COLORADO SPRINGS — The bowl of Kit Kats sits next to his gun.
When the 21-year-old Fort Carson soldier — who survived a Humvee bomb blast and a sniper attack in Iraq — instinctively reaches for his weapon, he first grabs a candy bar.
It gives him a minute to consider whether he really needs to pack a concealed handgun for a trip to the grocery store.
James, who does not want his full name in the newspaper because he fears retribution from fellow soldiers and Army superiors, has post traumatic stress disorder. He has trouble sleeping, wants to take his gun everywhere and avoids eating out — if he does, he wants to know where the exits are and sits with his gun toward the wall.
The number of soldiers diagnosed with anxiety and stress at Colorado’s Fort Carson is soaring — so much that a private clinic where soldiers are treated is seeking federal stimulus money for innovative programs such as providing construction jobs, housing and more therapists.
“If I had 10 more therapists, I could keep them busy,” said Davida Hoffman, director of First Choice Counseling Center, part of the Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group.
A rise in numbers
At Fort Carson, the number of soldiers receiving help from psychiatrists, psychologists or social workers rose from 3,845 in 2006 to 4,338 last year. If the January-March trend continues, Fort Carson could see nearly 7,000 soldiers with behavioral-health issues this year.
The Army has doubled the number of behavioral-health workers at the post’s Evans U.S. Army Hospital in the past two years. It now has 71.
“We clearly can identify that we have a growing need here,” said Col. Kelly Wolgast, commander of the hospital.
Pikes Peak Behavioral Health is seeking federal funds not only to hire more therapists, but “peer navigators” to help soldiers leaving the Army find help for stress, enroll in college or get a job.
The health network now has one peer navigator, a Vietnam veteran who drives soldiers to therapy sessions and helps the ones with traumatic brain injuries pay their bills or fill out job applications.
“We didn’t have these kinds of services when we came back from Vietnam, and it was painfully obvious,” said Rich Lindsey, the network’s military liaison. “I don’t think anybody can go to war and come back the same person they were before.”
Called “shell-shock” or “combat disorder” after World War II, post traumatic stress disorder is a “stress reaction that lasts too long,” said Brian Duncan, program manager for First Choice Counseling Center.
Soldiers accustomed to sleeping on the hood of their Humvees with one eye open need pills and a bottle of alcohol to fall asleep back home in their beds. They hate being around noise and crowds. Some grow sullen and irritable.
Lately, Pikes Peak is seeing stressed-out soldiers referred to the counseling center by local schools, where teachers notice that kids — usually little boys — are mimicking their fathers, acting moody and aggressive.
Besides school districts, providers of mental-health services are reaching out to El Paso County churches, prosecutors and police officers with advice on how to treat soldiers dealing with stress.
Counselors at private clinics in Colorado Springs don’t give a soldier’s commanding officer many details about therapy sessions, unless the soldier is suicidal or homicidal. In one recent case, Pikes Peak notified the Army that one of its soldiers was having “homicidal ideation” about his commanding officer, Duncan said.
Reducing the stigma
Fort Carson is working to diminish the stigma attached to mental-health services, in part through an 11-member team of psychiatrists and other health care workers that work in the brigade with soldiers instead of at the hospital. The Army is hoping to create two more “mobile” mental-health teams.
While Army officials say the stigma is decreasing, research shows that thousands of soldiers don’t seek help for anxiety and stress.
Almost 20 percent of military personnel back from Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only about half sought treatment, according to a 2008 report from the RAND Corp., a policy research organization.
A promise of jobs
Pikes Peak Behavioral Health’s pitch for stimulus money includes a promise of construction jobs for veterans. The health network, which owns a small construction company, proposes to buy up half-done and dilapidated townhomes and condos, finish them and sell them at a low profit margin, perhaps to veterans.
With stimulus funding, the nonprofit company — which receives most of its money from the state — could expand its services to the community around Fort Hood in Texas.
The point is to help veterans readjust to life outside a war zone.
James, who joined the Army at 18, is headed to vo-tech college to learn heating and air-conditioner repair.
“Some are not ready or equipped to deal with simple things,” said Jonathan Liebert, deputy director of clinical services for one of Pikes Peak’s branches. “Sometimes, their only skill is to kill people.”
Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com
