WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Aristotle said We make war that we may live in peace but is peace really achievable when so many who have served in war bring the horrors of the battlefield home. For many life after war means getting fit for a prosthetic or having to relearn the alphabet or navigating the world with a guide dog or cane. And those are just the physical consequences of the emotional calamities of war can lead to substance abuse. In families. Homelessness or suicide. And underlying all of this is often post-traumatic stress of the nearly 600000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 170000 have been diagnosed with PTSD. For many veterans the road to recovery is paved with many stumbling blocks. What obstacles do they face when re-entering the civilian world. This hour as we approach Memorial Day a look at our Veterans Affairs. Up next coming home life after wartime. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi Singh. Rescuers in

southwestern Missouri are spending this day searching for tornado victims. At least 89 people were killed when the massive twister tore a six mile path through Joplin yesterday. That death toll is expected to rise. The damage is widespread. The tornado crushed vehicles flattened entire neighborhoods and slammed into the local hospital leaving it in ruins. The area's fire chief estimates as much as 30 percent of the city has sustained damage. On CNN Joplin Mayor Mike Woolston urged residents to be careful as they start to move about. I think part of the danger is that we have power completely on some parts of the city not completely out in other parts of the city. People need to be careful about getting into their homes or getting around the city in that. With the power still on we have natural gas leaks our water utility company has some breaks in the lines and so there's a danger if we do start getting some fires that we won't have that. Our equipment and water for resources to put those fires out. Missy Shelton of member station KSM you gives us a much closer look at the devastation in Joplin where homes once said it was piles of splintered wood.

It was hard to even discern pieces of furniture as you looked into. You know the front yard and what was left of you know foundation and just rubble. It was just row after row of houses that looked that way intact when you stood at one vantage point and looked toward the horizon out to the west. You just saw rubble as far as you looked. Missy Shelton of member station K.S. am you. The FBI says the number of violent crimes is down across the U.S. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports that incidence of murder rape and robbery all declined last year. The FBI bases its reports on preliminary data from more than 13000 law enforcement agencies. The early figures suggest violent crime once again dropped this time by more than 5 percent across American cities of all different sizes. The FBI says property crime such as car theft and burglaries also fell in 2010. Government officials are cheering the results but they're still worried

about a persistent rise in Deb's among police and federal officers killed in the line of duty. Carrie Johnson NPR News Washington. Renewed fears over the finances of several European countries drove the euro down to its lowest point in two months and sent European and US stocks falling over the weekend Standard and Poor's revised its outlook for Italy from stable to negative. This after Greece's rating moved deeper into junk status and investors are also worried that Spain will have a more difficult time enforcing its austerity measures after the ruling Socialist Party suffered a stinging defeat yesterday. President Obama is in Ireland that trip kicks off a four nation tour of Europe last week on Wall Street the Dow is down 150 points. This is NPR as ash from the latest volcanic eruption in Iceland heads toward Scotland Ireland and Britain. Europe is bracing for the possibility that its air travel will suffer a year after the industry was thrown into chaos due to fine grain ash

spewed into almost all of European airspace. But Teri Schultz tells us from Brussels that the volcano itself poses less of a danger to Europe. This time the crisis in air travel caused by the AFL yet cool eruption last April was the worst since World War 2 a month of disruption due in part to lack of information about how volcanic ash affects plane engines as well as inefficient government coordination. While it appears ash from the current interruption won't be as thick in European airspace European Union transport spokesperson Helen Curran says bureaucracy has been streamlined too. She's very clear already that lessons have been learned and that we are far from where we were this time last year. A crisis Coordination Council that didn't even exist last year has already met. Also national agencies and airlines themselves will have more authority to decide whether to ground planes rather than the Brussels headquarters. Closing all airspace. For NPR News I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels. The containers that have been holding toxic water leak from Japan's damaged nuclear reactor are nearly full. Officials are again worried about contaminated water leaking into the

sea. The plant's operator says a system to reprocess the water for reuse in the reactors is not complete. Tokyo Electric Power warns a temporary storage will be full in about four days. A spokesman initially said those containers could hold the leaked water until the system was ready in mid-June. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was damaged in the earthquake and tsunami. I'm Lakshmi Singh NPR News Washington. Support for NPR comes from the broad superintendence Academy preparing senior executives to become superintendents in urban school districts. Learn more at a broad Academy dot org. Good afternoon I'm Kalee Crossley. This is the Calla Crossley Show With Memorial Day coming up we're dedicating this show to our war veterans. Later in the hour we'll be talking about two programs out of the Veterans Health Administration that are designed to help veterans with

post-traumatic stress disorder. And we'll be taking your calls if you have questions or need advice. But we begin the conversation with war veteran Coleman the secretary of veteran services from Massachusetts. Secretary welcome. Thank you thank you for having me here. Now I have seen you quoted many times talking about Massachusetts actually leading the country in terms of veteran services How so. Well every state has a Department of Veterans Services for the most part in many states that is simply a vehicle for which to access V.A. claims and V.A. benefits masters would take a very different tact we look at this that the Commonwealth as well has an obligation to provide for our veterans and has since really the time of the Civil War. And in Massachusetts. We often offer a separate whole separate set of benefits to our veterans and their dependents that separate and above what you would get if you resided in any other state in the nation. It starts with a commitment to localize you know a veteran services which is why the only

