AP reports: Overwhelmed by the number of soldiers returning from war with mental
problems, the Army is planning to hire more than 25 percent additional psychiatrists and other medical workers.

As Moondanzer (her son is in law is in Iraq) writes on Moon’s Rants and Raves

And just think it only took our great leaders 5+ years(not counting the Viet Nam nightmare) to figure this out. I only hope to God that they are also going to supply President Bush, Cheney, and Rove with a psychiatrist. Because God knows they need something!

More from the AP:

A contract finalized this week but not yet announced calls for spending $33
million to add about 200 psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers to
help soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health
needs, officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. Ritchie (Col. Elspeth Ritchie, psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general) said long and repeat deployments caused by extended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are causing more mental strain on troops. “At the time that the war began, I don’t think anybody anticipated how long it would be going on,” she said.Surveys of troops in Iraq have shown that 15 percent to 20 percent of Army soldiers have signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress, which can cause flashbacks of traumatic combat experiences and other severe reactions.

About 35 percent of soldiers are seeking some kind of mental health treatment a year after returning home under a program that screens returning troops for physical and mental health.

As we’ve been discussing on this blog for months, this issue has been brewing for years now but like Iraq, it seems unsolvable even with additional staff. The Walter Reed scandal brought like to the dire situations of many vets, but mental health continues to be a sticky discussion point in this country, even when the numbers prove soldiers’ mental health cannot be ignored. NPR has not ignored the dire straits of many returning vets. Hat tip to Christy Hardin Smith for links to the exceptional reporting from Daniel Zwerdling has kept listeners informed of this terrible saga. Take a listen.