Mental Battle Scars
Two powerful stories appeared Sunday on the emotional wounds being carried home from Iraq and Afghanistan. "The War Inside" by Dana Priest and Anne Hull of the Washington Post describes the plight of Army Spec. Jeans Cruz, who was hailed as a hero after helping capture Saddam Hussein but now can't get basic treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder. Hull and Priest use Cruz's case to illustrate the broader plight of veterans who can't get psychiatric care. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061600866.html?hpid=topnews
It's not just soldiers who are having a hard time getting their emotional wounds treated when they return from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Insurance companies are fighting the treatment of civilian contractors who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological injuries as a result of their tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, T. Christian Miller of the Los Angeles Times reports. Miller's "War, Red Tape Haunt Civilian Workers" investigates why the contractors, many of them witnesses to the war's carnage, have such a hard time getting help from a taxpayer-funded insurance system. Miller reviewed dozens of cases to find "a pattern of repeatedly blocked claims for treatment of psychological injuries." Some of the contractors who do finally win help must do so after lengthy court battles, Miller found. www.latimes.com/news/la-na-trauma17jun17,0,6002677.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntottext