Walter Reed patients say mental care falls short

Walter Reed patients say mental care falls short

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Nothing so gleaming exists for soldiers with diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder, who in the Army alone outnumber all of the war's amputees by 43 to 1. The Army has no PTSD center at Walter Reed, and its psychiatric treatment is weak compared with the best PTSD programs the government offers. Instead of receiving focused attention, soldiers with combat-stress disorders are mixed in with psych patients who have mental issues ranging from schizophrenia to marital strife.

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This is a terrible, terrible shame. After Vietnam, all we are doing is creating another generation of Vietnam veterans: maladjusted men riddled with PTSD and alcoholism. The only difference now is that they are all drugged. What will we do when in 20 years the most disturbed amongst them start acting out violently?

When America made the choice to send them overseas, we also signed on to protect them to the best of our ability. But now we are cutting them loose with injuries more disastrous than a bullet wound.

I have suffered from panic disorder, I know how it is to sit in your room and wonder whether you can ever make it outside again. To wonder whether you can cope with even the little things in life: going to the store, going to work.

And even I know that what I went through is nothing compared to what these people are going through. But, no one cares. Everyone is too worried about arguing whether the war was right, or whether one politician or political party is better than another.

We're all at fault on this one.

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