Video from AFN Afghanistan
In a deployed environment servicemembers are subject to risks such as post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. Cases vary in severity but some can be treated in theater allowing servicemembers to return to duty. The Occupational Therapy Team is just one of the specialized groups that work together to help the wounded warriors.
From RTPO
www.va.gov
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is extending retroactive traumatic injury benefits to Servicemembers who suffered qualifying injuries during the period Oct. 7, 2001 to Nov. 30, 2005, regardless of the geographic location where the injuries occurred.
Watch this short video to learn more:
“Now all of our nation’s Servicemembers who suffered severe traumatic injuries while serving their country can receive the same traumatic injury benefits, regardless of where their injury occurred,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “We at VA appreciate the efforts of Congress and the President to improve benefits for our troops.”
Effective Oct. 1, the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) Traumatic Injury Protection benefit, known as TSGLI, will be payable for all qualifying injuries incurred during this period. This retroactive benefit is payable whether or not the Servicemember had SGLI coverage at the time of the injury.
From: Armed with Science
Maj. Dorothy DeLeon, United States Forces-Iraq Red Team member, receives acupuncture for foot problems at a clinic in Baghdad. She is sold on the holistic healing approach to problems she has experienced in her foot and elbow. (Photo by Sgt. Lindsey Kibler)
Military field physicians are using the practice of acupuncture to treat cases of mild traumatic brain injuries (mild TBI), including concussions, and cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“We think it’s important to work on these as a team and address both issues at the same time to try to get a Marine back on his feet and heading in the right direction,” said Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Charlies Benson, a psychiatrist and surgeon with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Acupuncture, a form of alternative medicine, treats patients by the insertion and manipulation of needles in the body. It has been known to relieve pain, treat infertility and diseases, and prevent diseases.
Operation Stress Control and Readiness Program, a joint Navy-Marine Corps effort, embeds psychiatrists and psychologists within combat teams to provide mental health care to troops in Afghanistan. The program trains medical officers, corpsmen, chaplains, religious personnel and key leaders at the sergeant and first sergeant level to deliver basic mental health services. Troops also have the option to see physical therapists, occupational therapists, and acupuncturists at an outpatient concussion center to address physical and emotional impacts of combat-related injuries.
Having psychiatrists and psychologists embedded in regiments and battalions gives troops who might not naturally turn to a mental health provider a range of ways to seek help, Benson said.
Mild TBI is an especially challenging injury to treat, Bensen said, adding that it is a physical injury, which often includes psychological symptoms including insomnia, headaches, nightmares and anxiety.
The Breathe2Relax app is a new mobile application for smart phone users released by the Department of Defense can help reduce the stress associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury.
Designed by the National Center for Telehealth & Technology (T2), provides easily accessible relief for stress and anxiety. Breathe2Relax is a diaphragmatic breathing trainer that uses a smartphone’s interactive learning capabilities to teach deep-breathing exercises through video instruction and interactive demonstrations. It’s simple and effective for controlling stress when used either as a stand-alone tool, or in association with face-to-face psychological health care.
Diaphragmatic breathing (belly-breathing) has widely-known benefits for reducing stress, tension and anxiety by calming the “fight or flight” response. From the first time you launch Breathe2Relax, you can immediately begin the breathing exercise and track its beneficial effects through a simple stress results scale. You can easily customize your Breathe2Relax experience, using the app’s preference settings to select breath duration and number of cycles, as well as choice of music and background images.
Breathe2Relax is a free mobile app available now for the iPhone and iPad through iTunes and is scheduled for release for Android devices in late July. For more information about Breathe2Relax and other available apps, visit www.t2health.org/apps.
Marsh with husband, recently promoted, Air Force Master Sgt. Chuck Marsh.
By Heather Marsh, DCoE Strategic Communications
The phrase, “can’t see the forest through the trees” seems to describe a bout of “cluelessness” I recently experienced. Or perhaps, the more common “if it was a snake, it would have bit me” is truly the best fit. Either way, the fact is I work at Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) with top subject matter experts in the field of traumatic brain injury and I couldn’t even recognize that the weird symptoms I had, after a recent good bump to the head, were symptoms of a concussion. How’s that for irony?
In March, I spent about 10 days of feeling a little disoriented and helpless—having no clue as to what was going on with me. After a few conversations with a variety of military health care providers, to include an emergency room resident and former chief of neurology, I was finally able to “put a name to the pain.” It turns out, I had sustained a mild TBI as a result of a recent fall (hardwood floor, meet Heather’s face…it wasn’t a pleasant introduction and resulted in five stitches and a severely bruised ego).
With a huge sigh of relief and several deep breaths later, I began my recovery process by talking to friends and family, and combing through resources and facts. The first tidbit that jumped off one factsheet (courtesy of Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center) was that falls are the leading cause of a traumatic brain injury. I didn’t know that, did you?
I know much more about mild TBI now, like the fact that you should give yourself a little slack and let your brain heal—which can take one to three months in most cases. But, as my neurologist insists, that doesn’t mean you should stop doing routine tasks, like reading. He reminded me how amazing the brain is and it’s important to keep working it because, in time, it will learn new “tricks” to help self-correct.
Read the full article: “My Discovery of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury,” on the DCoE Blog.
An United States Air Force C-130J Hercules cargo aircraft from the 146th Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard, conducts flare training off the Ventura County coast. The flares are used as tactical infrared countermeasures to confuse and redirect heat-seeking missiles.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Dave Buttner)
Famed Yankees pitcher “Lefty Gomez” once remarked “I’d rather be lucky than good,” but for one Tuskegee Airman, luck and good combined to make him one of the most successful combat pilots of World War II.
During the summer of 1944, 2nd Lt. Clarence D. “Lucky” Lester was flying the P-51 Mustang over the skies of Italy’s Po Valley providing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers with cover support on their way to attack airfields in southern Germany.
Lester was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron, a part of the 332nd Fighter Group, and had earned the nickname “Lucky” “because of all the tight situations from which I had escaped without a scratch or even a bullet hole in my aircraft.”
Read the story of a flight that helped Lester earn his nickname here.
The only African-American ace of World War II, and a former Tuskegee Airman, went on to have a career in the Air Force, as well as success in the business world.
Lee A. Archer joined the Army in 1941 with high hopes of becoming a pilot, but was initially denied because of his race. When the Army’s policy changed about a year later, Archer was accepted to the training program for black aviators at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama.
Archer is best known for a day in late 1944 when he was involved in a series of dogfights over German-occupied Hungary. Flying a P-51 Mustang fighter, Archer shot down three German fighters. He would go on to add two more German fighters to his credit to become the first and only African-American ace of the war.
As a civilian, Archer enjoyed even greater success, serving as vice president for urban affairs with General Foods, as CEO of North Street Capital Corp. and chairman of Hudson Commercial Corp. He also served on the board of directors of Beatrice International Foods and the Institute for American Business.
Read the rest of his story here.
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