Press Room

VA Decision Good for CO Springs Service Members

Monday, July 12 2010

Some of the outcomes of war can be anticipated, some can't. Deployments of our troops to Iraq and Afghanistan have generated more cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) than we have ever seen before. Our soldiers and our military have struggled with the process of learning to deal with both effectively. The large population of service members and veterans in Colorado Springs makes this is a matter of particular significance to our community. I am encouraged that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) continues to look into treatment for our veterans and I am extremely pleased that the VA has issued regulations to simplify the process for veterans to get care for PTSD. I look forward to similar changes to provide long-term treatment for those with TBI and I encourage the Department of Defense (DoD) to continue its work on improving the treatment it provides to our soldiers on active duty.

The challenge is great as neither of these diagnoses is obvious and our soldiers understandably cling to their warrior culture making it harder still to detect. As leaders, both military and civilian, we are called upon to provide an absolute commitment to provide the very best care for our returning service men and women even when that means not just providing care and diagnosis as it currently exists, but also looking to discover better tools for recognition and better treatments for these ailments that we don't yet fully understand. I applaud the VA for its efforts on PTSD and I ask them to continue their work to make a similar breakthrough on TBI and continue to encourage DoD to do the same. This work is hard, but in the end little is more important.

Senator John Morse,
Senate District 11

Click here to view the announcement from the Department of Veterans Affairs.