Newsgroup: it.cultura.militare
Titolo: The battle within: Iraq vet suicides

The battle within: Iraq vet suicides
By Jennifer C. Kerr - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday May 28, 2007 13:52:20 EDT
 
WASHINGTON — In the three months after Marine Maj. John Ruocco returned
from Iraq feeling numb and depressed, he couldn’t sleep. He had lost
weight. He had nightmares. He was distracted and withdrawn from his two
young sons.
One night, he promised his wife, Kim, that he would get help. The next
morning, he was dead. The 40-year-old Cobra helicopter pilot, based at
Camp Pendleton, Calif., had hanged himself.
There are others. Army reservist Joshua Omvig. Army Capt. Michael Pelkey.
Marines Jonathan Schulze and Jeffrey Lucey. Each came home from tours in
Iraq and committed suicide.
Veterans’ groups and families who have lost loved ones say the number of
troops struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental
health issues is on the increase and not enough help is being provided by
the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department.
For some, there are long waits for appointments at the VA or at military
posts. For others, the stigma of a mental health disorder keeps them from
seeking help.
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan
Veterans of America, says that although suicides among troops returning
from the war is a significant problem, the scope is unknown.
“The problem that we face right now is that there’s no method to track
veterans coming home,” said Rieckhoff, who served in Iraq as a platoon
leader in the first year of the war. “There’s no system. There’s no
national registry.”
More than four years into the war, the government has little information
on suicides among Iraq war veterans.
“We don’t keep that data,” said Karen Fedele, a VA spokeswoman in
Washington. “I’m told that somebody here is going to do an analysis, but
there just is nothing right now.”
The Defense Department does track suicides, but only among troops in
combat operations such as Iraq and Afghanistan and in surrounding areas.
Since the war started four years ago, 107 suicides during Iraq operations
have been recorded by the Defense Manpower Data Center, which collects
data for the Pentagon. That number, however, usually does not include
troops who return home from the war zone and then take their lives.
For service members returning from combat, post-deployment health
assessments include a questionnaire with queries about mental health. This
year, the Pentagon expanded health monitoring for war veterans to include
another screening three to six months after combat.
“We’re trying to reach out,” said Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, the Army’s
acting surgeon general. “Will we get to everyone on time? No, I wish we
could.”
Pollock said the Army is expanding a program started in January at Fort
Bragg, N.C., which aims to lessen the stigma associated with
post-traumatic stress disorder. It brings behavioral health staff directly
into primary care clinics instead of making soldiers go to a separate
mental health facility for help.
Earlier this month, a Pentagon task force warned that the military health
care system is overburdened and not sufficient to meet the needs of troops
suffering from PTSD and other psychological problems. The panel called for
a fundamental shift in treatment to focus on screening and prevention
instead of relying on troops to come forward on their own.
Shortcomings in mental health care were also identified in a recent report
by the VA’s inspector general. It found that several of the agency’s
hospitals and clinics lacked properly trained workers and had inadequate
screening for mental health problems. It said this put Iraq veterans at
increased risk of suicide.
Floyd “Shad” Meshad, president and founder of the California-based
National Veterans Foundation, has no doubt that military suicides are a
growing problem. He said he receives 2 to 3 calls each week from Iraq
veterans contemplating suicide — or from their families.
A Vietnam veteran who has counseled other vets for more than 30 years,
Meshad runs a toll-free support line based in Los Angeles. He was asked
recently to help train counselors at the Suicide Prevention Center in Los
Angeles, where a spike in calls from veterans has been reported.
One of the biggest challenges for troubled vets is the stigma of a mental
health disorder, said Meshad. “It’s very, very hard for you to reach out
and say ‘I’m hurting.’ It’s hard for men to do it, but particularly (for)
a soldier who’s endured life and death situations.”
Kim Ruocco of Newbury, Mass., said her husband, John, was a role model for
the young Marines he led in war. He worried about the ramifications of
seeking help, personally and professionally.
“He felt like that was the end of everything for him,” Kim Ruocco recalls.
“He felt like his Marines would, you know, be let down.”
Ruocco ended his life in February 2005, a few weeks before he was to
redeploy to Iraq.
Joshua Omvig, 22, a member of the Army Reserve from Grundy Center, Iowa,
also took his own life. In December 2005, he shot himself in front of his
mother after an 11-month tour in Iraq.
His parents, Ellen and Randy Omvig, say Joshua wouldn’t talk much about
Iraq. They tried to get him help, but he worried that it would hurt his
career if the Army found out, said his father.
Randy Omvig says the military and VA need to offer better readjustment
counseling. There should be teams of health professionals, he said, who
come to the base to talk to the troops in a comfortable setting with their
comrades.
“It’s like you and I going out on that interstate and driving 65 miles an
hour and then all of a sudden deciding to put it in first gear,” Omvig
said. “What happens? Does the car handle it very well? Some will handle
it, a lot of them are going to have problems.”
The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is considering a bill named for
Joshua Omvig. It directs the VA to develop a suicide prevention program
for veterans suffering from PTSD and other depression issues. It
unanimously passed the House in March.
The VA declined to comment about the bill or its requirements.
For some troops returning from Iraq, the wait for care is too long.
Army Capt. Michael Pelkey, who suffered from night sweats, anxiety,
headaches and exhaustion when he returned, sought help at Fort Sill, Okla.
His wife, Stefanie, said the mental health facility there was understaffed
and Michael was told he’d have to wait up to two months for an appointment.
He went off-base in Nov. 2004 and a civilian counselor diagnosed him with
post-traumatic stress disorder. His wife says it came too late. He shot
himself in the living room a week later.
Jonathan Schulze of New Prague, Minn., also tried to get help after he
came home from Iraq. His parents say he asked to be admitted to a VA
hospital but was turned away twice. The VA disputes that. The Marine
hanged himself in January at the age of 25.
For Marine Jeffrey Lucey, the return home from Iraq was followed by months
of emotional and mental torment, said his father, Kevin Lucey. The
23-year-old killed himself in June 2004 at his parents’ home in
Belchertown, Mass. His father found him dead in the basement, hanging by a
garden hose.
There are more. Robert Decouteaux, Douglas Barber, William Howell, Andre
McDaniel, Jeremy Wilson, Robert Hunt, Chris Dana and David Guindon — all
men who served in the Iraq war and killed themselves after coming home.
Veterans groups worry there will be more given the rise in cases of
post-traumatic stress disorder.
PTSD disability claims to the VA increased almost 80 percent over five
years — from 120,265 in 1999 to 215,871 in 2004. Benefit payments jumped
nearly 150 percent, from $1.72 billion to $4.28 billion in the same
period, according to a report this month from a committee of the Institute
of Medicine and the National Research Council.
Marine Cpl. Cloy Richards says he experienced symptoms of PTSD after two
tours in Iraq. “I was depressed all the time. I just hated myself,” he
recalled.
He couldn’t sleep. He didn’t want to be around other people. One day, he
said, he put a gun in his mouth and then decided to call his mom to say
goodbye. She talked him down.
Richards, 23, said he had trouble getting appointments at his local VA in
Missouri, but eventually received counseling from a Vietnam veteran who
taught him how to better cope with his anger and anxiety. Richards has
become an outspoken critic of the war, joining Iraq Veterans Against the
War.
He wants to be happy, he says, but still feels troubled.
“My counselor says that comes from guilt,” Richards said. “I feel guilty
about being happy since, you know, some of my friends died in Iraq and I’m
alive.”
-- 
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 depressione in questo modo ed arrivare al suicidio?
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.


