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What growing up in war does to a child's brain - and how it really affects them years later

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What growing up in war does to a child's brain - and how it really affects them years later

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What growing up in war does to a child’s brain - and their future

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Fergal Keane has met thousands of traumatised children while reporting on conflicts. Here, he researches the long-term effect on them - and what, if anything, can help.

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Congress looks to ease veterans' use of health care outside the VA

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Congress looks to ease veterans' use of health care outside the VA

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Congress looks to ease veterans’ use of health care outside the VA

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It can be difficult for veterans to use their health benefits for care outside the federal system. A bill in Congress could ease that. Opponents are wary funds being “siphoned” away from the VA.

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Fighting Abroad and At Home: Remembering the Experiences of Black Vietnam Veterans

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Fighting Abroad and At Home: Remembering the Experiences of Black Vietnam Veterans

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Fighting Abroad and At Home: Remembering the Experiences of Black Vietnam Veterans

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If you were a twelve-year-old kid, as I was in the summer of 1966, N. Fifth Street in Columbus, Ohio seemed a bucolic place. Every neighborhood kid seemed to have a bicycle. Trees shaded homes. Men…

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Unseen battles: The harsh realities of veterans’ access to health care

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Unseen battles: The harsh realities of veterans’ access to health care

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Unseen battles: The harsh realities of veterans’ access to health care

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It shouldn’t be easier to enlist in the military than it is to get good health care. And it shouldn’t be easier to go to war than to come home from it.

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US, Israel and Iran agree to a 2-week ceasefire but much remains unclear and some attacks continue

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US, Israel and Iran agree to a 2-week ceasefire but much remains unclear and some attacks continue

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US, Israel and Iran agree to a 2-week ceasefire but much remains unclear and some attacks continue

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Iran, the United States and Israel have agreed to a two-week ceasefire. The 11th-hour deal headed off U.S.

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Trump admin proposes major change to gun laws

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Trump admin proposes major change to gun laws

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Trump admin proposes major change to gun laws

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The Department of Justice has proposed a new rule that could grant gun rights to many Americans who are currently barred from owning firearms.

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U.S. fighter jet went down over Iran, search and rescue mission underway, officials say

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U.S. fighter jet went down over Iran, search and rescue mission underway, officials say

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Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains and Patrick Smith and Matthew Mulligan

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U.S. fighter jet went down over Iran, search and rescue mission underway, officials say

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It was not clear how the two-seater jet went down.

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Over a Quarter-Million Vietnam War Veterans Still Have PTSD

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Over a Quarter-Million Vietnam War Veterans Still Have PTSD

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Forty years after the war's end, twice as many vets with combat-related PTSD are getting worse as those who are improving

smithsonian.com

War is hell, and for many of the U.S. veterans who served in the Vietnam conflict, the psychological nightmare rages on even 40 years after the last Marine left Saigon. Psychological surveys suggest that some 271,000 veterans of the war may still have full post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. And for many vets, the PTSD symptoms are only getting worse with time.

"Roughly 11 percent of Vietnam veterans, over a 40-year period, continue to suffer from clinically important PTSD symptoms, either having the full diagnosis or very strong features of the diagnosis that interfere with function," says study author Charles Marmar, director of The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Veterans Center at the NYU Langone Medical Center.

The latest study follows up on participants in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study conducted in the 1980s. According to Marmar, who co-authored the original report, the work serves a dual purpose in assessing the long-term affects of wartime trauma: "We owe it to the Vietnam generation, it's an amazing sacrifice that they made," he says. "But it's also the path ahead for the Iraq and Afghanistan generation, and we have to do better than we did for Vietnam."

PTSD may be a relatively recent psychological concept, but historians are exploring its impact on soldiers from the American Civil War and even back to ancient Assyria circa 1300 B.C. Clinical symptoms include reliving events through nightmares or flashbacks, avoiding people or situations that might be reminders of traumatic events, negative changes in feelings toward oneself and others and a state of hyperarousal that makes it hard to concentrate or sleep and includes a common feeling of imminent danger.

Just over 1,800 participants of the original study were still alive when the followup was conducted between 2012 and 2013. Amazingly, 1,450 of those veterans participated again-nearly 80 percent of the initial cohort. The study assessed how many Vietnam vets suffered PTSD symptoms in four categories: re-experience and avoidance, withdrawal and numbing, arousal and emotional control and self-persecution or survivor guilt. Participants shared their experiences via a one-hour self-reported health questionnaire, a one-hour computer-assisted telephone interview and a three-hour clinical diagnostic phone interview.

