New, 4-volume veterans' health handbook reflects UK expertise

It is not just about post-traumatic stress and re-entry into the job market anymore, as if it ever was. In topics as diverse as how to best get electronic medical records to how to treat the severely injured who would not have survived earlier wars, The Praeger Handbook of Veterans Health: History, Challenges, Issues and Developments has plumbed the expertise of 65 professionals -- many with ties to the University of Kentucky -- to teach anyone who cares how it's done.

Mary Meehan of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports that the editor of the four-volume set is Dr. Thomas Miller, professor emeritus and senior research scientist in psychiatry at UK, who began working on the handbook in 2006. The book makes wide use of Miller's many decades of work with veterans as well his network of experts from other countries.
 
 Miller told the Herald-Leader that he hopes the book will not only show people the scope of services available and how to get the help they need, but help shape the future of veteran care and by extension health care in the United States. The set is designed as a resource for libraries, health care offices and universities. It is available at online bookstores for $257. (Read more)

State task force will look at substance abuse, mental health care for military members, veterans and families

To help the increasing number of veterans and military service personnel who are needing treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues in Kentucky, a task force has been assembled to come up with strategies that show the most promise in providing care.

The team, made up of military personnel as well as health care experts, will go to a conference in Washington, D.C., to gain learn what is working elsewhere. The goal is to strengthen statewide behavioral health care systems and services, a press release from Gov. Steve Beshear's office says.

Over the past three years, the number of veterans seeking mental-health care has risen dramatically, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. About 335,000 veterans live in Kentucky. There are also 45,000 active-duty personnel in Kentucky and about 8,400 members of the Kentucky Army National Guard and Kentucky Air National Guard.

"This is an extremely important and timely topic that requires collaboration across federal, state and local lines," said Col. David Thompson, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Military Affairs. Task force members include Thompson; Maj. Gen. Edward W. Tonini, Kentucky adjutant general; state Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville; representatives from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, military and civilian health facilities and the Kentucky court system. (Read more)

Caregivers of wounded soldiers find their lives are also changed; getting compensation

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan disproportionately affect rural areas, which provide more than the average number of recruits. The soldiers who make it home alive come back changed, with traumatic brain damage, post-traumatic stress syndrome or other injuries that require full-time care. Mostly wives and older parents are left bearing the burden.

Catrin Einhorn of The New York Times reports that many caregivers have to quit their jobs and are forced to spend their savings and retirement funds to pay for treatment. A growing number of caregivers suffer from anxiety, depression and exhaustion as a result of their new routines. Rosie Babin, 51-year-old mother of a severely wounded 22-year-old son, was managing an accounting office before her son's injury. Though she's happy to have her son home alive, she now has to take blood-pressure medicine and sleeping pills. "I felt like I went from this high-energy, force-to-be-reckoned-with businesswoman to a casualty of war," Babin told Einhorn. "And I was working furiously at not feeling like a victim of war."

According to research by Joan Griffin, a research investigator with the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System, most of the injured are in their 20s and 30s, making this the first time since Vietnam the V.A. has seen such an influx of youth, which extending the length of care to years and sometimes decades. On average, Griffin found that family members spend more than 40 hours a week providing care, making it nearly impossible for them to keep a job.

Organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project have tried to ease the financial burden on these families by lobbying Congress to provide direct compensation and other benefits to caregivers and their families. In 2010, the veteran's agency approved 1,222 applications and awarded monthly stipends of $1,600 to $1,800 to caregivers. Along with the money, they can receive health insurance and counseling, Einhorn reports. This law only applies to caregivers of service members injured after Sept. 11, 2001, and it's uncertain who will qualify and how compensation will be determined.
(Read more)

Fort Campbell using simulated battlefields to assess brain injuries

Doctors at Fort Campbell are using a mock battlefield to assess whether or not soldiers who have suffered a traumatic brain injury are ready to return to combat. The clinic has been recognized by the Department of Defense as a national model.

"Soldiers are making life and death decisions, so doesn't it make sense to use demonstrated competence as the standard for returning someone to duty?" Dr. David Twillie told National Public Radio's Blake Farmer.

In exercises meant to simulate scenarios they face when fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers sweep a gravel road for possible roadside bombs, take fire from insurgents and are told to insert chest tubes and tie tourniquets while listening to sound from a scene in Saving Private Ryan. The goal is to assess how well the soldiers handle the stress of the situations. Patients must also take written tests that assess their competence. The combination of both simulated and written assessments is important.

"Very recently we had a soldier that had a desire to stay in, had done well in all our simulations," Twillie said. "But when all the different sights, sounds, smells came back, he just wasn't able to change his focus, and that's very important in combat."

Memory loss, mood swings and difficulties balancing are common symptoms of a traumatic brain injury. About 115,000 soldiers have experienced such an injury, the Defense Department estimates. (Read more)

Fort Campbell soldier who went AWOL, and says his Kentucky PTSD treatment was inadequate, is set to return to Afghanistan

A Fort Campbell-based soldier who went absent without leave because of alleged post-traumatic stress disorder will return to finish his tour in Afghanistan.

"My family doesn't want me to go, but I am not disobeying a command order," Spc. Jeff Hanks, 30, told Kristin M. Hall of The Associated Press. Hanks, right, said his mental health issues date back to a 2008 deployment in Iraq. Last year, he spent six months in Afghanistan, during which he sustained a concussion when a mortar landed near him. Since turning himself in on Nov. 11, 2010, he said he has been treated for nightmares and headaches and was told to get counseling when re-deployed. Hanks told the AP he does not feel his PTSD has been treated adequately.

Hanks, a married father from North Carolina, said he will likely serve another four months in the country to complete his one-year tour. He has committed to serve in the Army another two and a half years. A Fort Campbell spokeswoman told the AP that Hanks is scheduled to re-deploy in the coming days. (Read more)

Hanks was deployed overseas in May 2010 and did not return after a mid-tour leave in October, reports Jake Lowary of The Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville, Tenn. After turning himself in on Veterans Day, the Army opted to send Hanks for treatment at a facility in Hopkinsville, Ky., rather than send him back to Afghanistan. (Read more)