Why do they call it common sense when it's so damned rare?

by: Blue Girl

Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 14:00:00 PM CST

Of course, it wouldn't bother him so much if anyone had ever said thanks before this clusterfuck and the military was broken like toy soldiers some rich brat got for Christmas by Bush's puerile reign of error.

Now we have a whole raft of wounded and damaged troops returning - well over a million have rotated through two theaters of war in the last eight years, many of them two, three, or even four times - and over a quarter million are struggling with chemical abuse and addictions as they cope to readjust to society while the VA health and mental health systems struggle with underfunding and the DoD systems are grossly understaffed.

Knowing that makes the contents of this report from the Drug Policy Alliance all that much harder to stomach. (Via Alternet)

The report reflects a year's worth of outreach to veterans and veterans' advocates across the country, and a distillation of their most creative, innovative and optimistic responses to the problem. 

Gen. Steven Xenakis, MD, Special Advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Warrior and Family Support, brought a message of official support to a teleconference announcing the release of the report: 

"250,000 soldiers is a large number of Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen who have been affected," he said. "It is so important that people are made aware of the issues, and that we follow up with the best action plans we can find ... We in this country have a responsibility to assist and support them."  

Specifically, the report recommends changes in state and federal statutes that now prioritize  punishment over treatment for veterans who commit nonviolent drug-related offenses as a result of their addiction and other mental health issues. 

"Courts, as a way of dealing with large numbers of people with substance abuse problems, are a very slow and expensive way to go," explained Dan Abrahamson, the Drug Policy Alliance's Director of Legal Affairs. "You need a courtroom and a judge, and all the players from prosecutors to defense attorneys. Providing treatment straight up requires far fewer resources and far less investment for far greater returns."  

The report also calls for the adoption of overdose prevention programs, and the expansion of veterans' access to medication-assisted therapies to treat opioid dependence. 

Overdose is an on-going problem among veterans, as are other self-destructive behaviors that inflate the official and unofficial tally of suicides among active duty troops and veterans. (Veterans, often compromised by alcohol or drugs, are an astonishing 148 percent more likely to die in a motorcycle crashthan civilians of comparable age, race, and sex.)

Guy Gambill, a long-time veterans advocate who was instrumental in shaping the report, reminded the teleconference participants that "one of the hallmark symptoms of PTSD is the tendency to self-medicate."   

"In the aftermath of Vietnam, self-medication and its collateral behaviors landed tens of thousands of veterans in prison. This time," Gambill suggests, "let's be smarter than the problem." 

Famous last words.

The idiots in congress - both parties - are all about lionizing service and those who choose it. But they aren't willing to fund the programs that returning combat veterans need.

I wrote this over three years ago, and the problems are worse today.

We send young men and women off to war, to do unspeakable things in our name. These things they do, mostly without complaint. It is their job and they knew the risks when they took it. It is, after all, an all volunteer force.

That said, we owe them something. At the very least, we owe them mental health care when they need it after they witness scenes like these three daily. One in four returning troops will face PTSD, anxiety disorder and panic attacks, and readjustment difficulty. A million troops have rotated through Iraq and Afghanistan in the four years since the Afghan invasion.

Those in need deserve help, but they are not getting it. The Vet Centers that deal with the mental health issues that stem from witnessing things in real life, with your own eyes, every day - are not adequate to meet the needs of the troops needing their services.

Fully 40% of the Vet Centers surveyed have sent clients who need intensive and individualized therapy into group therapy because that is what they have available. In addition, 30% of the Vet Centers report that they are understaffed, and 25% face cutting the services they do offer, and waiting lists for those services. Families are SOL too. 20% have little or not counseling and guidance for the families of returned troops who are suffering from readjustment and anxiety disorders and PTSD.

How can this be happening? If all of the elected officials who voted to authorize force in Iraq were voting to fund veterans programs, we wouldn't have this mess. So something isn't right here. What could it be? I'll tell you what it is...It's hypocricy. It is taking for granted the service of a million men and women. Vote to send them in, but then vote against body armor and funding the VA; and while you are at it cut the funding of the Vet Centers.

Way to support the troops.

Just look at where we are. Less than a week ago the spotlight landed on the status of mental health services for military personnel and their families struggling with the effects of post-combat stress.

We have been at war for eight years. Why hasn't the military planned ahead? If the era of small wars is upon us, and it looks like it is, why hasn't the military instituted training programs and expanded ROTC specifically to students interested in the helping professions? We've had eight years. We could have a lot of seasoned RNs  Nurse Practitioners and Physicians Assistants on the job right now showing newly minted MDs with Captains Bars the ropes.

This would have benefited society as a whole, too. We would have a lot of healthcare professionals entering the civilian workplace at a time we are looking at expanding access to healthcare for millions of uninsured patients who currently aren't in the system via healthcare reform.

But we didn't do that. And at the moment a psychiatrist went nuts and killed 13 people at Ft. Hood, the base had at least 44 mental health billets unfilled. On a base that serves 22,000 active duty soldiers and their families.

Take 44 helping professionals out of a town that size and see if the population is affected. You'll have a Mayor and an entire city council in the Governor's office within hours, demanding the National Guard send in replacements.

Except the Army has already done that, and they are out of places to find more personnel to fill the gaps.

Well, better late than never. The military needs to get crackin' and start expanding ROTC programs to recruit future Nurses, Doctors, Psychologists, Social Workers, etc., etc., etc.

At the same time, current upperclassmen and recent graduates ought to be recruited heavily with the promise of student loan payment deferments while serving and forgiveness upon completion and sweeten the deal with a healthy signing bonus.

Since the military exists to protect our civil society, it is common sense that they should work with the civilian sector to train people who will serve first in uniform and then society at large. Because one way or another we are going to have healthcare reform in this country. Either we do reform and keep rereforming until we finally get it right. Or we keep on like we are and the system we have implodes and we end up cobbling together a national system in a time of crisis and shuttered hospitals.

The way I see it, we have at least two looming crises, and one solution will go quite far in solving them both. If I can get someone to listen to that ironically-named creature, common sense.

I know. I slay me, too.