More Troops In Iraq Seek Stress Help

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Miami Herald
October 30, 2007 U.S. troops in Iraq, facing extended tours of combat duty as well as problems at home, are more willing to seek mental health counseling in the field.
By Jay Price, McClatchy News Service
CAMP VICTORY, IRAQ -- U.S. troops in Iraq, facing the stress of multiple, extended combat tours, are increasingly willing to seek mental health counseling while they're in the field, according to military medical experts.
Combat stress experts from the 785th Medical Company, an Army Reserve unit from Fort Snelling, Minn., that originally deployed to Iraq in 2004 and redeployed in August after two years in the United States, say they've noticed a substantial change in attitudes toward mental health treatment, which has long been stigmatized.
''There hasn't been that challenge of having to go out and kind of sell ourselves to make sure people know that we're here and this is an important part of the combat experience for everybody,'' said Capt. Troy Fiesel, the company's operations officer.
'Now we've got people walking in and saying, `Hey, I know I have got this issue,' or 'I had this problem last time and I need to keep working on it.' ''
The willingness to seek help comes as the Pentagon pushes mental healthcare as some troops enter their third or fourth deployments in a war with no front lines and no safe rear areas and as the first tours of duty that were extended to 15 months grind to an end.
Modern communications -- phone and Internet service are available on many bases in Iraq -- also can add to troops' stress levels because they take on the pressures their families are under back home, too.
''A lot of what we do is educating people that they've got to be here, not here and at home, too,'' Fiesel said.
``If you try to incorporate both worlds and the stresses associated with both, you've going to burn out whatever coping skills you have.''
An Army survey released late last year indicated that soldiers serving multiple combat deployments were 50 percent more likely to experience acute combat stress. Other studies have found that up to 30 percent of troops sent to Iraq suffered from depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Another Army report, released in August, said the suicide rate for soldiers in 2006 was the highest in 26 years and that nearly a third of the 99 victims had killed themselves in Iraq.
The report said that failed relationships, financial and legal problems and the stress of their work fueled the problem.
That report said there was at least some evidence of a relationship between suicide and the length of deployments.
Soldiers with the 785th Medical Company said they've seen evidence of that in their most recent rotation.
'Before, people might have said, `Well, I can do this for 12 months,' '' Fiesel said. ``But now that extra few months can influence the lack of coping skills. Sometimes it's just enough to push it past the limit.''
In 2004, the 785th was the only unit fielding combat stress reduction teams, which are units as small as two or three people that are based with combat troops at forward operating bases.
Now, the Pentagon has fielded two similar units. The stress reduction teams are spread all over Iraq. The 785th has people in 14 locations.
By treating problems early and as close to combat as possible, the military hopes to reduce the number of ''psychiatric casualties'' that have to be sent home, said Col. C.J. Diebold, the U.S. military's psychiatry consultant in Iraq.
 
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