PTSD – Missouri House of Representatives Newsroom

Four Year Effort to Stem Veteran Suicide Reaches Governor’s Desk

An effort to decrease the incidence of suicide in Missouri especially among veterans, one that has long been a top priority for one House member, is at last on the governor’s desk.

*Representative Dave Griffith (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

The legislature approved two bills containing Jefferson City Representative Dave Griffith’s (R) plan, one he has proposed for four years. If signed by Governor Mike Parson (R), it require the Missouri Veterans Commission to come up with recommendations on how veteran suicide can be prevented; and to report annually on new recommendations and on the implementation and effectiveness of state efforts.

The standalone version of his bill never received a “no” vote at any step of this year’s legislative process.

In Missouri suicide occurs among the veteran population nearly twice as often as in the rest of the population. Griffith said this effort is all about reducing that rate, ideally to nothing.

“We’re talking about reducing the number of men and women that are killing themselves because of issues they had when they were in the service. To take it even one step further is to be able to go back to when they were in the service and when they came back from the combat zone. When they came back from Afghanistan or came back from Iraq, came back from Somalia or wherever they were, to have an after action sit down with them and say, ‘What happened with you. What did you see, what did you smell, what did you experience while you were there and how’s that impacting you?’

“It takes a while and it takes a relationship with somebody to be able to really get to the core answer that you’re looking for, but that’s where it’s got to begin. It’s got to begin freshly after they come back.”

*Those in need of help, dial 988. Veterans, dial 988 then press 1.*

An already personal quest becomes more personal

Griffith, a U.S. Army veteran, has made veterans’ issues his top priority throughout his time in the House. In dealing with this issue, he has talked to people who have survived suicide and to families of those who have died by suicide. Then last year, one of his close friends died by suicide.

Ever since, he has kept on his Capitol office desk the last letter that friend sent him.

Griffith told this House Communications staffer, “When it happens to [someone you know], you look through a different lens than you ever have before. Somebody you knew, somebody you sat as close as we’re sitting today and talking and had a conversation with, you shared a beer over it and you’re talking about your time in the service or what you did, and then two weeks later they take their own life, and you’re sitting there thinking, ‘I didn’t have a clue.’”

The functional effect of the legislation

A chief function of Griffith’s legislation is to make sure that the data that is gathered about veterans suicide, of which there is a great deal, is compiled and made available to those concerned with the issue.

“We have hearings and we have meetings and we collect data and we collect information, but, where does it go? What do we do with it?” Griffith said. “That next step needs to be taken where we’re getting information out to the American Legion, the VFW, the Marine Corps League, the DAV, we’re getting information out to those organizations where they can start helping those veterans.”

He wants to ensure that that information is being utilized as effectively as possible to improve efforts including outreach, treatment, and even identifying those at risk of suicidal ideation.

“There’s some things you can look at. Your MOS, your military operating service, what you did; how many times you were deployed; where were you deployed; how many times were you in combat; how many times did you receive fire, you felt your life was in danger; where are you from; how old are you? I think there’s some data that … these are things that we need to look for,” Griffith said. “We also need to take into consideration that somebody [who takes their own life] may not have ever been in combat. They may have just been in-theater … just in the surroundings of it, just being in a place where you hear bombs going off, when your building is shook by incoming mortars.”

Griffith is pleased to note that the Veterans Commission has already started implementing some of what the bill requires.

The goal: to help all who need it

Even though the focus of his bill is on veteran suicide, his concern is for suicide and related mental health issues throughout the population.

“When I began this journey four years ago … my hope was, is, that this would be a springboard to conversations outside the veteran community, outside the military community, to one that is really in the civilian population as well.”

He has talked numerous times in the past four years about tragedies that play out too often. Prominent for him is the story of one child from near his district who died by suicide in recent years.

