Combat vets — especially those who are homeless or suffering from mental health issues — can get help Friday and Saturday at the second annual Great Falls Veterans’ Stand-Down. Organized by the Vets4Vets group and staffed by about 100 volunteers, the stand-down gives vets free clothing, survival gear, haircuts, medical and dental exams, mental health assessments and counseling. It’s designed to help vets like Mel…

Risks for troops and families too serious to ignore reassessments, Akaka says WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) commented today on a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the latest in a number of reports on the Department of Defense’s failure to adequately assess the post-deployment health of returning servicemembers. Akaka, Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and a senior member of the…

By ERIC NEWHOUSE • Tribune Projects Editor and The Associated Press Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised Wednesday to expand Montana’s pilot program to assess the mental health of combat vets nationwide, if elected. The Montana National Guard has developed a program to check its soldiers and airmen for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first two years after returning from…

By Rick Rogers, STAFF WRITER, San Diego Union-TribuneVISTA – A once-dismissed therapy for mental disorders is gaining a following among San Diego medical experts who treat combat veterans. Social workers, chaplains and psychiatrists from Naval Medical Center San Diego and Camp Pendleton are learning the Emotional Freedom Technique, an unorthodox method that even its creator can’t explain precisely. It and a treatment that uses virtual…