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COMBAT STRESS CONFERENCE HELPS FAMILIES COPE --
Annual event addresses the war's mental health
issues.
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/
news/northcounty/2007
0506-9999-1mc6mental.html
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Combat-stress conference helps families cope
Annual event addresses war mental-health issues
By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
CAMP PENDLETON – A year ago, Jacqueline McQuigg left Indiana and headed
west. She went to help her son, a Marine who was nearly decapitated by a
roadside bomb in Iraq.
After undergoing 14 surgeries since the Feb. 27, 2006, attack, Staff
Sgt. Paul McQuigg, 30, is a medical marvel at first sight. He has only a
few scars and slurred speech.
But beyond first impressions, people learn about his traumatic brain
injury and post traumatic stress disorder – two conditions increasingly
suffered by combat veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
McQuigg's mental injuries have holed his memory. He can't manage some of
his everyday affairs without his mother's assistance, let alone care for
his young son, who lives with him after he and his wife divorced.
To better understand her son's neurological and psychological
challenges, Jacqueline McQuigg joined hundreds of mental-health experts
yesterday at Camp Pendleton for the International Civilian & Military
Combat Stress Conference. Organizers of the annual event aim to offer
the most up-to-date information about mental-health issues related to
war.
“What happens is that first you focus on the physical symptoms. But as
they heal, you recognize the symptoms of traumatic brain injury and
PTSD. This is explaining some things to me – not only the injury, but
the results of the injury,” Jacqueline McQuigg said.
“There is so much unknown about what the bomb blasts do to someone,” she
added. “He has no energy to take care of his son. He gets frustrated
with how long his recovery is taking.”
Across the United States, an unknown number of service members' families
such as the McQuiggs are struggling to deal with mental-health problems
caused by combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Various medical experts have
said their toll will likely last long after troops pull out of the
Middle East, because mental problems typically require years of intense
treatment.
The combat-stress conference, which will run through Thursday, was
largely a civil and academic affair yesterday. In Camp Pendleton's South
Mesa Club, participants listened to lecturers, watched a slide
presentation and gave polite applause.
But there was an undercurrent of frustration among some in attendance,
and it occasionally rose above the decorum.
For example, Lynda C. Davis, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy,
became the subject of sharp questioning. Audience members asked her: Why
is the Navy downsizing its mental-health care work force when such
services are needed? Why isn't the Pentagon helping to fund the
conference?
Davis didn't answer either question.
Legislators from San Diego County talked about a need to reshape the
nation's infrastructure of support for troops and veterans.
Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad, said the country's leaders might want to
reconsider the way combat veterans are reintegrated into society.
“One day a soldier is sleeping with his M-16 and the next he's sleeping
with his wife. Is that too fast a change? The answer is that we don't
know, but it is something we should look at,” said Bilbray, a member of
the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
The spark of the day probably came from Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego,
chairman of the same committee. He bluntly criticized shortcomings of
the Veterans Affairs system, which is reeling from understaffing and
insufficient money spent on mental-health services.
“Too many people think that VA means 'vet advisory' instead of 'vet
advocate.' I think more people are killed by bureaucracy than on the
battlefield,” Filner said.
The VA system is at its “breaking point” with almost 200,000 Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans filing claims for mental or physical problems, he
said.
“If we could not have anticipated these problems, we should have
adjusted by now,” Filner said. “We are failing, we are failing. . . . We
don't even know the truth of what the situation is because of poor
record keeping.”
He got sustained applause after addressing a sensitive subject within
the military: that commanders are discharging mentally ill troops by
claiming they already had personality disorders before enlisting in the
armed forces. Service members discharged under such circumstances aren't
entitled to VA disability benefits.
“That's disgraceful,” Filner said. “If they were enlisted, they deserve
to be treated now.”
Filner said all military personnel should be tested for brain injuries
and mental illness before they leave the service.
“I don't care what is costs,” he said. “We are the richest nation in the
world and we should do this for them.”
Rick Rogers: (760) 476-8212;
rick.rogers@uniontrib.com
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Larry Scott --
