CHICAGO, March 29 (UPI) -- An Illinois senator wants to require the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department to expand Post Traumatic Stress Disorder care for military veterans.
Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin announced new legislation that would require every VA medical center to establish a post-traumatic disorder clinical team of medical professionals. Each team would include a family therapist and a coordinator for PTSD services in every VA region.
"Veterans hospitals are not equipped to do the job," said Durbin, during an emotional forum at an American Legion Hall in Chicago. "They don't have enough counselors and doctors to help these returning veterans and their families."
Up to 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress: nightmares, flashbacks and severe anxiety, according to a 2004 study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"The wounds cause by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder aren't as obvious as missing limbs and other scars of battle. But they are just as real," Durbin said.
