Progressive Wednesday

Memorial Day Everyday: Sign

May 30th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Sign:

I’s been well-documented at this point that our returning soldiers are getting sub-par medical care, far worse than we’d wish on anyone, let alone women and men who’ve sacrificed their minds, bodies, and spirits in our name. So we think this item on this week’s “to-do” list falls under the category of “The Very Least We Can Do, Daddy-O and Mommy-O.”

All we’re asking you to do is to read over this petition provided by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America demanding improved mental health care for our returning vets. Then, please, please, please sign it.

Need some stats and info to better understand the importance of this? Then it’s stats and info you get:

• According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: “In 2002 and 2003, approximately 340,000 male veterans had co-occurring [serious mental illness] and a substance use disorder.” Male vets aged 18 to 25 had a significantly higher rate than those 26 to 54 or those aged 55 or older.
• The Office of Applied Studies, a federal organization, reports that: “In 2002 and 2003, two million of male veterans aged 18 or older were dependent on or abusing alcohol or illicit drugs.”
• From 2002 to 2005, approximately 19,000 veterans of the War in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan were treated for post-traumatic stress disorder at VA medical centers or VA Vet Centers. This is according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Again, according the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: “The group [of Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans] with the highest rate of risk for mental health problems and PTSD are those between 18 and 24. Young soldiers were three times as likely as those over 40 to be diagnosed with PTSD and/or another mental health disorder.”
• The Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors — a commission created by President Bush — found that: “The military system does not have enough resources, funding or personnel to adequately support the psychiatric health of service members and their families in peace and during conflict.”
• And it’s not just men afflicted: “Nationwide, the VA has diagnosed 4,000 women with PTSD.”
• It might be hard for those of us who haven�t experiences post-traumatic stress disorder to understand what that means. PTSD is a reaction to stressful events that can lead to flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, anxiety attacks, outbursts of anger, depression, decreased self-esteem, loss of sustained beliefs about people or society, hopelessness, a sense of being permanently damaged, difficulties in previously established relationships, hyper-arousal (”jumpiness”), memory loss, emotional detachment and numbness, violence, alcohol and drug addiction, and suicide. (This information comes from a variety of sources: the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the National Institute of Mental Health, amongst others.)
• But to understand this further, it helps to read a personal account, which you can read by clicking this sentence.

So again, please sign the petition created by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Just click this sentence. It’ll take you about 16 seconds.

Picture of signatures courtesy of this fine photographer.