AWOL Campbell soldier getting PTSD treatment - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

AWOL Campbell soldier getting PTSD treatment

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The Army has sent Jeff Hanks to a treatment facility in Hopkinsville rather than deploying him to Afghanistan.

Hanks, a 1st Brigade Combat Team soldier, is now at Cumberland Hall in Hopkinsville, Ky., receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress, which he developed following a 2008 deployment to Iraq.

Christina Hanks, wife of the 101st Airborne Division soldier, said the Army sent him to the behavioral health facility for in-patient treatment rather than to Afghanistan. Hanks was scheduled to be deployed on Sunday.

Hanks deployed to Afghanistan with the 1st BCT last May but did not return after a mid-tour leave in October. Instead, he went home to North Carolina and then turned himself in to the military Nov. 11.

Hanks, along with supporters from the Iraq Veterans Against the War and Operation Recovery advocacy groups, said the Army failed to provide proper treatment for his PTSD in Afghanistan and while he was home.

After returning to the Army, Hanks said he had been seeing behavioral health providers both on and off post, but the military specialists still did not provide adequate treatment.

“ ‘He didn’t really need it anyway, we’re just tying up loose ends,’ ” Hanks said of what he was told by the Army.

The IVAW group has said that four civilian mental health experts diagnosed Hanks with PTSD. His symptoms, Hanks said, include headaches and anxiety in large crowds. He has nightmares and trouble sleeping and has been unnecessarily mean to his daughters.

Fort Campbell spokesman Rick Rzepka said Hanks would not deploy immediately, but would not discuss the case because of privacy rules.

Christina Hanks said her husband will be at Cumberland Hall for at least a week.

Rzepka noted that Fort Campbell has changed its philosophy and procedures with regard to PTSD and suicide prevention in the past two years since the installation reported a record 21 suicides in 2009.

“Fort Campbell takes a holistic, comprehensive approach to the fitness of the soldiers stationed here,” Rzepka said in an e-mail message. “As physical strength is necessary to be a soldier here, so we have learned that mental and spiritual fitness are also fundamentally critical to the job of being a soldier.”

Part of that effort includes the addition of nearly 100 personnel dedicated to helping and treating PTSD cases and suicide intervention, regular screenings when soldiers return and suicide prevention training to incoming soldiers.

There is also a 24-hour behavioral health provider at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital on post and other programs developed to help those soldiers.

“Fort Campbell leaders have been innovative and intuitive in their approach to dealing with suicide prevention and the behavioral health needs of soldiers here. Leaders here fully understand that asking for help is a sign of strength,” Rzepka said.