Invisible Wounds and the Veteran's Administration

The Department of Veterans Affairs is increasing its staff of mental health professionals to support the growing number of veterans needing mental health care. The VA is planning to hire about 35 new psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, nurses assistants and administrative support personnel according to Margaret B. Caplan, the for the VA Medical Center in Wilkes Barre, PA. Vincent L. Riccardo, Jr., the Staff Assistant to the Director and Public Affairs Officer for the Medical Center in Wilkes Barre in a recent interview was not able to say how many of these positions will be assigned to the Allentown, VA Outpatient Clinic on Hamilton Street though he said that some were definitely slated for Allentown. Caplan said the new hires are part of national effort to meet increasing mental health needs of veterans. “We have all heard of the high rates of post traumatic stress ,” said Major General Gerald Still, a retired U. S. Air Force general and currently the President of the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council. Stills was speaking at a recent meeting of Lehigh Valley health care professional working in cooperation with the VA to standardize the way information is collected and disseminated when a veteran is seen by one of the many hospitals, clinics and outreach programs in the Valley. Mental health for veterans is getting national attention. In a recent National Public Radio report, Erin Toner of WUWM in Milwaukee reported that this is part of an effort by the VA to recruit 1,600 mental health professionals for the country’s veterans. Toner reported that the Department of Veterans Affairs will be aggressive in recruiting candidates for the new mental health positions and hopes to have most on board within six months. According to Caplan, last year the VA provided specialty mental health services to more than 1.3 million veterans. She said in addition to the 1,600 mental health professionals being hired by the VA, about 300 support staff will be added and about five of those will be assigned to the Wilkes Barre VA Medical Center, which is the parent organization of the Allentown VA Clinic. According to Caplan, the VA has increased its mental health care budget by 39 percent since 2009 and the number of mental health professionals by 41 percent since 2007. According to the Veteran Administration’s web site, veterans who have seen combat may have been on missions that exposed them to horrible, life-threatening experiences such as being shot at, seeing a buddy shot, or seen death. “These are types of events that can lead to (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) PTSD,” according to the website. The site lists statistics describing the prevalence of PTSD among veterans: 11- 12 percent of Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars (Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom) have PTSD…or 11 to 20 veterans out of 100. Of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans, about 10 percent have PTSD and of Vietnam War veterans, about 30 percent have PTSD. The VA cites sexual assault and harassment as contributing to PTSD among women veterans. Among veterans using VA health care, about 23 percent of the women reported sexual assault while in the military. In addition, among the veterans using VA health care, 55 percent of the women and 38 percent of the men have reported sexual harassment when in the military. Over half of all veterans with military sexual trauma are men. “Sexual harassment can happen when drill instructors address recruits using sexually oriented language,” said Liz Bradbury, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Diversity Network, in an interview designed to put this statistic in perspective. She said that any remark by a supervisor to a subordinate or by a co-worker referring to sexual body parts or sexual activity can be considered sexual harassment. “Since October 2001, approximately 1.64 million U.S. troops have been deployed for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq,” according to a Rand Corporation report, “Invisible Wounds,” by Benjamin R. Karney and others. According to Karney and his colleagues, these deployments have come with a disproportionately high “psychological toll” when compared to combat related injuries. Three conditions have received the most research; post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and traumatic brain injury. They report an increased risk of suicide, substance abuse, and cardiovascular disease and the associated “mental health conditions among veterans are also associated with reduced work productivity and future job prospects and may be a precursor to homelessness.”