Archive for category: Features

By Anna Selman, Programs and Public Relations Coordinator

A recent study from the Department of Veterans’ Administration (VA) found that the daily number of American veterans who commit suicide has decreased from 22 to 20 a day- a small improvement, but a step in the right direction.  The leading cause of veteran suicide is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a disorder where you have intense and sometimes disturbing thoughts about a traumatic event that can lead to severe psychological suffering.  It can be very common in veterans that have combat experience, and after almost two decades of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have a lot of veterans with combat experience and many with PTSD.

In a shocking discovery, researchers have also found that only 30 percent of PTSD treatments are effective.  With such a low success rate, it might leave you wondering what else we can do for our veterans.

When someone brings up treating veterans with PTSD, it is unlikely that the first thing that comes to mind is to look to the Jewish community for how it helped treat Holocaust survivors.  However, for those of us that come from families of Holocaust survivors, we know that Jews have a long history of treating PTSD even before the term came into use.  In fact, according to some researchers, the prevalence of PTSD in Holocaust survivors is somewhere between 46 and 55 percent, which is really high.  To give some comparison, the prevalence of PTSD in combat veterans in Vietnam is much lower, between 2 and 17 percent, and only 15 to 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans meet the criteria to be diagnosed with PTSD.

As Jews, our long and rich track record in treating PTSD provides us lessons for treating our veterans today.  Jewish scholars found that survivors deal with their PTSD in 3 ways – some victimize themselves, some become defensive, while others numb themselves so that they could feel protected.  These behaviors can be somewhat helpful during the trauma, but they can create problems down the road.

One of the leading scholars in treating survivors during the post-Holocaust period was Viktor Frankl, who famously wrote A Man’s Search for Meaning.  Just by looking at that title, Viktor’s approach to treating traumatic events was to give everything meaning (also called logotherapy) – even their painful trials.  He would often talk to survivors – helping them discover their own reasons to live.

Some survivors also found meaning in telling their stories – making sure that something like the Holocaust never happened again.  They did not tell their stories to their psychologist; they told their story to their family, their friends and their synagogue.  They went to schools and museums.  By telling their experiences, survivors’ experiences became a part of the Jewish experience.  We all have a shared experience of the Holocaust, which, in some way, makes them feel not as alone.

However, some survivors were reluctant to tell their stories, which might be because we did originally not want to hear their stories when they first got to America.  Survivors were told to move on, and they did.  They built families, found careers, and kept their experiences bottled up for a decade or more.    Meanwhile, they often experienced the nightmares and the intense flashbacks associated with PTSD, but once they did finally tell their family and friends, survivors reported a decreased number of symptoms and an increase in quality of life.

So what can be learned from the Jewish treatment of PTSD?  There are many veterans coming home who feel like no one wants to hear about their story, but we know that it is good for veterans to talk about what happened “over there.”  This is not only for our veterans.  We as Americans can bridge the military-civilian divide and make the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan a shared American experience.  In some ways, this can make our veterans feel less alone.

So, please invite your local veterans to come speak at your synagogue. Organizations, like the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. or the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, can help connect you with veterans in your area that can come speak to your synagogue, schools and other groups.  We owe it to our veterans to understand where they are coming from and to make them part of our community. Together, we can help them overcome their problems, and they can teach us about what it means to serve something greater than themselves.

Volume 71. Number 4. Winter 2017

By Mel Gervis, Post 440

The Eugene Moore National Stamp Program was started in 1991, and is designed to uplift the spirits of hospitalized veterans and shut-ins.  JWV members and good citizens collect stamps from local businesses and house of worship, which are then sent onto the National Stamp Program Distribution Chairman, Mel Gervis.  He in turn distributes these stamps to over 40 Veteran Affairs Centers and residences of veterans, who otherwise would not get out.

The stamps are sent out each month to our hospitalized brothers and sisters across the US.  They receive a wonderful assortment of stamps that are used in the occupational and physical therapy.  Through your many hours of postage stamps collecting and cutting, we help our disabled veterans increase their dexterity and using their prosthetic limbs.  Veterans can make beautiful vases, collages, sculptures and so much more with the stamps that you collect.  The real reward is the appreciativeness on our veterans faces – that you took the time to think about them and the amount of effort it takes to organize such an endeavor.  Thank you for giving back for those who have served our country and showing our troops, soldiers and veterans we care and they will not be forgotten.

Volume 71. Number 4. Winter 2017

By Lance Wang, Editor

I had the opportunity to interact with the Veterans’ Administration while in uniform, much more so since retiring from the Army.   As with any large organization I’ve encountered good and bad.   Certainly the good is the dedicated functionaries who I encounter, many of whom are themselves veterans.   I also have been particularly pleased with the service of a nearby VA Community-Based Outreach Clinic which provides responsiveness that I’ve never encountered from a big city VA facility.  They have provided more continuity of care than I encountered in military or the civilian world.    However the “bad” side has certainly made itself known.   I live in a border region of New York, and the ability of Veterans Administration facilities to talk across state lines is still bureaucratically challenged to a very frustrating degree.   For instance, rather than referring 50 miles to the nearest VA Hospital in New York, they have to refer me to three times that distance to a facility in Vermont.   The employees of the VA who I encounter know this limitation of their system, and share my frustration.   I don’t blame them.