state in the nation that requires that every city or town in the Commonwealth employ a veteran service officer to act as a local representative for vet benefits. We're the only state in the nation that provides financial and medical and heating and housing assistance to veterans through cities and towns through that veterans service officer. We're the only state in the nation offers an annuity to Gold Star families as well as 200 percent disabled veterans tax free $2000 a year annuity. We're the only state in the nation that does multiple bonuses that are a bonus for coming back. For if you serve in Iraq or Afghanistan it's a thousand dollars for the first deployment and then we provide you with subsequent dollars bonus dollars ranging from $500 to 250 for subsequent deployments recognizing that many of the soldiers sailors airmen Marines Coast Guardsman. That deploy have done so more than once. So we're really proud of that. We're proud of the programs and services we have ripped out of the partnerships we have with the V.A. and our nonprofits and

we think that you know when you add it all up we're just doing a whole lot more here than most other of many other all other states recognizing that there's individual needs of each veteran. What if you can is there an overarching request for veterans who come back. And also is there a difference between the needs of these new veterans the Afghan Iraq War veterans as opposed to the World War Two and Koreans the overall complaint that we receive if you will or the thing that people would like to be made better amongst all veterans is the complaint is simplifying the complexity of the system. We are fortunate here in Mass just that we have so many resources. But even we recognize that with local state federal and nonprofits that are all coming to bear as well as various entities within each of those categories. It can be rather daunting and rather complex to try to navigate that system. And we're trying to right now to reach out in a way that. Makes that system a lot

easier one idea we have that we're working on right now is a is a web portal that will will standardize all of these things that we're hoping to launch in November that will make access to benefits and services a lot simpler. We work with peer to peer outreach specialist and also the one on one that your veteran service officer in your city or town that can provide to help you walk through that walk through that system is the biggest complaint we have in terms of making that a lot more simpler and we are working on that both in conjunction with with the federal partners as well as as well as other state agencies. As far as the needs go for veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan today. There are a lot of commonalities. Post-traumatic stress is post-traumatic stress we've you know we've we've been dealing with this since since the first war us here in America although the way in which we react to it now is a lot better and we've really worked hard in de-stigmatizing people to say hey I'm having some trouble with reintegration and we've seen the numbers go

up. What we are noticing now is that is very different is that unlike previous wars where either everyone served or everyone knew someone who served. We don't have a draft and we don't have widespread military service throughout this country. So a very small segment of the population has been testifying at these wars and rather than doing one tour of duty coming back and checking the box. People have been asked to do multiple tours of duty. That in addition we see that the army an Air Force and National Guards as well as our reserve components have probably been used more extensively than they've ever been used in the past. These are people who aren't full time military. They don't live on base. They don't have services surrounding them. There are people that are out in our cities and towns many of whom may be the only person in the military with on their block or in their neighborhood or even in that even in that community. So they're being they're being deployed multiple times.

We worry about our their families their children their spouses mothers fathers are they getting the services when they come back or are they sort of trying to blend back in again and not realize that they need to take advantage of some of these things in order to help with the reintegration process. Well it's very interesting because you're speaking about you know isolation of a sort with this small group of people being deployed in and serving at the same time where there seems to be an overwhelming public response to wanting to support these people. So and that's very different from the Vietnam War and we have now President Obama coming forth with a Joining Forces initiative that is really focused on those families that in recognition that the families really are the support for these people how much of a difference does that make. And does that help to alleviate some of that isolation that you just described. Well without a doubt the public support has been absolutely phenomenal. I think you know despite political differences about whether or not you agree with the conflicts and I think everybody is pretty much uniform and

under green that we need to support the men and women that have that have had to deploy to serve in these conflicts. What we do find is while there is public support and people do want to help what you can do to help is sometimes the question Kara baskets are great parades when people come back a great yellow ribbons. They're all expressions of patriotism in expressions of thanking these service members for a job well done. But in addition of that there are all these sort of sub needs of people I think may sometimes feel uncomfortable kind of broaching with the service member. You know we've been in conjunction with the National Guard developed a few programs that we think help to involve people in terms of getting being able to be more supportive. One is what's as a program we're rolling out currently right now called community covenant. And these are communities that designate a committee of folks who would identify those families and tell them what someone deployed

and and just come up with ways that they're going to help support these folks. This can be everything from luck. You know. Susie's husband Jim is going to Afghanistan the winter is coming up. She has three children she has to deal with. We're going to make sure her driveway is plowed if it snows. The Boy Scouts are going to go over there once a week during the course of the deployment make sure the lawns mowed. You know so-and-so has a daughter who babysits she's going to babysit for free once every two weeks to allow this mother to go out maybe get some free time take care of some errands clear ahead little things like that they can make a huge difference and someone's going to jail. The other thing we need to recognize is and I really applaud the president and Michelle Obama and First Lady Joe Biden for making this a focus recently attended a conference on what they call living in the new normal. Around military families we need to recognize that. These kids are in our school systems. We have to support them make them feel welcome understand that

