Here in the U.S., in our usual myopic way, we can get bogged down in the news about returning servicemembers with combat trauma and PTSD and forget just how many other countries in the world have struggled with this problem as well, and often found their own solutions. Internationally, Japan, Israel, Australia, England and Canada frequently search the Internet for news about who's doing what, and what's working, for treating PTSD worldwide -- according to data from Google's analytical trends. Today, the Jerusalem Post has an article about how Israel's Defense Ministry is about to unveil a plan for evaluating and treating soldiers systematically who have been exposed to PTSD as part of their military service. (The article in question is linked here.) Their expectation is that 2,500 Israelis suffer from PTSD, in a country where military service is compulsory, and conflicts in the region frequently boil over into sustained violence.
The significance of the Israeli announcement is that the soldiers will be treated according to a "set psychological and medical format," meaning systematically and methodically. Their understanding is that PTSD treatment succeeds better if initiated earlier, so evaluating all soldiers soon after military service will increase the chances of favorable treatment outcomes. According to the article, three years ago the military started thinking through how to create a protocol that would involve every soldier, and optimize chances of finding and treating PTSD. The protocol was developed by Zeev Waisman and Dr. Dan Dolfin.
Two interesting comments from the article express a vision that the U.S. might be wise to emulate:
"A soldier who comes out of battle will immediately be evaluated and we will see what type of treatment he needs," Waisman said. "Nothing is done today in a regulated fashion and we want all treatment to be according to a protocol."
The process begins by inserting the soldier's profile into the system which will then offer several courses for treatment that could include medicines, psychological therapy, family therapy, sex therapy and others. Waisman said that the Ministry of Defense hoped to convince other organizations to adopt the new format which will be evaluated in two years.
Stateside, it's not even clear that the various branches of the Armed Forces share a similar protocol for identifying and treating PTSD -- most likely, they do not. With far more servicemembers at risk for PTSD than the Israelis have, we could do worse than to imitate what the Israeli Defense Ministry is putting into action as a plan to deal with PTSD, and return exposed servicemembers to better mental and emotional health.