Why is it so difficult to bring the problems in the VA to solution stages?   For years the VA has been neither fish nor fowl – it did not have the accountability nor true profit motive that civilian medical agencies have, nor did it have the discipline to which a military agency was subjected.   It was designed to replace a 19^th century system which largely put the onus on charitable organizations and local communities to care for veterans.   It was never fully resourced to perform its mission, resulting in fraud and scandals like we saw in Arizona’s VA system several years ago.   Or it resulted in terribly substandard care like revealed in a 1970 Life magazine expose called “Our Forgotten Wounded” regarding what Vietnam Veterans were encountering in VA hospitals, what Life called a “medical slum.”   The complaint of the VA hospital administration in the article – “We’re just not being funded so as to give our services.”

The workload for the VA has only increased since the editorial was written.   Battlefield mortality has again decreased – some wounds that would have been certain to kill someone during the Vietnam War are now survivable.   However, they are survivable in some cases with considerable follow-up care required, often for life.   In addition, as our Vietnam veterans require geriatric medicine, demands will again rise.   So, as in 1970, are we prepared to pay the costs for the VA to do their job?   Or are we to treat our veterans as out of sight and out of mind, with the VA only commanding attention when its problems come to a head as in Arizona?

Recently, the lack of accountability and discipline was highlighted in a USA Today report.   The report indicated that “In 2014 and 2015, the VA spent nearly $6.7M to secretly settle cases with hundreds of employees who were either fired or forced into retirement due to inadequate performance.”   This included doctors who made mistakes that caused harm to patients.   One VA podiatrist was allowed to resign after harming 88 patients at a hospital in Maine.   Another VA radiologist in Washington was allowed to resign after finding that he misread “dozens of CT scans.”   Because of the nature of their departure from the VA, these individuals’ poor performance does not make it into national registries and databases.

Until the VA is treated as a civilian entity, with the same accountability (and liability) as a civilian hospital, this will continue to happen.   I understand the challenges of hiring medical professionals for government employment – the military branches often face the same challenges.   However, compensating for lower wages with lower accountability is not the answer – it will not provide the health care that our veterans need, nor of the caliber that they deserve.   Further, I’m also well aware of how challenging and cumbersome the civilian personnel system is for the Federal Government.   Supervisors need to be trained to document and evaluate poor performance.   It has been my experience that the reason that the government (and other large organizations) often need to “settle with” as opposed to “firing” an employee is that supervisors often do not do their job when it comes to documenting employee performance.

It seems amazing that we can create a world class military, unmatched in technological advantage, yet still are having a hard time creating a system of medical care that is equally unmatched for our veterans.   Our veterans, and the thousands of outstanding employees of the VA who do go over and above to take

Volume 71. Number 4. Winter 2017

By Joel Michaels

Gladys L. Lonstein-Gaman, a member of our country’s “greatest generation,” recently passed away, just two weeks shy of her 100^th birthday. She served in the United States Army Nurse Corps during World War II (1943 -1946), where she was assigned to the 121^st Station Hospital in Braintree, England. After the War, she lived most of her life in Peabody, Massachusetts where she raised her family. Her two sons, Steven and Philip, survive her. I am Gladys’ nephew.

Gladys came from a modest background in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she lived with her two sisters and younger brother. She was an unassuming woman who did not seek recognition for her military service.  During an interview in 2004 by the Veterans History Project, her first inclination was to diminish the extent of her contributions to the War effort. When asked why she enlisted as a nurse at age 24, she said “I had to be a part of it in some small way” and nursing was the only way she could make a contribution. She went on to say that “my involvement seemed so small to me” as she compared it to the many young men who saw combat and thought it was “hardly worth mentioning.”

Like many American Jews who served in World War II, Gladys gave two reasons for her service. The first was the protection of America, as she concluded that if “England had been taken over by the Nazis, we would have been next.” The second was to “help my people who were being persecuted in the concentration camps.” Supporting American soldiers in the field was how Gladys perceived she could best provide some outreach to her fellow Jews who were victims of the Holocaust.  Her remarks provide context for why a young Jewish girl from Worcester left for New York alone to enlist and go on to England to face an uncertain future during a most troubled time.

Although Gladys saw her contributions as a member of the Army Nurse Corps as small, not all saw it that way.  One night, while on duty at the hospital in England, Gladys experienced the impact of a German warplane’s bomb. After she emerged from the rubble and from under the desk she used for cover, she saw the significant damage surrounding her. Gladys immediately directed her attention to ensuring the safety and health of the patients in the ward. Her response and actions that day were the subject of a Major’s letter of commendation, which affirmed that “under extremely hazardous conditions, Second Lieutenant Lonstein did calmly and efficiently carry out the necessary work of attending to the patients in the ward.”  Gladys explained her reactions that night by saying that she probably was “too dumb to be scared” and “all I knew was that I had to get the patients to a safe place.”

Since World War II, the role of women in the American military continues to evolve. Some of this change can be attributed to the actions of many women, including my aunt, who served in the Army Nurse Corps. Like their male counterparts, they too were fearless in ensuring that our country would not fail in defending its security and freedom for its citizens, while restoring peace throughout the world. To this day I remain in awe of the contributions they made.

Volume 71. Number 3. Fall 2017