Colorado Springs – Army Spec. Alex Lotero saw the gore of Iraq close up. He was there when a roadside bomb blew up a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, creating an inferno.
He pulled an injured soldier away from the wreckage, then helped get him to a medevac helicopter. Two other soldiers died.
When he returned to Fort Carson in November, Lotero, 20, of Miami, couldn’t sleep. He had awful dreams and once admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital in Colorado Springs.
Lotero was diagnosed with post- traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. He was told to go to group therapy weekly and was offered 30 minutes a month of one-on-one therapy.
After attending three group therapy sessions, Lotero quit. He said the meetings were basically complaint sessions.
“That’s basically all that you hear is one dude’s problems with his chain of command, another dude’s problems with his chain of command, and that’s all you hear,” Lotero said.
Fort Carson offered to discharge him with a “personality disorder,” an offer Lotero didn’t accept because it would have made him ineligible for benefits from Veterans Affairs. He is going through the process to be medically discharged from the Army, a process that could entitle him to VA benefits.
He was one of 21 soldiers who spoke to a dozen congressional representatives during a two- day fact-finding visit to Fort Carson this week. During the visit, Fort Carson admitted it needed more mental health care providers to meet the needs of soldiers returning from the war.
Fort Carson has added several providers over the past two years and is in the process of hiring a new psychiatrist and other professionals.
Andrew Pogany, an investigator with Veterans for America, an advocacy group that has pushed for better medical care, said that when soldiers like Lotero don’t want to attend group therapy, they are labeled as “noncompliant and unmotivated,” character flaws that lead to a “personality disorder.”
“I find very little evidence of individually tailored treatment,” Pogany said.
However, Fort Carson’s Dr. Steve Knorr, who is in charge of psychiatric treatment at the hospital, said Fort Carson tailors treatment to individual soldiers.
“Our psychologists have time set aside for seeing patients for individual therapy,” Knorr said. “If a psychologist is booked, the patients also can be referred to other providers.”
Lotero said the 30 minutes a month of individual therapy that he is offered is “not enough.”
Connie Best, a clinical psychologist and PTSD expert at the Medical University of South Carolina, said group therapy is not the most effective way to treat stress disorder.
“It has to be individual, and it can’t just be, ‘How do you feel today?”‘ Best said. “The way you do that is in an individual session.”
But Dr. Knorr said group therapy works.
“Just as esprit de corps and camaraderie help soldiers deal with the rigors and traumas of combat while deployed, it is also therapeutic in the healing process,” Knorr said.
Staff Writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
