October 21, 2010 - When the fighting began in Afghanistan nearly nine years ago, it was almost unthinkable that the upper-echelons of the military would one day own up to the psychological damage of war. Post-traumatic stress disorder was seen as the vestige of long ago wars, its consequences buried under hundreds of years of stigma and shame.
A lot has changed. Now the Pentagon actively encourages its service members to seek help. Those orders, though, don’t always sit well with many of the officers and enlisted troops doing the actual fighting. Fears of derailing a career or appearing weak persist among many. Long waits for appointments and follow-ups — there are not enough military mental health practitioners — chip away at the courage it took to come forward in the first place. Former service members find themselves easily deflated by the Byzantine bureaucracy of the Veterans Administration. {read rest}
Monday, October 25, 2010
Transition
Studies of TBI, PTSD
"We've learned more about the brain in the last five years than in the previous 200 years,"Just think how far advanced the knowledge would have been, not only as to combat soldiers but civilians as well, if they had started listening back forty years ago and moved forward then instead of ignoring what's always been! We, and others, might just have avoided more wars of choice as well!
10/21/2010 - Navy Medicine continues to use cutting edge technologies and innovative research methods to help Wounded Warriors with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
According to Dr. Wayman Cheatham, special assistant for medical research to the Navy Surgeon General and director of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery's Navy Medicine Research and Development Center, technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), mapping of pressure changes in the brain after impact, and virtual reality therapy - unheard of in the past - are now ways to identify, diagnose, and treat TBI and PTSD.
"We've learned more about the brain in the last five years than in the previous 200 years," said Cheatham. "A huge leap forward in this venture was the opening of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE)."
The two-story, 72,000 square-foot NICoE facility, is located on the grounds of the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, Md. Equipped with state of the art technology, it is dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, research, and education of service members experiencing TBI and other psychological health disorders. {read rest}
Veterans: The Group that the Imposter Cheated
I would suggest this goes further then Ohio, as this right wing political slush fund was Nationwide in collecting and other states are investigation. Know this piece of scum or any who were close to him, give a hand in bringing him out of the shadows, his girlfriend was captured in Charlotte airport a few weeks back.
Cordray Enlists Ohio Veterans to Help Find Money
25 October 2010 - A man who falsely identified himself as “Bobby Thompson,” director of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, is wanted by Ohio authorities, and Attorney General Richard Cordray is turning to Ohio veterans – the group that the imposter cheated – to help find him.
“There are almost one million veterans who live in Ohio,” Cordray said. “Those are men and women who put their life on the line for our country. The man who presented himself as ‘Bobby Thompson’ traded on their honorable reputation and service to benefit himself.”
On October 13, a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted Thompson and an associate, Blanca Contreras, on one count of aggravated theft, money laundering, and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity based on their misappropriation of millions of dollars from this fraudulent charity. On October 15, Contreras was arrested in North Carolina and she is expected to appear in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court next week. Thompson remains at large.
Cordray said that “Bobby Thompson” allegedly stole the identity of a man with the same name in Washington State and has apparently also been using another stolen identity in the name of “Ronnie Brittain.” Since 2002, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association has reportedly raised nearly $100 million nationally, but investigators believe very little of that money actually benefitted veterans. About $1.9 million was raised from Ohioans.
“Thompson’s bogus organization used UPS mailboxes in Lancaster and Cincinnati to collect donations,” Cordray said. “We also know that Thompson claimed to have connections in the Cleveland area and that, in his role as the head of his organization, he traveled extensively to visit veterans’ organizations across the country. We ask Ohio veterans to please contact my office if they ever met Bobby Thompson or dealt with the U.S. Navy Veterans Association.” {read rest}
There are many roads to homelessness.
25 October 2010 - But the path back is wide…with a lot of help along the way.
Vic Modesto is a Veteran who has made that trip…the hard way. We’ll tell you his story.
Dr. Keith Harris is a VA clinical psychologist who understands what homeless Vets are going through. He and Vic worked together to get Vic back to his life.
Vic was in the Navy in the late 60s. “I was a screw up. I was so angry most of the time, I never became a good sailor.” After a troubled tour in the Navy, Vic got out, did drugs, knew he needed help and went into rehab for two years.
He then worked ten years as the Director of a 150 bed treatment center in Hawaii. And then another dark chapter in his story began as he again went out using drugs -- for 18 more years.
Vic was stoned and wandering for 18 years of good jobs, bad jobs, losing jobs and eventually homelessness and heroin addiction.
Vic encountered a lot of the mental health problems that lead to homelessness. Married, then divorced, he experienced the whole nine yards of street baggage that causes the hopelessness he admits he endured. {read rest}
Agent Orange: Ischemic Heart Disease
October 24, 2010 - "I just want others to know that it exists and it is treatable," said Jean Foster this week.
Foster is the recent widow of Nu-Hope Director Sandy Foster, whose sudden death in September left many in the community in shock.
Sandy Foster, a veteran who served in Vietnam, died unexpectedly while on a golfing trip in North Carolina from a heart attack that Jean was told later was caused by ischemic heart disease, which can be caused by Agent Orange.
Ischemic heart disease is characterized by a reduced flow of blood to the heart muscle, which makes a person feel tired, and can cause a heart attack.
Jean was informed that her husband's condition was one approved by Congress to receive benefits this year because of the exposure vets received during the Vietnam War. {read rest}
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