“When you get down to a nine year old in Eugene, Missouri, because he’s being bullied in school, we’ve got a crisis on our hands. They’re taking their lives because they feel like that’s the only thing that’s going to end the pain that they’ve got. The more that we can talk about that pain, the more that we can have teachers that are in schools, counselors that are in schools that are with those kids all the time, a teacher that can see change in one of their students from this jovial, happy go lucky kid that comes in that all of a sudden is very reserved and withdrawn and something’s going on, somewhere along the way a conversation needs to happen with that child. Somebody needs to, whether it’s a teacher or a counselor, or if a teacher calls and talks with their parents, I think we all have to own that to a certain extent.

“My hope was when I filed this bill, we would begin that conversation in the whole community and not just the veteran community.”

Perspective born of experience

Asked whether he wishes a similar focus on mental health had been in place when he was in the military, Griffith thought back to his time in the 8^th Special Forces Group as a Green Beret. Many of the missions he participated in during his service in Vietnam were classified, and that limited how much he could talk to anyone about what he experienced.

“It never really came out as to how did that affect us? What effect did that have on us? It was just really all mission-oriented. At the time, and even now, I understand, because that was what we were there for, was the mission. But, the after-effects, the human side of it, I think so often were not taken into account,” Griffith said.

Especially with the Vietnam War, he said, conflicts awaited soldiers when they returned home.

“People you went to high school with, even inside your own family. My brother protested against the War in Vietnam, and it hurt me. It hurt me terribly, but being able to vocalize a lot of what was going on internally just was not done. Would [my legislation] have helped? Maybe.”

Griffith said he has dealt with his pain by compartmentalizing.

“I can put it in a box and I can close that box up. Occasionally that box opens and I can share some of what’s in there, but most of the time that box stays closed. Not all my friends, not all my brothers can do that. Their box is open all the time and they’re living with that every day, and the nightmares they have and the night sweats they have, and the way they live their life is based on something that happened to them many, many, many years ago. Trying to get some answers to a lot of those questions is something that is a never ending battle but one that we cannot give up on.”

The message this legislation sends

Aside from the functional effects of his legislation, Griffith said the fact that he proposed it and the fact that it has consistently received unanimous support send a message to veterans. He wants them to know that they are valued.

“To the Vietnam veterans I want to say welcome home … you are back home and you are welcome and what you did was not wrong. What you did was in service to your country. For those that experienced trauma in battle, you’ve got to find somebody you can visit with. Somebody you can sit down and talk to. The person you need to sit down and talk to is another veteran.”

For those who care about veterans and others dealing with mental health, Griffith has heard time and time again from experts that societal stigmas are the a large part of what must be overcome. Those struggling are worried about what will happen to them if they seek help.

“Where the tide is going to start to turn is going to be when we start having open conversations. When we don’t fear that we’re going to lose our jobs, we don’t fear that we’re going to be kicked out of the military, we don’t fear that our family’s going to divorce us and get rid of us because we’re flawed in so many ways that try to cover that up with the mask that we wear, that we’re okay. Once we can take off that mask, once we can unveil what’s beneath the surface and we can start to talk about the issues that really are nagging at us every day and what’s causing us not to sleep.”

“We’ve all got mental health issues in some way, shape, or form. We’re not perfect, we’re flawed, but being able to open yourself up and be vulnerable, that’s the hardest thing for somebody to do. Especially a lot or men. A lot of men, who consider themselves to be very macho and strong and all that, for them to show their inner vulnerability to someone is just hard to do.”

*Representatives and veterans Mike Haffner and Dave Griffith (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

Most Missourians likely know someone who is struggling with mental health issues, even if they don’t know it. Griffith hopes that though efforts like this legislation, more people will look into what they can do for themselves or for someone else.

“The most important thing that you can do, whether you’re a veteran or whether you’re not, if you encounter someone that is having a crisis or has got suicide ideation, or is feeling that way, the best thing for you to do is not give them advice, but to give them an ear, to sit and listen, and then to tell them, ‘I’m not qualified to really help you through this crisis but I know somebody that is, and I know where you can get that help,’ and if you need to, sit right there with them and dial 988 and put them on the phone.”

Griffith’s proposal reached the governor’s desk as a standalone bill in House Bill 1495, and as part of Senate Bill 912. The governor can choose to sign either or both bills into law, veto them, or allow them to become law without taking action. Griffith anticipates he will sign his proposal into law.

