Iraq vet, rescued from suicide, tells of VA gaps
The human costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were on full display in the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Thursday when an Iraq veteran explained, haltingly, how he only got care for post-traumatic stress disorder after he attempted suicide.
An Army infantryman and biochemist who was injured by an improvised explosive device during his first deployment to Iraq in 2003 explained that after being told he was suffering from anxiety and “readjustment issues” by caregivers at a Fort Hood clinic and placed on a six-month wait list to see a psychiatrist, he fell into despair.
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Daniel Williams explained that in the winter of 2004 he locked himself in his bathroom, took out his .45 and shoved it into his mouth. His former wife Carol called the police.
“When the police arrived I argued with them. When they kicked open the door I pulled the trigger, but by the grace of God the weapon misfired,” Williams said. When one of the officers tried to clear the weapon it went off, but Williams said no one was hurt.
Williams is one of 187,133 veterans diagnosed with PTSD, according to the latest data from the Government Accountability Office.
Williams was finally admitted to an on-base hospital but said the Army violated his privacy by telling his platoon sergeant about his treatment. She “then proceeded to tell my fellow soldiers” who “looked down on me” and questioned his professionalism, he said.
“We’re taught how to be soldiers, not civilians,” he said, and “once we’re put out, we’re hung out to dry.”
He testified that in order to get care after he was discharged from the Army, he had to be arrested by Veterans Affairs police. “People are talking on their cellphones, telling me to wait,” he said, describing the bureaucratic hassles he faced as he tried to get care.
Community outreach to vets needs to be improved by the VA, Williams said. The current system “makes you want to give up.” There needs to be better communication to vets about treatment opportunities. Peers who have been in the military and in combat need to step forward and help their brothers and sisters, Williams said. He said the National Association on Mental Illness is partnering with the VA to help families understand why vets are “doing the things they’re doing.”
“There is a mental health crisis,” said Andrea Sawyer, the spouse of an Army vet with severe depression and chronic PTSD. Sawyer explained how her husband, Army Sgt. Loyd Sawyer, spiraled into depression after extended service in mortuary services in Dover, Del., and in Iraq. She said the treatment provided by the Army and by the VA to her husband was riddled with “gaps” and “disconnects,” which is the result of the government’s “largely-passive approach to outreach.”
“It’s really a broken system,” she said. “It almost takes — pardon the pun — an act of Congress” to get treatment, she said.
Sawyer, a former teacher, said that she was confronted by her principal who said she had a choice: her job or her husband. She testified that she made the only possible choice she could.
“I gave up my job, in order to keep him alive. That’s what I had to do,” she said. “Quite honestly I feel that I’m the captain of the team: I monitor symptoms, I see the decrease in his quality of life and at that point I activate the chain [of command]. … I do everything I can.”
Treating physicians don’t understand the military culture and the combat experience of their patients, Sawyer told the committee, urging senators to take action to develop a “truly transformative veteran-centered approach to the VA mental health care."
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Brett Coughlin
Readers' Comments (10)
Core-0n Barbecure Party: NA
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Jul. 14, 2011 - 4:12 PM EST
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Read all 10 comments in our forumThe VA = the Democrats model and vision of government run health care. The failiures of the VA are the failiures of Democrat / Leftist ideology. They still want to be like Stalin and America to be like the Soviet Union or Eastern Germany. The Government does few things right and nothing efficiently. Yet the Democrats want to keep making government larger, more expensive and more intrusive into our lives.
Want to know why the VA has been so screwed up besides being run by big government? It's because Democrats have controlled congress for so many years in the history of America. Which is also why our government is screwed up, wasteful, abusive, supresses business and is out of control.
So THIS explains why Obama has expanded US wars and sent more than double the amount of troops into Afghanistan and got us sucked into new wars around the world. Funny how silent the Democrat base - Code Pink, Cindy Shehan and the entire Left Wing crowd is all of the sudden. Yeah, they only love war when it's THEIR guy making it.
