Over the weekend, the New York Times published an article about the Army’s “Warrior Transition Units,” which are meant to help transition soldiers coming out of combat zones like Iraq back into peacetime service. There are apparently some bumps in the implementation of these units.
The units were created in the wake of the 2007 scandal emanating from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where it was shown that returning soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq war zones were not receiving adequate mental health care and treatment. The Warrior Transition Units were meant to be intensive treatment units, focusing on providing the best care possible to address the mental health needs of these soldiers.
There are currently about 7,200 soldiers at 32 transition units across the Army, with about 465 soldiers at Fort Carson’s unit.
But interviews with more than a dozen soldiers and health care professionals from Fort Carson’s transition unit, along with reports from other posts, suggest that the units are far from being restful sanctuaries. For many soldiers, they have become warehouses of despair, where damaged men and women are kept out of sight, fed a diet of powerful prescription pills and treated harshly by noncommissioned officers.
You’d think these units would be full of activities, group therapy, individual therapy, and educational classes and programs meant to help a soldier transition back into “normal” life. And perhaps that was the original intent of the units. But without proper funding and qualified staff, it appears the units are not meeting their ideal mandate:
Some soldiers in the unit, and their families, described long hours alone in their rooms, or in homes off the base, aimlessly drinking or playing video games.
“In combat, you rely on people and you come out of it feeling good about everything,” said a specialist in the unit. “Here, you’re just floating. You’re not doing much. You feel worthless.”
At Fort Carson, many soldiers complained that doctors prescribed drugs too readily. As a result, some soldiers have become addicted to their medications or have turned to heroin. Medications are so abundant that some soldiers in the unit openly deal, buy or swap prescription pills.
Yikes. This is the best care available? I don’t think so.
But here’s where I started getting real angry while reading this article. Apparently some of the professionals involved in helping treat the soldiers believe some of the soldiers are malingering — faking their symptoms or the symptoms’ severity — in order to hang out in the unit or get drugs.
In many cases, the noncommissioned officers have made it clear that they do not believe the psychological symptoms reported by the unit’s soldiers are real or particularly serious. At Fort Hood, Tex., a study conducted just before the shooting rampage there last November — which found that many soldiers in the Warrior Transition Unit thought their treatment relied too heavily on medication — also concluded that a majority of the cadre believed that soldiers were faking post-traumatic stress or exaggerating their symptoms.
But this doesn’t make sense based upon what Lt. Col. Andrew Grantham, a commander of one such unit, said earlier in the article:
The colonel offered another explanation for complaints about the unit. Many soldiers, he said, struggle in transition units because they would rather be with regular, deployable units. In some cases, he said, they feel ashamed of needing treatment.
So why would soldiers be faking symptoms in order to stay in the units if they felt the units were unnecessary or stupid? One of those accusations cannot be true — or they can both be true, but only for a small minority of different soldiers in each unit.
Both explanations sound more like scapegoating. Rather than own up to the problems of these brand new units, it sounds like the Army is going around pointing fingers at every other possible explanation — blame the victim (they’re faking it!) or blame the makeup of the units (they’re non-deployable). But don’t blame the implementation or actual use of the units.
We cannot know for certain the extent of the problem, as the New York Times article is only based upon a subset of interviews with select individuals. They apparently did not interview any soldiers who were helped by these units — which is an odd oversight, assuming the units have actually helped some soldiers. It makes the piece seem biased and one-sided, despite getting a few “official” comments.
Is the Army still dropping the ball when it comes to the mental health of their personnel? This article makes it seem like the problem still exists, and the Warrior Transition Units may have made some issues even worse by over-medicating soldiers upon their return. Perhaps a government oversight committee will open an independent investigation to get to the truth of the matter, and ensure soldiers are receiving the care they need.
