I received an email from EMDRIA and EMDR therapists need to get the word out to our congress representatives that EMDR is helpful for those in the military suffering from PTSD. Treatment is being denied across the nation and we need to contact our Congressional Representatives that this needs to change!
Here is a sample letter that you can send to your representatives. You can find your representatives at www.usa.gov/contact/elected.shtml
Please take action today!
Barb
Date
Dear Rep_________or Dear Sen._______
Active Duty Military Personnel and Veterans are being denied top-line, highly efficient therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), through restrictions and exclusions by TRICARE, The Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense. Please stop this injustice.
EMDR is widely accepted as an Evidence-based treatment for PTSD. The International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies in its recently published Practice Guidelines for PTSD treatment ranked "EMDR as an evidence-based, Level A treatment for PTSD in adults". In 2004, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense Joint Clinical Practice Guidelines approved EMDR as one of the four top "evidence-based treatments" for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a disorder from which an increasing number of our military personnel and veterans suffer. For a review of EMDR research, please visit www.emdria.org.
In spite of the Department of Defense endorsement of EMDR, TRICARE continues to deny EMDR therapy to war veterans and family members despite the approving 2004 guidelines. Additionally, the DOD has not led a single study on the use of EMDR with PTSD.
According to the Rand Corporation Report published in April 2008, Invisible Wounds of War, "One in five Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffers from PTSD or major depression." The decision to exclude EMDR from research and treatment results in denial of a fast-acting, efficient treatment for active duty military personnel and veterans. As we face the Global War on Terror, it is clearly more financially and strategically advantageous to the government to have service members experience expeditious periods of recovery and return to full functioning.
Please allow veterans and their families the option to choose for themselves if they want to pursue EMDR. Support the continued inclusion of EMDR in VA and DOD Clinical Practice Guidelines, encourage funding of EMDR research which will aid our military personnel in recovering from PTSD, and lift TRICARE's ban on EMDR therapy for PTSD.
Sincerely,
Your name
Your address
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