Well, they don't have money to take care of our veterans because they spent it on IMPORTANT things, like Okole's campaign trips, shrimp treadmills and statues of dogs pooping.
And now the Feds want MORE money to waste!
What's ironic is during a republican administration, the nightly news and the print media
would be banging the gong non-stop. But the past few years, troop deaths and any news
related to the now 3 wars is almost non-existant.
So to see this story, on Politico of all places, is a shock.
But it does not compare to the coverage given to gays in the military this past year.
Some things never change -- and the military's lack of concern for former members, once
you're not active duty, has been and still is pathetic.
THEY deserve much better treatment , they've earned it !
What's ironic is during a republican administration, the nightly news and the print media
would be banging the gong non-stop. But the past few years, troop deaths and any news
related to the now 3 wars is almost non-existant.
So to see this story, on Politico of all places, is a shock.
But it does not compare to the coverage given to gays in the military this past year.
Some things never change -- and the military's lack of concern for former members, once
you're not active duty, has been and still is pathetic.
THEY deserve much better treatment , they've earned it !
Any veteran can walk into any VA hospital emergency room at any time and ask to see the POD (psychiatrist on duty). There is a crisis line that veterans can call in time of crisis. There is a special telephone number veterans can call if they are homeless. There are support groups. Veterans who do not feel they are getting the care they need can go to the Patient Advocate's Office to ask for help.
What the VA does not do well is explain to veterans what services are available and how to take full advantage of them. I have been going to the VA for severe PTSD treatment for years. The medical care has always been very good. But I had to learn over the years how to ask for and get this care.
This is directed to "Core-On Barbecure" who wrote the first message. Shame on you for using the VA to spew your political garbage!
Thank you for coming forward. I am proud of you - your bravery. At U.S. Army Recruiting Command (USAREC), after I had filed complaints, a soldier/recruiter/combat vet who was chaptered out after I was gone contacted me at home. He had previously been my client. He was ill with PTSD and put out on the streets with no hook up to the VA. He was subsequently evicted from his home as he was incapable of supporting himself, and he became homeless. During the eviction with his landlord and the Sheriffs present, I was on the phone with the County Sheriff's Department informing them that if any harm came to the combat vet that day, my next call would be to the local cable television station, and to this day, I regret that i did not make that call.
Subsequently, friends offerred him a pop up travel trailer to live in in their driveway. He lived in one of the hottest environments in the USA with temperatures outside over 100 degrees. He accepted their offer of hospitality. I travelled over to see him - over a hundred miles from my home - and directed him to the VA and hooked him up with services. It was the least I could do. (Google army recruiter suicides for a history). He was a fine individual with an excellent Army career. While at USAREC, he told me he practically begged them to send him back to Iraq, because he was not cut out for recruiting and it was too stressful.
I know what he was talking about - but I can assure you the records will show that in spite of these type of tragic events, the TRADOC/USAAC/USAREC Generals get their next stars. In fact, the former CG of TRADOC, GEN Martin Dempsey, is currently the Army Chief of Staff, waiting to move up to Chair of Joint Chiefs when ADM Mullen retires in October 2011. These soldiers with PTSD are unsung heroes and because of stigma and the debilitating effects of PTSD, it is hard for them to go public to tell their stories. The Brass get their promotions, and the soldiers with PTSD get chaptered out. Shameful. Congress rewards TRADOC and the subordinate Command Generals for getting them the recruitment numbers, at any cost. Lt Gen Donald M Campbell, former CG and Deputy CG of USAREC, got promoted to his third star and is now the CG at Fort Hood, TX. Review the history of USAREC suicides and attempts on his watch by requesting a FOIA of his annual DoD-Suicide Event Reports, (DoD-SER), for 2005 - 2011.
