The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
One-hundred thirty of the nation's medical and osteopathic colleges—105 medical colleges and 25 osteopathic colleges—have committed to train students in treating brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental-health issues affecting returning service members.
One-hundred thirty of the nation's medical and osteopathic colleges—105 medical colleges and 25 osteopathic colleges—have made a commitment to our service members who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental-health issues. These 130 schools will begin training their students to recognize and treat these injuries, as well as participate in research to better understand them.
Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries—two signature injuries of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—affect 1 in 6 of our veterans. In order to help the issues our service members are facing, we need doctors and professionals who have a fundamental understanding of PTSD and TBI.
This commitment to support our veterans and their families, part of First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden’s Joining Forces initiative, is the largest of its kind from American medical schools. It will help leverage the full capacity of our nation's health care providers to improve care for our nation's veterans, service members, and military, and help to train the nation's future physicians on military cultural issues. These schools will develop new research and clinical trials so that we can better understand and treat PTSD and TBI, and collaborate to share information and best practices.
Our veterans, servicemen and women—and their families—have served this country in extraordinary ways. Now it’s time for us to serve them as well as they have served us.
