The Soldiers Project: Mental Health Care Confidential
By Sari Gelzer
t r u t h o u t | Report
Friday 09 May 2008
The significant numbers of returning service members and veterans who are in
need of mental health care have recently been put into the spotlight by a RAND
Corporation report, which found
approximately 300,000 men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer
from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression.
However, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Dr. Judith Broder did not need to hear
statistics four years ago to realize the wars being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan
were going to have a profound psychological impact on returning troops.
In 2004, after seeing the play "The Sand Storm: Stories From the Front," written by Iraq war veteran Sean Huze,
Dr. Broder said that she became strikingly aware of the horrific experience
some troops were having in Iraq with regards to what they were seeing and doing.
Inspired by Huze's play, Dr. Broder founded The Soldiers Project,
a non-profit group of mental health professionals who offer free mental health
services to Iraq and Afghanistan service members, veterans and their families.
The Soldiers Project will be hosting an upcoming conference on May 16-18 in
Los Angeles, aimed at bringing attention to the mental health experiences and
needs of returning troops.
Congressman Bob Filner (D-California), chairman of the House of Representatives
Committee on Veterans' Affairs, will speak at the conference about the need
for reform in mental health care for returning veterans and active duty members.
"This war is producing tens of thousands of young people who have PTSD
and/or brain injury. Unless we more adequately diagnose and treat these people,
we are going to see more suicides, domestic violence, homelessness, all of which
can be prevented if you accurately diagnose people and get them into treatment,"
Filner told Truthout.
Filner said that he is attempting to get more federal funding for organizations
like The Soldiers Project.
"If the VA [Department of Veterans Affairs] is not doing its job, at least
some people have stepped in to try and do it," said Filner.
Training and Reintegration
The Soldiers Project trains mental health professionals to be able to work
with the unique needs of returning veterans because many therapists in private
practice are "insulated from the horrors of war as our whole population
is," according to Dr. Broder.
In Dr. Broder's experience, the hardest part for her as a therapist is hearing
how horrible some soldiers feel about themselves when returning home.
"It tears my heart out because these are young people who were raised
to love their neighbors and to believe that killing is wrong. But, because its
necessary in war to partially undo these lessons, it has destroyed or fractured
their character in some ways," she said.
The best way to reintegrate their personality back into civilian society, according
to Dr. Broder, requires service members to establish a relationship with a therapist
who can bear witness to what they have gone through.
The confidentiality offered by The Soldiers Project, and the openness to the
wide definition of family members and loved ones who are eligible for treatment,
have made The Soldiers Project a distinct alternative from mental health services
offered by the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
or by Vet Centers.
Stigma Within
An online survey conducted by The American Psychiatric Association
found three out of five members of the military worry that seeking help for
mental health problems will harm their military careers. The RAND report also
found over half of those with symptoms of PTSD did not seek treatment.
Representative Filner said he wants the military to demonstrate that confronting
and dealing with mental health is something they encourage. "The army and
marines should take a midlevel officer, who admitted he had PTSD and was treated
for it, and promote him to general so people know that the culture accepts it
rather than a stigma being against it," said Filner.
Iraq war veteran Jim Castellanos, who served six years in the Marine Corps,
is scheduled to be a panelist at the upcoming conference. He witnessed first
hand, while serving in Iraq, the stigma that surrounds getting treatment. Castellanos
prefaced his story with an apology about the graphic nature contained in it.
"When we were in Iraq, when my roommate was killed and his brain matter
was on his rifle because he got hit by shrapnel, one of our staff sergeants
had to go and clean out his rifle with a hose. That shook him up really bad,"
said Castellanos.
Castellanos said that once the staff sergeant started seeing a psychiatrist
in Iraq while they were still deployed, the command blatantly disrespected the
staff sergeant with comments implying that he was weak. When the capable staff
sergeant was given work, his higher-ups would give him missions with the least
responsibility, such as filling sandbags. Castellanos described this as a show
of disdain.
Due to this stigma, many of her clients are encouraged to come in by family
members. "In many cases, it usually starts with a phone call to The Soldiers
Project from a girlfriend or wife saying that their man has returned and they
can barely recognize him, but that they love him and want to save the relationship,"
said Dr. Broder.
The bureaucracy of the VA has created barriers for some family members. The
VA will only see the spouse of a veteran who is legally married, according to
Dr. Broder. They do not see those who have been in long-term relationships but
aren't married, those who are in homosexual relationships, grandmothers who
might be primary caretakers, or any family member if the veteran has not gone
to the VA and registered themselves.
In addition to restrictions for family members, Dr. Broder said that other barriers
exist for veterans as well. The VA does not see mental health patients on nights
or weekends, which creates limitations to those who have strict work schedules.
The vet centers, which are funded by the
VA, are much more accessible and welcoming to service members, according to
Dr. Broder, but they too have restrictions. They limit services to only those
who have been in a combat zone.
"This excludes the radio operators who are hearing all the time about
who is being killed and where bodies are being taken," said Dr. Broder,
noting that this excludes a portion of veterans who deserve treatment but are
not receiving it.
"The issue of mental health has been underplayed and nobody wants to admit
the extent of it," said Filner, explaining why the VA doesn't have sufficient
resources to handle the mental health needs of returning veterans.
Obligation of a Nation
The Soldiers Project is an example of people around the nation who want to
help these young men and women coming back, according to Representative Filner.
The group of close to 200 mental health care professionals was started in Los
Angeles and now has affiliated groups in Chicago, New York and Seattle.
Dr. Broder hopes programs like The Soldiers Project will appear all over the
country, especially near bases and in smaller cities where services are not
easily available.
On Friday night before the conference, the play that inspired the inception of The Soldiers Project four years ago will make its way to Los Angeles again, featuring a performance by the playwright Huze.
"I hope it grabs everyone the way it grabbed me," said Dr. Broder,
"there is something emotional about knowing why we are doing what we are
doing."
Sari Gelzer is an assistant editor and reporter for Truthout.
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