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Jon Soltz

Jon Soltz

Posted: November 8, 2007 09:36 AM

Yet Another Alarm Sounded on Homeless Vets and PTSD. But, Who's Listening?


How many times do we need to hear an alarm? Once again, major studies are finding a swiftly growing number of homeless Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and a coming tsunami.

One out of four homeless are veterans, and though there hasn't been a very comprehensive study of just Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the VA estimates at least 1500 homeless veterans of the current wars. I'll bet you everything I got that the number is significantly higher.

There are a number of wonderful groups doing all they can to find these veterans and get them into housing. But that's not enough. The real point to this tragedy is buried in the AP story:

"The Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse problems, but more likely to have mental illness - mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs at the VA."

The VA finds that, overall, 45 percent of participants in the VA's homeless programs have a diagnosable mental illness. We know from previous studies that greater than 30 percent of Iraq veterans coming home have some PTSD. Those studies were done before third deployments and 15 month extensions. And, remember, sometimes PTSD takes years for manifest itself. So bank on the number with PTSD being higher by war's end and in years after.

And yet, the process for mental screening is deficient, as are the number of qualified people within the DoD and VA health systems to diagnose and treat PTSD. This doesn't even address the severe VA underfunding that simply keeps veterans from getting the care they need.

It was just reported this month that two VA hospitals in Florida were turning veterans away, because they couldn't deal with the load. The money crunch, as well, has the agency pinching pennies and setting the bar for PTSD, and full disability, very high. I had a soldier call me last year requesting a memorandum from an eyewitness officer from Iraq that could validate the soldier had in fact been in combat, despite the fact that the army had already concluded that this soldier was suffering from PTSD! These are the hurdles that are set up.

So, here's how it goes. A veteran goes to the VA, if they can get in, because something is just not right in their mind. Instead of PTSD, they're told they have "adjustment disorder" or a preexisting mental condition, neither of which allows them to collect disability. They don't get the right treatment, allowing their mental condition to worsen. They simply cannot hold down a job, they don't get disability, and, not surprisingly, they cannot afford a place to live and become homeless.

There is no blood test that can tell if you have PTSD. It's not a simple injury to find -- an injury to your psyche. And, until this administration gets serious about greater funding and a real strategy to deal with this coming tsunami, it doesn't matter how many wonderful charitable groups are out there, trying to find and house homeless veterans, because we'll just be dealing with the result -- homelessness -- rather than the root cause - PTSD.

Oh, and by the way, the president is vowing to veto the Labor-HHS bill which includes $3.4 billion for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which provides mental health and suicide prevention services, and $23.6 million for the military veterans that comprise a quarter of America's homeless population in the Homeless Veterans Program.

The alarm is blaring, but who is listening?

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HUFFPOST PUNDIT
realitytrumpsbull
Two 'alves of coconut!
01:41 AM on 11/11/2007
I already commented on this, but I'll add
some controversy and blatant heresy against
the church on this'n, and say that I challenge
the very existence of PTSD. Why? Well(this'll
probably have the nice young men in their clean
white coats after me, but hey), it's like this:
Ok, I'm a doctor guy. I spent a decade getting
trained to do what it is that I do, if no one's sick, I'm unemployed. Damn healthy people anyway. Gotta drum up some business so I can pay that loan off.

Anyway, so here's a fellow or a gal that's
had a couple of rough spots in life, been
nearly Bobbetized or run through a farm
thresher or a combat veteran or something,
anyway, had the old Near Death Experience,
the kind that's supposed to discolor your
hair follicles and leave you a trembling
muttering wreck for life.

Well, let's ponder backward, here for a
minute, prior to Pfizer becoming quite
so profitable, and discover how previous
centuries' worth of people dealt with
such things. So, you were on the saber-tooth's
menu, but he got tired partway through the
appetizer and ran off to chase that she-lion
through the trees, and left you for the ants.
But, you lived. Now, the rest of the tribe
thinks You're Cool and gives you a special
indian name, but you're a little jumpy at
night just in case Fang might be in the
vicinity. You lived. You survived. The rest
of the tribe didn't have that encounter. You
invent the door lock for YOUR hut. Months later,
it pays off when you don't get eaten.
Fast-forward to the modern world, where the
closest most of us have been to combat is watching Saving Private Ryan in the theater
in full 130 degree Slaughtervision. Just not
quite the same. Not quite the same level
of experiential trauma, there. Now, people
that have Close Encounters with the lion
are a rarity, NOW they have 'a mental disorder'.
Well, maybe they don't, maybe we're just
becoming Planet Haldol, by necessity...or choice.
09:31 AM on 11/09/2007
Sometimes it is the seemingly unrelated that makes one wonder, such as president Bush's recent piling on of another eight Presidential Medals of Freedom (the highest civilian award our nation can bestow)while having awarded only three Medals of Honor (the highest military honor our nation can bestow) to our heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sometimes it is the more obvious, such as the shameful Walter Reed scandal and, now, the reports on homless veterans, including hundreds who have returned from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both the obvious and the not-so-obvious make one seriously doubt the sincerity of this administration's "support the troops" sloganeering. Paraphrasing a recent Military Officers of America Association statement on severely wounded heroes, "Simply put, the nation cannot leave its heroes behind to become charity cases." Shame on you, Mr. Bush.