they're dealing with a very different situation at the home front. It can be stressful for them particularly during the reintegration process when someone comes home. How are we supporting that how are we supporting there are these families if someone deploys in that spouse has to go back to work or get another job or something along those lines. Our workplace is recognizing that and supporting those folks as well. Are we doing things for these kids just to make them feel special every so often you know and in terms of. Right now we were talking to a number of tourist attractions throughout the Commonwealth to see if we could have you know sort of you know special Bluestar kids days and really help them too. You know to feel like a like a champion for that day that you know they have it's really cool to have a mother a father who's deployed. And that really when I come back we need to make sure that we're offering employment opportunities we're offering the support services and I know you know you have a guest coming up soon to talk about. Talk about reintegration and relationships. But those are all things it's these are all as we say the costs of war

that extend far beyond just the dollars and cents and there are things that we have. We have an obligation a moral obligation and a societal obligation to make sure that we're stepping up and providing for these folks and we hope we do in our job. Well it looks like Massachusetts way out in front at least doing some of that. One last question I'm curious about the number of women who have been deployed in of combat. Is there a gender difference in how services are needed for veterans for those veterans who come back. There is in some areas and in some areas not women veterans are the fastest growing segment of the veteran population. I think the latest statistics I saw was one in every 10 service members deployed overseas was female. We have an active Women's Veterans Network here in the Commonwealth that we run through our department. There are about 28000 women vets in the Commonwealth we have 14000 of them in a database in fact are coming up on June 18th we have our third annual statewide women's veterans conference up at Salem State. And if

people would like more information about that I can I can provide you with a website. What we find what women veterans coming back many of the same issues and services that we want to provide to these heroes when they return. But we also find that there are different services and different issues that haven't necessarily been thought of in the past. I for one just a simple as. What is the environment of that service outlets. When I first started as the undersecretary at the department a few years back I had asked a couple of women veterans who had been out to our outreach centers both the nonprofit state and federal. What's your impression and mostly they had said you know. It was a very male dominated male themed environment. Not that I was uncomfortable but the kinds of issues that I was there to deal with didn't didn't lend itself to to really drag me on. We asked about you know veterans health care and at the time the V.A. was sort of getting up to speed. I think they've done a

really good job. They have a woman's Veterans Health Center over Jamaica Plain one of Brockton. They were kind of getting up to speed on trying to try to help with some of those women's health issues. We also heard from. A significant amount of women veterans not a majority but a significant amount that there are issues involving military sexual trauma whether that be sexual harassment or actual sexual assault. We have had some survivors of military sexual trauma that we had talked to. And I asked them you know how do you access services. Some of those folks felt very comfortable access in Department of Defense or V.A. services. Some of them did not feel that comfortable. So one of the issues one of the solutions to that was we developed a subcommittee with the governor's advisory council on domestic abuse and sexual assault to bring non-veteran the resources Boston area rape crisis center Jane Doe other other resources to the table that we can at least offer it to women veterans as a potential alternative if they don't feel comfortable accessing a veteran's themed or military related resource.

Well I think that's really very important and it also speaks to the difference in the wars and. As I understand it Secretary nee one of the reasons that you were appointed is because of your service and look closer in age to some of those new vets coming back so were glad to meet you and want to have you back at some point to continue this discussion because there's so much going on. We've been talking about veterans this hour in the services that are available to veterans in Massachusetts. I've been speaking with Coleman the secretary of veterans services here in Massachusetts. He's a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and Operation Desert Storm. Up next we continue the conversation with Dr. Casey Taft. He's a psychiatrist working with veterans on PTSD. Listeners you can call in with your questions your own stories of war or from its soil or for some advice. At 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. We'll be back after this break stay with us. Support for WGBH comes from you and from the New England mobile book fair in

Newton. For 54 years. New England's independent bookstore. The New England mobile book fair. Find them online at an e-book fair dot com. That's an e-book fair dot com and from design associates architects in Cambridge and Nantucket listening to what you want and keeping an eye on the bottom line you can see what their customers are saying at design hyphen associates dot com. That's designed by thin associates dot com. And from Antiques Roadshow. Featuring a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. and a Warhol lithograph. Part adventure part history lesson and part treasure hunt. Antiques Roadshow airs tonight at 8:00 on WGBH too. On FRESH AIR. You'll hear the questions you wish you could have asked to people like Tom Kenny the voice of Sponge Bob Square Pants didn't help to hear what your voice sounded like and hear him. You learn something about your voice you didn't know before. Yeah I learned that I don't really need the helium. That they are the most interesting people in show business on fresh air this afternoon at two on eighty nine point seven.