"It tells you something very profound about the commitment of these veterans, who are now in their mid- to late-60s and still really wanted to tell their story," says Marmar. "There is something very powerful in the social fabric of the American experience about Vietnam and how controversial Vietnam was, and maybe for these veterans the fact that many of them were unwelcome when they returned. For them it's very important to be able to tell their story now."

The veterans symptoms were measured on the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD, which Marmar calls "maybe the best measure ever developed to capture wartime PTSD-related symptoms and problems." The responses showed that while 7.6 percent have seen significant decreases in their PTSD symptoms over the past decades, 16 percent had their symptoms become significantly worse. More than one-third of the veterans with current war-zone PTSD also suffer from major depression, according to the research, which appears this week in JAMA Psychiatry. Those categorized as improving or as getting worse experienced 20-point swings on the scale, which Marmar says is a sign of significant change.

The study can't yet explain why some veterans saw improvements with time while others deteriorated. Marmar and his colleagues are now trying to model a wide range of factors to attempt to explain what's at work in the minds of each group. "We're looking at things such as age at entry into the war-because some data suggest that being younger when you enter a war favors a more chronic or worsening PTSD pattern-education level at entry to the war, how many tours of duty were served, levels of war zone exposure, whether or not a soldier is injured in combat and whether someone was welcomed home favorably or unfavorably."

Marmar suspects that aging is a potential factor that may lead to worsening symptoms. "Imagine someone home from three tours in Iraq who has three kids in the house and a demanding job, many responsibilities and an active social life. They've got a lot to pay attention to and a lot of distraction," Marmar notes. "Fast forward to age 60-something when they may retire, their social supports may erode, their health gradually declines and they begin to face their own mortality. They don't have the same kinds of structures and responsibilities. More time to reminisce may not be helpful in this situation and may lead to an intensification or reactivation of trauma-related experiences in memory."

Data from other studies suggest that roughly 70 percent of the men and women who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan do not develop major psychiatric problems. But work like the Vietnam vets study offers some lessons to better help those who do, Marmar adds.

"We can help them to identify these problems earlier, encourage them to seek care, de-stigmatize care and make services more affordable and accessible-including remote technologies like telemedicine and telemental health," he stresses. Perhaps more important, he notes, is doing everything possible to help veterans protect their two main sources of social support-their families and those they served alongside. "Those two groups are more important than anyone else to protect their mental health over time."

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Over a Quarter-Million Vietnam War Veterans Still Have PTSD

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smithsonian.com War is hell, and for many of the U.S. veterans who served in the Vietnam conflict, the psychological nightmare rages on even 40 years after the last Marine left Saigon. Psychological surveys suggest that some 271,000 veterans of the war may still have full post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

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Mental health crisis raises fears for younger generation

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Mental health crisis raises fears for younger generation

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Mental health crisis raises fears for younger generation

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The government is urged to tighten up social media regulations and invest in new programmes such as therapy for exam stress

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Wounded Warrior Homes opening new transitional housing for female veterans

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Wounded Warrior Homes opening new transitional housing for female veterans

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This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

ESCONDIDO, Calif. - San Diego non-profit, Wounded Warrior Homes, is launching a new transitional housing pilot program for female veterans in North County with the first facility set to open this week, the organization announced in a press release.

The program will serve about five women dealing with post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injuries for up to two years on an as-needed basis, while receiving on-site support like counseling and rehabilitative services to help get them on track to independent living.

Case management, occupational therapy, behavioral therapy and connecting veterans to the non-profit's food pantry are among the other kinds of assistance provided.

"Women veterans have done so much to serve our country, we are eager to expand to serve them with transitional housing when they need support," Wounded Warrior Homes executive director Mia Roseberry said in the release.

According to Wounded Warrior Homes, one veteran has already been moved into the house for the pilot program. Several others will be moved in as soon as a few necessary repairs are completed, including fence restoration, irrigation work, landscaping and interior painting.

The non-profit is looking for community volunteers to help with these repairs, in order to get the house fully up and running. For those interested, more information about how to get involved can be found on Wounded Warrior Homes' website.

