Military expands mental health counseling in Afghanistan to soldiers over ‘classified Skype’

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/01/military-expands-mental-health-counseling-in-afghanistan-to-soldiers-over-classified-skype/



Bagram airbase has 40-strong team of psychologists and others on hand, though stigma of such care in the military remains

Military expands mental health counseling in Afghanistan to soldiers over ‘classified Skype’
By Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian
Friday, February 1, 2013 15:24 EST

The US military in Afghanistan has slowly been building up ways to help troops who are scattered across a harsh, hostile country which is almost as big as Texas, with little privacy and poor communications.

The network ranges from a basic “classified Skype” videophone system that gives all but the most isolated soldiers access to a psychologist at any time, to the last-ditch option for extreme cases, a Medevac plane to take any soldier assessed as suicidal or homicidal straight out of the country.

In between is a network of professionals and support centres that aim to stop troops needing to take that flight, or – even worse – never making it.

“I was at the point of blowing my head off,” said 23-year-old Sidney in a “war fighter restoration centre” on the sprawling Bagram airbase, 30 miles north of Kabul, where he spent several days after a near breakdown that was sparked by his wife asking for a divorce.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Smedley Butler addressed this in 1935, " Torn Lives " .

[unhappycamper]

2. Chapter 9 of the Veterans For Peace is nicknamed the "Smedley Butler Brigade"

I've been with them since 2004.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. I never served, but people like Smedley & You are honest Patriots..

Thank you for your many cool Threads and Posts, I've learned a bunch from you .