Maj. Dorian de Wind (Ret.)
12:54 AM on 11/09/2007
if anyone is looking to blame someone...blame yourselves.unless you are severely retarded...you all know that bush has never won an election or anything else in his life except a slot in the national guard...that kept him out of vietnam...thanks to pappy.but you all sat on your asses and allowed the election to be taken away from al gore after he won...and four years later from john kerry...after he won.even the ukrainians and the mexicans mounted nationwide protests after their elections were stolen...but you americans punked out. now look at what has happened to your lives and your country.dennis kucinich...the man with the biggest balls in america...can not even count on your vote...even though he is the only american in the usa...big...brave...and bad enough to get us out of this mess...and he is being held up as an object of ridicule.neither hillary...giuliani or even obama will change anything.americans will never learn.when given a choice between a bowl of ice cream...and a bowl of crap...you will always eat the crap...and wonder why you have a stomache ache.
07:38 PM on 11/08/2007
I called them all Rep! Congess Lady!Governor!Lt Governor My local goverment offical's!Mayor's Counselman.asking what is being done with there's! and my tax dollar's !Yes at one time these brave men and women laying on the sides of roadway in America paid into the system at one time in there lives.Now what are we giving them back.Greef i think is all.
HUFFPOST PUNDIT
realitytrumpsbull
Two 'alves of coconut!
05:59 PM on 11/08/2007
Question is, do recruiters put people in uniforms that have no business in uniform to
begin with? Quotas...where are they recruiting
now, Bolivia? What were those category things
again? Hmmmm....which category are YOU?

I read not too long ago that they're talking
about a draft...any update on that?
05:07 PM on 11/08/2007
Read this soldiers blog post. He makes a very strong point/plea at the end. read the whole thing here:
http://www.broken-skull.com/index.html

"They say I am one of the lucky ones....I don’t always feel so lucky or thankful though.

I sustained an open head injury on Oct 17 2003. A piece of shrapnel literally went under my Kevlar and was lodged a few inches deep into the back of my skull. They tell me I’m lucky that the medevac choppers got there so quick and that the Doctors in Baghdad were so much more advanced than in any other war. In any other war I would be dead. They sent me to Walter Reed, where I got outstanding medical care as an inpatient for the most part. The only screening I got for any kind of mental issues was a nurse asking me twice a day whether or not I wanted to commit suicide. When they sent me to outpatient status I found out that I was all-alone. I couldn’t keep track of my appointments. I had to make appointments for myself. I had a care coordinator who never communicated with me. Things would have been a lot better if I was not a soldier with a brain injury, reeling from the effects of PTSD and starting to walk down the long lonely road of depression. I didn’t know what doctors to see....

So this veteran’s day, don’t just thank us for our service. Honor us for our service. Find out what political candidates are strong on issues for returning vets, such as; healthcare, education, job placement and mental health assistance. Write a letter to your local elected official demanding that they support the VA and all vets. Find out what you can do to help with the growing numbers of homeless vets, whether it is something as small as donating clothing to a local shelter that aids vets. It may sound like a lot. It isn’t when you consider the sacrifices we made fighting for this country..."
04:47 PM on 11/08/2007
This is why I hate politicians of all stripes. They (politicians) will go to any lenght to help some wealthy person in their district while treating those that really need help like they should just go off somewhere and die. Rudy cleaned up New York, to the praise of many rich liberals, by exporting the homeless to other places outside the city. I'm not a liberal or conservative but, I have been homeless and poor so, I feel the pain of those who have nothing because, I was one one of them.
04:02 PM on 11/08/2007
Support the troops huh?

