As we welcome 2019, I have a collective New Year's resolution to propose: Let’s offer real and lasting help to our veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. When they volunteered to serve, we promised to care for them if wounded. We must keep that promise.
As many as 11 million Americans suffer with PTSD, and up to 80 percent of those afflicted seek no help. Of the 1.9 million veterans deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, 20 percent or more are affected by PTSD, while the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 620,000 veterans throughout the system have PTSD. Most remain undiagnosed and untreated.
PTSD is the signature wound of the last 25 years of war. It can precipitate insurmountable struggles with unemployment, homelessness, substance abuse, suicidal depression, and violence. Its victims are consumed; their families are ravaged. Too often, they die young.
It’s reminiscent of another public health crisis. I was in medical school when AIDS was identified, and spent 10 years researching HIV to help develop new medicines. But I see one significant difference between the response to AIDS then and PTSD now: A real movement arose to stop AIDS. Public outcry was loud, the government mobilized meaningful support for drug development, and Congress responded to demands for advanced, accessible care.
But the epidemic of military-related PTSD surges on, with no outrage and no coordinated effort to combat it. Despite broad bipartisan support for veterans and the military, the nation’s response to military-related PTSD is woefully inadequate. When service members and veterans dare to disclose symptoms, they are frequently misdiagnosed or given drugs such as benzodiazepines and opioids that compound their problems.
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8 comments:
JOE US Marine shot and killed at the whitehouse Wednesday why ???? word is he was trying to kill someone ?
The biggest help to me was POT. The POT killed all my bad and good dreams period.
This is absolutely correct. We could be flush with revenue for a program like this to help these people but politicians can't seem to see this or have another agenda. Look at the stance the liberals take. They rather fund benefits to people that don't belong in this country or line their own pocket. Or they rather fund programs for the entitlement crowd that either don't want to work, they are looking for a handout or they can buy a vote. Just more flushing of money down the toilet until we force a change back to common sense. smh...
Veterans aren't on the "in" list.
The state of Maryland recognizes PTSD as a viable reason to receive medical marijuana, but then vets can't keep or get jobs if they use it and it shows up in the drug test.
Dave T: My only pitch is to not only include the military, but ALL people who have PTSD - the condition is horrible and often untreated today. I know, because I suffer from it daily and have been for years.
Let's not even talk about how we were promised free medical care for life after military retirement, too, yet here we are paying for Tricare and Medicare, plus government employee dental and vision plans.
It wasnt at the WH. Since how you dopes just learn a mere fraction of a story and run with it
ECI . PTSD . ......10 years to Act . !!!!
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