Oral

As of May 2007, over 3,400 U.S. soldiers have died and more than 25,000 have been wounded in the war in Iraq. Many of the wounded have incurred serious injuries that have necessitated amputation of limbs or have caused long-term disability. The Surgeon General of the U.S. Army has estimated that 30 percent of returning troops have stress-related mental health problems. Linda Bilmes, at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate, have calculated the cost of the war in Iraq to be at least $1.2 trillion, and that if this war's veterans receive disability payments and medical care at the same rate as veterans of the first gulf war, their health costs will add up to $250 billion. If the disability rate matches Vietnam's, the number climbs higher. Either way, Ms. Bilmes has described U.S. veterans’ health costs to constitute “a miniature Medicare.'' This session is a collaborative effort of the Labor and Peace Caucuses and will describe the mental and physical health and economic costs of the war in Iraq on veteran’s, their families, and communities.

Session Objectives: At the end of this session participants will: 1. Describe the nature and extent of post-traumatic stress disorder among Iraq war veterans; 2. Recognize the economic, health and social impacts of the Iraq war on veterans and their families.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing