[Vision2020] 10-19-05 USAQ Today: 1 in 4 Iraq vets ailing on return

[Donovan Arnold]

How do these numbers compare to people in the United
States living in large inner cities?

Take Care,

Donovan J Arnold

--- Art Deco <deco at moscow.com> wrote:

> 1 in 4 Iraq vets ailing on return 
> By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
> 
>       IMPACT OF WAR   
>                         Of service members returning
> from the Iraq war this year:  
>                         47% saw someone wounded or
> killed, or saw a dead body. 
>                         14% had an experience that
> left them easily startled.
> 
>                         6% wanted help for stress,
> emotional, alcohol or family problems.
> 
>                         2% had thoughts of hurting
> someone or losing control.
> 
>                         1% had thoughts that they
> might be better off dead or could hurt themselves.
>                        
>                         
>                  
>            
>            
>      
> 
> More than one in four U.S. troops have come home
> from the Iraq war with health problems that require
> medical or mental health treatment, according to the
> Pentagon's first detailed screening of service
> members leaving a war zone. (Related: Troops
> screened as never before)
> Almost 1,700 service members returning from the war
> this year said they harbored thoughts of hurting
> themselves or that they would be better off dead.
> More than 250 said they had such thoughts "a lot."
> Nearly 20,000 reported nightmares or unwanted war
> recollections; more than 3,700 said they had
> concerns that they might "hurt or lose control" with
> someone else.
> 
> These survey results, which have not been publicly
> released, were provided to USA TODAY by the Army
> Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine.
> They offer a window on the war and how the ongoing
> insurgency has added to the strain on troops. 
> 
> Overall, since the war began, about 28% of Iraq
> veterans - about 50,000 service members this year
> alone - returned with problems ranging from
> lingering battle wounds to toothaches, from suicidal
> thoughts to strained marriages. The figure dwarfs
> the Pentagon's official Iraq casualty count: 1,971
> U.S. troops dead and 15,220 wounded as of Tuesday.
> 
> A greater percentage of soldiers and Marines
> surveyed in 2004-05 said they felt in "great danger"
> of being killed than said so in 2003, after a more
> conventional phase of fighting. Twice as many
> surveyed in 2004-05 had fired a weapon in combat.
> 
> "The (wartime) deployments do take a toll," says Lt.
> Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman. "We send
> them to austere locations, places that are extremely
> hot, extremely cold, very wet, very dry ... where
> they may also encounter an armed enemy."
> 
> The Pentagon's goal is to identify all troops in
> need of care in part by screening every service
> member on a wide range of issues before and after
> overseas duty. 
> 
> Begun in 1997 and expanded in 2003, it is the most
> detailed health assessment of deployed troops ever.
> It came in response to ailments that surfaced after
> the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Jim Benson, a spokesman
> at the Department of Veterans Affairs, says
> comparable data from previous wars don't exist.
> 
> In October 2004, a federal panel of medical experts
> that studied illnesses of Gulf War veterans
> estimated that one in seven suffer war-related
> health problems.
> 
> Benson said the percentage of troops back from the
> wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with health issues is
> close to the portion of former service members
> coming to the VA for mental health or medical care.
> He says 101,000 of the 431,000 war vets who have
> separated from the military, or about 23%, have
> sought help.
> 
> Contributing: Paul Overberg
> >
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> 
47% saw someone wounded or killed, or saw a dead body.

14% had an experience that left them easily startled.

6% wanted help for stress, emotional, alcohol or
family problems.

2% had thoughts of hurting someone or losing control.

1% had thoughts that they might be better off dead or
could hurt themselves.


		
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