By Paul Tuthill
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Northhampton, MA – The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which continue to this day. As the wars wind down, the need for medical care for military veterans will climb.. WAMC"s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.
Thomas Doherty was rattled by the terrorist attacks on September 11th.
Doherty waited two years, until he was 21, then joined the US Army. He did a year long tour in Iraq , where he was assigned to protect VIPs. He was based near the US Embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone, which was hit almost daily by barrages of rocket and mortor fire.
When Doherty returned home to Brockton Massachusetts, his family and friends told him he had changed. At first he brushed the comments aside, but then slowly began to realize they were right.
Doherty was admitted to a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment program at the VA Hospital in Northampton. The 25 bed unit is one of only five in-patient Post Traumatic Stress Disorder programs in the country. The unit's staff psychologist, Scott Cornelius foresees demand for the program growing.
According to the VA's national center for PTSD, the occurrence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans may be as high as 20 percent. The VA in recent years has beefed up its mental health services and added staff.
The VA also makes an effort to reach out to returning veterans to encourage them to access the health care benefits their service entitles them to. That kind of outreach is something relatively new to the VA, according to Roger Johnson, the director of the VA Health Care System for Central and Western Massachusetts.
Johnson says Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are enrolling with the VA at much higher rates than did Vietnam era veterans.
The beefed up mental health services to meet the needs of todays' returning war veterans and the outreach all come with a price tag. Appropriations for veterans benefits and services has climbed from 45 billion dollars in 2001 to over 108 billion dollars last year, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal says the number of military veterans in the United States has grown by one million over the last decade.
Members of Congress from both parties have continuing support for veterans services even in the face of pressure to cut deeply into federal spending.