Major General Mark Graham talks frankly with CNN’s Kyra Phillips about mental health in the military, and discusses the growing concerns about suicide within the army, and especially among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Major General Graham is the commanding general of Division West, First Army, and Fort Carson. He has been an outspoken advocate for awareness about mental health in the military. His son Kevin Graham, age 21, a top ROTC cadet at the University of Kentucky, took his own life in June 2003. Less than a year later, his son, Second Lieutenant Jeffrey Graham, age 23, was killed by a roadside bomb in Kalidiyah, Iraq. Major General Graham is active with TAPS.
Image taken on 2009-12-02 20:20:17 by Truthout.org.
Professor Anthony Hassan discusses mental health care in the military in the aftermath of the shooting at Fort Hood, the dynamics of mental health care professionals seeking treatment for themselves, and what students at USC are learning to help prepare them to work in a military context. Dr. Hassan is a retired Air Force officer and the current director of the Center for Research and Innovation on Veterans and Military Families at the USC School of Social Work.