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Senate hears parents’ push for mental care

WASHINGTON — As the war in Iraq enters its fifth year, veterans returning home need a better system of care to prevent devastating mental health problems, the parents of an Iowa veteran who committed suicide told a Senate committee Wednesday.

Army Spc. Joshua Omvig, 22, a reservist from Grundy Center, Iowa, spent an 11-month tour in Iraq, and, a few months after his return, shot himself before his mother’s eyes.

Randy and Ellen Omvig said at the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing that the Department of Veterans Affairs lacks a comprehensive preventive program for dealing with mental health problems.

“We need to give all veterans the opportunity to live the best life they possibly can,” Randy Omvig said.

Joshua suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. An estimated one-third of all Iraq war veterans who have enrolled in the VA seek help for serious mental health problems, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

“It is a pretty astounding statistic and tragically it is probably too low,” she said, because many vets don’t obtain treatment.

Sgt. Patrick Campbell, a combat medic for the District of Columbia National Guard, told the committee he suffered from PTSD, and he knows veterans taught to cope with any crisis won’t admit they need counseling.

“It’s not in their culture,” he said. “But we’ve got to get the help to them.”

The House of Representatives already has approved legislation named in Joshua Omvig’s honor that would require the VA to train employees on suicide prevention, provide family education and outreach, institute peer counseling, offer 24-hour mental health care and set up a telephone hot line.

The bill is being pushed in the Senate by Iowa’s two senators, Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Tom Harkin.

The way that troops are brought back — particularly the National Guard and Reserve units — is part of the problem, the Omvigs said.

“Josh’s company went from Iraq to Thanksgiving dinner with their families in less than one week,” Randy Omvig said. “One or two weeks of decompressing or defusing is not enough.”

Group peer counseling, training in coping strategies and contact with other veterans with similar experiences is all needed, he said.

“The first counseling Josh’s company had came at the first drill after Josh’s death,” he said. “Something amazing happened — the conversation went from what happened to Josh to what trouble some of the other soldiers were having, too.”

Jan Kemp, a VA associate director for education who works on mental health, said in prepared testimony that it is estimated that there are up to 1,000 suicides a year among veterans within the VA system, and as many as 5,000 a year among all living veterans.

She said the VA is developing ways to prevent suicides, including an education campaign aimed at making sure all providers identify veterans who are at risk. Newer veterans are coming in with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries that both carry a high suicide risk rate, she noted.

Families also need a better idea of what to expect and how to react when a relative returns home from war, Omvig said.

“It took us too long to find out,” he said.