Che un pilota soffra di PTSD non mi pare strano, non e' questo il
problema. Il problema e' che il post traumatic stress disorder non e'
certo nato con OIF ma affligge da sempre i reduci. Il campo di
battaglia non e' certo un luogo sano per la psiche.
Palmiro Pangloss

 battaglia non e' certo un luogo sano per la psiche.
Molto dipende anche da come viene percepita la guerra: perdere una guerra è 
molto più traumatico che vincerla. Nel contesto di una guerra vinta (e le 
cui giustificazioni morali siano ineccepibili: IIGM ad esempio) è possibile 
interiorizzare i propri sacrifici (anche psichici), e convivervi. Una guerra 
persa, percepita anche come ingiustificata, fa percepire ai reduci le 
mutilazioni, gli amici morti, le sofferenze inflitte come totalmente inutili 
o persino controproducenti.
Uno può dire: "ho bombardato Amburgo, ed ho colpito civili innocenti, ma 
bisognava sconfiggere Hitler, e quelle sofferenze, pur deprecabili, erano 
dirette a colpire in qualsiasi modo la macchina bellica nazista, ed a 
salvare la democrazia, anche per gli stessi tedeschi". Ma se dici "ho 
sparato del fosforo bianco su Falluja" cosa puoi utilizzare per giustificare 
tale azione? Non puoi dire di aver combattuto per portare la democrazia in 
Iraq, o per fermare la prooduzione di WMD, o per sconfiggere al-Qaida, o per 
indebolire l'Iran. Tutto lo sforzo appare inutile, ed io ritengo che renda 
difficile interiorizzare psicologicamente il disagio. La guerra è anche una 
contesa morale, e perdere in tale ambito esige il suo prezzo, ora che 
l'ideologia o il nazionalismo non bastano più a coprire le azioni di un 
paese (perlomeno non in Occidente).
Ciao,
Federico Antola. 

 Molto dipende anche da come viene percepita la guerra:
No, la causa del PTSD e' legata strettamente alle esperienze personali
e non e' solo legata al combattimento ma anche a disastri vari,
violenze di qualsiasi tipo, etc.
Riguardo  al PTSD causato da esperienze belliche, a quanto ne ho letto
riguardo alla IIGM, non si notano legami con la parte alla quale
appartiene la vittima.
Palmiro Pangloss

 appartiene la vittima.
Ma non parlavo dell'insorgenza, ma del recupero successivo. Che poi è il 
problema più assillante: se il PTSD deriva da cause biologiche (indipendenti 
quindi da nazionalità, cultura, etc.) è inevitabile, e di conseguenza 
l'interesse è su come recuperare alla vita normale chi ne soffre. Sia dove è 
possibile un recupero totale, sia dove è necessario una convivenza con la 
cronicizzazione del PTSD.
Ciao,
Federico Antola. 

 Ma non parlavo dell'insorgenza, ma del recupero successivo.
Io di entrambi. Non sono un medico, quindi prendilo con le molle, ma
ho letto statistiche sulla IIGM in questo senso su di una
pubblicazione medica. BTW sfatava anche il mito dei reduci del Vietnam
particolarmente propensi al crimine o alle droghe comparando con
statistiche britanniche post-IIGM (l'autore era brit) che riportavano
risultati molto simili. Ri-BTW sempre nello stesso articolo si notava
che un aumento del crimine, specie di crimini violenti, e' tipico di
ogni dopoguerra da quando ci sono registrazioni.
Palmiro Pangloss

 ogni dopoguerra da quando ci sono registrazioni.
Io mi rifacevo al mio manuale di psicologia (ma non è un testo 
specialistico). Ma se hai un rapporto specifico penso sia più autorevole.
Ciao,
Federico Antola.