What's New
| Congressman Mitchell: Pausing to Consider People Who REALLY Matter |
Chairman Harry Mitchell is a Hero to Veterans Nationwide August 20, 2010 (Arizona Republic) - It's been a month since I spoke to Rep. Harry Mitchell about suicides among military veterans and I'm just getting around to writing something. |
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| What Obama Won't Say Tonight About US Withdrawal from Iraq |
| August 31, 2010 (ConsortiumNews) - President Barack Obama’s aides say his speech this evening marking the end of "combat operations" in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush’s infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech in 2003. We’ll see. |
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| Lawsuit Update: Prudential's Half-Billion in Dirty Secret Profits |
Families of Dead Soldiers Sue Insurer Over Its Handling of Survivors’ Benefits August 29, 2010 (New York Times) - Vickie Castro’s only child was killed six years ago just before Christmas, when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Army mess tent in Mosul, Iraq, killing more than 20 people. |
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| Op-Ed: Cost of War Must Also Include Caring for Our Veterans |
Overlooked Cost of Iraq / Afghanistan Wars: Our Veterans' Healthcare and Benefits August 15, 2010 (San Francisco Chronicle) - Two years after an Army specialist saw half his platoon torn apart in Iraq, he hanged himself in a California backyard. |
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| VA Secretary Shinseki's Open Message to Gulf War Veterans |
| August 11, 2010, Washington, DC (VA Press Release) - August 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Gulf War, launched with Operation Desert Shield and followed by Operation Desert Storm. VA honors this milestone with a renewed commitment to improving our responsiveness to the challenges facing Gulf War Veterans. |
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VCS Analysis: PTSD and Suicide Crises Continue Worsening
Written by Paul Sullivan
Friday, 17 July 2009 11:15
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Veterans for Common Sense thanks VA and the New Jersey Star-Ledger for publishing new information about the very serious mental health crisis faced by our returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. VCS has obtained even newer healthcare use and disability benefit statistics from VA using the Freedom of Information Act. The new VA data provides strong evidence that the mental health crisis among our returning Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans continues to worsen far beyond what the University of California, San Francisco researchers found in their study using older data. Here are the latest VA statistics about Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans: • Veterans: 981,834 (out of nearly two million deployed) What do these statistics mean? Out of the nearly two million service members sent to the two wars, VCS estimates as many as one million total Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans will use VA by the end of 2018, and possibly sooner if the wars continue to escalate, with a price tag of between $700 billion and $1 trillion over the next 40 years. VCS believes the military and VA must do more to provide prompt and high-quality medical care to our service members and veterans. VCS urges the President to form a national advisory panel on PTSD and suicide prevention for soldiers and veterans. VCS urges President Obama to order the military to follow the law and conduct medical pre- and post-deployment medical exams for all service members. Universal mandatory exams reduce stigma and start care sooner, when treatment is most effective and least expensive. If President Obama and Secretary Gates fail to address this issue immediately, then the PTSD and suicide epidemics will worsen. |