Dispatchers ask for help dealing with PTSD, seek ‘first responder’ designation

The state’s 911 dispatchers are urging lawmakers to add them to the state’s legal definition of “first responders,” before the legislative session ends. Some of them visited the Capitol to share personal stories illustrating why they need the help in dealing with post-traumatic stress that comes with that designation.

*Representative Chad Perkins (R-Bowling Green) is among the legislators who has carried legislation aimed at extending mental health services to dispatchers.* *(Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

First responders – which state statute currently defines as firefighters, law enforcement personnel, and emergency medical personnel – are afforded mental health resources, and several legislators say those should also be available to dispatchers.

Representative Lane Roberts (R-Joplin) has been Joplin’s Police Chief and the state’s Director of Public Safety, among other things in his career of more than 40 years. Throughout all of that time he worked with dispatchers and even worked as one at times.

“We have always underappreciated these folks. They’re kind of out of sight, out of mind. They work in a windowless environment, but they are the first of the first responders. They’re the gateway to public safety,” said Roberts. “Every time they get an emergency call they get an adrenaline dump just like people who work in the field do. The difference is, the people in the field get to go somewhere, take action, use those chemicals, while the dispatcher will simply move on to the next call, take those chemicals home at night and go to sleep with them and suffer the health consequences.”

Independence representative Robert Sauls (D) was a prosecutor in Jackson County and a public defender.

“As a former prosecutor I would regularly listen to 911 calls and what happens in those circumstances and … often times people are contacting 911 operators on their worst day. Something’s happening, they’re scared, it’s a very stressful situation, and all of these 911 operators are under these stressful environments and the thing of it is, you’ve got to go on to the next one. You’ve gotten your one situation settled, you hang up the phone, and you’ve got another one. I think it’s very important to recognize these people as first responders.”

Polk County 911 Director Sarah Newell said what she and her colleagues do is often dismissed as just answering phones or clerical work.

“It’s not. We are the first point, so how that call goes is dependent on that dispatcher. How fast that call gets put out, what information gets put out, resource allocation and knowing and forward thinking to say, ‘they’re probably going to need an ambulance on standby so let’s go ahead and roll one of those,’ so all things that they have to think about out of the box at any given time.”

J.R. Webb, the Assistant Director of Springfield/Green County 911, said dispatchers, “have to be able to do a lot of things at once. They have to be able to take that phone call, at the same time they’re typing that information into a computer, at the same time that they may be dealing with first responders on the radio. The multitasking is incredible in a busy situation, and it takes a special kind of person to be able to do that. It takes a kind of type ‘A,’ take charge personality to succeed at our job and it’s not meant for everybody.”

The Chair of the State 911 Board of Governance, Alan Wells, said “Post-traumatic stress is a big, big thing for our 911 telecommunicators, and as of right now they do not have a lot of resources there to help with that.”

“Turnover is a big problem, burnout is a big problem that affects this industry, so we hope to be able to give them all the benefits necessary to sustain a good, long-lasting career,” said Wells.

*Representative Robert Sauls also carries legislation intended to include dispatchers in the state’s legal definition of “first responders.” (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

He said it’s not uncommon for dispatchers, especially in the smaller communities throughout Missouri, to know personally the people involved in the incidents they are handling.

“Sometimes it can be very horrifying for those operators,” said Wells. “It may be a loved one, a family member, an immediate family member, or in our case it was one of our own 911 call takers who had just left his shift, headed home on his motorcycle and hit a deer and it was a fatality. The same operators that were just working with him had to take that call and work that incident.”

Hailey Brunner is in her fourth year as a dispatcher at the Cass Co Sheriff’s Office. She remembered one week in which her rotation, “worked seven fatalities, whether it be between an accident, people harming themselves, anything of that nature, natural deaths, anything, and it’s just a wide variety, whether it’s young kids to old kids. My most recent one was a two year-old who died in a fatality car accident.”

Blake Johnson has been dispatching for five years in Green County. He said there is one call he’ll always remember.

“I had taken a call from a family who had lost a child and I can still hear the mom screaming for her kid. It’s absolutely horrible and it makes it worse when you actually know who those people are.”

