Talk highlights Army’s value of soldiers’ mental health status
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/62424/
For Capt. Vaughn DeCoster, 12 months on active duty in Iraq didn’t get any more nerve-racking than the time his office windows were blown out by a mortar that landed 40 feet away.
“ Luckily, at the time I was working out at the gym so I was safe, ” DeCoster said.
But he said the constant gunfire, random explosions and the overall destruction during his time with the 113 th Medical Company in the U. S. Army was enough to affect even the sanest soldier.
In a presentation Wednesday night at the University of Arkansas, DeCoster, a UA associate professor of social work, explained that the military is taking a more active look at mental health care.
“ This is the first time in military mental health history we’ve had forward deployed mental health specialists, ” he said. “ The Army has never really made combat stress a priority. ”
DeCoster deployed in September 2006 with his company to a small base in southeast Iraq.
With the camp receiving about 10 to 15 mortars a week, “ we were as forward as you could get, ” he said.
DeCoster was in one of two five-member teams that served a group of about 12, 000 soldiers. His job was to evaluate their mental health, be available to discuss issues soldiers dealt with during their tour, and help prevent mental health issues from being a reason to send soldiers away.
“ The Army is in love with social workers right now, ” DeCoster said. “ It is one of the top 10 professions they’re recruiting. ”
He said practicing mental health service in Iraq was unlike any situation he had ever encountered.
“ You shower with your clients; you eat with them; you watch movies with them, ” he said. “ There is no escaping them. You are on call 24 / 7. ”
DeCoster was often the first to debrief soldiers after a traumatic event. Loss of comrades, large explosions, firefights and other instances could trigger mental problems among overworked, sleep-deprived men and women with plenty of caffeine in their bodies, he said.
He said that during his yearlong stint he diagnosed about 366 mental health problems in soldiers and made about 13, 000 total contacts.
“ Our return-to-duty rate was 99 percent, ” he said.
DeCoster said the war’s effect on the minds of soldiers stationed in the desert was a lot different than ones returning. A life of a soldier in Iraq is one of living on the edge and constantly being alert, even while sleeping, he said. Returning home meant re-adapting to a life completely different from the one the soldiers got used to in Iraq.
“ It wasn’t uncommon for us to have a soldier that, over the past five years, they might have been home with their family for nine months, ” he said.
DeCoster talked to soldiers about suicide counseling and discussed with them the positive effects of exercising and laughter. He gave talks about anger management to soldiers frustrated about losing friends and not being able to fight because they couldn’t see the enemy.
“ Men who engaged (the enemy ) did better with anger management than men who didn’t, ” he said.
Overall, DeCoster was responsible for “ selling ” mental health to the soldiers and showing them it was good to discuss their dilemmas.
“ What was really hard was when a person, one of your patients that you talked into going back out, ends up going home in a body bag, ” DeCoster said.
Soldiers lived their lives in a state of danger, something DeCoster, by default, also did when he served them. Dangerous convoys and risky helicopter rides were things he faced all the time.
“ I did 40 convoy rides, and let me tell you some of the most terrifying experiences I ever had was riding around in convoys, ” he said.
The threat of an ambush or a hidden land mine or car bomb was always in everyone’s mind, DeCoster said.
But he said soldiers received better mental health care because of the Army’s decision.
“ In Iraq they had better and faster access than they’d get in the states, ” he said. “ You can’t get a psych council at Washington Regional Medical Center in 48 hours. ”
But the situation is changing stateside, said Dr. Janet Tekell, chief of mental health services at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Fayetteville.
“ We’re doing (mental health care ) very different than we have after other wars, ” she said. “ We’re actually doing outreach and trying to identify soldiers ’ needs. ”
Tekell said the local VA hospital has a social worker whose main job is to find Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who need mental health treatment.
“ The quicker we can reach somebody, the better chance they have for recovery, ” she said.
She said the hospital offers several options for veterans seeking mental health help. It offers in-house care and programs to help the men and women coming back from overseas adapt to normal life.
“ We’re about to hire a neurosurgeon that can help with traumatic brain injuries, ” she said. “ If somebody needs intensive health care, we can go to their house and make sure they get their medications. ”
Doris Cassidy, VA associate director, said the hospital has added about 40 new workers to its mental health service staff and is in the process of adding a second level to its 13, 000-squarefoot mental health clinic.
Veterans interested in mental health care can set up an appointment by calling the VA hospital at 443-4301.