Read the full article: Feeling Warehoused in Army Trauma Care Units
7 comments
What bothers me about the press coverage of the WTU and everything else about Army mental health is that they never report the good news stories – the guys who were identified, treated, and recovered (maybe they recovered and returned to a deploying unit, or maybe they decided to get out of the Army and on with their lives…either way, experienced a return to a good quality of life). Good news doesn’t make headlines though, so everyone can continue to believe that our soldiers are being completely mistreated. I have no doubt that there is room for improvement in the WTU and I hope that the Army can continue to strive for excellence in the mental health treatments of its soldiers.
Soldiers who want back in the business world should be able to use their warrior skills to do so. The basic problem surely isn’t trauma, but the “culture of automatization” that can be observed in all armies in the world, which makes them similar to a destructive cult.
As a Soldier who has been in the WTU at Ft Carson since 2008, I can honestly say that the level of treatment for physical wounds is outstanding. As is the professionalism of the Staff and Cadre. I have not witnessed any of the abuses that I have read about, nor do I believe that it would be the norm. In the area of mental health treatment, I believe there is a lot of room for improvement. Fortunately, the “buck” doesn’t stop with Ft Carson. Over the last year and a half I was able to receive treatment at the VET Center. My personal life has greatly improved thanks to them. After being diagnosed with PTSD over a 5 week period I was able to enter into a therapy program, where I learned what my “triggers” were, and how to manage them. I really dont know what my life would be like today without them. However, I was surprised that during my 30 minute interview with an Army “mental health professional” (after a year and a half of therapy)I was told that I don’t have PTSD, what I have is ADHD. And that I should stop going to therapy at the VET Center. When my NARSUM for my MEB came back it actually used the words malingering. Now I do not believe that my PTSD is severe enough to be considered below Army retention standards, however I wonder how many soldiers seek help and are told that after a 30 minute interview, they should just go away and quit malingering. Now when I see a fellow WTU soldier having problems adjusting, I always suggest to them to go to the VET Center and talk with somebody. Because they cant count on receiving unbiased care for PTSD from Ft Carson.
I have a shoulder injury and was sent to the WTU. This injury is a simple rotator cuff injury that simply needs minor day surgery, no more than an hour. Upon arrival, the S1 contract employee said oh, we been waiting on you, this was 11 A.M. reporting time was 12. She then turned and started doing something else, I asked if I were bothering her, she then turned and started to “inprocess” me. She stated I would have a squad leader (an E6) and he would be in charge of me (I am an 05). I looked at the schedule, whic was three weeks of inprocessing. This included mandatory progams such as education, resume services, etc. etc. I iinformed them that I had a simple ijury that just needed to be fixed and did not need all the services. At which point they said “this is the process” you have to do what we tell you. The squad leader then took me to a room, which I was supposed to sign a hand receipt, the room was isolated, single bed, white sheets, and one green wool blanket. I told him this room was substandard and I would not sign for it, and informed him I would stay in the BOQ at my own expense. At this point we returned back to the area where now the first Sergeant and Comand Sergeant Major were looking for me. We met and they urged me to stay in the program because I would be getting paid and I would benefit by documenting everything that was wrong with me so I can file a claim. I told them again, I had a simple shoulder injury and simply wanted t get it fixed, and I could do it with my civilian doctor in less than a week, this was my expectation before my arrival at the WTU as al the diagnostics, imaging were already done. As they had no luck convincing me to use the WTU to fix my shoulder, I had to meet with the BN commander, who right away informed me he had UCMJ authority over me. I have done nothing wrong, so not sure why he was compelled t tel me this. These units are a detriment to the psyche< it was like "one Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", immediate institutionalization for no reason. Oh, I forgot to mention the ten day "lockdown" in case you have PTSD. I opted out and luckily was out of there in two days. I immediatly got an appointment with an ortho surgeon and have surgey set up next week. Why can't the Army do this?? I'll tell you why, the folks running the program seem to be building a job empire and mentally abusing Soldiers to justify the jobs. If you did not have PTSD before entering the program, chances are they will convince you that you have PTSD before you leave. At the minimum, you will have anger issues.
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