http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/us/private-group-to-build-trauma-centers-for-military.html?pagewanted=all
Group Planning Centers to Treat Combat Trauma
By JAMES DAO
Published: June 12, 2012
Pledging to overhaul the way the military handles the least visible wounds of war, a private foundation will unveil a $100 million plan on Wednesday to construct state-of-the-art treatment centers for brain injuries and psychological disorders at nine of the largest bases in the country.
Enlarge This Image
Eric Gay/Associated Press
Arnold Fisher and Master Sgt. Daniel Robles after the sergeant received the Purple Heart in 2007 at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.
The foundation, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, has already raised $25 million and will begin construction this month on the first two centers, at Fort Belvoir, an Army base in Virginia near Washington, and the Marines’ Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
“The signature wounds of these wars are traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress,” said Arnold Fisher, honorary chairman of the fund and patriarch of the New York development family that started it. “And to this day, we are not treating these people well.”
The centers will allow the Pentagon to expand and modernize treatment of traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems to a degree not currently possible at most Army and Navy hospitals, experts said.
By some estimates, about one in five service members return from deployments with traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder.
When completed, fund officials said, the network will also represent the largest privately financed construction project ever done for the Pentagon, which often resists assistance from outside groups. The Intrepid fund is unique, however, in having built large military medical centers in Bethesda, Md., and San Antonio.
Mr. Fisher, whose organization has collected more than $150 million for previous military health programs, said the fund would have little trouble raising the remaining $75 million to complete the other seven centers. The military will staff and operate all the facilities once they are finished.
But with the armed services slashing budgets, the war in Iraq over and American troops leaving Afghanistan in two years, Mr. Fisher raised concerns about whether the government would finance grants to hire the specialized personnel needed to make the centers world class.
Blunt and well known for being demanding, Mr. Fisher, 79, estimated those grants would cost $25 million to $50 million over the next three years.
“I don’t want anything else from the government,” except that it take care of its responsibility, he said in an interview. “These guys go out and get hurt and all you give them is pills? Not in my America.”
In a statement, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said that he was “deeply grateful” to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and that the new centers “will help leading doctors and scientists expand care and research new ways to treat these injuries.”
Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the vice chief of staff of the Army, said in a statement that the Army was “committed to staffing” the centers, saying they will allow “a patient-centered approach to the many possible stressors affecting soldiers’ lives.”
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, said that the Marines were also committed to augmenting the medical staff with specially trained personnel. “If we don’t have the right numbers at Lejeune, we’ll adjust,” he said. “This is at the top of my in-box.”
Having focused a great deal of attention and resources on amputation and burn treatment earlier in the wars, the military acknowledges that it has been slow to understand the depth, breadth and complexity of brain injuries and psychiatric problems related to combat.
In the last decade, the military says that more than 230,000 service members have suffered traumatic brain injuries, about 10 percent of the more than 2.3 million people who have deployed. The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has treated about an equal number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, though experts say many more cases have not been diagnosed yet.
Military medical officials said the new centers would function like satellite clinics for the military’s flagship center for brain injuries, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Bethesda, which was also built by the Intrepid fund, for about $70 million.
With its large staff, small caseload, modern equipment and an openness to alternative therapies, including yoga and acupuncture, the national center is thought by many military officials to provide the most effective care for traumatic brain injuries in the country.
But the Bethesda center handles only about 250 patients a year, said Dr. James Kelly, the director. He said he planned to disseminate innovative therapies and diagnostic practices to the satellite centers through telemedicine and training programs. Those satellite centers are supposed to handle as many as 1,000 patients a year, he said.
“We have the freedom to do things that others don’t,” Dr. Kelly said. “It’s not magic. It requires that systems change and people buy in. I’m confident it can be done at these bases.”
In addition to Fort Belvoir and Camp Lejeune, the military has approved centers at six Army posts: Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Forts Hood and Bliss in Texas, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington and Fort Carson in Colorado. The fund is working with the Pentagon to add one more site.
Each center will be about 25,000 square feet, have a gym, private examination rooms and therapy areas, and be almost fully equipped when turned over to the military, Mr. Fisher said. He said he intended to complete construction on all nine within two years.
Unlike the drab, barracks-like medical buildings at most bases, the new centers will be designed with “curvature and softness,” Mr. Fisher said. “When these men and women walk in, they will know it is built for them.”
Mr. Fisher’s uncle, Zachary, founded the Intrepid Museum Foundation, which saved theWorld War II carrier and brought it to New York. The family then created the fallen heroes fund, which in its early years paid grants to survivors of troops who died on duty. In 2007, the fund opened a $65 million rehabilitation center for severely burned troops and amputees at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, known as the Center for the Intrepid. Its next major project, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Bethesda, opened in 2010.
The family is also responsible for the Fisher House program, which provides free temporary housing for families visiting severely wounded troops at military medical centers. The foundation has built nearly 60 houses, with more planned.
Martin Edelman, an original board member of the Intrepid fund, said that over the years the foundation had learned that building things for the military could force its balky bureaucracy to act.
“All we do is build,” he said. “And the reason is, it serves as a catalyst for attention. So we build the building, we equip it and say, ‘Here it is.’ They then have to staff it. It’s embarrassing if they don’t. And they are forced to do something with it.”
A version of this article appeared in print on June 13, 2012, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Group Planning Centers To Treat Combat Trauma.
