Photo By Capt. Monika Comeaux | Staff Sgt. Sharon Harris, a mental health specialist with the 883rd Medical Company... read more read more
Some people have a fear of needles, or the dentist, and others may be concerned about paying a visit to a combat stress clinic because they don't know what to expect.
The "Brain Rangers" at the Camp Taji Combat Stress Clinic are there to help all who need assistance when they are homesick, stressed, have sleeping problems or maybe more serious issues.
The clinic is run by a team of Army Reservists from the 883rd Medical Company from Boston, Mass. The rest of the company is split up in other teams, and is scattered all over Iraq, with the company headquarters located at Camp Victory.
"Our mission is to maintain the fighting force," said Capt. Kevin Love, the occupational therapist and team OIC. "We do that by allowing a place for Soldiers to come to, to talk about and express their concerns and gain some insight into themselves and therefore go back and do their jobs, so that they are not distracted by their personal worries."
The team consists of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a psychiatric nurse, an occupational therapist, mental health specialists and an occupational therapy technician.
Patients may be self-referred or an informal or formal command referral may bring them to the clinic. The first two instances do not leave any paper trail, but if a service member is formally command referred, the clinic is obligated to document the details of the visit, Love explained.
Upon arrival, all patients receive a short briefing and have to sign a confidentiality statement, said Staff Sgt. Sabay Buth, a mental health specialist with the clinic.
There are three exceptions why a member of the staff would break the confidentiality. If a patient is considering killing them self, killing someone else or talking about doing something that would endanger the mission, the staff has to break the confidentiality.
The first meeting with the patient is called "intake" by the professionals and it simply aims to find out what brings the patient to the clinic.
The most common issues people have when they visit with the staff are being homesick, stressed out, has anxiety or sleeping problems, said Staff Sgt. Sharon Harris, also a mental health specialist. "We get quite a bit of sleep problems. Usually what we end up doing is giving them medication, or sometimes even relaxation tapes."
Things that trigger these problems vary. "Far and away, number one problem, hands down winner is home-front issues. It runs about 38 to 40 percent of everyone that walks in the door because they are having trouble at home," Love said.
"The next one, which runs around 30 percent, is leadership." Love emphasized that Soldiers usually have problems with their immediate supervisors like team, squad or platoon leaders, and not their company or battalion commanders.
Treatment for the different problems vary from a few simple counseling sessions, three-day anger management workshops, and in more serious cases patients are sent to a 'restoration team" in Baghdad or Logistical Support Area Anaconda for more intensive therapy.
The most commonly prescribed medication is sleeping pills. Although some may think that a visit to the combat stress clinic is an easy ticket home, that is not the case, assured Love. "If they are truly having serious problems, which are rare, they go out of theater," he said.
Based on the statistics of past visits, Love said that there are certain patterns that emerge. "There is a pattern for when we see the most folks come in. It is a real classic pattern, it was there in Operation Iraqi Freedom 3 and 2, and that is the first 60 days people are deployed, the middle of their deployment and about 60 to 30 days before they go home," Love said. They also see some come in after returning from leave.
"I noticed that a lot more males have home-front issues, but I think that just might be because there are a lot more males in the military in general," Buth said.
As far as age groups go, seasoned Soldiers try to tough things out, whereas the younger ones may come in to the clinic if they are just a little stressed out. "They are not used to 'sucking it up and carrying on,"" Harris said.
When new units arrive at Camp Taji, the first spike of visitors comes from the combat service support elements.
"What I really think happens is that the combat units, for number one, as a group, tend to be much less willing to consider coming to a place like this ... the support units have more Reserves and National Guardsmen, they are more used to the regular American culture, where it is not such a big deal to go to a counseling," Love said.
The staff is enthusiastic to help all who seek their assistance at the clinic. "I love my job," said Buth.
"I feel like I am supporting the Soldiers ... one week they come in and they are having trouble, and then I provide them with information and support, and the next week they come in and their life is so much better because of the services we are providing."
The staff encourages Soldiers to seek assistance if they have any issues.
"The truth is, strong emotions and feelings find their way out, either in drinking, drug abuse, abusive behavior, arguing, yelling," said Love.
"It comes out some way, and that is what we tell them. You"d rather control how it comes out, than have it come out in ways you don't control."
| Date Taken: | 06.22.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 06.22.2006 09:33 |
| Story ID: | 6918 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 114 |
| Downloads: | 15 |
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