The Fort Hood shooting by an Iraq War veteran reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder spotlights serious gaps in the nation’s medical system for vets — shortcomings that put them, their families, and communities at risk, according to a leading expert on military medicine.
John Liebert, M.D., a psychiatrist who has examined hundreds of violent offenders with combat experience, tells Newsmax Health the Veterans Affairs Department and military doctors are too focused on conducting disability assessments and are not enough on diagnosing and treating veterans with PTSD.
Dr. Liebert, author of "Wounded Minds: Understanding and Solving the Growing Menace of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," also argues that financial considerations are making military officials reluctant to diagnose the mental-health disorder, which he said can cost $1 million per-person to treat effectively.
"I think [the Fort Hood shooting] spotlights for me my main advocacy in my writings: the need to totally restructure — radically restructure — military medicine and VA medicine and get the doctors and other clinicians in the system out of the insurance-adjuster business and into the field and treat these people," he says. "I don't believe in the VA and military medicine being overly weighted in being involved in disability assessments."
Dr. Liebert also suggests PTSD is more common among veterans than VA officials estimate. According to the agency, about 20 percent of the 830,000 veterans treated at VA medical centers over the last decade, had been diagnosed with PTSD. The VA also estimates 11-20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are coming back with PTSD.
But Dr. Liebert argues many more with PTSD symptoms are not being diagnosed properly, but are being sent from base to base or released back into civilian life without treatment. He suggests a fund be created — like those established for 9/11 first responders and Vietnam vets exposed to toxic Agent Orange — to help treat veterans in need.
"These people are being dumped back on their families, back on their communities," he says. "We should get rid of the whole issue of disability and get rid of the whole issue of, has this guy been injured by war? Of course these guys have PTSD, and most of them need help. So instead of differentiating those [who have] PTSD .... from those who don't, we should buy out all their contracts at discharge and get them off the base, get them home, and get them into treatment."
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Posted By: Jen Fad
Monday, April 7th 2014 at 11:49PM
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