Hello, David. Thank you for the opportunity to communicate with military personnel and vets about PTSD. I appreciate you inviting me to post an article about it. Please put this in the right place if it is not correctly posted. Please invite everyone to look online for a petition named SAVE SGT. RUSSEL.

SAVE SGT. RUSSEL

Sgt. Russel is a career soldier who was on the last leg of his third consecutive deployment in Iraq when he suffered an acute PTSD crisis and was ordered into therapy. He went there, but he acted erratically and was escorted AWAY from the only help at Camp Liberty under armed guard. Allegedly, the Sgt. Russel overpowered the armed escort and took his weapon, returned to the stress clinic, and killed five. It was well known on base that Sgt. Russel had experienced a mental meltdown. In fact, one of the men who Sgt. Russel allegedly killed talked to his mother about the soldier who had "lost it" on a Mother's Day phone call just prior to being killed. It is not Sgt. Russel's fault that he was not contained in a safe environment away from weapons and treated for his stress or shipped out. The soldier is now imprisoned on murder charges. Please agree with me that soldiers and veterans who act inappropriately because of PTSD should not be criminalized, but treated as wounded soldiers. I am not saying they should be freed, but that they need long-term hospitalization, not execution or prison. Just Google SAVE SGT RUSSEL to get to the petition. Ask others to help support this soldier in his darkest hour.

America has the highest prison population of any country in history. In fact, 1 in every 99.1 persons is incarcerated (PEW statistics). USDOJ reported in 2006 that 1 in every 31 persons is either in prison, on parole, or probation. That means they live either in prison or under the immediate threat of prison. About 1.25 million of the 2.3 million U.S. prisoners are mentally ill. This resulted from closing mental hospitals and reducing services in communities for outpatients. Many veterans are among our nation's prisoners.

Each prisoner costs taxpayers about $50,000 per year. Private prisons earn additional profits by work projects for inmates. For each acute mentlaly ill prisoner, hospice patient, and death row inmate, taxpayers are billed up to $90,000 MORE per year. This means that a physically healthy 35-year-old person who is imprisoned for a life sentence will generate between $3 million and $5 million, depending on the state and whether or not he works while imprisoned and whether he needs extra services for mental or physical illness.

ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL

Please Google that term. AIMI is an online organization which advocates to decriminalize mental illness. We feel strongly that were it not for private prison owners and investors who make tremendous profits from incarcerating mental patients, more humane alternatives would be used and treatment would be more readily available for PTSD vets and other mentally dysfunctional Americans.

AIMI is comprised of human rights advocates who care deeply about how mentally ill Americans are treated, including some family members of mentally ill persons and some people who suffer from various mental conditions themselves. We feel strongly that it is wrong to penalize people for having a common, treatable health condition. An estimated 1 in 5 Americans has some type of mental illness, and that is the only disease in the world that people are imprisoned for having. A person who suffers diabetes and blacks out at the wheel is not imprisoned if his car crosses the line and hits another motorist. But a person like Sgt. Russel who became ill serving his country and whose symptoms were not dealt with appropriately with restraint and treatment is imprisoned and could be executed for being sick.

I will post an article on another post. Again, I ask that if these posts are inapporpriately positioned, please feel free to move them so that members can know about and support our efforts as we work to decriminalize mental illness in America. Many of those in prison tonight are vets who lost their grip due to combat fatigue. About 60% of those in solitary confinement are mentally ill, and that is very cruel punishment. Sometimes they stay there in the "hole" for years. Go on YouTube and look up SOLITARY CONFINEMENT to see a film about it, please.

I look forward to communicating with you and other military personnel and veterans and their families about mental health matters and how we can keep vets out of prison.

Mary Neal
MaryLovesJustice at gmail dot com

WHAT ABOUT OUR SOLDIERS? A study on PTSD, by Mary Neal

(Google for this article to see the photographs and live links, please.)

PHYSICAL INJURIES, deformities, and limitations such as blindness can be perceived easily and addressed medically, although those who are thus afflicted frequently have lifetime impairments that require ongoing treatment. Mental scars after wars and other traumatic events can also last a lifetime, and people who suffer enormous mental agony after harrowing experiences also need professional attention and special allowances for their conditions.

NO MAN LEFT BEHIND

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Gratitude:
- See YouTube FOR GRATITUDE -

People who are blind, paraplegic, or have other physical limitations usually find the public to be sympathetic to their physical handicaps, and society makes allowances to benefit those who are physically afflicted. There are laws to ensure that public buildings are wheelchair accessible. News broadcasts and many other television shows offer the option of having the printed text running at the bottom of the screen for the sake of hearing-impaired viewers, and sign language is commonly used in public meetings. Many books are available in Braille, and large libraries usually have a Braille section. Handicapped parking spaces are reserved for people with mobility issues, and these set-aside parking spaces are protected by levying heavy fines against people who use them illegally. All of this and more is done to help enable physically impaired people to function better in society.


