PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
“WE HAVE UNDERESTIMATED
THE HUMAN COSTS OF WAR,
NOT JUST FOR THE VICTIMS
BUT THE WARRIORS AS WELL.”
year to provide 200,000 mental
health consultations with veterans who lack easy access to its
outpatient clinics or outreach
vans. Since 2009, the VA’s mental health budget has increased
39 percent to almost $6 billion
this year, and its mental health
staff has grown by 41 percent.
Diagnosed or not, all veterans
are eligible for mental health services. But the VA cannot require
them to come in, as VA officials
are quick to point out.
The pernicious effects of combat trauma are not confined to
mental health issues, though.
New research findings indicate
that veterans who have PTSD
are more vulnerable in their
later years to diabetes, cardiovascular disease. One study of
VA patients found that those
with PTSD were twice as likely
to develop dementia as veterans
without PTSD.
“It’s a lifetime sentence,” said
Rick Weidman, a combat medic
with the Americal Division in
Vietnam who still struggles with
post-traumatic stress.
Some cut that lifetime short.
More than 2,500 active-duty
military personnel have committed suicide since 2001, according
to Defense Department reports.
So far this year, active-duty
troops have taken their own lives
at a rate of almost one per day.
Many more make the attempt.
In its most recent analysis, the
Pentagon reported that in 2010,
863 active-duty service men and
women had attempted suicide;
most, 60 percent, were under
the age of 25. National Guard
soldiers and reservists have an
equally high suicide rate. Last
year, 118 Army soldiers killed
themselves while not on active
duty, a number almost certainly
under-reported.
Among veterans — those who
have left military service entirely — the lure of suicide appears
even stronger. The national vet-