TRENTON — The 1,500 members of the New Jersey National Guard who have returned from combat over the last 18 months will get the chance to meet with a doctor to discuss coping with the "invisible" wounds of war: post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, officials announced today. A program launched today by the New Jersey Medical Society...
First 300 members of the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, of the New Jersey National Guard, arrive home from Iraq in this 2009 file photo.TRENTON — The 1,500 members of the New Jersey National Guard who have returned from combat over the last 18 months will get the chance to meet with a doctor to discuss coping with the "invisible" wounds of war: post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, officials announced today.
A program launched today by the New Jersey Medical Society and the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is recruiting doctors who have served in the military themselves and are willing to volunteer their time to meet with service members, said Donald Cinotti, the society’s president.
Tapping into the "bond that service men and women have between themselves, we hope this will be an outlet for them to express the things that are bothering them, and to express the medical problems they are having," Cinotti said. "We don’t want this bound up inside them that will explode later on."
Under the "Healers and Heroes" program, physicians will consult with veterans and service members informally and confidentially about problems they are having adjusting to their post-deployment lives, and make referrals for medical or mental health care, he said.
Vince Moss, a thoracic surgeon, and his twin, Vance Moss, a urologist, share a practice in Howell. They said that when serving in the Army together in the Middle East, they were grateful to have each other to discuss what they saw and felt. Vance Moss, 39, said he felt "clinically depressed" upon returning because his "adrenaline was so pumped up."
"I think this program will take off rather quickly," he said.
There are about a dozen doctors who have committed to the program so far, with the goal of recruiting about 100, Medical Society officials said. The New Jersey Psychiatric Association is also encouraging its members to participate, Cinotti said. The program will expand to all service members and veterans as the roster of participating doctors grows.
There have been 15,000 service members from New Jersey deployed within the last nine years, said Maj. Gen. Glenn Rieth, the highest ranking military official in the state. About 30 percent of returning service members suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, he added.
"Each and every soldier, airman, marine and sailor that raises their right hand knows they are going to spend time overseas, knows that we are in an era of persistent conflict ... And there is no question there is significant hardship and sacrifice in a service member’s life," Rieth said. "If we are going to sustain this all-volunteer force I think all Americans have to come together to support the less than 1 percent of Americans that are in uniform."
For more information about the program, go to www.njhealersandheroes.com or (609) 896-1766, ext. 203.
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