more follow up stories of yet one more non-combat death not counted. Not one more headline grabbing story of a young soldier's death following PTSD and not treated properly. Above all of this no story of the young widow and her children left behind with no income, no death insurance and no help from the military under survivors benefits. Read her story and if you can help her, contact me and I'll give you her contact information. There has to be help for her out there somewhere. My God! Do we really support the troops and honor military families or don't we?

I’m writing to you to tell you about my husband, SPC. Kenneth Robert Jacobs who passed away on June 23rd 2008.



Ken graduated basic training from Ft. Benning GA , in August 2006 and was stationed at Schoffield Barracks in Hawaii. The unit that he was assigned to was already in Iraq and he joined them there in Nov. 2006. Ken’s duties in Iraq included house to house searches, guard duty, tower duty, and gunner on Humvees. During Ken’s 1 year deployment his hummer had been hit by 4 IED’s. He never complained about being there and said he knew they were helping the Iraqi people. Ken was the only one in his unit that received The Leader of The Pack award twice while deployed.



His deployment ended in Nov. 2007 and Ken said they all had to have a physical and debriefing before they could come home. He said they were told how to answer any questions asked, if they wanted to go home right away and not to stay for more evaluation. They were told that nightmares were normal and would go away in time, and not to mention anything they had to do over there to anyone. He was also told “anyone who had been hit with an IED go stand in that line” which he did. Then they were all asked as a group “who wants more testing done?” and no one raised their hands. Ken said he “didn’t want to look like a loser in front of the other guys” so he didn’t raise his hand.



Because Ken had answered all of the questions “correctly” he got to come home on leave for 4 weeks. After his leave him and I flew back to Hawaii and got married. Myself and my 3 year old daughter moved to Hawaii in Feb. 2008.

At this time I noticed that Ken became very angry easily. His drinking was out of control and he would have terrible nightmares, thrashing around in bed. We were getting into terrible fights and one night the MP’s were called. Ken had to see a Psychiatrist and told him about some of the things he had to do and things he saw in Iraq . The doctor told him “No wonder you’re messed up!” This doctor diagnosed him with PTSD and put him on Zoloft. I believe this was in March of 2008. After this he really wasn’t getting any better. In May of 2008 I was out on the porch and heard Ken yelling at my 3 year old to go out the window. He was screaming “Go! Go! Go!” Then fell to the floor and started to have some type of seizure. When it was over, he got up and sat in a chair and started typing on the computer. I asked Kenny “What just happen?” and he didn’t remember any of it. I told him he needed go back to the doctor. He went back to the doctor and told him what happen and he increased his Zoloft.

That’s it! No counseling for him or I to understand what was going on, nothing.

The two of us were still fighting horribly and after another blowout he decided to spend the night at the barracks with his buddies on June 22, 2008. Ken went to his detail the next morning and we made up. We had an OBGYN appointment that morning, because I was 4 months pregnant, and Ken was going to meet me there. He asked his friend if he could take a nap in his room until the appointment and his friend said yes. That was around 9:00am. His friend came back to his room at 1:00pm and found Kenny lying in bed not moving. He rolled him over to find Ken had passed away in his sleep.



Because Ken was found alone in the room there was a criminal investigation. They determined there was no foul play and ruled his death accidental. The initial autopsy report did not show anything so all of Ken’s reports and test were sent to DC to be analyzed to determine cause of death. After waiting for 4 months the doctor who wrote the autopsy report said there were no drugs or alcohol in Ken’s system. They also didn’t find any Zoloft which I knew he took every day. The only thing they could find was a trace of difluoroethane which is a common ingredient in “dust-off” So in his opinion, this was probably Ken’s cause of death.