"This pilot program is a tremendous opportunity and we hope that with the support of the community, we will be able to fully open this home and welcome additional women to the program," Roseberry continued.

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Wounded Warrior Homes opening new transitional housing for female veterans

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San Diego non-profit, Wounded Warrior Homes, is launching a new transitional housing pilot program for female veterans in North County with the first facility set to open this week, the organization announced in a press release.

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If you would like to find your own article, you can use this resource to find one that has been published in the last 5 years:

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If you would like to find your own article, you can use this resource to find one that has been published in the last 5 years:

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All Sides is a site that helps consider bias when reading articles. (Your article does not have to come from All Sides, if you choose to find your own)

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AllSides | Balanced news via media bias ratings for an unbiased news perspective

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See issues and political news with news bias revealed. Non-partisan, crowd-sourced technology shows all sides so you can decide.

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Survivors and mental health experts share what they know about the long-term impact of school shootings on children

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Survivors and mental health experts share what they know about the long-term impact of school shootings on children

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Survivors and mental health experts share what they know about the long-term impact of school shootings on children | CNN

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Rebekah Schuler was walking to her classroom, sharing headphones with a friend as they listened to “”, when gunshots and screams sent them running for cover.

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War-weary Ukrainians seek healing nature in their vast national parks

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War-weary Ukrainians seek healing nature in their vast national parks

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Tucked away in the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine, a group of veterans in military fatigues hike through a lush forest, moving toward the distant sound of a waterfall.

"There are no air raid sirens here, no rockets flying overhead," said Oleksii Davydov, a former deputy battalion commander.

It is his first vacation since the invasion began. Davydov is attending an adventure-based rehabilitation camp and has organized a hike at Skolivski Beskydy National Nature Park.

The group pauses to take in the scene. For a moment, the war feels far away.

The reality of war is inescapable for Ukrainians. Russia's full-scale invasion has killed tens of thousands, wounded hundreds of thousands and displaced millions, resulting in deep psychological scars. In February, the World Health Organization reported that almost half of Ukrainians experience mental health issues.

The country's mental health system, however, is overwhelmed. There are too few resources, too few professionals and too little trust. Widespread skepticism of mental health care dates to the Soviet era, when psychiatric institutions were weaponized to silence dissidents.

In response, a growing number of organizations are turning to nature as an alternative path toward healing. The need is especially acute not just for veterans but for the youngest victims of the war.

A group of displaced children carry backpacks as they climb a steep trail through the mountains of Hutsulshchyna National Park. The hike is led by Iryna Hyshchuk, who started GoYra, an adventure-based program for children. "For a lot of the children who are displaced, it's their first time in the mountains. So it was exciting, a chance to run the stress out of the body," she said.

A former journalist and lawyer, Hyshchuk leads with a simple philosophy rooted in her own love of the outdoors. When stressed, she says, "I need one day in the mountains. It's the same with children."

"We don't have any scientific methods, but we know it's good for us because it worked for us." The rules are simple: no phones, no parents and no stopping the kids from having fun.

In the first days of Russia's 2022 invasion, Zlata Halik was moved by her mother, Olena, out of their village in the east to the relatively safer west while her father went off to war. When power outages started in her kindergarten, however, Zlata started showing signs of anxiety. "We couldn't take her to school without a fuss," Olena said. But after joining these four-hour walks in the mountains at least twice a week, she calmed down and "eventually, she stopped getting nervous and anxious," her mother said.

The transformation of Ukraine's parks into mental health resources has not been an entirely spontaneous process, and programs do exist to help rangers cope with their expanded roles.

At a training for Ukrainian park rangers in Hungary, Serhii Kubrakov, director of Desna-Stara Huta National Nature Park, lies quietly on a grassy patch, gazing up at a canopy of trees during a "sit-spot" exercise, a practice rooted in stillness and observation in nature. The park he manages sits just 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) from the Russian border in the north.

"There is shelling on a daily basis, and the area is full of mines," he said. Kubrakov is among a group of mostly Ukrainian park staff, botanical workers, conservationists and educators who gathered at Hortobagy National Park in Hungary for training in "nature-informed therapy." The program, led by U.S.-based therapist Heidi Schreiber-Pan, is part of a growing effort to equip Ukraine's environmental stewards with tools to support trauma recovery in their communities.

