More Than Half of Recent War Vets Treated by VA...

More Than Half of Recent War Vets Treated by VA Are Struggling With Mental Health Problems

JOAQUIN SAPIEN - ProPublica

More than half of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans treated in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals since 2002 have been diagnosed, at least preliminarily, with mental health problems, according to statistics obtained by the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense.

The data, which is released quarterly, also show that the raw number of returning soldiers with psychological problems is rising. Nearly 18,000 new patients were treated for mental health issues at VA facilities in the last three months of last year-the most recent time period for which data is available-upping the total to more than 330,000.

The latest numbers confirm a trend that has intensified over the last several years. Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said that when the organization first began to collect the data in late 2004, only 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in VA hospitals had been diagnosed ...

Comments: 1

Janet H. Dec 5, 2011, 10:50pm UTC

Why wouldn't a normal, healthy person sent to a war zone and forced to see all kinds of horrible things and to fear for his/her life every day come back home with mental health issues? How much horror can one person take without it damaging the person's mind and emotions. And especially if the person sees all kinds of things being done that are wrong and is helpless to do anything about it. My uncle came back from World War II with what they called "shell shock" and he tried to kill himself to make the memories go away. It was similar back then, just a different name for the problem. My uncle recovered somewhat but could never work again.

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More Than Half of Recent War Vets Treated by VA Are Struggling With Mental Health Problems

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