Mental dysfunctions are not perceived with the naked eye, as physical handicaps are. After wars and traumatic events, victims of PTSD may find immediate help and sympathy among family and friends. Counselors are made available to people who live through plane crashes and other catastrophic events because everyone understands that profound tragedies can cause those affected to be mentally and emotionally scarred. People who need help adjusting after losing loved ones are encouraged to go through grief counseling. However, the outpouring of sympathy and understanding has a short timeline.

Society seemingly lacks the willingness to make long-term allowances for mentally afflicted persons' inclusion in regular society that it makes for people who are physically handicapped. Instead, people who suffer extended psychological damage are expected to "snap out of it," and "pull themselves together." Individuals who "go crazy" after falling victim to permanent psychological damage are likely to eventually be treated like most other mentally ill people in society and are eventually given the same three options: homelessness, prison, and death. That is why America's inmates and homeless population includes many veterans from the Viet Nam War, the Gulf War, and other conflicts.
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Many soldiers who saw
their comrades die suffer PTSD
.


Below is an excerpt on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from Wikipedia

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to one or more traumatic events that threatened or caused grave physical harm.

It is a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma. This stressor may involve someone's actual death, a threat to the patient's or someone else's life, serious physical injury, an unwanted sexual act, or a threat to physical or psychological integrity, overwhelming psychological defenses.

In some cases it can also be from profound psychological and emotional trauma, apart from any actual physical harm. Often, however, incidents involving both things are found to be the cause.

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A STUDY SHOWS that 54.1% of soldiers who were involved in the Balkans conflict have mental health issues. An article about that study is at the link below:
.
Balkans: A Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Study

The Obama administration announced that American troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by 2011. Our soldiers will transition back home, and many of them will be no different from the Balkan soldiers, among whom 54% were mentally damaged by their war experiences. Our soldiers who exited recent conflicts in the Middle East already have a heightened suicide rate. Additionally, many ex-military personnel, like other civilians with mental health issues, have a propensity to use drugs and alcohol in efforts to "get their heads on straight."

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Two American Soldiers
By 2011, American soldiers in Iraq
are coming home; 54% may suffer PTSD

Think of the rate of soldiers who are likely to be affected by PTSD according to the Balkan study: 54.1%. Hopefully, a good many soldiers who transition back to the United States from Iraq by 2011 and are suffering from PTSD will avail themselves of the mental health services offered to them. The U.S. military has taken steps to increase and improve services offered.

Some returning soldiers will be able to meet society's expectations of people who have endured trauma and "pull themselves together." Some will adjust in a short amount of time to civilian life. They will have the support of family, friends, perhaps their churches and other community support. Many of the soldiers were actually in the Army Reserve, and they should be able to resume their regular employment. As time goes on, most sufferers of PTSD will experience reduced symptoms of the disorder over time, especially if they also get professional help. But what about those who don't adjust after a short time? What about our veterans who will never "bounce back"? Many will be permanently afflicted mentally.

Soldiers who are amputees or otherwise permanently handicapped during wars get lifetime benefits and are afforded all of the allowances society willingly makes to ensure the inclusion of physically handicapped persons in society: wheelchair ramps, reserved parking, special services for the hear impaired, and more.

QUESTION: What is America willing to do for veterans who are permanently scarred mentally after serving in military conflicts? Will we offer them the same pitiful outcome that is available to other chronic mental patients in America: homelessness, prison, and death?

Approximately 1.25 million mentally dysfunctional citizens (including many veterans) are currently in prison because of offenses arising out of their mental illness. Is this to be the eventual outcome for our soldiers returning from Iraq between now and 2011, also? We need a program like Kendra’s Law in place across America. Not only would Kendra's Law help our mentally challenged citizens who are in the civilian population avoid becoming prison inmates, but Kendra's Law would also help many of our veterans avoid becoming "prisoners of war" after returning home. Kendra's Law is outpatient commitment for mentally ill participants that combines subsistence assistance and mandatory treatment for mental illness.

Here is bill that has been introduced to improve mental health services to veterans of particular conflicts. One can track its progress through Congress online at

CONGRESS DOT ORG

(H.R.1544) : 'To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for unlimited eligibility for health care for mental illnesses for veterans of combat service during certain periods of hostilities and war. '

This bill is commendable and necessary to removing financial barriers to treatment for certain vets - a very important bill that needs to pass. Keep in mind, however, that such legislation will not keep veterans out of prisons or restore those who are already in prison back to freedom and wholesome living like Kendra's Law can.

