Private Psychiatrists chip in to help Troubled Veterans

Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan may die more from suicide than from the combat in the wars, reported Dr. Thomas Insel, the top psychiatric researcher at the National Institute for Mental Health. Owing to much pressure of extended deployments and decreased leave time, more and more veterans are coping with mental health problems.

Psychiatrists are in demand and the government is trying all means to hire them, recruit them with incentives or borrow them from other agencies.

Considering the shortage of professionals who can help these mentally disturbed veterans, private counselors have decided to chip in and volunteer to contribute some part of their time to the troubled soldiers.

Brenna Chirby, a psychologist with a private practice in McLean, Va. is among those who have decided to offer help.

"It's only an hour of your time," said Chirby, who counsels a family member of a man deployed multiple times. "How can you not give that to these men and women that ... are going oversees and fighting for us?"

Only 1,431 mental health professionals are present among the nation's 1.4 million active-duty military personnel, said Terry Jones, a Pentagon spokesman on health issues.

About 20,000 more full- and part-time professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers and substance abuse counselors provide health care services for the Veterans Administration and the Pentagon.

Health care experts believe that, keeping in mind the mental health crisis emerging among troops and their families, that number of professionals is not enough.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses can prove to be devastating as they often coincide with homelessness and substance abuse, both of which in turn increase the risk of suicide. But there are also financial costs to the community and the nation.

The alarming report about suicide among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan wars matched the results of a Rand Corporation study issued one month ago, which revealed that more than 26 percent of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars may have mental health conditions, and about 20 percent suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

It’s more daunting because in the Vietnam-era, more veterans eventually committed suicide than the 58,000 soldiers lost in combat.

"No one who goes to war comes home the same person," said Patrick Campbell, a medic for an infantry unit who served in Iraq in 2004-2005. "There are things you have to unlearn to emotionally feel again."