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SECTION: REVIEW; Health Table; Pg. 32
LENGTH: 1658 words
MATP
Mental
health problems caused by war service afflict veterans' families
and children too
Kellie Bisset reports
It's
been nearly 40 years since Paul Wildes
was conscripted to serve with 103
Signal Squadron at Nui Dat, Vietnam. And though
a marriage, a child and a lifetime lie between his tour of duty
as a young soldier and the man he is today, the nightmares still
come.
Now 61, Wildes avoids crowds because he can't mix with people.
Increasing outbursts of uncontrollable anger forced him to seek
treatment, and he now relies on medication to check bouts of anger.
Quiet and reserved, like most veterans he doesn't like to talk
about the war. But he's making an exception today because there's
a nagging doubt in the back of his mind that Vietnam could be
the reason he now has a son with bipolar disorder.
Wildes's 34-year-old son, also Paul, has not worked for nearly
four years. His medical cocktail of 13 tablets a day makes him
tired and listless, and mildly stressful situations spiral him
into anxiety.
Wildes junior is one of a disturbingly high number of Vietnam
veterans' children suffering from mental illness.
Sons and daughters of Vietnam veterans are three times more likely
to commit suicide than those of similar age in the general population
(Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2000, Suicide
in Vietnam veterans' children: Supplementary report
no.1).
They are also more likely to die of accidental death, experience
depression and abuse alcohol or other drugs.
Since these alarming figures were discovered by accident during
a 1998 Department of Veterans Affairs study into the health of
Vietnam veterans (AIHW 1998, Morbidity
of Vietnam Veterans, Vol 1), momentum has been building
for a wider investigation into the mental and physical health
of their children. A government-funded feasibility study recommending
this should be done is about to land on the desk of new
Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Billson.
But there's worry in the veteran community that the recent ministerial
reshuffle and potential ramifications of such a large-scale health
study could see the project delayed, dumped or buried.
''There is something wrong with our children,'' says Wildes's
wife Maureen. ''It breaks my heart as a wife that my husband was
sent to that filthy war that wrecked his life and now he has to
watch his son go downhill. This study just has to go ahead. There
is enough evidence to show there is a problem.''
Academics are also in favour of more research, and have joined
the veteran community in its calls for action.
In 2002 a lobby group called COVVHS (Children
of Vietnam Veterans Health Study) was set up to
push the case for big-picture research. The group now says it's
crunch time, and will soon meet Bruce Billson to agitate for funding.
''He is going to get the message that we are not going to go
away,'' says founding member Sue Parker. ''If they don't fund
a proper health study, I will be very upset if every veteran in
Australia does not get up in arms and march on Canberra.'' Parker
and her husband Geoff, who returned from Vietnam in 1969, have
two children: one with a serious bowel condition and the other
with a mental illness.
She says if the politicians are worried about compensation claims,
they needn't be: ''That is not where we are coming from.'' Rather,
she says, ''it's about getting early medical help for those children
young enough to benefit and identifying who they are so we know
who to target for assistance.''
Newly-appointed veterans affairs minister Bruce Billson is no
stranger to the cause. His electorate of Dunkley in Victoria has
a large veteran community, and he's well aware of the issue.
By all accounts he is well liked and respected by many veterans.
But he now faces the challenge of following through on this goodwill
from the position of a new minister with budget constraints.
''This is a very important matter [but] it is early days and I
resist the temptation to make any grand pronouncements,'' Billson
says. ''Our starting position is we recognise that children of
Vietnam veterans do experience higher rates of some illness and
disease than the wider population. The Government has a pretty
good record in responding to the concerns of Vietnam veterans
and their families, and I am keen to see what the feasibility
study identifies.''
Billson says he has marked the issue a priority with the Department
of Veterans Affairs. If he does give the green light to funding
a full-scale epidemiological study, it won't come cheap and is
likely to take three to five years.
According to Professor Hedley Peach,
conducting research into veterans' sons and daughters is vital,
not only to examine in detail the reasons behind their poor health
but to set up support services that work for them.
He is also eager for doctors to consider war service when treating
patients, as in many cases it could help diagnosis (see box).
Peach, a member of the scientific committee advising the Government
on the feasibility study and professorial fellow at the University
of Melbourne, says the Government should also consider studying
grandchildren of Vietnam veterans to avoid more problems spiralling
down through the generations.
''If the sons and daughters have got mental health problems and
have young children themselves, what effect will that have on
the grandchildren? We have to break the cycle.''
He suggests stressful familial environments could be behind the
children's mental health problems, already highlighted by existing
research. While many people with mental illness have a genetic
predisposition to their condition, veterans were screened for
mental illness before they went into the service, making stress
a more likely factor in the children's ill health.
''In studies done by clinical psychologists running PTSD clinics
for Vietnam veterans, children have reported a high level of dysfunction
in families,'' he says. ''When we focused on Agent Orange so much
in the past we missed the bigger picture. We are seeing the same
sorts of problems in veterans of the Iraq and Gulf Wars, and fighters
in World War II are now saying they suffered from the same problems.
It is not due to any specific war, it is the generic effect of
combat.''
The Australian Gulf War Veterans
Health Study, conducted in 2003 by researchers
at Monash University, supports this view.
The research found that Gulf War veterans had a greater risk
of PTSD, other anxiety disorders, depression and substance abuse
compared to a comparison group -- similar problems to those found
in Vietnam veterans.
This means wide ramifications for the results of a study finding
conclusive links between war service and the health of veterans'
offspring. The Government could be looking at a major overhaul
of the way it deals with returning soldiers.
This is why people such as Anthony Marinac have their doubts
the study will get off the ground.
The son of a Vietnam veteran, Marinac has never suffered ill health
but became ''pissed off'' when he learned that sons and daughters
of veterans were killing themselves. He has since written a book
exploring their experiences. ''If you look at the history of relations
between the Vietnam veterans and the Government, the Government
has often taken an approach of minimising its potential liability,''
he says. ''The Government can get off scot-free if they like;
the question is whether this is the right thing to do. I suspect
they are struggling with this. Unless they are prepared to do
what the outcomes of the research suggest, it is much easier to
stop people from asking the question rather than saying why you
won't provide the answer.''
Marinac says research needs to be done now, not only to put the
question to rest, but because the children of veterans are ageing.
Leaving it too late will lose the opportunity to gather meaningful
information.
Although the study would be a costly exercise, he suggests there
would be potential savings to the health system if this group
at risk of mental illness was identified and treated appropriately
and early.
Acting national president of the Vietnam Veterans Association
of Australia Ron Coxon is more optimistic that the Government
will come to the party, given that through the health system it
is already funding the problems of many of these children.
While some of them may be using health services, most don't avail
themselves of the Vietnam veterans counselling service, expanded
to include sons and daughters following the emergence of the suicide
statistics.
Hedley Peach says only 2 per cent of children (there are an estimated
120,000) use the service and the Government needs to investigate
why.
''If we are going to get involved in military activities as a
country either in a peacekeeping role or whatever, we have got
to realise that the impact of sending young people to war is not
just going to be on the person who goes to war,'' Peach says.
''We should be thinking of providing services for the entire
family for life.''
This is something Paul Wildes would dearly love to see. ''I would
like to see [my son's] condition treated properly and acknowledged,
and that he will be looked after if Maureen and I suddenly drop
off the end,'' he says.
Though tired of fighting, Wildes says this battle is one that
needs to be fought.
His wife Maureen is even more adamant. ''I will go to my grave
fighting for this. Not only for my son but for the other children.''
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