STRESS AND COPING WITH TRAUMA OF WAR IN THE PERSIAN GULF

File: 110596_sep96_decls2_0031.txt
Page: 0031
Total Pages: 48

Subject: STRESS AND COPING WITH TRAUMA OF WAR IN THE PERSIAN GULF        

Unit: VAR. BUMED  

Parent Organization: BUMED       

Box ID: BX303818

Folder Title: USNS COMFORT TAH 20 MEDICAL ARTICLES 1991 1992                                                  

Document Number:          4

Folder SEQ  #:         13










             a thoughtful yet heated discussion. about the ethics of

             deploying mothers with young children and the age when it

             would be acceptable for a mother to leave her child. There

             was no consensus except that perhaps the deployment was

             unhealthy but necessary.

                  The USNS Comfort did not have beds designated for

             psychiatric care prior to deployment. During the first week

             of the deployment, the mental health team met with the

             commanding officer and agreed that 10-20% of the beds on the

             hospital ship should be designated for psychiatric

             casualties. This estimate was based on the Vietnam

             experience wherein the USNS Repose had 48 out of 500 total

             beds devoted to Psychiatry and on projections that up to 30%

             of all casualties would be psychiatric.

                  The mental health inpatient service on the USNS Comfort

             was divided into two units. The first unit was a Combat

             Stress Center (CSC) with a 72 bed total capacity, and the

             second unit was a 60 bed combined psychiatry/medicine ward.

             The CSC was designed to apply lessons learned from recent

             conflicts and to use the principles of combat psychiatry:

             proximity, immediacy, and expectancy. Military personnel
             triaged to this unit were expected to return to duty within

             48 to ?2 hours. Combat stress casualties would remain in

             uniform, be addressed by their military rank, eat on the

             mess decks, and have daily work assignments. Treatment




                                            644

Document 48 f:/Week-39/BX303818/USNS COMFORT TAH 20 MEDICAL ARTICLES 1991 1992/stress and coping with trauma of war in the pers:1104960910243
Control Fields 17
File Room = sep96_declassified
File Cabinet = Week-39
Box ID = BX303818
Unit = VAR. BUMED
Parent Organization = BUMED
Folder Title = USNS COMFORT TAH 20 MEDICAL ARTICLES 1991 1992
Folder Seq # = 13
Subject = STRESS AND COPING WITH TRAUMA OF WAR IN THE PERS
Document Seq # = 4
Document Date =
Scan Date =
Queued for Declassification = 01-JAN-1980
Short Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Long Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Permanent Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Non-Health Related Document = 01-JAN-1980
Declassified = 04-NOV-1996