Our Valley Santa Clarita November/December 2016 | Page 8

Government

No Hero
Left Untreated
By Steve Knight, U.S. Congressman

Here in Santa Clarita we are proud
of our incredible veterans, and
rightfully so. As service members in
the U.S. Armed Forces, they risked
everything to protect our country
and our way of life. Unfortunately,
many of these heroes return home
after their service and must cope
with injuries, physical and mental.
It’s the invisible wounds from
combat that go unnoticed and
can be harder to treat in many
instances. Post-Traumatic Stress
(PTS) and Traumatic Brain Injury
(TBI) are some of the most
prevalent and misunderstood
mental injuries our veterans
endure after returning home from
military service. Tragically, after
more than a decade of war, the
Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) is still not fully equipped to
deal with this number of veterans
who still need treatment, and
veterans who struggle with mental
health issues are needlessly taking
their own lives on a daily basis.
Addressing mental health for
veterans is a top priority for me.
That is why earlier this year I
introduced H.R. 5600, the No Hero
Left Untreated Act. This legislation
would help veterans recover from
PTS, TBI, military sexual trauma
(MST), and opiate addiction by
establishing a pilot program with
the Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) based on a promising new
neurological treatment called
Magnetic eResonance Therapy
technology (MeRT technology).

While most prior forms
of treatment have failed or have
had limited success in treating
mental health symptoms, MeRT
technology has the potential to
revolutionize the way we treat
veterans or anyone else suffering

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from PTS/TBI. Pioneered by the
Brain Treatment Center in Southern
California,
MeRT
technology
represents an incredibly promising
new way we can treat our heroes
returning from battle.
Given its early successes, it is
imperative that we fully develop
this technology and apply this
life-saving treatment to all of our
veterans diagnosed with PTS, TBI,
or MST. The VA is moving much
too slow in incorporating this
innovative treatment, but the No
Hero Left Untreated Act would
expedite its implementation so
our veterans can get the treatment
they urgently need.
New ideas are needed to help
our veterans and I believe there
is an emerging technology that is
achieving great results in restoring
veterans’ mental health and has
the potential to prevent more
suicides from needlessly occurring.
Today, we have an opportunity to
support and expand on promising
technology that could bring relief
to our heroes, and I am proud to be
part of the effort to move forward
with providing the best treatment
for our veterans. We do everything
we can to prevent troop casualties
on the battlefield, and we must
also do what we can to prevent
causalities once they return from
the battlefield.