The other day was a
momentous day in the life of two different combat vets. One, an older warrior,
Marine, from the Vietnam war, the other, an Army vet, from the war in Iraq.
Each of them wounded in combat. Each of
them knowing intimately the sufferings
of PTSD. Each of them having failed, at various times, sometimes spectacularly,
other times less so, at "keeping it together" or being the person
they wanted to be, for themselves, their employers or their families, because
of their PTSD.
Yet what brought
the two together this day was the one taking the other to an inpatient PTSD
program at the VA; the older bringing the younger to a program he’d gone
through himself, years ago; and one vet to another, the Vietnam vet to the Iraq
war vet, encouraging him to pay attention, and to begin the process of change.
Nobody goes to an inpatient
program because they're doing so astoundingly well with their life or with
their PTSD symptoms. Sometimes it's a diversionary program offered in the place
of jail, which is why the Iraq vet this week was going. Drinking heavily, he'd
been arrested for domestic violence, and the older vet stood up for him in
court, but requested that the judge send him to treatment, in lieu of further
jail time. This time, the Iraq vet was "lucky." There was room for
him in the program. Many other Iraq and Afghanistan war vets -- Gulf war vets
-- Vietnam vets -- have not been so lucky. They end up with extensive prison
sentences for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and getting arrested
when their finely-tuned combat-trained hair-trigger reactions are out of sync
with civilian life.
Talking with some young Iraq and Afghanistan combat vets a few
months ago, guys who were residents in another cutting-edge residential
treatment program for PTSD, they told similar stories, of having been given the
chance to do the inpatient program after being arrested for something they did,
fully inappropriate for the civilian world, when they first returned from
combat. One guy told a story of going with his wife and kids to Walmart, and
having her touch him from behind, which startled him, and as he told the story,
when he "came to," he had his hands around his wife's neck, choking
her. An inpatient PTSD program seemed like a better choice than jail. And for
what it's worth, it did sound like he was sorry, and it also sounded like his
wife was still with him -- but, everyone involved acknowledged that he needed
treatment, including him.
It's reasonable to ask, how do we know whether inpatient programs
do much good for the combat veterans with PTSD who go through them? We'll have
to wait and hear from the graduates, but also, watch their lives, so to speak,
for years afterwards, and see how things really turn out.
The older combat vet, the Marine, who took the younger vet to the
program the other day, recalls that from the graduating class of his own
program, most today are dead: many took their own lives, despite what they'd
learned in the program. At most, he credits the time in his own life with learning
to recognize what many of the danger signals of PTSD are, the "red
flags" that a situation is escalating. At this remove, he considers what
he learned to be "behavior management" -- learning coping skills for
managing a disorder that nobody really expected to be healed or cured, at least
through conventional means. Hmmmn.
In other parts of the country, veterans are doing jail time for similar
offenses, even some seemingly more light-weight. Whether a veteran goes to a
treatment program or to jail seems at this point to be mostly the luck of the
draw. There’s also some concern, among veterans advocates and others, that the
way police arrest combat vets with PTSD can further escalate the vets’
reactions. Many first responders are military veterans themselves, sometimes
with their own cases of PTSD – from combat or the job. Training is needed so
that arresting a combat veteran in the throes of a PTSD-fueled reaction can go
as smoothly as possible, with as little collateral damage as possible.
Additionally, when combat veterans with PTSD are arrested and imprisoned, they
lose their VA benefits – and are often left completely untreated. This only
compounds the problem/tragedy further.
Jamie Keyes daily endures the struggle of knowing that her son,
Nathan, jailed for a PTSD-fueled reaction, might have benefited from treatment,
but instead is doing time. A highlight of her Christmas vacation was driving to
another state, where he is jailed, to spend a few short hours with him. She
worries what incarceration will do to her son, and even to her elderly father,
who raised Nathan as a boy, and is heartbroken to know that he’s in jail.
The story of what happened to Nathan Keyes is here – but if
you want to see a mother’s perspective even more strongly, watch the video she
made about Nathan, here,
before his trial.
Jamie Keyes writes,
“This is a tribute to my son, Nathan Keyes, who is a veteran with PTSD. Nathan spent 8 years in the Army and two long tours in Iraq, before returning home bearing the mental wounds of war. Nathan is now incarcerated for an act resulting from his PTSD, and will spend three years in prison. The state of Florida wanted to give him more than 15 years for his offense, instead of giving him treatment. Instead he took a plea deal that will leave him with a felony record for the rest of his life and 3 years in prison without treatment. Nathan sought help from the VA but never got adequate treatment, and was subsequently failed by our criminal justice system. This is how we treat the returning veterans in this country. This type of incident is happening in epidemic proportions all over this country, and it is a dishonor to those who so selflessly served their country.”
Treating combat veterans with PTSD who commit crimes in inpatient PTSD programs “sounds” a lot better, on the surface, than jail time – definitely. Questions still remain about how effective the inpatient treatment programs are, but it’s obvious that they’re preferable to jail – which takes away the opportunity for treatment, and further harms the veteran, on several levels. However – it’s also necessary that first responders learn how to arrest combat veterans with PTSD who may be in the middle of a PTSD episode when they’re arrested. No one knows right now how many police departments across the U.S. even recognize this is an issue to be addressed. Ideally, before too long, all first responders will be trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of PTSD and how to deal with combat veterans when they have to arrest them. Averting forseeable tragedies is always a worthy goal.
