Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Between the shooting rampage last year that killed 13 soldiers and the stress of warfare, Fort Hood in Texas has its hands full of U.S. Army personnel in need of mental health services. Approximately 25% of all soldiers stationed at the nation’s largest Army post have received counseling within the past year to help them cope with the shooting, combat stress, substance abuse, broken marriages or other emotional problems.
As recently as 2004, only 310 Fort Hood soldiers were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). By 2009 that number had grown to 2,445.
Mental health facilities at Fort Hood are operating at maximum capacity, as counselors meet with more than 4,000 mental health patients a month. Base acting commander Major General William Grimsley says the military needs to prepare to do more for its troops.
“If Fort Hood is representative of the Army—and 10% of the Army is assigned to Fort Hood—then if you follow the logic, our numbers should be scalable to any other post in the country,” Grimsley told USA Today. “I worry that if we don’t see this through the right way over the long haul ... we’re going to grow a generation of people 10 or 15 years from now who are going to be a burden on our own society…. And that’s not a good thing for the Army. That’s not a good thing for the United States.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Thousands Strain Fort Hood's Mental Health System (by Gregg Zoroya, USA Today)
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