Veterans tell Sen. Durbin of PTSD stress toll VA to treat family members in 2008

[MORTARDUDE]

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Veterans tell Durbin of post-traumatic stress toll

March 29, 2005

BY CHERYL L. REED Staff Reporter

Seated at a table with emotional and angry veterans Monday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced he will introduce new legislation requiring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to expand its treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Veterans hospitals are not equipped to do the job," said Durbin at an American Legion in Bucktown. "They don't have enough counselors and doctors to help these returning veterans and their families."

An estimated 15 percent to 30 percent of all returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from the disabling disorder characterized by violent flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety. Nationwide, the VA is treating 244,000 veterans from previous wars who have PTSD, but some experts fear the VA is not staffed to handle the influx of new soldiers.

Veterans from the Vietnam War and World War II, including one man who survived the Bataan Death March, explained to Durbin how their lives have been crippled by PTSD, which wasn't recognized by the VA until the early 1980s.

Voices crack



"My life has been in a bunker," Augustine Gonzalez told Durbin. "You see my body, but I ain't got my brain 'cause it's in Vietnam. For 13 years, I've been in my house watching TV. Nobody wants to take care of that."

Gonzalez, who served as a combat jumper in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968, said he has tried to get the VA in Chicago to recognize his PTSD as combat-related, but they continue to deny him any disability, he said.

Durbin tried to comfort the men, whose voices cracked and eyes teared as they angrily recounted their war service -- sometimes being the only survivor of an ambush -- and how those horrors played in their minds when they returned.

"We want to make sure that we get ours and that those kids that are coming back, our youngsters, are being taken care of as well," said Benito Garcia Jr., 60, who served three tours of duty in Vietnam. "The problem is that when the American people need us, you put us out front, and we do the battle. Then every Fourth of July, you take us out and dust us off."

Durbin nodded: "For those of you who served in Vietnam, you got the worse deal of them all," he admitted.

Durbin's bill would require every VA medical center to establish a team of PTSD specialists and to extend treatment to the veteran's family.

Family not treated until 2008



In the Chicago area, the VA facilities at Hines, Jesse Brown and North Chicago all have PTSD clinics, but their services focus on the soldiers, not their families. A congressional report last month revealed that despite recommendations since 2001 from the VA's own doctors, the VA has not expanded its services to include family members of veterans with PTSD and doesn't plan to until 2008 or later.

Currently, Jesse Brown is treating 432 veterans for PTSD, five of them from the war in Iraq. At Hines, 400 veterans from all wars are being treated for PTSD, including 20 soldiers who served in Iraq. Both facilities report they are meeting the current demand without having to hire more psychiatrists and therapists.