The investigators did find one can of dust-off in the room behind the T.V. on the opposite side of the room where Ken was found. According to the National Institute on Drug abuse the key danger of inhalant abuse is Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome. This is when a huffer dies within seconds of taking a hit of the inhalant, usually from heart failure. Since the only can of dust-off was found on the other side of the room on a shelf behind a T.V, wouldn’t this cause of death be unlikely? I may never know how my husband died, and nothing will bring him back. But I do know the Army did not provide him or I with counseling for his diagnosed PTSD. He was given medication and told that would solve all of his problems. Ken was scheduled for deployment again in Nov. 2008



Why isn’t there a program in place for these soldiers to get the help they need when returning home from deployment? Why are these kids given a choice to get counseling, and make it seem like punishment, or an embarrassment? Scheduled counseling should be mandatory when a soldier is put on any anti-depressant or antipsychotic medication. More intense screening should be done to determine brain injury for soldiers who had been hit with IED’s. Sgt. Sipes (kens team leader) told me that “one of the IED’s that they hit was so bad that Kenny was bleeding from his ears. He and Ken were taken to a Med Aide station to be observed for 48 hours but no tests were done.

He said Ken was never the same after that. He was always the comic relief guy, he said. Ken would make light of any situation they were in, and always had a smile on his face. He told me after that day his personality changed. He kept to himself and the sgt. knew that there was something wrong with him. They came home shortly after that. Sgt. Sipes was one of the soldiers who found Ken that terrible day and tried to revive him.



My husband was 21 years old. He left behind a wife, stepdaughter, mother, 2 younger brothers, sister, grandparents, many friends, and a son who he will never get to see.

Please don’t let this happen to another soldier, or family. Better screening of Traumatic Brain Injuries and mandatory counseling for returning solders’ who are prescribed anti depressants or anti psychotic medication should be our governments’ top priority.



Because of the autopsy determination myself and my children have been denied the VA's DIC benefits. My husband had not changed his beneficiary from his mother to me after our marriage of which he was supposed to be counseled on and never was after our marriage. My mother in-law has received the insurance money. She does not help me out. I am on SSI and live with my mother, daughter, son, brother, sister and nephew. Why am I and my family being punished for what the military has "determined" to be my husband’s cause of death? Why didn't my husband receive the help he needed instead of the medications handed out like candy. If my husband had been receiving help for his diagnosed PTSD this would never have happened. Now, I am without my husband. My children without a father. How are families of soldiers that commit suicide awarded the benefits and not mine? Isn’t it time the military supported it's soldiers and their families? Please help me to receive the DIC benefits that my husband's family deserves for his service to our country.



It is time the military stands behind its families of the soldiers that have served our country. Death should not be discriminated and families should not suffer any more then they have. If a soldier gives up and commits suicide the family is taken care of. These families have a right to know that if what the servicemen and women are asked to do and if what they have seen affects them mentally, their service to our country is forgotten and the surviving family’s will also be forgotten.



We have also been in contact with Mrs.XXXXX. Her husband passed away days after Kenny from the same circumstances. She was told before she received the death certificate that the cause of death would need to be changed in order for her to receive her benefits (which read the same on my husband’s certificate). She did so before applying and has received the benefits. We were not told this. Also, her husband did not receive the help he also deserved to prevent his death from happening. We are not alone and unfortunately unless mandatory counseling is given to these soldiers no mater the rank, there will be more of us. Please help us with our fight for our survivor benefits, to reclassify my husband’s death, and to enforce counseling for these soldiers to prevent this from happening. My husband did not die from huffing, an overdose or suicide. My husband’s death was clearly service related and he never came home from Iraq.

How can this be ignored?



Sincerely,

Chriscedia D. Jacobs

"

PTSD Personal to President Obama's family

Some of my Republican friends just don't know what to think of me. I have a habit of getting on their nerves at times. What we all have to remember is that no matter what side of the political debate they arrive on, they do care about the men and women serving this country. I see it in what they do everyday. While their elected have a habit of saying they support the troops, the fact is, they vote against them all the time when they need the government and the congress to step up, fund the VA and make sure the DOD are taking care of the wounded, instead of just tossing them over. Republican voters don't know this. They thought McCain support the troops and the veterans even though he voted against them all the time. They just assumed he did because he said so, much like they thought he supported the GI Bill, even though he campaigned against it and then didn't bother to show up for the vote. That kind of lip service support is what got our wounded troops and veterans into the mess they're in right now.

