MILITARY: Marine commanders told to remove stress stigma

Conference focuses on treating combat stress and traumatic brain injuries

By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | Tuesday, August 12, 2008 9:17 PM PDT ∞

Keynote speaker Sgt. Major Dennis Reed, the top enlisted officer with Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force, urged commanders Tuesday to work to eliminate any stigma attached to post-traumatic stress disorder. "Marines and sailors don't want to admit they are weak, so they have trouble talking about it," he said. (Photo by Don Boomer - Staff Photographer)

Hundreds of Marine and Navy officers listen Tuesday to speakers on the opening day of a conference in San Diego to address ways to limit post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. (Photo by Don Boomer - Staff Photographer)

SAN DIEGO ---- Marine Corps commanders were told Tuesday that they must eliminate any stigma attached to troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

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"It is the leaders responsibility for making sure Marines get help," said Thomas Gaskin, coordinator of the service's combat operational stress office in Virginia. "It's our job to restore Marines to the extent we can by reducing the stigma."

Gaskin's remarks came on the opening day of a three-day Marine Corps conference in San Diego addressing post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries and the effects those illnesses have on family members.

The number of Marines suffering from post-traumatic stress has risen each year since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The most recent statistics reported by the service to the Department of the Navy show there were 2,114 cases diagnosed in 2007, up from 1,366 in 2006 and 1,378 in 2005.

In their efforts to stem the increase, Marine Corps officials are increasingly relying on sergeants to monitor their troops and direct any of them with problems to get help.

A new directive that will spell out the responsibilities for commanders and those who report to them is due out the first week in September, Gaskin said.

Among the new efforts are assigning regional training coordinators to Marine bases around the country and expanding mental health teams deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Eliminating the stigma that troops themselves attach to the disorder is just as important, said Sgt. Maj. Dennis Reed, the top enlisted officer with Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force.

"Marines and sailors don't want to admit they are weak, so they have trouble talking about it," he said.

But evidence of emotional problems among troops home from the war is evident in the daily police blotter he reviews, Reed said. Each morning, he said he sees reports of incidents involving drugs and alcohol and domestic violence.

"We started out not paying a lot of attention to post-traumatic stress disorder," he said. "Now, we have to pay a lot of attention to it."

Reed's boss, Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, who also commands Marine Corps forces throughout the Middle East, said the stigma has to be forever eliminated.

"We really need to take care of them," he said. "The most valuable resource we have today is the individual Marine."

Lt. Col. William Swan, head of Camp Pendleton's 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said studies show about 20 percent of returning Marines suffer from mild forms of combat stress, while about 10 percent are diagnosed with fully developed cases of post-traumatic stress.

In order to reach those troops, Swan said it's vital they answer honestly when responding to questions during post-deployment briefings.

"The Marine has to be truthful, and until we can get that word understood, we are still going to see problems," he said.

The attendees' repeated promises to treat the country's emotionally wounded troops didn't move U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, and chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

Filner, a longtime critic of the efforts by the military and veterans affairs, pointed to the rising number of troops reporting mental health problems tied to their combat experience.

"I'm still not sure these guys get it," said Filner, who dropped into the conference unannounced.

The Pentagon is spending $300 million this summer on research for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, the most spent in one year on military medical research since a $210 million breast cancer study in 1993.

Projects include an eyeglasseslike device that can detect brain injury and new therapy for post-traumatic stress sufferers.

A RAND Corp. study released in April estimated that 300,000 current or former combat troops have symptoms of combat stress and as many as 320,000 may have suffered a brain injury.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.