Army: Soldiers' Mental Health Improving

[Kadie]

Army: Soldiers' Mental Health Improving
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

Wednesday, July 20, 2005


(07-20) 11:50 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --


The overall mental health of U.S. soldiers in Iraq has improved from the early months of the insurgency, with a significant drop in suicides, but a majority still say morale is low, the Army said Wednesday.


An assessment by the Army surgeon general found that among soldiers interviewed last fall in Iraq and Kuwait, depression, anxiety or acute stress was more prevalent among National Guard and Reserve soldiers, as well as regular Army soldiers in transportation units, than among soldiers in combat units.


The report, dated January 2005 and covering the period from late August to mid-October of 2004, was a follow-up on a similar assessment done a year earlier, when the insurgency was taking hold. The earlier assessment found that mental health services were not adequately available to soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait and that a significant number of soldiers said they had little or no training in how to handle combat stress.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/07/20/national/w115044D16.DTL

[delete_bush]

1. the larger mental health issues will occur

AFTER they return, not only for the soldiers but their families as well. Going forward from that point, and I hope I'm wrong, there will be many tragic situations, for which I hold Republicans responsible.

[smirkymonkey]

2. Oh. OK. I guess if the Army says so, it must be true.

[Demeter]

3. Totally NOT Credible

Who do they think they are fooling? We are intelligent people; we don't need the "prettified" reports they send to Bush. We need the TRUTH!

[DELUSIONAL]

4. So an OFFICER calls in a soldier --

Well son, how are you feeling?

Fine, sir, fine.

[DawgHouse]

10. Exactly!

No problems here, sir.

[samsingh]

5. more lies, or a small improvement from rock bottom

that's all.

can't trust what we hear from the MSM, the govt, or the military leaders (who are made to lie by the bushees)

[brentspeak]

6. Are anti-depressents now given to soldiers?

This is sort of a side-track question, because I was rejected from enlisting a few years ago due to being on Paxil.

[XemaSab]

7. Hitler: Jews Happy and Content

n/t

[Joey Liberal]

8. FTA

[teryang]

9. Delayed Post-traumatic stress disorder

Combat soldiers will obviously suffer more mental illness down the road than those who are not exposed to combat. Their training and their ability to react to their environment immediately enables them to repress acute symptoms. That's why PTSD is delayed in many combat veterans.

Transportation, reserve and other support echelons exposed to combat are going to naturally experience more acute stress from the no-front style of guerilla combat,in part due to their different conditioning and social roles in their respective organizations.

[classysassy]

11. Mental health

I'll believe the mental health of the soldiers have improved,when the re-enlistment rate is zero.