Didn't get the item you wanted during the WGBH spring auction. Don't fret the WGBH spring auction is going into extra innings. Get high on a luxurious getaway for two to the seven white adults only beach front escape to relaxing Jamaica generously donated by the jewel Dunn's River Resort and Spa. It always sparkles a little brighter for the jewel and Boston's TNT vacations TMT vacation is sunshine online at auction WGBH dot org. It would be possible in the world he has been. He is wrong and he defends my love. Coming up at 3 o'clock on eighty nine point seven. WGBH. Good afternoon I'm Kalee Crossley. This is the Calla Crossley Show. If you're just tuning in we're talking about veterans this hour. Joining me now is Dr. Casey Taft.

He's the director of the strength at home programs and professor at Boston University School of Medicine. The strength at home programs were developed through funding from the V.A. Department of Defense and Centers for Disease Control to improve the intimate relationships of returning service members and veterans. Some classes are for couples and some are for veterans only. The focus of the classes is on improving intimate relationships and preventing conflict. Casey Taft welcome. Thank you thank you thank you for having me. Let's just we're taking your calls this hour if you or a loved one might be suffering from PTSD you can call in if you'd like to know about services and resources for those who are suffering from the long term effects of war. You can call us at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. That's 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 and you can send us a tweet or write to our Facebook page. And we already have some Facebook comments. Dr. Taft but I wanted to begin this way. And just like have all of us on the same page. So when we say post-traumatic stress syndrome what are we talking about

and what is it and what is it not OK. Yeah that's a great question. Sometimes there is some confusion about what PTSD actually is and posttraumatic stress disorder is a psychological disorder where which consists of three three clusters of symptoms the first group of symptoms would be re-experiencing symptoms So this involves things such as nightmares or reliving traumatic events. Then there are avoidance and emotional numbing symptoms. And these symptoms usually involve things like avoiding any kind of reminders of traumas avoiding people places or things that may bring up or evoke traumatic memories. The emotional numbing symptoms of PTSD tend to be very damaging to relationships and these are symptoms such as having difficulties experiencing emotions having difficulties expressing emotions. We often hear from returning veterans that they feel more disconnected and cut off from family members and this is very difficult for family members who want to feel more close and connected to the veteran like they felt before the deployment so that can really be

devastating for relationships. Then there are the hyper arousal symptoms of PTSD and this involves symptoms that may reflect an overactive fight or flight response. So more irritability more anger and increased startle response. Sleep difficulties just general just general irritability and heightened physiological arousal and the disorder itself is kind of complicated it's a complicated disorder it's sort of like a Chinese menu disorder where you need to certain numbers of each of each of these symptoms. But but it To answer your question terms of what it is and also what it's not. I think sometimes people tend to think of all returning veterans as suffering from PTSD and veterans often suffer from various problems that you know that are not PTSD related at all at all. And that may not they may not suffer from any kind of diagnosable problem. They may experience some symptoms of depression. They may have suffered a head injury they may just have difficulties

adjusting their difficulties trusting other people so I think a lot of times people think only in terms of PTSD when that really doesn't capture the full scope of problems that returning veterans may be experiencing. One of the things that you you mentioned in your description of this I have encountered in interviewing veterans over a period of time and they talk about this is the first time I've ever talked about this experience so there's a lot of holding inside of what was experienced on the ground over there. And I can see that that if you can't talk about it. Well that's right there you got a problem. Exactly and that is a big problem that veterans who come back often have difficulties talking about their experiences and they hold back from from their partners or hold back talking about what's going on with them. And that's also can be part of I mean that's part of PTSD is the avoidance and unfortunately the best way to treat PTSD is to have veterans talk about it and kind of work through whatever kind of stuck points they may be experiencing as a result of their deployment. So that's the unfortunate thing about

about PTSD is the avoidance is part of PTSD and it's also what's gets in the way of resolving that PTSD. Our number is 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 eighty nine seventy. My guest is Dr. Casey Taft and he specializes in PTSD dealing with veterans with a particular focus on working with veterans in their intimate relationships. Dr. Taft last week Lieutenant General Eric Schoomaker Army Surgeon General said American troops in Afghanistan have the highest rate of mental health problems since 2005 which are you aware of this that was a fairly amazing statement and he's concerned about the overall morale. Certainly PTSD is a big part of that. Right. Right. Yeah. Well definitely the returning veterans now are you know going through several multiple deployments longer deployments than in the past which in all of these things can affect their you know psychiatric adjustment general or overall adjustment so that definitely is a is a concern.

I just thought that his comment was there are a few stresses on the human psyche as extreme as the exposure to combat. So it's just that exposure. And they the this data came from a poll of more than 900 soldiers. Three hundred thirty five Marines and eighty five mental health workers. Who are actually on the Afghan battlefield at this you know does not limited to Afghanistan. That's just a study they did for this one moment in time. One of the things that I think is interesting is that the the impact of PTSD on intimate relationships has now advanced as a way into pop culture if you will so that you may know about the program Life the lifetime program called Army Wives which is very popular it's the fifth season. And we found a clip that really speaks to these are you know fictional people but here we are talking about exactly where the heart of your work is. And so Army Wives is a lifetime drama following the lives of four Army wives their families and one army husband. And here is Rolando Bourdon fictional character who is the Army husband.

