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On Veteran's Day, Discussing the Mental Health of America's Returning Veterans

By Rich Fisher

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-935045.mp3

Tulsa, Oklahoma – On this Veteran's Day edition of StudioTulsa, we're thinking about the mental-health issues confronting many of those who've served in this nation in uniform as we listen back to an interview from early May of this year. At that time, we spoke by phone with Dr. Heidi Kraft just before her address at the Mental Health Association in Tulsa's annual Seger Seminar. The Seger Seminar usually focuses on treating depression and/or suicide prevention, and this year's event focused on the mental-health needs of American military veterans returning from combat. Dr. Kraft is a former U.S. Navy psychologist --- she's also the author of "Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital," the title of which alludes to a memorable bit of dialogue from the TV show M*A*S*H: "There are two rules of war. Rule number one is that young men die. Rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one."