More troops hospitalized for mental health than any other reason

More U.S. troops were hospitalized for mental health disorders than any other reason in 2009.

Mental health hospitalizations throughout the military topped injuries, battle wounds and even pregnancy and childbirth for the first time in 15 years of tracking by the Pentagon's Medical Surveillance Monthly report.

USA Today's Gregg Zoroya broke the news Friday.

Mental health care accounted for almost 40% of all days spent in hospitals by service members last year, the report said. Of those hospitalizations, 5% lasted longer than 33 days. For most other conditions, fewer than 5% of hospitalizations exceeded 12 days, the report said.

In 2009, there were 17,538 hospitalizations for mental health issues throughout the military, the study shows. That compares with 17,354 for pregnancy and childbirth reasons, and 11,156 for injuries and battle wounds.

rawstory.com...

I know we have seen several stories and threads here about the alarming rate of suicide among veterans. This might help explain at least part of it. The story goes on to show that PTSD, substance abuse and depression cost the Pentagon 488 years of lost time in 2009 alone.

The simple fact that there were way more hospitalizations for mental health reasons than for combat injuries is more than enough proof that more harm is being done than good by having them in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's time to bring them home. Stop subjecting them to the conditions that are contributing to their mental health issues while pursuing ghost enemies which some of them that probably don't even exist, all in the name of making the world safe for OUR democracy and ideals while ignoring everyone elses.

The Government knows this


Unfortunately they don't know the art of extrication

reply to post by dalek


No...just how to stack on more....

The New Change Rag that you quote used this story from USA Today.
There is nothing original about "the raw story." Just new change propaganda. This is where the credit should go. Here is the link.
www.usatoday.com...

This quote from the article should supply direction for our young men and women.
"The Army, which has 138,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, had 10,222 mental health hospitalizations last year. They accounted for almost 19% of all Army hospitalizations.

Ten percent of Marine hospitalizations were for mental health reasons, while they were about 8% for the Navy and 7% for the Air Force."

[edit on 15-5-2010 by Violater1]

reply to post by Violater1


It wasn't stolen. The article I posted from names the original as well as links to it and provides the author.
How did they or I steal an article when both the post I linked and myself cite our sources?

And there was something new, which is why I picked the story from rawstory.com instead of the original. I usually do pick the original but I liked what was added about Hershel Walker as well as RawStory's perspective on the original. Nothing was stolen. Or used without citations.

Not liking or agreeing with a certain point of view is no reason to be libelous.

[edit on 15-5-2010 by webpirate]