Patriot Outreach - About War Stress and PTSD

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	Patriot Outreach Supporting our Armed Forces, Retirees, Veterans, Government Civilians, Battlefield Contractors, First Responders and their Families (Patriots)

About War, Stress and PTSD

Important articles and helpful advice for dealing with the effects of War, Trauma, Stress, Combat Stress and PTSD. Many of the items featured in the Guidelines and Materials section are helpful in assisting those engaged in combat and disaster relief.

Guidelines and Materials

Articles and Insights

The Use of the Exercise in Combating Stress and even PTSD
	“…(with) minimal research effort the benefits” could become a “highly effective program.”
	Dr. George Hayter, (LCDR) M.D., Psychiatrist and Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology offers his insights into the exercise provided in Coping Strategies. Dr. Hayter's Brief - PDF

Guidelines and Useful Materials:

Healing War Trauma - A Handbook of Creative Approaches Edited by Raymond Monsour Scurfield, Katherine Theresa Platon
	Healing War Trauma details a broad range of exciting approaches for healing from the trauma of war. The techniques described in each chapter are designed to complement and supplement cognitive-behavioral treatment protocols—and, ultimately, to help clinicians transcend the limits of those protocols... Amazon.com

War Trauma and Its Wake - Expanding the Circle of Healing
Edited by Raymond Monsour Scurfield, Katherine Theresa Platon

Our understanding of trauma has grown and deepened, but we still face considerable challenges when treating trauma survivors.

The editors—one a Vietnam veteran who wrote the overview chapter on treatment for Trauma and Its Wake, the other an Army Reserve psychologist with four deployments—have produced a book that addresses both the specific needs of particular warrior communities as well as wider issues such as battlemind, guilt, suicide, and much, much more.

Amazon.com

Warning Signs, Triggers and Coping Strategies for Iraqi War Veterans. Web PDF Word
By Colonel Kathy Platoni (Psy.D.), 307th Medical Group
Important, practical guidelines for recognizing the warning signs of PTSD and PTSD-related disorders. Explains the difference between helpful and harmful coping strategies.

Survival Strategies in War and Bringing Them Home.
Web PDF Word
By Raymond M. Scurfield, DSW, LCSW
Professional insights and guidelines for understanding, identifying and dealing with trauma and the effects of stress and PTSD. Vital information for anyone providing relief to those exposed to combat stress or disaster-related situations.

Guide to Coping with Deployment and Combat Stress
From: U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine.
Download PDF Website/Info

Combat is more stressful than any training. The enemy will try to stress and confuse you. Security and support operations can also involve heavy stress, even without combat. Mental and physical fitness will help you endure the stress of combat and military operations.

Know the signs of combat and operational stress and how to manage the reactions. Using relaxation techniques can help you refocus in action, recharge you after grueling or boring work, and can help you get to sleep.

Suicide Prevention: Warning Signs & Risk Factors
From: U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine.
Download PDF

Suicide Prevention: Warning Sings & Risk Factors

When a Soldier presents any combination of the specified warning signs, a buddy or chain of command should be more vigilant.

This brief lists risk factors and advises when help should be secured for the Soldier. Good information for all personnel.

Suicide Prevention Training Tip Card From: U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. Download PDF Website/Info
	Most suicides and suicide attempts are reactions to intense feelings of: - Loneliness - Worthlessness - Hopelessness - Helplessness - Guilt This helpful resource is useful for promoting suicide prevention and awareness.

Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, and Suicide Prevention By Order of George W. Casy, JR. General, United Stated Army - Chief of Staff Download PDF
	This Pamphlet explains the procedures for health promotion, risk reduction, and suicide prevention efforts to mitigate high-risk behaviors. Purpose: Sets forth procedures for establishing health promotion, risk reduction, and suicide prevention efforts. It provides holistic guidance to improve the physical, mental, and spiritual health of Soldiers and their Families.

Army Health Promotion
By Order of George W. Casy, JR.
General, United Stated Army - Chief of Staff
Download PDF

Army health promotion is defined as any combination of health education and related organizational, political,
and economic interventions designed to facilitate behavioral and environmental changes conducive to the health and well-being of the Army community.

(1) Health education and the health promotion process.
(2) Behavioral health interventions.
(3) Physical programs.
(4) Spiritual programs.
(5) Environmental and social programs.

