Dec 1 2011
USA Today reports that a rising number of combat veterans are flooding VA hospitals with this illness. Meanwhile, ProPublica/NPR report on a brain injury testing program for soldiers that has proven to be problematic.
USA Today: Rise In PTSD Cases From Two Wars Strains Military Resources
Ten thousand combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder flooded into VA hospitals every three months this year, pushing the number of patients ill from the disorder above 200,000 and straining resources, Department of Veterans Affairs data to be released today show (Zoroya, 11/29).
ProPublica/NPR: Testing Program Fails Soldiers, Leaving Brain Injuries Undetected
Faced with a congressional mandate to use computerized testing to detect brain injuries, the military chose an unproven test and then botched its implementation (Sapien, Miller and Zwerdling, 11/28).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |