>> One in five troops who have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan return home with post-traumatic stress disorder.
>> Symptoms of PTSD include anxiety, depression, insomnia, feelings of emotional numbness and an inability to deal with large crowds.
>> Military suicides have more than doubled in recent years, peaking in 2010, when 430 active-duty personnel killed themselves.
>> PTSD sufferers often abuse alcohol or drugs, and a smaller number say they have had suicidal thoughts.
>> Last year, 554 American troops were killed in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.
SOURCES: Rand Corp., Department of Veterans Affairs,
U.S. Department of Defense
AT EAST FIGHTS BACK
At Ease USA, a fundraising organization founded by Omahan Scott Anderson, partners with Lutheran Family Services to offer services to Nebraska troops, veterans and family members struggling with PTSD or other mental health issues.
At Ease served its first client in 2009, when it employed one therapist.
Today, At Ease has nine employees and has worked with more than 200 men and women, most of whom suffer from PTSD. At Ease recently opened a second office in Grand Island, where it hopes to help service members and veterans living in a 22-county area in central Nebraska.
The nonprofit's leaders plan to provide therapy and support for more than 300 active-duty military and veterans in 2012 alone.
— Matthew Hansen
Medal of Honor recipient Sal Giunta has a simple suggestion that he thinks could help combat veterans returning from Afghanistan with PTSD.
Drop the D.
"I just don't like the word 'disorder,' " Giunta said in Omaha Monday. "Putting the disorder on there brings that negative stigma. … I think it's post-traumatic stress. That's what it is."
Whatever you call it — and it's been called "shell shock," "battle fatigue" and then PTSD at various points in history — there's no denying that many troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan continue to suffer from acute anxiety, depression, insomnia, alcohol abuse and other symptoms years after their homecoming.
That, in fact, was why Giunta, an Iowa native, was in Omaha on Monday. The first living American to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War served as the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for At Ease, a local nonprofit that helps service members struggling with PTSD.
At Ease, the brainchild of Omaha ad executive Scott Anderson, took on its first client in Bellevue in 2009. Today, the group affiliated with Lutheran Family Services has offered counseling, group therapy and other services to more than 200 service members, veterans and family members.
The demand is such that the group opened a second office, in Grand Island, last year and plans to expand further this year, using telehealth services to reach rural western Nebraska.
The nonprofit, mostly funded by grants and private money, serves only a small fraction of the returning Nebraska and Iowa veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Most get help through the VA. Still others refuse all help, a problem that Giunta said he has seen in several friends and former members of his unit.
"The first step is the toughest," he said. "Once they find help, they will seek out more."
At Ease "is seeking out those who slip through the cracks," Giunta said. "That is awesome. That is important."
After largely ignoring the far-reaching effects of PTSD early in the Iraq and Afghan Wars, the American military has more recently pushed for better understanding and treatment of the disorder, local experts say.
Top military officials have publicly announced that they struggled with PTSD, announcements meant to encourage younger troops to seek help. Post-deployment screening for mental health problems as well as traumatic brain injuries — often caused by roadside bomb explosions — has become mandatory.
Late last year, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, opened another front in this battle against PTSD when he suggested that the American Psychiatric Association reconsider the name of "post traumatic stress disorder." The association's president has said he is open to considering it, especially if the potential name change makes it more likely that returning veterans feel comfortable accepting treatment.
Military leaders and mental health professionals are battling a serious foe.
At least one in five returning veterans suffers from PTSD, according to studies by the government and the Rand Corp. Many of those affected refuse help, studies say, often because they believe that a PTSD diagnosis is an admission of weakness that will harm their military careers.
"We've got generations of stigma we're dealing with," said Paul Greenwell, a therapist and head program supervisor for At Ease. "These efforts are less than five years old. … It's going to take a while for them to start trusting."
Giunta is no stranger to combat stress.
On Oct. 25, 2007, while stationed in the infamous Korengal Valley of Afghanistan, he ran through what eyewitnesses described as a "wall of bullets" to rescue Sgt. Josh Brennan, who was being dragged away by two insurgents during a Taliban ambush of Giunta's unit. Brennan later died from his injuries. The squad's medic, Spc. Hugo Mendoza, also died during the ambush.
Despite that action, which led to Giunta receiving the Medal of Honor in 2010, he spent large swaths of his speech arguing that he's no hero, at least no more of a hero than the hundreds of thousands of other service members who have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I'm not the biggest, strongest or the bravest," he said. "I'm nothing. I'm only one of many."
Giunta told the 625 attendees at the fundraiser that he doesn't think "I'm cool" or "I'm tough" when he takes the Medal of Honor and hangs it around his neck.
"I think about these two men, who gave all their tomorrows so we could have our today," he said.
Contact the writer: 402-444-1064, matthew.hansen@owh.com
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