Aside from that, one of the other issues I have getting the facts across to them is President Obama and Michelle. Michelle has taken on military families and has been trying to bring their issues into the spotlight. She's met with probably hundreds of military families. President Obama, well, aside from the biggest VA presidential budget request before congress, he also served on the Veterans Affairs Committee, which was also responsible for the biggest VA increase in over 30 years. Not bad at all. But they think he hates veterans. Go figure that one. All they have to do is look up the facts and know what reality is. The other thing is that aside from the funding requests he's been responsible for, the man has paid attention.

Read about what he just said about PTSD and know, when it comes to this invisible wound, President Obama has his eyes and his heart open.

PTSD Personal to President Obama's family
When I tell people that President Obama has been paying attention to PTSD since he was a Senator, they don't believe me. They don't believe me when I tell them that he's so informed on the problems associated with this wound, that he picked the best program to address it. He went to the Montana National Guard to find out about their program. I track all of this everyday, usually with 70 hours a week invested in it, so for me to know this program was one of the best, what I've invested in learning about it brought me to it. For Obama, able to pick any program across the nation including the failure programs the government came out with, he picked one that works. That proved something to me right there. He has to care to even know about it. Well, now maybe the rest of the people in this country I've been trying to get thru to will finally understand why it is that they now have more hope of healing than at any other time. To President Obama, PTSD is personal, familiar and family.

Veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
By Maggie Vespa
Story Published: Jun 5, 2009 at 9:55 PM CDT
It was somewhat unexpected. In the middle of his highly publicized trip to Germany this morning, President Obama got personal."Because my great uncle, my grandmother's brother, was part of the unit that first liberated Buchenwahl," said the president this morning. But for some, what may be an unexpected anecdote, for others may be much needed recognition. Because while it's a disease that's plagued many for generations, it's only recently been brought out into the open."He suffered what we now know, what we call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."Over twelve-hundred veterans in Illinois alone suffer from P.T.S.D.,and while treatment for it is at an all time high, experts say, for many returned from duty, it's still vastly under diagnosed."Oftentimes, they're in denial and don't want to seek help. They feel like if they ask for help, that they're weak," said Kathy Thomas, clinical social worker for the Department of Veterans Affairs.go here for more
http://www.week.com/news/local/47110497.html

What is too good for wounded veterans?

This is my first post. I was just invited to post and considering that fighting for veterans with PTSD has been my life since 1982, this invitation couldn't have come at a better time. I blog over at Wounded Times if you are not familiar with me. I'm a Chaplain working with veterans and my husband is a Vietnam vet.

Right now the veterans need your help, especially the veterans with PTSD. There is a Bill sponsored by Congressman John Hall that has just made it thru the VA Subcommittee. Some Republicans voted against it telling me that when it comes to a full house vote, we'll see more Republicans saying "it's too good for veterans" instead of asking is it good enough. It also says that when it comes to the Senate, there will be an ever bigger fight from more Senators thinking along the same lines and saying no. While Democrats will hold the majority, we need to make sure that this Bill gets as many votes as possible. Not just for the sake of the newer veterans but for the sake of all of our veterans as a way of telling them, yes, we are a grateful nation and nothing is too good for them.

The rest is what I posted on my blog.


How can any Republican or Democrat say anything is too good for the troops or our veterans? These are the same people that were in position to send them into combat in the first place right? If a man or woman is willing to set aside "normal" life as a civilian, ask their families to sacrifice for the sake of the nation, then risk that life facing death or life changing wounds, how can there be anything at all that is "too good" for them in return? Think about it.

Think about what we ask of them and what they deliver on. What is it they ask in return? They ask that they be only used as a last resort; they are provided with the plans to carry the mission they are given out; they are trained to do their jobs; they are fed and clothed with uniforms that don't fall apart in the crotch (yes, this happened too) and in the end, they ask their families are taken care of if they pay with their lives, and should they live, they will not have to suffer neglect or financial hardships for surviving. Not a lot to ask for since from every corner of this nation we are able to spout out "Support the Troops" "Freedom isn't free" and use the words "from a grateful nation" yet when you get right down to the bottom of all this talk, talk is cheap but actually doing what we claim is very expensive.

