2017 Veterans Interest Committee Report - Lawrence Herz, MD, Gary Kaplan, MD, Resident Co-Leaders, Edwin Raffi, MD and Doug Brennan, MD

In the past year, the Veterans Interest Committee has presented evening lectures on “Trauma Brain Injury: A Neuropsychiatric Perspective” by Dr. Kalo Tanev from MGH and on “Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD Comorbidity- Definitions, Neuroanatomy, Pathogenesis and Translational Models’ by Dr. Gary Kaplan from VA Boston Healthcare System. Additionally, Dr. John Bradley from VA Boston shared his personal and professional experience of combat and return using the documentary “Wartorn”.
The committee has discussed how combat trauma and TBI increase the risk of PTSD, other mood and anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and suicide in the veteran population.  The group also discussed the need for more comprehensive re-integration of military members and families into the larger society to improve connectedness. We discussed how mental health practitioners can better recognize and treat both veterans and their families for the effects of deployment through better screening and acknowledgement of the sacrifices associated with military service. 

Finally, we discussed accessibility for committee events, e.g., whether a meeting at a venue closer to the downtown medical centers would be more appealing and successful for MPS members who find MMS too long a drive at the end of the day.  We are considering evening programs on Female Veterans and The Veterans Viewpoint on Psychiatric Care.