Sunday, May 06, 2012

Help, Finally, on PTSD Related Criminal Cases

Actions happening now should have started some forty years ago instead of ignoring what the veterans of our wares we send them into were saying and going through by the country, and not only related to the long term mental but the same as to the physical medical results of as well. But like then and before many continue to be ignored right up to these present wars and long occupations.

As to this, like much that happens in military service and transferred to the greater private majority, it would also have helped many citizens, and should now, who've never served in conflicts but suffer from same, as PTS is not only related to war, the 24/7 of the stresses of being in danger for many in a conflict theater, nor just to soldiers of. It isn't a 'get out of jail' free card, it's to give those who've needed help, or have been misdiagnosed, and haven't gotten any make it possible to finally receive that help. It would also be an important tool in better understanding what trauma's and stresses do to ones life changing experiences, the total opposite of what most are brought up to believe of life.

Tsunami of PTSD Related Criminal Cases Coming: New Tool for Defense Attorneys to Be Released Soon
The National Veterans Foundation will soon release the Attorney’s Guide to Defending Veterans in Criminal Court. With the rising number of criminal cases related to PTSD, TBI and other combat-related issues, attorneys and the courts they serve need the best in current material, in order to best protect the rights of veterans. Twenty-five experts in the fields of law, medicine and mental health have joined together to provide the first publication of its kind – a powerful tool for use by plaintiff, as well as defense attorneys, judges, expert witnesses, service providers, and law schools.

May 06, 2012 - The National Veterans Foundation is preparing to launch The Attorneys’ Guide to Defending Veterans in Criminal Court in June. This 700+ page publication will provide attorneys, judges, expert witnesses, and others who work with veterans, the very cutting-edge in understanding the nature of combat stress, its ties to criminal behavior, and how we can avoid repeating mistakes made with past generations of returning war veterans. The book will include contributions from leading experts in the fields of law, history, medicine, mental health, and social work in order to provide comprehensive coverage.

More than 2 million Americans have now served in Iraq or Afghanistan. A 2008 RAND Corporation study found that, of the 1.7 million who had served in the war zones at that time, more than 300,000 were suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (“PTSD”), and another 320,000 from Traumatic Brain Injury (“TBI”). Only about half of these troops, it found, had reported or sought help for their condition. Untreated, many of these psychologically-injured veterans are acting out in reckless, self-destructive and, sometimes, violent ways that bring them into contact with the criminal justice system.

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Even now, more than 30 years after that war,hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans remain incarcerated, homeless, and/or chemically-addicted across America. Our society has paid a staggering price for our abandonment of the Vietnam generation. The side-effects of their untreated trauma have cost us in many unforeseen ways. Countless families have been destroyed, jobs lost, and taxpayer dollars spent on treatment that came too late to make a difference for many. Only in recent years, have we begun to awaken to the tragic long-term consequences of the Vietnam generation’s abandonment and to embrace them with long-overdue recognition of their sacrifices. read more>>>


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