His wife Joan came back from Afghanistan with PTSD and Rowling has found out more about her time in Afghanistan. I know Sergeant Bill Graham tried to kill himself in front of you. And know this file didn't tell me what happened to the two of you in Afghanistan but I do know this John. Regardless of what happened even if it means our marriage is over. I'm damn lucky that my wife came home alive. So that says to me that if we get to the point where it's being written as part of a script that it's you know it's prevalent the first people to be aware of anyway. Is there now because it used to be a time where there was great denial about this existence where people understand this as a real thing and understand that it is a problem that a veteran has to work through. So I haven't seen that particular episode. I see him that we're talking about infidelity infidelity issues.

Well I don't I think he was just it could be I think you think he was really talking about the avoidance that you were talking point couldn't get out of her. What happened you know respond to me I don't know what's going on. So yeah yeah yeah right. You know they do deal with invented infidelity quite a bit on the show right. Yeah that happens a lot where we have partners who want to know more about the experience of the of the military member and military or military members may feel like they can't tell the partner about their experience they may fear traumatizing their partner or they're afraid of giving too many details or maybe it's just too painful to talk about or maybe they're worried that if they start to talk about what they experienced then they would. They would become emotional maybe you know I've I've sometimes heard from veterans they're afraid that they'll start crying and they'll never be able to stop crying. So there may be a number of different reasons why people have difficulties talking to their partners about these things. That clip from the Lifetime drama army wives also raises another question for me it's one that I would also approached secretary Khomeini about. Is there a difference in the way PTSD affects women veterans as opposed to men veterans.

There's some evidence that that it does manifest differently especially in terms of relationships in some of my my own research. We published a study that kind of summarized the results of a number of different studies out there. And what the data seems to suggest is that women who develop PTSD are more likely to develop what we call internalizing problems they may be more likely to become depressed where male veterans may be more likely to be you know become more aggressive. You know we sometimes people talk about in terms of internalizing versus and externalizing women may experience PTSD and have internalizing problems and they keep things in and men are maybe more likely to act out in terms of aggression although of course it's it's different for everybody and nobody you know no two people experience trauma reactions in exactly the same way. We're at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. I'm with Dr. Casey Taft who specializes in working with veterans

suffering from PTSD and their intimate relationships. Let me read one of the comments from our Facebook writers says As a veteran and a leader of soldiers PTSD comes from many things due to fear helplessness or horror. Too much horror. I can remember at one point I had difficulty maintaining close relationships and trouble sleeping. But prayer changes things. She credits her faith for for helping her and Bethany says PTSD is your brain reacting to too much negative stimuli by shutting out memories only to have them resurface because of certain triggers. Correct. I can't imagine seeing things so horrible that your mind literally does all it can to run away from it. The veteran suffering from this have my prayers. Can you respond to Bethany is that yeah I think that's a really good good explanation for what happens with PTSD PTSD really it does involve trying to avoid any kind of traumatic memories so there is a very strong avoidance part of it.

But the problem is the more you try to avoid the traumatic memories the more you try to push it to the back of your mind. It leaks out different in different ways. You know perhaps as as nightmares or. Flashback experiences so the more one tries to avoid dealing with the trauma or the more they try to push it away. The more it comes out in other in other ways that it is really distressing to the person and that's why the most the most effective treatments for PTSD are to have the person actually talk about their traumas with somebody or write about the traumas and kind of process what happened and kind of work through it with somebody. Now how do they find their way to you. Because if you're avoiding it and you don't want to talk about it it's having an impact on your relationship. Sure enough but how do you know to come to you means you've got to talk about it. Right right. You know that's that's true. And just to clarify in our programs we don't only see people with PTSD we see couples who have other problems and you know other than PTSD or that but many of them

may or may suffer from PTSD. But I think I think that's a really good question and it's a challenge. People with PTSD to have them come in for for treatment. One of the benefits of doing couples groups we do couples classes in one of our one of our programs where we have both members of the couple come in with three to five couples in a class and often the partner is the one that's really kind of. The impetus behind them coming into the program. So sometimes that partner may sort of drag the veteran into the program. But once the veteran kind of goes through the class and they start to hear from other veterans and hear from other people who've gotten help for their trauma or PTSD or relationship problems veterans come to see that this is actually not such a bad thing. And it often leads them to getting other services and help for for other problems such as PTSD. All right we have a caller Tom in the car. Go ahead please you're on the callee Crosley show. OK thanks for taking my call. Go right ahead.

Yes I have a question. It's about the servicemen and I understand is that I'm told a study in on this is that what makes a great soldier is one who has no emotion. So if you put two friends in the service when they go in to pick up what they want to do is numb you all to mostly this way of me I'm like that's fine but I grew up with them. We're going through a battlefield. Someone just killed him. I will not stop. I will fight on. How to Make You know that's what makes a great soldier. One without emotion. Now that's what they do in boot camp you know I am your God I am. You do what I say you don't think you don't act you just say yes dear and call the man. Now that's what makes a great soldier but you must also sets up the PTSD because when they get out of the service nobody ever program these men and women and you know I think the comments off you have like you know what. What is your opinion though that you know your professional opinion I may ask. You know I'm an amateur myself. But I do like to study and look at these things and read about it.

