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It’s been more than a year since the Washington
Post broke a series of reports on dire straits at Walter
Reed, the Army’s largest rehabilitation hospital. Forced by public
outcry, the Army leadership promised a change. This change “came in
the form of Warrior Transition Units.”
Yesterday, George Bush announced his plan to bring 8,000 troops home from Iraq and send 4500 to Afghanistan. Today, Obama and McCain are arguing over plans for the future of Iraq. Obama says McCain offers more of Bush's failed strategy, McCain says Obama's plans are reckless.
As for me, when I hear this line, "Iraq has a $79 billion budget surplus, at a time when we're spending $10 billion to be in Iraq." Iraq has an oil windfall (some of it sitting earning interest in US banks) while you the taxpayer are paying for reconstruction efforts in Iraq, I get so outraged.
Erin Vest wrote poignantly of her brother in law’s safe return home from his second tour in Iraq. She noted that they don’t share political views, at all. No matter what you think of our war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the sacrifices of our troops deserve not just recognition, but financial and programmatic support from the American people and the US Government.
I recently spoke with Brigadier General Gary Cheek, the new
Army director of Assistant Surgeon General for Warrior Care and
Transition. The press announcement accompanying the interview request
read:
“Soldiers should not return from the battlefield to fight an
antiquated bureaucracy. The Army is partnering with the VA to create a
simple and fair evaluation of each Soldier's unique situation.” The press release about Cheek's appointment continues, “BG Cheek has made it his personal mandate to continue to improve Warrior Care and ensure the Army keeps its promise. He wants the American people to know what is being done by their Army - for their Soldiers. The only job of a Warrior in Transition is to heal – Army leadership uses Warrior Transition Units to ensure Soldiers are given the time and resources they need to do this. There are now 12,879 Soldiers in Warrior Transition Units.”
I asked BG Cheek--who is not a doctor or a political appointee but a career Army officer-- if this new program was here to stay or merely a response to bad publicity. He said the program is “a long term enduring program, integrated into the Army’s budget, facilities, medical care. It is well-funded and supported.” Cheek stressed he is not a medical officer- he is an artillery officer. He stated the program has “complete Army buy in- [Walter Reed was] an Army problem, not a medical problem, an Army issue. There are no political appointees in this current program.”
He started off the interview by saying, “ Let’s not ignore the elephant in the room- [the Walter Reed story] caused the Army to do a lot of introspection. They didn’t like what they saw.
According to Cheek new priorities include taking care of soldiers and their families by providing three key things: great facilities, dedicated leadership, and medical case managers to look after soldiers and manage care.
A lot of this focuses on mental health problems, which have had a four fold growth during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under Cheek’s description, these problems include traumatic brain injuries and neurological damage as well as post-traumatic stress.
Cheek said this growth in mental health draws “enormous interest from senior leaders- “for General Casey, it’s the number one thing that concerns him. The mental health category is increasing: PTSD, traumatic brain injury…it’s growing as a percentage of the soldiers who we treat.”
Cheek said, “We’re very concerned about mental health conditions, with repeated deployments, there is a high deployment tempo in the Army, at grave concern to us. If we can identify PTS early, we have a high 75-80% success rate and get them back to their units.” But the stress on the Army is a big factor, and it challenges health care providers.
To respond, Cheek says they’re doing a better job of screening soldiers (and this is a possible reason for more diagnosis of mental health disorders). There is screening upon deployment, then screening upon redeployment, and then when returning to civilian life, they “bring him back in after with a mental health provider.”
Still, I asked him, how is the Army communicating to soldiers the urgency of treatment for mental health problems? He acknowledged
