New ways of treating post-traumatic stress disorder for local servicemen and women

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Thousands of servicemen and women will come home from Afghanistan and Iraq in August.

Something unwanted may come back with them: post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

These days, the VA is making strides in treating PTSD after possibly missing it in older war veterans.

For Rudy Warshawsky of Delray Beach, it was the memories of a World War II battlefield.

"Anyone who goes through war, it's not a game. You're never going to forget it," said Warshawsky.

For Ed Mckeon, who works at the West Palm Beach VA, it was the jungles of Vietnam.

"I don't think, unless you've been in war, you'll truly understand it," said McKeon.

Thousands of aging war veterans just like these two brought the war back with them through PTSD.

PTSD can be described as an anxiety disorder, where you essentially relive a traumatic event over and over.

For some veterans it's left untreated for years, even decades.

"Got to a point where I tried to commit suicide. I'm ashamed to say it but what else, I got to tell the truth," said Warshawsky.

McKeon said, "You come home with a feeling of guilt. I think every combat soldier feels that way when they come home."

Now, a new wave of veterans has the disorder.

According to the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center, 1,400 veterans were treated at the center for PTSD from 2009 through 2010.

That's a 44 percent jump from the previous year.

Now, the veterans are being treated in new ways.

Since 2004, federal funding has increased so much for PTSD treatment that the VA staff treating the disorder has doubled across the country.

Treatment can include group therapy, or even a tranquil getaway. To look up treatment options, there's even a phone app for that.

At the West Palm Beach VA, PTSD treatment has its own specialized building.

Heading the charge to treat the new wave of vets with PTSD is chief of mental health Dr. Albert Fernandez-Milo.

"Our goal is, to best put it, that we leave no man or woman behind," said Dr. Fernandez-Milo.

That sometimes means treatment can last years after service, even for the rest of a veteran's life.

Dr. Fernandez-Milo calls the program a success.

"We are using a lot of evidence based psychotherapies in addition to medication regimens to really help some of the veterans to process the traumatic events and to not only improve but to deal with whatever symptomatology they have," said Dr. Fernandez-Milo.

He also says he's seeing a pattern: The older vets, especially Vietnam era, are now getting treatment.

After all these years, McKeon and Warshawsky are using the VA in West Palm Beach to treat their PTSD.

They hope vets from their era will do the same.

"You have no choice, you have to do it. You're going to ruin your life," said McKeon

"They're afraid that you'll bring up things that you're trying to forget and that's our problem. We have to learn how to forget. That's what the new program is doing now more so than when i came home," said Warshawsky.