I've been tracking PTSD in this country for far too long to know exactly how bad it is for them and how much worse it's going to get. They have to put up with people saying PTSD is not real and that they are just trying to suck off the system. Lord help these people if they ever encounter a traumatic event that changes the rest of their lives, but in order for that to happen they would have to have a tender soul and feel for others first. So that's unlikely.

They have to carry on with the mission watching over the backs of their buddies, while nightmares and flashbacks are eating them away. They have to then come home, bulldoze past ignorant fools trying to make them feel as if they are responsible for the pain they are carrying with them, and then, then they get to fight the VA to have their claims honored. No easy task either when they have to prove what moment in time did it to them. It's almost as if the VA cannot understand that sometimes it's not one, two or three times, but hundreds of them. Simply being able to show that they were fine when they were in boot camp and not fine after their deployment into hell the first time, the second time or third time and so on, would be honorable but all they have to go thru is just not enough for some law makers who have never once lived with them, talked to them or held them in their arms.

John McCain and Bush whined about the GI Bill being "too good" and would make the troops want out to go to college. Members of congress, guess which side, took to the floor of the congress and said there just wasn't enough money to increase the VA to take care of the wounded when they absolutely no problem at all funding two military campaigns without plans or accounting at the same time both were producing more wounded veterans. Was that really supporting the troops?

Want to use the excuse about money? Well that one doesn't work either because when you consider how much they could be making as a private citizen instead of military pay, you would then understand that they are not in the military for the money. Then consider when they are wounded by body or soul, and they cannot work they receive a lot less than they could working. The VA does not pay bonuses and it does not pay overtime. It does not give merit raises but it does give measly cost of living increases. If you think those increases keeps pace with inflation or what gas prices did last year, you must be living under a rock.

Set aside the over 900,000 claims in the system already still waiting to be processed and denied that they have to wait their turn on. Set aside the fact that between now and the time they begin to be treated, PTSD gets worse and when you add in the extra burden of bills that cannot be paid because they can't work and the VA won't approve their claim, is hell for them and their families. Set aside the fact that for the last 8 years we had people in charge without a clue what to do. Set all of that aside and then please tell me, what could possibly be too good for any of them after all we ask of them?

So please tell me how any member of congress would ever say that anything is too good for any of these men and women? Ever think about how many years lapse between the time a soldier or Marine is wounded by PTSD and they actually sought help? How about over 30 years later and they don't get retro pay for the 30 years they were suffering in silence. Think about how much money they save the government? Then take it a step further and look at the Korean veterans and WWII veterans seeking help for the first time.

My father-in-law had a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart because of serving this country in WWII, but never sought one dime from the VA. We had to pay to bury him. My husband came home in 1971 and knew he brought home an enemy inside of him but he thought he could work and the VA was for the "guys missing legs" so he didn't receive a dime until 1999, six years after PTSD was full blown and killing him. He knew something was wrong in 1971 but he didn't cost the government a dime all that time. He sucked it up as PTSD got worse. He had a job and made good money, worked overtime, got longevity bonuses and raises along with promotions for when he learned to use another piece of equipment. PTSD got so bad, his doctors told him he had to stop working. That, well that came two years shy of 20 years on the job. That cost us money as well as the lost overtime and raises but I still had my husband living instead of in the ground with a very early death. Then we had to go without any income from him while we fought to have his claim approved. All he had was a decreased pension coming in instead of the pay check we were used to living off of. His retroactive pay only went back to the time he filed his claim and not back to Vietnam. Think of how much money he saved the government and what it cost him to do it.


