[Veteranissues] Battle Creek Vamc : Taylor Iowa Woman Recently Released From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment Program - Thenewsherald.com

[allan]

Subject: [VeteranIssues] Battle Creek VAMC : TAYLOR Iowa woman recently released from post-traumatic stress disorder treatment program - thenewsherald.comDate: Apr 25, 2011 11:34 AMAttachments: image002.png image008.png

http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2011/04/23/news/doc4db1e18fd11d0909392060.txt?viewmode=fullstory

From: Robert

Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2011 6:18 PM

To: BEN WALKER; Charles E. Brown

Subject: Emailing: TAYLOR Iowa woman recently released from post-traumatic stress disorder treatment program - thenewsherald.com

See the local story below. I am sure VAMC Battle Creek will spin this one so they don’t take a hit.

Bob

The Voice of Downriver

News

TAYLOR: Iowa woman recently released from post-traumatic stress disorder treatment program

Published: Saturday, April 23, 2011

By Rene Cizio

TAYLOR — A 38-year-old Iowa woman killed herself Wednesday at Top Gun Shooting Sports, 16725 Racho Road.

Police said Army veteran Wendy Torrey had been released recently from a post-traumatic stress disorder treatment program at the Battle Creek Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Police said Torrey went to the range at about 1 p.m., rented a semiautomatic handgun and shot at targets for awhile. Surveillance video shows that she stopped firing at the target and shot herself in the head.

She was taken to Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center in Dearborn, where she was confirmed dead.

She was a resident of Bettendorf, Iowa. Police said she had just completed the treatment program at the Battle Creek facility. She had served in Bosnia while in the Army.

Police found a suicide note in her pocket.

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"Keep on, Keepin' on"

Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"

See my web site at:

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[hedgey]

I googled for other news of this tragic loss. There's nothing else about it. No one else in the media seems to have noticed or found it interesting.

You'd think someone at least would have found it intriguing that a woman shot herself ... we hardly ever go for the really messy exit.

If I hadn't had my family to come home to after Trauma Recovery (PTSD for women program in this region) I'd have been in that poor lady's shoes. Some bright spark at the VA decides that PTSD can be cured in an intensive program only weeks long, drag up the worst of our pain and fears, make us talk about them, then send us away with a flipping certificate. A certificate and a "toolbox of coping skills".

I'm sure it helps some people. Obviously it failed this dear woman.

Thank you for posting this allan. Now at least her name is known here, and we've cared about her, even briefly.

[WAC-Vet75]

I googled for other news of this tragic loss. There's nothing else about it. No one else in the media seems to have noticed or found it interesting.

You'd think someone at least would have found it intriguing that a woman shot herself ... we hardly ever go for the really messy exit.

If I hadn't had my family to come home to after Trauma Recovery (PTSD for women program in this region) I'd have been in that poor lady's shoes. Some bright spark at the VA decides that PTSD can be cured in an intensive program only weeks long, drag up the worst of our pain and fears, make us talk about them, then send us away with a flipping certificate. A certificate and a "toolbox of coping skills".

I'm sure it helps some people. Obviously it failed this dear woman.

Thank you for posting this allan. Now at least her name is known here, and we've cared about her, even briefly.

The VA has no idea how to deal with us, and that's the biggest problem. They don't have a great track record with males who suffer from PTSD, and have no idea how to treat women suffering from PTSD. I, unfortunately, went through "therapy" back in the 80's, and discovered their methods SUCK. It took me almost a decade before I even spoke out, and found that the VA actually made the PTSD worse! You're right, they drag up the worse, all that you've put up on a shelf to try and forget, have you tell them all the details, maybe hand you some pills, and send you on your way. Not one therapist had military experience, so they could not understand the fear of reporting certain things, or how the military member (victim) could receive disciplinary action (damaging "Government Property") for being a victim!

Back in the 70's I begged the VA to put me in touch with other female Vets, so that we could "talk" (group therapy). I even put money out of my own pocket to place ads in the newspapers, trying to find other female Vets. In the late 90's, one Vet Center I was involved with, finally agreed to "allow: a group of female Vets to meet. We had one or two group meetings, then every time we tried to meet thereafter, we would each be given different meeting times, told the group was canceled, etc.,

The female Veteran population has grown so much in the past 2 decades, and though the VA has made changes to try and accommodate us, they still have a LONG way to go. Feels like we're an experiment in the system!!

[john999]

I have been in therapy for 40 years. I still need help from time to time coping. I got into a private group therapy back in the 1970's. It was not for just PTSD. It saved my life. The psychologist who ran the group screened new members carefully. He did not just fill vacant slots in the group with warm bodies. The max size of the group was about 6-8 because larger than that and it is too big to really hear everyone. The VA just uses a cookie cutter. I go to the VA to see a shrink and hear a few jokes.