I had a delightful lunch yesterday with Maj. Ben Richards and Bronco, his service dog. Also joining us for lunch were Eilhys England, Chairperson of Stand for the Troops (“SFTT”) and Dr. Yuval Neria, Director of the PTSD Research Program at Columbia Presbyterian.
I hadn’t seen Bronco (a labradoodle) before and was interested in learning how service ...
Continue Reading →After many lives of many brave Veterans with PTSD have been lost, the State of Ohio has finally taken action against pharmaceutical drug companies for hyping opioids.
According to the New York Times reporter,
Continue Reading →The State of Ohio filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the pharmaceutical industry over the opioid epidemic, accusing several drug companies of conducting marketing ...
Meet J. David Cox, who many consider “Dr. No” of badly needed reforms within the Department of Veterans Affairs (“the VA’).
J. David Cox is President of the American Federation of Government Employees and is the person most likely to block any meaningful reform within the VA. SFTT has had an eye on Mr. Cox who in the run-up to last year’s Presidential election, threatened the previous secretary of the VA with physical violence:
Continue Reading →Cox was “prepared to whoop Bob McDonald’s a – ...
Veterans and casual observers continue to be mystified why the Department of Veterans Affairs (the “VA”) continues to insist on failed therapy programs to treat Veterans with PTSD.
Dr. David Cifu, the senior TBI specialist in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Health Administration, argues that Veterans treated with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Prolonged Exposure Therapy are receiving the best therapy possible to treat PTSD. There is no reliable third-party verification to support Dr. Cifu’s bold assertion.
More to the point, Dr. Cifu dismisses ...
Continue Reading →Like most everyone, the gun control debate is front and center on both sides of the political spectrum. Sadly, very few – if any – of proposed changes to existing gun control laws would have a major impact on Veteran suicides.
I recently came across an interesting article published in the Washington Post entitled “The reasons we don’t study gun violence the same way we study infections.” ...
Continue Reading →Well over a year ago, Dr. Paul Harch, one of the leading experts in Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (“HBOT”) published an authoritative report entitled “Hyperbaric oxygen in chronic traumatic brain injury: oxygen, pressure and gene therapy” for the U.S. National Library of Medicine (Medical Gas Research).
In this report (a lengthy extract is printed below), Dr. Harch argues persuasively over the many ...
Stand for The Troops (“SFTT”) has long been critical of the manner in which the Department of Veterans Affairs (the “VA”) treats Veterans with PTSD and TBI. Other critics have singled out long wait times for Veterans seeking treatment and other issues that have prompted Congressional inquiries.
Sadly, one can no longer discuss this issue dispassionately considering that many stakeholders and political candidates seem to be positioning themselves on one side of the debate or the other. With a $170 billion budget and ...
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