H.R. bill 619 was proposed by Rep. Johnson to make Medicaid payments available for long-term mental hospitalization. It was the withdrawal of these funds that caused many mental hospitals to be closed and mental health services reduced in our communities. This bill would give an alternative to imprisonment for mentally ill persons who commit offenses ranging from simple vagrancy to murder.


Veterans suffering PTSD who break
laws are subject to incarceration. Many
vets are already behind bars along with
1 in every 99.1 other Americans

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COMMUNITY CARE UNDER ASSISTED OUTPATIENT THERAPY (AOT) PROGRAMS LIKE KENDRA'S LAW HAVE BETTER THAN 85% SUCCESS RATE REDUCING HOMELESSNESS, ARRESTS, HOSPITALIZATIONS, AND RE-ARRESTS FOR MENTALLY ILL PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS.

HIGH SUCCESS RATE: Kendra's Law program gives participants subsistence assistance (such as housing and food) and mandated treatment. This is important because many acute mental patients do not recognize they are sick and go untreated. Therefore, they go to jail again and again. Participants in New York experienced over 85% decrease in incidents of homelessness, incarcerations, and re-arrests. Over 85% proved success rate! Kendra's Law works.

Non-violent mentally ill offenders who are currently imprisoned should be immediately released under an outpatient sentencing law, such as Kendra's Law, thereby eliminating overcrowded prison conditions in one day.

We already have the remedy to the high rates of homelessness among the mentally ill, high incarceration rates, and many senseless deaths that involve psychiatric patients who are not undergoing treatment. Please call your representatives and let them know that you support Kendra's Law across America. Homelessness, prison and death must cease being America's answer to chronic mental illness.

Psychiatric patients who were sentenced to prison for violent crimes should be transferred from prisons where they are inmates to secure mental hospitals, where they would become inpatients, as they should be. They should be kept hospitalized for the length of their prison sentences, even if they were serving life without the possibility of parole. Doctors should NOT have the authority to release mental patients who committed violent crimes. That privilege should remain with the sentencing courts after the patients have been hospitalized for the minimum sentencing period according to their crimes. This would prevent many relapses among psychiatric patients that endanger patients and the community.

All psychiatric patients who commit violent crimes or nonviolent offenses and are released from prisons and mental hospitals should be mandated to participate in an outpatient commitment program like Kendra's Law - at least for the length of their parole or probationary periods. If this is done, our rates of incarceration for the mentally ill behind bars will quickly become practically nil.

Psychiatric patients and society as a whole would be safer and costs to taxpayers lower with Kendra's Law applied across the country. Give our veterans who are returning home psychologically scarred for life the help they need to avoid spending their lives homeless or as POWs in America's prisons. Insist that Kendra's Law replace homelessness, prison, and death as America's answers to chronic mental illness.

PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO BENEFIT OUR RETURNING TROOPS AND OUR NEIGHBORS WHO WRESTLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS TODAY. OUR SOLDIERS DID MUCH MORE FOR US THAN SEND A SIMPLE E-MAIL. Here is a link to contact your representatives and insist on Kendra's Law today:
house.gov/writerep

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Google for this link:
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill

HOMELESSNESS, PRISON, AND DEATH MUST CEASE BEING AMERICA'S ANSWERS TO MENTAL ILLNESS. COME OUT OF THE DARK AGES! WE NEED KENDRA'S LAW TODAY.

Support mentally ill Americans, including veterans suffering PTSD today. Don't sit back and watch our veterans who voluntarily answered America's call for recruits return HOME to become POW's. Call and write your representatives today and support Kendra's Law. Replace prisons with inpatient and outpatient treatment programs for mentally ill Americans. Please send an e-mail for our vets with PTSD. They did so much more for us.

Visit our photo album at this link - Google for AIMI ALBUM MARY NEAL


REMEMBER: NO MAN LEFT BEHIND

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Statute - Soldier Carries
Wounded or Dead Comrade

READ MORE ABOUT KENDRA'S LAW HERE:

BRIDGE THE CHASM FROM IMPRISONMENT TO TREATMENT FOR THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL

Be someone's bridge today!

Thank you Mary. I hope you will stay with us here on Sound Off.

Thank you, David. I hope that the SAVE SGT. RUSSEL petition gets good support, particularly among his fellow service members and veterans who may have more understanding than others about the situations that caused his illness. Some people are stronger than others, but it behooves us all to exercise compassion where it is warranted. Thank you for your encouragement.

Stay with us here. It is always great to hear from everyone.