Tom that's a very powerful question thank you so much for the call. Our number is 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8. Dr. Taft How do you respond. I think that's a great point that Tom is making and that that's true that that's exactly what happens and it's not necessarily that the service member don't have emotions going into it but once they're in a war zone they're often they often learn or they're are they're trained to turn off their emotions either either turn their emotions off or to turn it into anger or use it in you know in combat or some other way. Service members aren't really kind of taught how to express their. Their feelings towards commanding officers or others in the military context and part of emotional numbing that we've been talking about involves the shutting down of emotions in part because the word zone may be so overwhelming to them emotionally they may be experiencing so much anxiety or other emotions that they learn to shut down all of their feelings and that's how they cope with

their deployment and and it's and it's the biggest barrier that we have when the service members come home sometime because it's often difficult once they should shut off their emotions for a period of time to get them to experience their emotions again. So from our and from our perspective it's not that they don't have emotions. It's it's it involves getting back in touch with their emotions. So in our program we have classes that focuses specifically on helping the veterans and the partners to identify their emotions because often veterans say that they don't have any emotions or they only have anger and depression when in fact when they really think about situations more and we give them a color coded sheet of different emotions they may be experiencing. They come to see that they actually do experience different emotions and we try to encourage them to express those emotions towards their partner. And that's one really helpful way to get those emotions to come back but it's it's not easy and it takes working with couples over a period of time to bring those bring those emotions back.

All right more with Dr. Casey Taft and more on the subject of post-traumatic stress syndrome when we return. I am Kelly Crossley This is the Calla Crossley Show. And we're talking about veterans this hour. And doctors Taft is the director of the strength at home programs and professor at Boston University School of Medicine. We're taking your calls as our listeners if you'd like to know more about services and resources for those who are suffering from the long term effects of war. You can call us at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. We'll be back after this break. Support for WGBH comes from you and from the Builders Association of Greater Boston opening the doors of 23 show homes from June 3rd through the 12th for the first

ever Ferguson Greater Boston Home Tour. Tour times and locations at Greater Boston Home Tour dot com and from the Boston Public Library presenting a commemoration of the 100 50th anniversary of the Civil War featuring maps and treasures from the library Special Collections citywide events through December 30 first BPL dot org slash civil war. Women helped to drive the Mubarak regime from power. Women's rights activists say they've been locked out of the Egyptian politics. You always get tough they give you conflict. Women demand a role in Egypt's political future. That's next time on the world. Coming up at 3:00 here on eighty nine point seven WGBH. The Arab term Arab Spring has recently resurfaced to define

the pro-democratic uprisings across the actor from the world. Join my colleagues from frontline studios on Thursday night May 26 to explore the media's impact on the Arab Spring of 2011. Join the WGBH News Club with the gift of one hundred twenty dollars and eighty nine point seven will send you two complimentary tickets. Details at WGBH dot org. Join the takeaways. Celeste Headlee and other notable journalists authors professors and activists conference 12 college in Boston. For more information visit race dot org. Good afternoon I'm Cally Crossley. This is the Calla Crossley Show. If you're just tuning in we're talking about veterans this hour. Joining me now is Dr. Casey Taft. He is the director of the strength at home programs and professor at Boston University School of Medicine. The strength of home programs were developed through funding from the V.A. Department of Defense and Centers for

Disease Control to improve the personal relationships of returning service members and veterans. Some classes are for couples and some are for veterans only. The focus of the class is on improving the personal relationships and preventing conflict. And again welcome to you Dr. Casey Taft. Thank you. We're taking your calls this hour and if you're a loved one might be suffering from PTSD you can call in if you'd like to know about services and resources for those who are suffering from the long term effects of war you can call us at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 seventy 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Jack from Maine Go ahead please you're on the callee Crossley Show. Good afternoon. It's very interesting the conversation. I really wish you would. I understand that PTSD is a real thing. As a ex Vietnam era veteran been through it got the T-shirt and all that. But there are hundreds of thousands of veterans who

are not suffering from PTSD and who get stigmatized by the concept. While I don't that's good. Better and is out to harm somebody. And so we did make sure that the stiction is clear. But not every veteran is suffering from PTSD and there has been a lot of us that have dealt with it. We're on the other side of it. Well Jack you make an important point in fact least we started the program with that we are making clear that Dr. Taft made that clear that not every veteran is joining but I'm going to have him respond to you right now Dr. Taft. You know again I think that is a really good point it's really important to point out that it's not always about PTSD and I think a lot of the focus has been on raising awareness about PTSD because to overcome the stigma of people getting help for PTSD but I think the caller is absolutely right that when one goes through a deployment and one is in a war zone or exposed to war in any way it can really change the way they view the world in general and it may you know it may manifest itself in terms of

