Sucide Prevention Point Paper Veterans Day 2022
POINT PAPER: NATIONAL/VA/MILITARY SUICIDE PREVENTION STRATEGIES: NOT PREVENTING SUICIDES
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Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy
Press Release: Hundreds of Thousands of Veterans are Dying from Diabetic Foot Ulcer Within the VHA when a Life-Saving Treatment is Available but Unused
Veteran Eric Koleda of the TreatNOW Coalition has released The Veteran Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) Epidemic: A U.S. Department of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Services Review. His analysis of recent data received from Deputy Under Secretary of Health for the VA indicates more than 796,340 Veterans have died from Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) and Lower Limb Amputation (LLA) in the past 22-years. This is more than all the Veterans Killed in Action in all the U.S. wars (623,982) since World War I.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) has been approved by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) since 2002 for all Veterans over the age of 65. HBOT treatments heal on average 74 percent of the DFU cases, eliminating the need for amputations and extending patient lives.
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REVOLUTIONARY SCIENTIFIC NEWS: New/Revised UHMS Definition of Hyperbaric Oxygen
By redefining Hyperbaric Medicine to comply with current scientific research, decades of evidence-based and clinical medicine, and the laws of physics, the UHMS has done a service to service members suffering from brain wounds.
The rethinking and updating of the medical properties of HBOT catapaults the last decade of research into the limelight due to the renewed emphasis by the DoD and Department of Veterans Affairs number one clinical priority: suicide prevention.
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Service Member Suicide Rates Undercounted by VA
OpDD identified that the number of suicides represented in the eight states (18% of US veterans), are 1.37 times greater than reported by the VA from 2014-2018. If these eight states and age adjustment represented a national rate: o Approximately 24 FSMs die per day by suicide (determined by coroner or medical examiner) compared to the VA’s 2014-2018 average of 17.7 veteran suicides per day. o Approximately 20 FSMs die per day by Self-Injury Mortality (SIM) – previously listed as accidents/undetermined – over 80% are coded as overdose deaths. o If these eight states collectively represented the national rate, the combined death rate would be at least 44 FSMs per day which is 2.4 times higher than the VA suicide rate
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Dear Mr. President and Dr. Biden:
The following letter was delivered to the White House during the Burn Pit Legislation-signing ceremony. A similar letter was hand-delivered to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Denis McDonough, and is being delivered to the Secretary of Defense, GEN Lloyd J. Austin III.
The challenge for the entire US Government, and medicine in general, is to expand the out-dated “standards of care” for brain wounds. That includes recognizing and properly diagnosing those brain wounds. We must teach and act on what science has demonstrated: mental health and wellness depend on a healthy brain.
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Hyperbaric Oxygen Helps Stop Suicidal Ideation
Dr. Alison Bested, MD, and her team in Florida have published results of a case series that, once again, proves the power of Hyperbaric Oxygenation to stop suicidal ideation by healing brain wounds.
This study demonstrates, yet again, an approach hiding in plain sight. Coupled with the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society’s recent advances in the science of Hyperbaric Medicine, DoD and the VA can be heroes in adding coverage of evidence-based HBOT treatment for TBI/PTSD wound healing
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The PACT Act, Burn Pits, and Next Steps
Several members of the TreatNOW Coalition, all Burn Pit victims, will be at the White House for the Signing of Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics, or PACT, Act. Extensive interviews with these wounded, most of them also suffering from TBI/PTSD, reveals that the VA is failing them in actual treatments. Short and variable staffing, lack of qualified specialists, long wait times, over-reliance on drugs, lack of proven protocols, and a myriad of other shortcomings, indicate that Burn Pit victims will have access to care that already has proven to be too often inadequate and lacking in effectiveness, rather than “high-quality integrated health care.”
While we applaud the reversal of the VA intransigence on Burn Pits, we will remain vigilant in stressing that the VA expand access to alternative modalities like Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
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Maryland is #8 with HBOT Enactment
Please share throughout your networks. Maryland is #8 with HBOT enactment, and with $1m funding to begin treatments in 2024. There are 10 additional states in work with draft language, draft language considerations, or discussions of drafting legislation (ND, CO, WY, ID, NY, MO, NE, TN, OR).
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INDEPENDENCE FROM SUICIDAL IDEATION
TreatNOW’s Mission is to end service member suicides; service members suicides have once again increased, continuing a fifteen year trend. Coalition clinics have demonstrated 100% safety and over 90% success in treating over 21,000 service members, Special Operators, first responders, athletes and citizens with TBI/PTSD/Concussion.
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Special Report: Kentucky HBOT Legislation for Veterans
He believes that the best way to honor the men and women who have sacrificed everything for our country is to ensure that those who make it home are well taken care of. He describes the legislation that has been passed recently by Kentucky to benefit the state’s veterans, and includes the importance of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
In addition, we endorsed the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatments by the Veterans Administration (HCR 40). Studies have shown these treatments can repair the brain tissue, which would significantly improve the quality of life for many of the 13,000 Kentucky veterans suffering from brain injuries and disorders.
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