If you want to try to tell me that making it easier to have a claim for PTSD approved is "too good" for the men and women serving this country, you better be prepared for an ear full because when you consider that civilians like you and me would get workman's comp if we suffered from trauma on the job and they can't just walk off the job and go to a trauma center or make an appointment with a psychologist, you'd know what they have to go thru. They have to still pick up their weapon and risk their lives the next day and the next day until they can do it no more. They have to stay until they are ordered back home. Everything they do from the time they enlist until the time they are discharged is for the sake of all of us. So why aren't we asking will we ever be good enough to them instead of what's too good for them?

Make sure your congressman votes to approve this bill and get it done for their sake!

Subcommittee approves bill easing PTSD compensation for vets
By Otto Kreisher
CongressDaily June 4, 2009
The House Veterans Affairs Disability Assistance Subcommittee on Wednesday approved a bill that would make it easier for veterans to receive financial compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The bill was referred to the full committee on a voice vote, despite votes against it from at least two of the three Republican members.

Sponsored by Disability Assistance Subcommittee Chairman John Hall, D-N.Y., and 16 other Democrats, the bill would allow a veteran to qualify for the monthly compensation for combat-related PTSD just by demonstrating that the psychological disorder was caused by something that happened while he or she was serving in the "combat theater" as defined by the Defense secretary. Currently, the Veterans Affairs Department requires proof that the stress occurred during "combat with the enemy."
go here for more
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0609/060409cdam1.htm

Bill Moyers on Memorial Day--Well worth a revisit

(from May 23, 2008)

BILL MOYERS: We honor our war dead this Memorial Day weekend. The greatest respect we could pay them would be to pledge no more wars for erroneous and misleading reasons; no more killing and wounding except for the defense of our country and our freedoms. We could also honor our dead by caring for the living, and do better at it than we are right now.

You may have followed the flurry of allegations concerning neglect, malpractice, and corner cutting at the Veterans Administration, especially for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD - or major depression, brought on by combat.

The Rand Corporation has released a study indicating that approximately 300,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD - or major depression, that's one of every five soldiers who have served over there.

Last Friday's WASHINGTON POST reported an e-mail sent to staff at a VA hospital in Temple, Texas, by a psychologist who wrote: "given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out."

Now, PTSD is not a diagnosis arrived at without careful, thorough examination. But to possibly misdiagnose such a volatile and harmful disorder for the sake of saving time or money is reprehensible.

The VA's director - James Peake - immediately said the psychologist's statement had been "repudiated at the highest level." There's plenty of other evidence to raise concern.

The rate of attempted or successful soldier suicides is so scary the head of the VA's mental health division wondered in a February e-mail how it should be spun. "Shhhh," he wrote. "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should carefully address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?"

REP. BOB FILNER: The hearing today is entitled "The Truth About Veteran Suicides."

BILL MOYERS: This apparent cover-up prompted the House Veterans Committee to raise the question of criminal negligence.

REP. BOB FILNER: If we do not admit, if we do not assume, if we do not know what the problem is, then the problem will continue and people die. If that's not criminal negligence I don't know what is.

BILL MOYERS: You can glimpse what's going on here by reading a front page story in last Sunday's HOUSTON CHRONICLE - published now on our site at pbs.org - about just one of the suicides. Bronze star recipient Nils Aron Andersson of the 82nd Airborne division an army recruiter, served two tours of duty in Iraq before he sat behind the wheel of his new pick-up - within 24 hours of his wedding - and fired a single round from a .22 caliber semi-automatic into his right temple. He was 25 years old.

Only about half of those service members diagnosed with PTSD or major depression have sought treatment and about half of those received what the Rand study describes as "minimally adequate treatment." Let me repeat that: "minimally adequate treatment," for what could be a matter of life or death.

Once upon a time kids asked their fathers, "What did you do in the war, daddy?" It's a question the next generation could ask all of us, who stood by as our government invaded Iraq to start a war whose purpose and rationale keep shifting and whose end is nowhere in sight, and who look now with nonchalance upon the unseen scars of those who are fighting it.

That's it for THE JOURNAL. We'll be back next week.

I'm Bill Moyers.