Operational stress injury is a paradigm. It's a non-clinical term. Treating PTSD is different from treating depression and is different from treating panic disorder.
What I have found, as somebody who's served 20 years, is that nothing is perfect, but what I've found really impressive is how much people are talking about it and how many people are coming forward in the Role 3s, right in theatre. They are describing their differences and the difficulties they're having. Chain of command will walk in with a soldier and say, “I'm a little bit worried about how this corporal or master corporal is doing, doc. Can you check him out?” That's the main thing I've noticed.
You know, when we deployed to Rwanda, there was absolutely zero mental health support. By the time we reached Kandahar, we had psychiatrists, social workers, and mental health nurses. We have a full psychiatric team. To a psychiatrist, that's a dramatic difference.
Even in theatre, our first aim is to help the soldier complete his or her task and to complete his or her tour. That's very important for most soldiers, so we do our best and work in a confidential way with the chain of command to try to keep people in. Sometimes it's a respite inside the airfield for a couple of weeks and learning some grounding techniques, much like you heard about what the dogs do, to stay grounded and not get caught up in the hypervigilance and arousal and those things. Our first aim, even in theatre, is to help people complete their tours.