Sheila Jackson Lee: “I rise to support the en bloc amendments and particularly my amendment dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. My…”

“I rise to support the en bloc amendments and particularly my amendment dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. My amendment sends a clear and resounding message that we take all wounds endured by our veterans seriously. Although their wounds may be invisible, we recognize that they should be properly treated. One of the best ways to increase the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder is to access treatment and to increase treatment in a number of local and community medical facilities. I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for accepting this amendment and for recognizing the enormous burden that has come about through PTSD. According to the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database, the number of hospitalizations and outpatient visits in which PTSD was a primary diagnosis between 2000 and 2009 was 5,307 hospitalizations and 578,120 outpatient visits. I also rise today in honor of my friend and late colleague, Congressman John Murtha, who worked with me to establish an outsourcing clinic in the Houston area at the Riverside Hospital. What a difference it makes. If proper medical care is given, about 40 percent to 60 percent of people who develop PTSD can get better care. How many of us can even talk about this experience short of our Members who have experienced combat who are here in the United States Congress? The average American who has not does not know the trauma of experiencing danger every day in protecting themselves and their comrades.…”