Newell said, “I have a dispatcher who actually worked a motor vehicle accident. It was a rollover with ejection. There were four juveniles in the vehicle. She took the call and … right before she was ready to dispatch, she realized it was her son in the vehicle.”

Brunner said dispatchers can’t help but imagine the scenes that they are hearing play out over the phone, and that can result in very vivid and very upsetting imagery.

“You’re hearing all of this stuff that’s going on, on the phone. You’re hearing the screams and … they’re painting a picture for you, so you have this picture in your mind of what it looks like and it could be completely the opposite of what they actually see on the scene. It could be better, it could be worse. We never quite know.”

Webb said worse still, dispatchers often get no closure at the end of a call.

“You’re sending folks to help these people that are yelling and screaming at you and in their worst day, then you don’t really know for sure when the other first responders go there, and how this call turned out,” said Webb.

*Representative Lane Roberts (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

He said an increasing number of suicides in Missouri also directly impacts dispatchers.

“It could be someone, honestly, wanting an audience while they commit suicide. That happens way too much.”

Some call centers, like that at Springfield, have mental health resources that are made available to dispatchers there and in surrounding communities. Such resources aren’t available to all dispatchers in Missouri, though, especially in many smaller communities.

Several bills would address PTSD and mental health resources for dispatchers and other first responders. These dispatchers and lawmakers are among those who hope at least one of those bills is passed before the session’s end on May 12.

House votes to increase state efforts against veteran suicide

The House has voted to improve the state’s efforts to prevent suicide among its veteran population.

Representatives voted 156-0 for House Bill 132, which directs the Missouri Veterans Commission to work with the Department of Mental Health to come up with recommendations on how Missouri can prevent veteran suicide. It would require the Commission to report annually, beginning June 30, 2024, on new recommendations and on the implementation and effectiveness of the state’s efforts.

The bill is sponsored by Jefferson City Republican Dave Griffith, a U.S. Army Veteran who served with the 8^th Special Forces Group as a Green Beret. He has spent much of his career in the House dealing with veterans’ issues, and with ways to stem suicide not only among current and former service members but in the population in general.

“Many of you know, I’m very passionate about this. I can tell you of friends that I’ve lost in the last month – veterans that have committed suicide. A young man that was 27 years old, that grew up across the street from me took his own life. This has got to stop,” said Griffith.

Griffith speaks often of the social media campaign #22, and his personal goal of decreasing or eliminating what that number represents.

“#22 stands for the number of veterans that commit suicide every day … If we can start to look at programs and we can look at procedures that can be done and best practices that are being done by not only our state but throughout the entire United States, we can start making a difference in this, but we need to do more than just talk. We need to do research. We need to look at non-traditional methods of treating [post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury] and veteran suicide.”

*Representative Ashley Bland Manlove (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

Though he and others in the legislature and state government have been talking about these issues for years and developing related programs, Griffith said Missouri has a long way to go. Representative Ashley Bland Manlove (D-Kansas City), who has served in the Missouri National Guard, agreed.

“For a lot of people these conversations about mental health are brand new … so a lot of people are still like, ‘When I was in the military we just had to grunt through it, and talking about your emotions made you weak,’ but what we have found out is that that’s not true.”

“I think the biggest population that we should be talking about is the one percent of American population that raises their right hand for this country,” continued Bland Manlove. “The best way that we can thank our veterans for their dedication and work to this country is by taking care of them.”

Rogersville Republican Darin Chappell (R) has a great deal of experience with the issues faced by military members and their families, as he is a veteran of the Navy and the Army Reserves and has many service members in his family.

“I have long believed, and have advocated for, the philosophy: ‘If we send them we have to mend them, and we have to bring them all the way home.’ It’s time for us to do all that we can to make sure that occurs.”

Before casting their votes for the measure, legislators reflected about their own personal experiences. St. Clair Republican Brad Banderman solemnly told his colleagues, “About two years ago my little sister laid down on the grave of my older brother that shot himself in 1990 and killed herself. Anything that we can do as a legislature, as a body, as individuals, to help prevent the suicide of our veterans, I’m in full support of.”

