What to Do about Nidal Hasan’s Patients?

Saturday, November 14, 2009

While military officials deal with the aftermath of the Fort Hood killings, mental health experts warn that the U.S. Army can’t forget about the patients of the gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The Army psychiatrist cared for soldiers at Walter Reed hospital and Fort. Hood, and many of these patients could be experiencing trauma of their own, knowing that their therapist murdered 13 service personnel. At Fort Hood, Hasan met with patients five days a week.

 
Dr. Jonathan Shay, a former Veterans Affairs psychiatrist, says some of Hasan’s patients may be wondering if their personal stories adversely affected their doctor, causing them to feel responsible in some way for the tragedy.
 
“To potentially save some lives that might be lost to suicide among his former patients, the crucial thing is for the clinical leadership to [find other mental health care providers] who also knew the patients that Hasan had and to take the time to talk to the people who knew these patients and if possible, to work through them to take a reading on how [the patients] were digesting these terrible events,” Shay told Government Executive.
 
So far, there are no indications the Army has contacted any of Hasan’s former patients.
 
According to a 2008 RAND study (PDF), more tham 1.6 million service members have served in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last eight years. Of these, more than 300,000 have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression, and 320,000 have incurred traumatic brain injuries.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
Alleged Army Gunman's Former Patients Need Follow-Up Care, Observers Say (by Katherine McIntire Peters, Government Executive)

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