Mental health services for returning vets in short supply

A study suggests a pilot program in Willmar to treat vets with brain injuries.

By Warren Wolfe, Star Tribune

Last update: November 2, 2007 - 7:21 PM

Minnesota lacks adequate mental health services for veterans returning from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially outstate, a study authorized by the Legislature concluded Friday.

The study recommended that the state develop a pilot treatment program in Willmar with 40 to 50 beds.

The program would focus on treating veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI), the most common wound from the war, and develop state-of-the-art treatments focusing on rural vets, the study said.

A problem facing returning veterans is that some suffer from TBI or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or both, and they often do not get proper local treatment, said the study by consultant William Sheenan. He is a Willmar psychiatrist and former head of psychiatry at the Department of Neurosciences at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

Although the federal Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in Minneapolis, St. Cloud, Fargo, N.D., and Sioux Falls, S.D., offer help to veterans with those problems, many vets prefer to get help locally. Others find it difficult to get time to travel to distant VA centers, Sheenan said.

"Our study ... confirmed that local -- and especially rural -- services for veterans returning with mental issues including TBI and PSTD are primitive or non-existent; the most common direction given to those seeking help was to [go to a hospital] emergency room," his report said.

He noted that more than two-thirds of the 21,071 U.S. troops killed or injured in the war resulted from improvised explosive devices that typically caused brain injury as well as other wounds.

"Even mild TBI can increase the risk of incomplete troop readiness and lead to chronic unemployment, substance abuse and suicide," said the 55-page report to the state Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Legislature had ordered the department to study the issue and report back by Nov. 1.

Warren Wolfe • 612-673-7253

Warren Wolfe • wolfe@startribune.com

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