PTSD but not necessarily And it could affect other other things that really don't represent any kind of diagnosable problem such as just difficulty trusting other people. Perhaps the military member when they're in the war zone didn't know who they could trust they didn't know who the enemy was and they needed to constantly be on guard and look and seek out any kind of threat in their environment and respond to it and this could really affect how they're able to trust people even when they come home. Often we hear from our service members that they. They have difficulties trusting people in general including their relationship partners that could also affect things like difficulties with power and control issues at home you know with relationship partners who may have taken on other household roles and responsibilities when the service member was deployed in the service member comes back and they need to renegotiate these kinds of family roles and it can affect self-esteem. I mention TVI which is a huge issue in returning veterans or depression all kinds of other problems so

this romantic brain injury by the way do yeah I'm sorry. Yes PTSD is really one in kind of a spectrum of different issues that veterans may be experiencing. Jack does that that resolve it for you. Well there's a couple other issues I'd like you to address. One is do you see a correlation in direct proportional correlation between the PTSD symptoms from World War One and World War Two for Vietnam and now Afghanistan. Desert Storm it seems to me that the earlier we get away from just war in two of these undeclared police actions the guys cannot wrap their brain around. They do have more problems and we're dealing with a lot more intensity because there is no clear definition of why we're in this Least Action undeclared war an invading foreign sovereign nations.

Can you address that Dr. Taft. Sure. I think different conflicts and different traumas in general different situations can lead to different reactions and I think kind of what the caller is getting at is how the service member kind of interprets their role in things may have an influence on how they how they react to it. So if somebody is deployed and they're really kind of questioning why they're there or it can affect their you know it can affect a larger you know world views about you know religion or just kind of the meaning of life and all of these things can have a substantial impact on how well the military member adjusts when they come back. Thank you. And I just go ahead. Yet it seems as though there's a conflict right now and I feel sorry for the guys that are involved in this insanity in Libya. We have a no fly zone issue going on in UN declared war. Well a no fly zone means that things are not allowed to be flying. And so I wonder why. How thick

How fast do they have to get that tank going to get airborne so they could shoot it down at the point. Well now you're asking a military question wait. That was when we got to put the secretary who was here earlier so I think we're going to pass on that Jack. But I appreciate your call go. Thank you very much for the call. Back to Taft I mean your focus as we've said is really about those those personal relationships those that couple relationships what happens as secretary Coleman he mentioned Secretary of Veterans Affairs here in Massachusetts earlier in the hour when so many of the men and women who are fighting now are maybe the only one on the block still there is a not necessarily a community support or recognition of the particular reentry issues. Just trying to be a part of the community kind of issues because they're there not everybody on the blog on them is not sharing that right so there isn't a guard and reserves are necessarily attached

to a base and they don't have that support system that they may have otherwise and I think that is a really good point. That's one of the reasons why we find our classes really helpful because they bring together couples in some cases and veterans and others in in groups. So they're able to share their experiences with each other and what we see is that that's a very powerful therapeutic setting for veterans to be able to hear from other veterans to hear from other relationship partners and see that they're not the only one who's who are experiencing certain issues that that they're experiencing. So support from other service members is very critical to the recovery and to improving relationships. OK. Rick from Massachusetts go ahead please you're on the callee Crossley Show. Yes Jaleel My question concerns Vietnam veterans not ever a veteran but Vietnam veterans combat veterans from Vietnam and not only were we exposed to the horrors in death

but that death still war. We came home to you know the horror of the way we were treated. That's a good point there was no treatment. There was no treatment. It has become a way of life for me. The last body three years so striking 68. What does the doctor recommend for someone that has been living without full Saudi life like. Yes. Excellent question Rick. Dr. Taft first I'll say Rick we owe a great debt and debt of gratitude to Vietnam veterans because I think you're right that we didn't have a good understanding of PTSD during the Vietnam era. But really all the all the effective PTSD treatments out there and even the diagnosis for PTSD emerged after the veterans from Vietnam came back so really we learned about PTSD from Vietnam veterans and that's when all the treatments were developed to help them house as in terms of what what to do

now. The good news is that there are very effective treatments for PTSD out there. Even if you've been suffering for people from PTSD for a long period of time. There still is there still are treatments that are very effective so my advice would be to go go to your local V.A. and find your local PTSD clinic. And there there are effective treatments things such as cognitive processing therapy or exposure therapies have been shown to be the most effective treatments. Kind of talk therapy treatments to work through traumatic events. And Rick I would add that Secretary of Veteran Services Coleman E. pointed out that in every city and town in Massachusetts there is a point person for veterans services so you can be directed by them to one of those programs more easily and try to navigate the system by yourself and I'll just add one other thing I guess I'm a little V.A. centric because I work at a V.A. But there are good but there are also vet centers that are located in in the community that are run by

other veterans so some people find it feel more comfortable be seeing other veterans so there's really a lot of resources out there. Something I wanted to ask you and by the way our number is 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. We're talking about PTSD specifically but also other long lasting effects of war. And I am speaking with Dr. Casey Taft who is my guest. He's the director of the strength at home programs and professor at Boston University School of Medicine 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. I just read that former congressman Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy along with Vice President Joe Biden and a number of others are convening of a conference at the Kennedy Library this Wednesday looking at neural science research that really is connected to the problems that the mental problems that veterans surface there they've established something called One Mind for Research.

