Extended exposure to combat can cause serious mental illness. Who can forget the Vietnam vets "going postal"? Today it's called "post traumatic stress disorder" and we know it can be a killer long after the afflicted soldier returns home. That's why militaries like the US Army spend millions treating PTSD in veterans.
There is another group of combat veterans returning home who are too often going untreated. They're private contractors, essentially mercenaries working for the US government in Iraq and, as reported yesterday, they now actually outnumber the total troops deployed in Iraq. Many of these types do support work. Others go directly in harm's way running convoys, gathering intelligence and furnishing security details. All of them live with the reality of violence.
The New York Times reports that many of these civilian war fighters are returning home with psychological damage that is neither monitored nor treated:
"...private workers are largely left on their own to find care, and their problems often go ignored or are inadequately treated.
"...Many work side-by-side with soldiers and are exposed to the same dangers, but they mostly must fend for themselves in navigating the civilian health care system when they come back to the United States.
"With no widespread screening, many workers are not identified as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or other problems, mental health experts and contractors say. And, they add, the quality of treatment for others can vary widely because of limited civilian expertise in combat-related disorders.
“'I think the numbers are in the thousands, maybe tens of thousands,' said Paul Brand, a psychologist and chief executive of Mission Critical Psychological Services, a Chicago firm hired by Dyncorp International, a major contractor in Iraq, to assess and treat its workers. 'Many are going undiagnosed. These guys are fighting demons, and they don’t know how to cope.'
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