>1 in 4 homeless are vets.
>Walter Reed scandal
>No body armor for Nat’l guard and others
>No armored HUMVEEs
>Laying off 400,000 armed men from the Iraqi Army!
>Paying Blackwater 5 times what our troops make!
>Dangerous “guinea pig” forced vaccines
>DU poisoning
>Gulf war syndrome
>PTSD
>Exploding suicide/divorce rates
>Agent Orange in Vietnam
>Knowingly left over 1600 POW/MIA’s behind in Vietnam – read the book “Enormous Crime”

I was never in the Armed forces, but God Bless the troops that put their life on the line and risk putting their lives in the hands of this criminal government!!
02:20 PM on 11/08/2007
I am so ashamed of my country and so broken-hearted for all the young people whose wounds - brought on by this ugly unnecessary war - are only beginning to surface. And I feel helpless to do anything beside voting and speaking out where I can. I doesn't seem like enough. If there is a hell, I'm sure there's huge sub-section reserved for Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and the neocons.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ljsfolly
01:59 PM on 11/08/2007
I have for years worked in the failing mental health system and have seen so many vets who can't get help throught the Vet admin because they "didn't get hurt in the war" in Vietnam. They just either got so messed up by everything having to do with the war or were actually injured in the war but the Vet admin denied them care anyway. So many homeless and extremem poor vets from this war are hitting our streets because of the lengthy process and denials they are getting now. If you add them all up this country has failed the very people who have fought for us whether we liked or wanted the war or not. It should be on someones shoulders right? Who has stood up for these guys? Who hasn't drives by them everyday and looks the other way because what can only one person do.... All vets should be living and respected in quality housing of some sort. Even old closed hospitals or facilites the Justice department has let go to empty waste. Living as a community isn't the same as warehousing mentally ill it is giving common decency to those who deserve it. Why has congress let them down for so many years because this isn't a new problem and it stares us all in the face when we have to look at the remains of war on our streets.
01:15 PM on 11/08/2007
They would not have sent us to war in the first place if they did not consider us disposable.
HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Pdubya
01:06 PM on 11/08/2007
ron paul listens.

just look to his record on taking care of veterans.

www.ronpaul2008.com

www.senate.gov
12:58 PM on 11/08/2007
I think the only proven patriots in the national history, war vets, are deserving of special consideration. They should be provided with all the perks and health care now wasted on the scoundrels and wastrels in DC.

However ... in nearly 26 years of veterans benefits counseling, including interacting with other counselors inside and outside DVA, PTSD is mostly a boondoggle.

It works like this. DVA was losing their largest client group, WWII vets, at the rate of some 1,500 a day. PTSD became a tourniquet for the bleeding census. A symbiotic relationship was forged between the agency and the vet: the former saw increased numbers in their various support mechanisms to report to Congress to justify their budgets in clinics and hospitals and fee basis private care and counselors in the Veterans Service Division, and the latter would play the game for a period of time in order to be paid eventually at the rate of around two thousand per month tax free from date of claim. The traditional claimant would meet with a counseling group (originally led by a high school grad who was a "peer") either at a storefront or, later, the PTSD center, but only for the months until his claim came through. He would then invariably drop out of "treatment" and head out with his stash.

My own experience was with Vietnam vets, who pioneered the modern benefit - (all before who suffered from "shell shock" or "combat fatigue" were genuinely disabled, as suggested by film from the wards after WWI) - so mileage since 2000 may vary. But the PTSD claim was a boondoggle. (The only rebuttal came from DVA PR, and we saw the first place the feds looked to cut costs when they realized the cakewalk in Iraq was turning into a disaster - past PTSD cases went under review for the first time.)

Bring the troops home, and don't send 'em out on some draft-dodging moron's political posturing in the first place, but as for PTSD; it's called upon more often than it can answer for, I'm afraid.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
csavage
12:44 PM on 11/08/2007
We have vets still sick from GW1 and we thought we wouldn't get more from the do-over?
As for PTSD in nonmilitary folks, it's a problem, mostly because both private insurers and Medicaid are scaling back any and all psych coverage, but it's not getting the press it should because covering heart surgery or conjoined twin separation sells more ad space.
12:37 PM on 11/08/2007
This is a perfect example of a brave soldier who fought for US, and now is left with PTSD and is suffering and struggling.

http://www.broken-skull.com/index.html

I read his blog daily, and it breaks my heart. I don't understand how our government can mistreat our soldiers so terribly.

He should have the best of everything....