War Trauma: Lessons Unlearned from VIetnam to Iraq - Vol #3
By Raymond M. Scurfield, DSW, LCSW
Available on Amazon.com

"Finally, the general public (non-veteran and non-therapist) will find the treatment of the personal challenges and changes forged in war intriguing. Scurfield's extensive work with Vietnam veterans in his 25+ year career with the Department of Veterans Affairs informs and enriches this work, which includes very engaging treatments of his return to Vietnam with his clients... we have a long way to go to develop this understanding, but A Vietnam Trilogy is a very good place to start." ---- Gary E. May, Assoc. Prof. of Social Work, University of Southern Indiana, in Traumatology, Fall 2005

Family Resiliency - A DoD initiative to help service members and their familes. From: MilitaryMentalHealth.org Download PDF
	Slide presentation from Military Pathways' webinar on supporting military youth. Explores what parents can do for thier children, themselves and thier relationships.

Guidelines for Vets’ Families
By Raymond M. Scurfield, DSW, LCSW
Web PDF Word
Useful advice and important do's and don't's for families of veterans to help them cope and overcome stress. Good handout for professionals and veterans involved in helping vets and those affected by Combat Stress.

40 Lessons Unlearned From Vietnam to Iraq About War and Its Impact
By Raymond M. Scurfield, DSW, LCSW
PTSD is the human cost of war on Americans---regardless of which war.
Myths and realities that are misunderstood about war. And more.

Myths & Realities: Wars and Disasters
By Raymond M. Scurfield DSW, LCSW
PDF Word
One of the world's leading PTSD experts dispels important myths and explains the realities about combat stress and PTSD.

The DOD and the VA: Problems and Solutions to Serving
Our Nation's Finest. (Exclusive DRAFT COPY)
By Raymond M. Scurfield DSW, LCSW
Word
A brief but hard-hitting look at what's behind the challenges and problems faced by DOD and Veterans Administration that includes common sense advice for dealing effectively with those problems.
Important information for VA, Military and Government leaders.

Determining The Percentages Of Responsibility Technique
By Raymond M. Scurfield DSW, LCSW Word
For readers who may wish to apply this technique to survivors of trauma other than war, the steps of the Percentages of Responsibility technique are described herein in wording that is generically applicable.

Professional Articles and Insights

Treating War's Toll on the Mind PDF (With photos)
By Betsy Streisand
Thousands of soldiers have post-traumatic stress
disorder. Will they get the help they need?

The War Room PDF
By LTC Kathy Platoni, Psy.D.
"...There is war in my own head. Those of us who served in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom have set foot into rooms from which we may never leave. I have been most fortunate to have experienced total immersion into an unfathomable and bottomless well, where most Americans will thankfully never be forced to descend, and have lived the depth and breadth and horror of a war where the cowardly enemy waits to slaughter and incinerate his victims with the most cunning of guerrilla warfare tactics. The results are never less than gruesome..."

Healing on the Home Front GO
By LTC Kathy Platoni, Psy.D.
"The type of stressors seen in Operation Iraq Freedom are unlike any seen in other wars because we are dealing with an enemy who wears no uniform and operates covertly. In this urban war, there are no front lines and no rear echelons — war is everywhere and inescapable."

Army psychologist using new ways to treat stress GO
By Mark Hare
"As bad as it is, I find it miraculous that 'only' 15 percent to 30 percent of returning Iraq war veterans are dealing with post traumatic stress disorder or some related mental health problems. This war has no front line, the enemy is impossible to identify, the dangers are everywhere. There is no safe place...."

The Dramatic Disparities between the Tragic Casualties of
Virginia Tech and War PDF
By Raymond M. Scurfield
"Wait a minute. Why not the same extent of coverage and homage for each serviceman and woman KIA and WIA as that accorded to the Virginia Tech casualties? Are American servicemen and women war casualties so inconsequential as to not deserve such prominent, in-depth homage as a group, let alone as individuals?"

Bringing the War Home GO
By Cecilia Capuzzi Simon
"Sometimes it's a loud bang, like a car's backfire. Sometimes it's the sound of children screaming or crying. Sometimes it's the benign drone of a classroom lecture, or a stranger's ill-informed comments about the war in Iraq, or the drive over a bridge in the dark of night. All are triggers that send Jesus Bocanegra's mind straight back to the hot, dusty streets of Tikrit, where he and his unit of cavalry scouts tore down Iraqi flags and monuments and raided homes searching for weapons caches, civilian soldiers, and Saddam Hussein himself..."

Civilian workers in Iraq suffering combat trauma GO
By Anna Badkhen
Chronicle Staff Writer
"He scans pastures and chicken farms for roadside bombs. He shoots wary glances at the faces of shoppers and moviegoers, searching for potential suicide bombers. Explosions blow off Thompson's limbs, over and over, in nightmares that stalk his sleep. The war haunts him the way it haunts thousands of U.S. troops returning from their tours of duty in Iraq..."

My Testomional
COL Tony Monaco
PDF Version