Fort Bliss colonel on the front lines helping soldiers with PTSD

Tens of thousands of Fort Bliss soldiers have deployed to the Middle East over the past decade and many are still deploying.

It’s estimated between 10 to 25 percent of them return with some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A lot has been learned about treating soldiers for PTSD since the war began.

“Whatever we do, the more we do it, the better we get at it,” said Lt. Col. Anthony Bonfiglio, Deputy Chief of Behavioral Health at Fort Bliss.

Bonfiglio is on the front lines helping soldiers deal with PTSD. “In general, when looking at PTSD, we have three primary therapy modalities that we’re using.”

With 12 different clinics, and staff now totaling almost 200 at Fort Bliss, those approaches include EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, which involves shining light in the patient’s eyes to replicate a dreamlike state.

“They’ll focus on that particular event and hold it in their mind and acknowledge and experience the emotions – internal triggers they’re having,” Bonfiglio said.

Another approach is PE, or Prolonged Exposure.

“They relive that story in a safe environment then it becomes not quite as traumatic,” he said.

The third approach is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

“Where we really focus on thoughts and how thoughts are connected,” Bonfiglio said.

With one to nearly three out of 10 coming home with some form of PTSD, he said the biggest challenge is getting soldiers to seek help.

“We can promote all we want,” Bonfiglio said. “But they have to feel comfortable enough.”

Bonfiglio said the Army has made great progress in that area.

“It’s that individual commander and first sergeant that are working with soldiers that really embrace and not make it not a stigma and make it easy for them to come in for care,” he said, pointing out once they do, the recovery rate from PTSD can be as high as 80 percent. “Having a diagnosis of PTSD does not mean that ends someone’s military career. They can get help and be productive within the Army and post Army life.”

Maj. Robert Bush is Fort Bliss’s first addiction specialist.

“They need to be treated as a soldier, not as a condition, as a soldier, not as a violator,” Bush said. “Addiction is a big component of the lifestyle or the life choices that a lot of soldiers with PTSD make.”

Bush said Fort Bliss and William Beaumont Army Medical Center have been very forward thinking in dealing with addiction as a result of PTSD.

“William Beaumont has been amazing at putting us on the cusp of some of these newer treatments and getting the resources we need to do what we want to do,” he said, “because we want to treat the soldiers, we want to help the soldiers and their families.”

Graciela Pinon is a therapist in Fort Bliss’s Intensive Outpatient Program, which has only been around since 2013.

“The families are out here in the community and they’re affected,” Pinon said. “I had the opportunity to see a lot of service members when they came back from combat and their way of coping was to use alcohol and use drugs. It’s been easier now to refer them to programs that specifically address the PTSD.”

Pinon said including a soldier’s family in the therapy has helped.

“More and more research is suggesting that with family support there’s more likely to be a better prognosis for somebody diagnosed with PTSD,” Pinon told ABC-7. “If you don’t have the support, then it’s less likely you will recover.”

According to the Department of Defense, the Army continues to be a leader in PTSD research. Through Army and Defense Health Program funding, there are currently 130 PTSD research projects with an investment of about $250 million since 2010.