Combat Stress Unit Returns to Iraq

[Rose Siding]

BOSTON -- Members of the 883rd Medical Company treat the kinds of wounds that can't be seen but are sometimes just as damaging as physical injuries. The "combat stress control" unit, which heads to Iraq on Friday for a second deployment, offers counseling and advice to soldiers who may be suffering from anxiety, depression, insomnia and a host of other psychological problems associated with combat.

The unit, which spent three months in Iraq in 2003, is comprised of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health workers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/19/AR2005081900179.html

[Javaman]

1. Why the hell did the pull them out in the first place??

I guess all those flowers and candies are making our soldiers sick and are having food nightmares.

You know, when I read shit like this, I just want to kick moron* in the head then ask him what the fuck he was thinking? Does he think beyond next weeks leftovers???

what a colossal jerkoff failure*

[Megahurtz]

3. Cutting their stupid "Budget" probably

They spend money on bullshit but consider this as unimportant.
Ya think that somehow they don't want to acknowledge that this is a problem?:think:

[LeighAnn]

2. Calling Dr. Sidney Friedman

Jolly good and well, and all, but a lot of these specialists have busy careers with the VA helping Vietnam and returning Iraq vets try to deal with reality. Now they've shipped out the caretakers of some of my favorite Vets and told the Vets that a third of them face scrutiny over their "claims"

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1028712.php

"The government is going to take a new look at the claims of about a third of the military veterans who now get disability payments for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Veterans Affairs Department will begin a yearlong review next month of 72,000 cases after an internal study found inconsistencies in the way the claims were decided, including many cases approved though they lacked required medical evidence.

Millions of dollars a year could be involved..."

More misplaced priorities at link

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. How about just getting out of there instead?

[rainbow4321]

5. VA rechecking post-traumatic stress claims it already approved

Wow..look at the stats under shrub's regimes...claims/compensations for PTSD up 80%. Now chimp's people are looking into denying them their compensation.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20050811-1154-vets-stressdisorder.html

The government is going to take a new look at the claims of about a third of the military veterans who now get disability payments for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Veterans Affairs Department will begin a yearlong review next month of 72,000 cases after an internal study found inconsistencies in the way the claims were decided, including many cases approved though they lacked required medical evidence. Millions of dollars a year could be involved.


The review will cover veterans whose claims were approved between 1999 and 2004 and who receive full disability benefits – $2,299 a month – for PTSD alone or in combination with other conditions, said VA spokesman Phil Budahn. The review won't consider the other side of the question, whether some veterans were wrongly denied benefits, and that has some critics upset.

<snip>

The number of vets receiving compensation benefits for the illness rose nearly 80 percent between 1999 and 2004 – from 120,265 to 215,871. During the same period, benefits for all types of disabilities grew by just 12 percent, to about 2.5 million.

[VegasWolf]

6. No money for illnessess that you can't see.! nt