There are different approaches to using nature for healing, such as adventure therapy, which provides the thrill and challenge that some veterans crave. Therapeutic horticulture, on the other hand, focuses on cultivating plants, while forest bathing is about being immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of the forest.

"Nature-informed therapy is about partnering with nature for mental health and well-being," Schreiber-Pan said. "Our mission is to help people rediscover their thread in nature and bring them back into that relationship."

The training includes a mix of personal storytelling, scientific discussions about nature's effect on mental health, and hands-on outdoor exercises. The idea is to give the rangers a sense of confidence to provide mental health support.

"We were afraid and unsure how we would look in the eyes of soldiers and tell them such simple things or how others would perceive it," said Mike Drebet, head of the research department at Podilski Tovtry National Park, just north of the border with Moldova. "But of course, we have to go ahead, try it for ourselves and keep going."

Parks face several key challenges in implementing mental health and resilience programs. There is a lack of funding, a shortage of qualified specialists and a scarcity of accredited personnel and facilities for medical or rehabilitative services.

Although plans are underway to expand programs like these, many of the initiatives remain stalled, awaiting financial support.

After her husband, Serhii, was killed in the fighting, Tetiana Radionenka didn't want to go on anymore. Her family pushed her to attend a retreat in the Skole Beskids mountains for women who have lost their partners.

It has made a difference.

"I didn't want to live," she said softly. "But when you see nature, you realize you have to live and to fight."

The facility is run by Free Choice, an organization founded byTetiana Rudenko, a psychologist and therapist. Her team observed that during the first six to 11 months after loss, grieving individuals need more structure, connection and community.

"Very often in this period, people get stuck in their grief because they don't understand what's happening to them and that it's normal," Rudenko said.

The camp's programming combines individual and group therapy, self-care classes and art in natural surroundings. "We are healed, by and large, by two things: nature and people," she said.

After Anna Ovchynnikova lost her partner in the fighting, she found that those around her were just not equipped to help her. "A lot of friends told me, 'We don't have the energy to support you.' I was looking for people who had experienced the same kind of loss." Now amid the trees at the retreat, she said she can find peace.

Many veterans echo these feelings. Daria Fugalevych, a former lieutenant who once led a support group during her military service, found a role with Heroes Compass, an adventure-based rehabilitation program for veterans. After returning to civilian life, she struggled to relate to other mothers. "They didn't understand," she said. "It's difficult to come back to the person you were."

For Vlad Trotsiuk, this was exactly the program he was looking for - an action-oriented experience in the mountains. After stepping on a mine that severely injured his foot, he underwent a lower-leg amputation. "I don't need any special accommodations," he said. "I'm interested in doing everything as usual, like it is for active people. That's already a kind of challenge for me, to do things the way people on two legs do."

Others, however, have had enough of action and are looking for lower-key activities in nature. Dmytro Hnatyuk, a former businessman who joined the 36th Marine Brigade and became a commander, chose to sit out one particularly high-energy team building game. "The movements were too sharp," he explained.

Hnatyuk was gravely wounded in combat when shrapnel struck his trigeminal nerve in his face - an injury often described as one of the most excruciating forms of pain. "My wife brought me back to life," he said. She stood by him through the worst months of pain, depression and recovery, eventually encouraging him to join veteran events and enroll in a program like this.

"Some games are too intense, too active. A veteran needs peace and quiet. The nervous system is rebooting. He needs to calm down somewhere peaceful," he said.

He and some other veterans organized their own nature excursion. At the site of the waterfalls, they ducked between trees, balanced on slick stones and waded into the cool water, raising their phones to capture the moment.

Some climbed to the top, waving down from the ledge, their voices echoing through the forest as the sun began to set.

About this story

Story and photography by Rosem Morton. Kamila Hrabchuk contributed to this report. Editing by Paul Schemm, Olivier Laurent, Virginia Singarayar and Joe Moore. Copy editing by Colleen Kristy.

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War-weary Ukrainians seek healing nature in their vast national parks

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With mental health resources in short supply, the traumatized children, wounded veterans and grieving widows turn to Ukraine's national parks for solace.

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Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000 since the Israel-Hamas war began, Gaza ministry says

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Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000 since the Israel-Hamas war began, Gaza ministry says

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Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000 since the Israel-Hamas war began, Gaza ministry says

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Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000 since the Israel-Hamas war began.