Write your Congressman and tell him to keep GEN Martin Dempsey right where he is as Army Chief of Staff. Why promote him? Where was his "TRADOC Doctrine" for preventing USAREC suicides while he was pushing for numbers during these wars? The Army has 400 active duty Generals - ask one of the other 399 to move up to Chair of Joint Chiefs. USAREC management should not be rewarded for this travesty - a history of suicides of combat vets detailed to the Army Recruiting desk duty and unrelenting pressure.
We can move on but hold the Brass accountable at the same time. Thank you all for your moral courage for testifying before Congress. Your truths are our truths.
“truly transformative veteran-centered approach to the VA mental health care."
What exactly is that? Sure, that sounds great, but what exactly is that? Specifics. What programs? What type of providers? What type of access? How much will that all cost? How will we pay for it? Can we even realistically recruit enough mental health professionals to staff whatever this program would be?
Clearly, vets are not waiting for any government to clean this up. They are taking their lives NOW.
The Stats
A recent Pentagon report has stated that the rate of soldiers hospitalized for having suicidal thoughts has soared a staggering 7000% in the last five years. Seven thousand percent. The VA's suicide hotline fields more than 14,000 calls per month; that is more than 450 a day. More soldiers have been lost to suicide than to Al Qaeda. Veterans account for one of every five suicides in this nation. Today, approximately 18 veterans killed themselves. Tomorrow, approximately 18 more veterans will kill themselves. The next day? And the next?
A huge silent hemorrhaging is occurring at the very heart of this nation. We have an unprecedented war on our hands, right here at home, and we must find it within ourselves somehow to rally and end it.
The Experts
There are stellar exceptions to what I am about to say, but overall, answers from experts have been wholly inadequate. I've spoken with the VA, and they've said they're handling it. No, they're TRYING to handle it and failing. I've spoken with a leader in the medical industry, and he said there's NO MONEY in helping veterans. "You'll have vets lined up out the door and no funding coming to you from anywhere." I was speaking with someone who makes over $300,000/year, and he was worried about the lack of money in it. I've spoken with some brass, and they're too busy belly-aching about those who get disability for having hemorrhoids to pay any attention to the ones who have not slept in a year. I've spoken with mental health professionals, and they're interested in finding just the right pill to make it all go away. All of this tells me that the experts don't have the answer. I don't, either, and I don't think anybody does. I don't think there is just one answer, but many, not all of which will work for all cases. But man do we need to try, and we need to try NOW.
What I'd like to see
Free and instant career counseling, computer training, and mental health counseling for IAVs as soon as they hit native soil. A nonprofit community Welcome Wagon especially for vets returning home, given cooperation from the Veterans' Service and the VA to find out who has returned. Half the trouble is with outreach--finding the vets. The VA sends out a letter but often does not hear back from the vet, who does not want to deal with them. Being secretive, the military does not cooperate well with community trying to reach out to vets. These disconnects need to be eliminated. An Ushahidi Map showing each IAV suicide and resources that may have made a difference in preventing it. A Web community called 7000% devoted to bringing that stat down to ZERO. A Sulfur Alert like the Amber and Silver Alerts to get help immediately to a suicidal vet. An end to the buck-passing, all the denials and skirtings of the issue. A coming together to solve the problem. A valuing of vets as people. They are so often caught in political cross-fire with some worshiping them as heroes and others damning them for fighting. This nation needs to heal itself, and a huge part of that is helping veterans heal from war. That is the work cut out for us now, regardless of our politics, and even regardless of our economy. We simply must find a way. For people to wake up and realize it's up to us, the citizens of the United States of America, to find the answer. To talk and to listen about the issue of veteran suicides and PTSD, as difficult, complex, daunting, stigmatized, baffling, and overwhelming as it is. We still must do it.We don't have some wacko walking among our sons and daughters and indiscriminately shooting them. And yet in some ways, that is exactly what we have--a national tragedy of our own, and just as Norway is grieving, we also should be lighting candles and laying flowers in every single church here at home for every soul who has returned home only to leave us.
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