Group Planning Centers to Treat Combat Trauma
By JAMES DAO
Published: June 12, 2012
Pledging to overhaul the way the military handles the least visible wounds of war, a private foundation will unveil a $100 million plan on Wednesday to construct state-of-the-art treatment centers for brain injuries and psychological disorders at nine of the largest bases in the country.
Enlarge This Image
Eric Gay/Associated Press
Arnold Fisher and Master Sgt. Daniel Robles after the sergeant received the Purple Heart in 2007 at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.
The foundation, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, has already raised $25 million and will begin construction this month on the first two centers, at Fort Belvoir, an Army base in Virginia near Washington, and the Marines’ Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
“The signature wounds of these wars are traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress,” said Arnold Fisher, honorary chairman of the fund and patriarch of the New York development family that started it. “And to this day, we are not treating these people well.”
The centers will allow the Pentagon to expand and modernize treatment of traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems to a degree not currently possible at most Army and Navy hospitals, experts said.
By some estimates, about one in five service members return from deployments with traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder.
When completed, fund officials said, the network will also represent the largest privately financed construction project ever done for the Pentagon, which often resists assistance from outside groups. The Intrepid fund is unique, however, in having built large military medical centers in Bethesda, Md., and San Antonio.
Mr. Fisher, whose organization has collected more than $150 million for previous military health programs, said the fund would have little trouble raising the remaining $75 million to complete the other seven centers. The military will staff and operate all the facilities once they are finished.
But with the armed services slashing budgets, the war in Iraq over and American troops leaving Afghanistan in two years, Mr. Fisher raised concerns about whether the government would finance grants to hire the specialized personnel needed to make the centers world class.
Blunt and well known for being demanding, Mr. Fisher, 79, estimated those grants would cost $25 million to $50 million over the next three years.
“I don’t want anything else from the government,” except that it take care of its responsibility, he said in an interview. “These guys go out and get hurt and all you give them is pills? Not in my America.”
In a statement, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said that he was “deeply grateful” to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and that the new centers “will help leading doctors and scientists expand care and research new ways to treat these injuries.”
Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the vice chief of staff of the Army, said in a statement that the Army was “committed to staffing” the centers, saying they will allow “a patient-centered approach to the many possible stressors affecting soldiers’ lives.”
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, said that the Marines were also committed to augmenting the medical staff with specially trained personnel. “If we don’t have the right numbers at Lejeune, we’ll adjust,” he said. “This is at the top of my in-box.”
Having focused a great deal of attention and resources on amputation and burn treatment earlier in the wars, the military acknowledges that it has been slow to understand the depth, breadth and complexity of brain injuries and psychiatric problems related to combat.
In the last decade, the military says that more than 230,000 service members have suffered traumatic brain injuries, about 10 percent of the more than 2.3 million people who have deployed. The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has treated about an equal number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, though experts say many more cases have not been diagnosed yet.
Military medical officials said the new centers would function like satellite clinics for the military’s flagship center for brain injuries, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Bethesda, which was also built by the Intrepid fund, for about $70 million.
With its large staff, small caseload, modern equipment and an openness to alternative therapies, including yoga and acupuncture, the national center is thought by many military officials to provide the most effective care for traumatic brain injuries in the country.
But the Bethesda center handles only about 250 patients a year, said Dr. James Kelly, the director. He said he planned to disseminate innovative therapies and diagnostic practices to the satellite centers through telemedicine and training programs. Those satellite centers are supposed to handle as many as 1,000 patients a year, he said.
“We have the freedom to do things that others don’t,” Dr. Kelly said. “It’s not magic. It requires that systems change and people buy in. I’m confident it can be done at these bases.”
In addition to Fort Belvoir and Camp Lejeune, the military has approved centers at six Army posts: Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Forts Hood and Bliss in Texas, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington and Fort Carson in Colorado. The fund is working with the Pentagon to add one more site.
Each center will be about 25,000 square feet, have a gym, private examination rooms and therapy areas, and be almost fully equipped when turned over to the military, Mr. Fisher said. He said he intended to complete construction on all nine within two years.
Unlike the drab, barracks-like medical buildings at most bases, the new centers will be designed with “curvature and softness,” Mr. Fisher said. “When these men and women walk in, they will know it is built for them.”
Mr. Fisher’s uncle, Zachary, founded the Intrepid Museum Foundation, which saved theWorld War II carrier and brought it to New York. The family then created the fallen heroes fund, which in its early years paid grants to survivors of troops who died on duty. In 2007, the fund opened a $65 million rehabilitation center for severely burned troops and amputees at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, known as the Center for the Intrepid. Its next major project, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Bethesda, opened in 2010.
The family is also responsible for the Fisher House program, which provides free temporary housing for families visiting severely wounded troops at military medical centers. The foundation has built nearly 60 houses, with more planned.
Martin Edelman, an original board member of the Intrepid fund, said that over the years the foundation had learned that building things for the military could force its balky bureaucracy to act.
“All we do is build,” he said. “And the reason is, it serves as a catalyst for attention. So we build the building, we equip it and say, ‘Here it is.’ They then have to staff it. It’s embarrassing if they don’t. And they are forced to do something with it.”
A version of this article appeared in print on June 13, 2012, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Group Planning Centers To Treat Combat Trauma.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario