A report in the Lancet (BBC report) examining the health of British military personnel may have significant implications for the US forces serving there. One study reported that the incidence of all mental health problems was significantly higher in reservists and Territorial Army (TA) members than in the regular army.
Although reservists have a similar relation to the ordinary army in both the UK and USA, the Terrritorials, although used as a reserve force, are not analgous to the National Guards. The TA trains in very similar ways to the regular British Army and its members are integrated into the ordinary battalions when serving. This training may well be preparing them better than that for the National Guards.
The figures quoted in the study are that 19% of the regular army and 25% of the reservists and TA report some mental health problems. The BBC in its TV report contrasts the 4% currently reporting the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the UK forces with the 20% in the US service personnel. The gross difference is probably mainly a result of the (up to now) lower incidence of “insurgent” attacks and far less actual combat in the British sector compared to the US run areas. The crude US figures may however be hiding a far higher incidence of PTSD in the National Guard. As typically the syptoms continue to appear well after the actual combat, mental ill-health associated with the Iraq War could well be a very significant problem in the Guards. How many will start to have flashbacks if they encounter hot dusty weather when on border patrol in Texas? With many US reservists serving in the law enforcement services, how many more “Rodney King” type incidents are going to happen?
Bush’s cuts in the Veterans’ support services are clearly short-sighted. Can it really cope with the maybe 100,000+ who will return with PSTD, let alone the greater number with less severe mental problems?
