Emotionally wounded soldiers seek help in Fort Hood
An Army psychiatrist was charged nine months ago with killing 13 soldiers and wounding 30 and this might be considered a side effect of the war, measured in more than 10,000 mental health evaluations, referrals or therapy sessions held every month.
Every fourth soldier from Fort Hood Texas, where 48,000 troops and their families are based, has been at some point subject for counseling during the past year. And the service’s medical statistics shows an increase in the number of soldiers searching for help to help them face stress, substance abuse, broken marriages or other emotional problems. Gen. Peter Chiarelli says that more soldiers suffer from mental health issues than the Army anticipated and it is obvious here in Fort Hood, where emotional problems among the soldiers threaten to overwhelm the system that is meant to help them. The counselors are busy all the time and the inpatient psychiatric ward with a capacity of 12 beds is always full. The patients that outdo this number are sent to private local clinics that stay open for 10 hours a day for six days a week to manage the increasing number of patients.
There are more soldiers having problems that are reluctant to seek help because they are ashamed of admitting that they have problems and there are hundreds more who find therapy outside the Army medical system. The army officials are worried that the problem might get worse. Col. Steve Braverman, commander of the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center says that if the problem is not dealt with right away there is a fair chance that 10 or 15 years from now these people will be a burden for the American society. The numbers are worrying: more than 4,000 mental health patients a month get professional help from Fort Hood counselors and 2,445 soldiers were diagnosed last year with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to 310 five years ago. Last year 6,000 soldiers here began on anti-depressant medication therapy and another 1,400 received anti-psychotic drugs. Chiarelli says that this the effect of nine years of continuous conflict and Kathy Beasley, a health care executive with the Military Officers Association of America, says that these statistics are pretty worrying and she wonders what will happen to these people when they are going to leave the military service and who will take care of them.
There are many types of emotional problems that have to be treated, starting with marriage counseling and continuing with the emotional effect of sexual assault. Fort Hood has a three week therapy program continued with eight weeks of group therapy especially designed for soldiers suffering stress-related issues like post-traumatic stress disorder. There has been an increase in the child and adolescent psychiatric needs which have t handle more than 1,000 appointments each month. Luckily, Fort Hood has one of the finest prepared mental health programs in the Army, with 171 behavioral health providers up from about 50 mental health workers five years ago. Due to war and deployments, there are more soldiers suffering emotional problems and they require more counseling sessions. Lt. Col. B. Kirk Phillips, a psychiatrist and director of mental health care at the Darnall medical center says that there will be needed 58 counselors more to meet the demands.
Despite the increase in mental health resources, there were 14 suicides among Fort Hood soldiers in 2010 from the 32 suicides overall in the whole army. After the killing of the 13 soldiers and the wounding of the other 30 Fort Hood launched a campaign that was meant to measure the psychological health of the community. The purpose was seeing how many people needed help and how many extra counselors were needed. An online confidential survey was done and the soldiers that participated were granted a free day from work. More than 5,000 responded and one quarter of them said that they would never admit having emotional issues because this was going to be interpreted as a sign of weakness . For this particular category the Army offered a Pentagon program which provides a limited number of counseling sessions with private therapists that remains off the medical records. It is called Military OneSource, and it grants a maximum of 12 free and confidential therapy sessions. Another option for the ones that want to keep their problems secret is a free clinic from Killeen called Scott & White Military Homefront Services. The therapy received here will not appear in the medical records either. Matthew Wright, the director of Scott & White Healthcare of Temple, says that the clinic has already seen 7,117 patients, soldiers, spouses and their children since its opening two yers ago. And this program is struggling too with the lack of personell. Braverman thinks that if the number of patients keeps rising the soldiers will probably quit waiting and avoid seeking help.