And he is Patrick Kennedy clear about the impact of war on veterans and wants to get a kind of multiple multiple multi disciplinary group working on some solutions really at the at the the stem cell in the brain level even before we get to the treatment level that you are at. Are you aware of this and what do you think about this program. I wasn't aware of that specific program it sounds like a great idea because there is some really cutting edge research that's being done out there that's linking kind of brain region activation while people are an FM arise to PTSD to show that PTSD does affect areas of the brain. That suggests that that there is a biological component to PTSD. This is happening by the way on Wednesday because Wednesday is May 25th and it's the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's call to send a man to the moon and. Former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy who is also the son of the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy says this is a day to make an impact in a new way

and that's why they set up this conference for this date and they hope to raise five million dollars from philanthropists and this is this is their focus. And he is one as you may know that has had some mental health issues that he's been open about. So that's why he's working on this. One third of one point six million U.S. vets from Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD or brain injury or depression or substance abuse. And what we've seen at least what I've read a lot about are the harm that the veterans do to themselves we've been talking about. One of our callers said you know there's a stigma that these vets will go out and harm others. But the suicide rate is going up. When you speak to that. Absolutely. I think all of these problems that we're talking about can all contribute to higher risk for suicide. So aggression aggression towards themselves or towards other people. Bruce from Boston Go ahead please you're on the Kelly Crossley Show

Bruce. Bruce from Boston. All right well we will try to get him back on the line in just a minute. Is there a way to get to some of these veterans before they get to the point of harming themselves I guess is my question too about that. Because this suicides are across the board now and they seem to be I have to say more concentrated on the younger veterans. And in a way that didn't happen in World War Two veterans or am I just naive. No I think you're right and that may be a question the secretary may be better equipped to answer in terms of kind of bigger picture what what you know what activities are going on out there for suicide prevention I know there I know there are a lot but I wouldn't be able to speak to all that's being done for that but I but it is PTSD a driver for that I guess is what he is a writ is a risk factor for that. I can say that with with certainty. All right. OK Bruce we're going to try again. Go ahead for you John Kerry Crossley Joe.

Thank you Gary. Great show. I have a question for the doctor and in terms of your research have you looked at historical person at PTSD. What historical perspective because as you may probably know in doing your your research it was name had different names at different points from war one and even as far back as the Spanish-American War. Throughout your day it just I guess PTSD was associated since the Vietnam War. I don't know how to quietly answer off the air. OK thank you very much Russo. So his point is has it always existed just under different names. Exactly Yes definitely so it World War 2 they called it shellshock. They've had different names in different areas and it's not that PTSD was invented in Vietnam I think that's when we put we put a name to what it was and we talked about symptoms and developed treatments for it but it's certainly been been something you know and it's not just doesn't

just result from military trauma either results from any any form of trauma somebody can suffer from from PTSD so it's definitely not anything new it's just something that in more recent times we've put a name to it and we've developed effective treatments for it. Now that we have more awareness and this knowledge more there you know the military hasn't always been as forthcoming about these kinds of issues it seems anyway that there is more awareness and more support. Again Is that true or is it just sort of in certain places like Massachusetts. You know I think this is true kind of across the board there's a lot more awareness about it there's more support and I think there is a broad recognition that we have to do whatever we can do to help overcome this stigma for people getting help for PTSD or from other problems resulting from their deployment. So sometimes there's a military culture in which there's this idea that if you get any kind of help for for your problems it it's. It's being weak in some way or asking for help is a sign of weakness and that's

something that really the military and kind of all these kind of supporting agencies are trying to overcome this sense of statement that that people may feel and in fact asking for help and admitting that you need help is a sign of strength rather than a sign of weakness so there definitely is a lot of work being done out there you know coming from the very top to try to overcome this this perceived stigma of getting help. So you say don't suck it up. Absolutely. Absolutely not. Don't suck it up and really talk to somebody if you need help in. Contact a local provider or the that the contact you mentioned earlier. OK well very interesting and sobering information particularly important for couples as you said and for those families because the families are really with so many deployments they are really the support of these service members. So thank you very much Dr. Casey Taft. I'm Kelli Cross and we've been talking about veterans war and post-traumatic stress disorder and I've

been joined by Dr. Casey Taft. He's a director of the strength at home programs and professor at Boston University School of Medicine. The strength at home programs were developed through funding from the V.A. Department of Defense and Centers for Disease Control to improve the personal relationships of returning service members and veterans. Some classes offer couples and some are for veterans only. The focus is on improving personal relationships and preventing conflict. Today's show was engineered by Alan Mathis and produced by Chelsea Myers will Rose live and Abby was ICO. We are a production of WGBH radio Boston NPR station where news and culture.