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VETERANS' PTSD CASES SURGE IN ALABAMA VA SYSTEM
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Cases in Birmingham have jumped 54% in four
years.
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http://www.al.com/news/
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Veterans' post-trauma stress cases surge here
Iraq, Afghan wars, 9/11 ripples blamed
TOM GORDON
News staff writer
Post-traumatic stress disorder, the sometimes debilitating emotional
byproduct of the nation's wars, is once again on the rise in Alabama,
and the increase in its numbers has been dramatic.
The number of PTSD patients at Birmingham's Veterans Affairs Medical
Center has jumped 54 percent in four years. To accommodate the growth,
the medical center last week set up a mental health primary care team to
make sure new patients get some post-traumatic stress treatment if they
need it. The hospital also is more than doubling its PTSD staff of
therapists and psychiatrists, adding six full-time and one-part time
post.
There are names behind the numbers of PTSD patients, and one of them is
Jonathan McLemore, a 40-year-old Walker County resident, father of two
and ACIPCO employee. Since returning from a tour of duty in Iraq three
years ago, McLemore has been wrestling with the inner demons of PTSD.
There are the flashbacks, the kind that have him hitting the floor
because, in his mind, a mortar round has landed nearby. There's the
jumpiness when he hears sudden noises, the unease he feels among crowds
and the reluctance to put his trust in people.
"I was happy go lucky, easygoing," McLemore said when asked to describe
his personality before he deployed with the Alabama National Guard's
877th Engineer Battalion. "I have had family members and friends tell
me, you know, that I'd walk away from a confrontation, just smile and go
on.
"But now, it's just, I'm colder, I guess you could say, to a lot of
things. I'm just colder."
An obvious explanation for the increasing numbers of post-traumatic
stress patients in Alabama is the fact that more and more Alabamians are
serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the current wars do not fully
explain the numbers.
Dr. Etsham Haq, acting mental health chief at the Birmingham VA Medical
Center, said Iraq and Afghanistan veterans make up a small portion of
the medical center's PTSD patients, and that's because it often takes
time for these new veterans to realize or admit they have a problem and
seek treatment.
About 2,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets have registered with the medical
center. By last week, 259 of them had been treated for post-traumatic
stress.
Enrollment rising:
Meanwhile, Haq said, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the ensuing wars
triggered or worsened symptoms in a number of older veterans, causing
some to come in for treatment.
At the Birmingham VA and its affiliated clinics, the number of patients
with PTSD went from 2,123 in fiscal 2003 to 3,275 in fiscal 2006.
At the smaller Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, the number of PTSD patients
has gone from 1,711 in fiscal 2001 to 2,242 in the current year.
Hospital spokesman Damon Stevenson said about 1,300 Iraq and Afghanistan
veterans have registered at the facility, and about a third are being
treated for post-traumatic stress.
Will the numbers continue to rise? "It depends on how long it (the
fighting) continues," Stevenson said.
Also going up is the number of veterans receiving disability payments
related to post-traumatic stress. In fiscal 2002, according to VA
figures, the number of Alabama vets receiving such payments was 4,393.
Last week, the total stood at 8,129.
More than 6,000 of those vets served during the Vietnam era, according
to the VA. The next highest total, nearly 1,100, consists of those vets
listed as serving during the Gulf War, a period that includes the first
Gulf War, in 1991, and the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Talking, listening:
Jonathan McLemore is receiving a disability payment for his diagnosed
PTSD, but he also has been meeting with a VA counselor. A few weeks ago,
he started attending classes two days a week at the Tuscaloosa VA
hospital. He said he took the step as much for his son and daughter as
he did for himself.
"I'm doing what I can do to take care of myself so I can take care of my
kids," he said. "My kids' needs come before my needs."
Those in the classes include some guys who were with him in Iraq, but
also older vets from the first Gulf War and Vietnam. What they have in
common is PTSD. They generally do a lot of talking and listening to each
other, and McLemore is glad to be among them.
"I can tell some pressure's being relieved; I'm more at ease," he said.
But he's resigned to the feeling that he will never be at ease the way
he was before Iraq, and that is something that many wives and husbands
of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have yet to learn.
"I know a lot of spouses ... keep saying ..., `You're home. I want the
old so-and-so back,'" he said. "They can't understand that we ain't ever
gonna be what we were before we left because of what we went through and
experienced, and seen and done and smelled and tasted."
E-mail: tgordon@bhamnews.com
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Larry Scott --
