The Honorable Gus Bilirakis: HR. 3717 requires the collection of law enforcement incidents involving individuals with mental illness. It seems to me that Veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress would be an important sub-section of this data set and that the information collected could have value. Will you talk about some of the problems that occur, and why collecting this data is important?
Dr. Michael Welner: I have had occasion to work on a variety of matters involving returning and enlisted military, encompassing the Iraq and Afghanistan theatres, those stationed in Europe, and worked alongside US military for a number of weeks at Guantanamo Bay while examining an Al-Qaeda detainee. These experiences have been enlightening and have focused extensive study on the problems ahead of us.
There is no doubt that PTSD is well-represented among returning veterans. However, it is my professional opinion that the emotional challenges and conflicts particular to the military population extend well beyond PTSD and what is diagnosed. Data collection is therefore important to open our eyes to what we might not yet appreciate, and what might be overlooked from the veterans’ affairs agencies with whom that person is affiliated. Certain emotional issues may not yet be appreciated by the individual, and may not have manifest while in the service. He only seeks help with the continued prodding of others who know him well and recognize the little things about what is now “off,” or he may not seek help at all.
Untreated and closet substance dependence, atypical presentations of depression, family violence following poor adjustment to civilian life and changes at home. The manifestations of head injury may be quite subtle; if they are cognitive, they trouble the patient. If they are behavioral, they trouble others – and may not be reported by the examinee until he is around others for a length of time.
Furthermore, there are conflicts unique to each of the Iraq and Afghanistan settings. The Afghanistan experience was so primitive and with such shifting loyalties among locals that servicemen were in conditions in which they risked limb and gave life for hearts and minds that ranged from fearful of reprisal, turning on them in attacks of betrayal, or altogether indifferent.
In Iraq, American displacement of Saddam Hussein and the rebuilding of Iraq was warmly received, and many Americans connected with an educated populace and more developed nation and its people. The American withdrawal, was quickly followed by the expansion of the Iranian terror-axis, which now dominates Iraq as it does another multi-sectarian neighbor, Lebanon. Veterans are now confronted with feelings of futility and demoralization over their sacrifices as other aspects of American impact reverses.
Our veterans voluntarily enlisted and represent the highest civic character of America. Even in spite of the problems they face and how they are changed by their experiences, they are trained to be invested in social order and identify with it. Those who have encounters with police may still represent but a fraction of the returning population. Problems with veterans may remain unappreciated from study of law enforcement contacts precisely because of the morality and character of this subpopulation.
This point deserves emphasis out of respect for who the veterans are and how they have distinguished themselves by their service, for there is an undertone of concerns that returning veterans represent a public risk, because of their demonstrated lethality and because they are presumably traumatized. It is 2014 and returning servicemen have not been marauding lawlessness. I do not therefore expect these fears to be realized.
More recent studies of violence by veterans show that criminal history is the most prominent risk factor for criminal violence in veterans – not PTSD. Honor survives illness. When it does not, look to the influence of drugs and alcohol, outside social influences, or psychosis.
Social influence is a matter that encompasses law enforcement. There has been increasing representation of different American gangs among U.S military personnel. Researching the returning servicemen will be informative to whether the military experience redirects from gang membership, when it does not, and help us understand the divergent outcomes. American military training is a valued commodity among drug lords and others who operate via the cross border openness with Mexico. I was involved in the matter of one serviceman who parlayed his experience into well-compensated work performing executions for drug gangs in the United States and south of the border. He confidently avoided capture to speak of his experiences while receiving services at his VA.
The moral choices one makes are affected by underlying character as well as social influence. Ex-military man John Muhammad, further alienated in his conversion to Islam terrorized Washington DC and enlisted his eager son. Conversions in prison have also been well-represented among aspiring terrorists. Whether the converted population among servicemen identifies with a coexisting faith or the doctrine of Islamist dominance will reveal itself in time. The radicalized Nidal Hassan murdered before ever being deployed.
Those ex-military whose contact with police officers is laden with social deviance more likely exhibited antisocial qualities prior to entering the service. The current military personnel demands have, in my experience, lowered thresholds on who is cleared to be deployed. What we learn from the data collected from law enforcement will further inform to what degree this is true, and what adjustments need to be made.
If the tools are available to collect data from law enforcement contacts with those who have mental illness, our nation benefits from learning about its veterans in many ways. It is also an act of caring for a population that deserves to be treated as American royalty. Regardless of one’s feelings about the wars, those who serve embody devotion to the United States of America, loyalty to its Commander in Chief, personal sacrifice of training, endurance of the pain of lengthy separations from loved ones, and for some the disintegration of their marriages and families. They have accepted the yoke of psychological and physical burdens that others among us were not of the character to do. They have respected rules of engagement given them of unusual restraint that in some instances, have resulted in their being maimed or too close for psychological stability, and watched friends die. They have been giving and benevolent to people who maintain contempt for them as infidels who are not co-religionists. As our veterans have served us, we owe them our service as a civic duty. If the data collection through law enforcement or other provisions informs that service, we are the better for it.