*Representative Brad Banderman (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

Missouri as of 2020 had the 14^th highest suicide rate in the U.S., with about 1,125 people having died by suicide in that year. The rate among veterans is approximately 1.5 higher than in the rest of the population, and experts are telling legislators they fear that suicide rates are going to increase.

“I think we need to do better and I think this is a good start,” said Representative Robert Sauls (D-Independence).

The same bill passed out of the House last year but did not come to a final vote in the Senate.

Anyone in need of help for themselves or someone else for a mental health, substance abuse, or suicide crisis is encouraged to call 988.

Missouri House considers legalizing medical use of marijuana

The Missouri House is one vote away from proposing that Missouri legalize the medical use of marijuana by people suffering from certain terminal or debilitating conditions.

Representative Jim Neely (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)

House Bill 1554 would expand on a law passed in 2014 that allows the use of a cannabis extract, cannabidiol (CBD) oil, to treat intractable epilepsy. If HB 1554 became law, a patient suffering from conditions including cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder could use medical marijuana if a doctor signs a statement saying he or she could benefit from its use and that all options approved by the Food and Drug Administration have been considered.

The bill is sponsored by Representative Jim Neely (R-Cameron), who is also a doctor.

“There’s a lot of people in my world, from the hospice and the long-term care world, that feel that this would be appropriate for people to ease the pain, suffering, and the side-effects of the opioids and this might be the best way to go,” said Neely. He said the bill would give people, “another option at the end stages of life.”

House members including Travis Fitzwater (R-Holts Summit) spoke about loved ones that might benefit from the legislation, such as his mother and sister who have multiple sclerosis.

Fitzwater said their neurologist, who he knows and trust, has said they should have the option of using marijuana for pain treatment.

“I trust his opinion. He went to medical school. He knows what he’s talking about. He’s spent his career focused on multiple sclerosis and his patients are mainly multiple sclerosis patients,” said Fitzwater. When he tells me that … [my] mom or [my] sister should have the option to come to their neurologist and discuss treatment options for pain – and this is a gentleman who is as professional as anybody I’ve ever met – they ought to have that opportunity.”

“Patients that have these debilitating diseases ought to have an option … when the doctors agree and there are professionals involved that know more about what’s going on with those patients than we do,” said Fitzwater.

Representative Gina Mitten (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)

Representative Gina Mitten (D-St. Louis) said a colleague of hers who is a practicing attorney must break her oath to uphold the law by using marijuana to treat her epilepsy, rather than use the prescription drugs that caused her to have a psychotic episode among other side effects.

“How is it that it’s okay to have to spend a night, or two nights, or three nights in a hospital due to medication that’s been prescribed and creates all kinds of other side effects, as opposed to something that we know in other states has worked very well for this disease?” asked Mitten.

Pacific Republican Paul Curtman sponsored adding PTSD to the legislation. He described what he knows some of his fellow comrades in the Marine corps faced, and said leaving this issue facing veterans out of the bill would be a “travesty.”

He spoke about a fellow Marine from Missouri whose experience overseas included having to routinely wash the blood of friends out of the back of a Humvee. Curtman said the man was prescribed by the Veterans’ Administration drugs that had numerous side effects. For a time he used marijuana and that worked for him, but he was arrested and forced to return to the drugs prescribed by the VA.

“The VA came by and said if you ever [use marijuana] again you’re jeopardizing your ability to use any of your VA benefits. So, after being on house arrest for a while with the VA checking up on him to make sure that he was taking the synthetic drugs that the VA wanted him to take, his father came home just a few weeks later only to find that his son had put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger,” said Curtman.

Under the bill the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services would issue medical cannabis registration cards to approved patients, or to parents in the cases of minor parents. The bill would only allow the use of smokeless forms of marijuana. HB 1554 also lays out how marijuana could be legally cultivated by licensed growers under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture.

Another favorable vote would send the legislation to the Senate. Two years ago the House rejected a bill that would have asked voters whether to legalize the limited, medical use of marijuana.