first aid for the military. it was the early 1980's and i it was the early 1980's and i was running a mental health center in peekskill, new york. we had a whole bunch of programs we ran in peekskill. it is very close to the montrose v.a. and the montrose v.a. had people in their psychiatric unit who had spent years there. they became disconnected from their families and their own communities and wound up in what are called board and care homes in peekskill. a place where you live and gives you meals, but for much of the day, did not have much to do. so we ran a drop in center and they began coming to our drop-in center. we went camping and we even went to atlantic city with all the quarters they to give you on

the bus. we worked on a dude ranch in the local immunity. i got to know many of these men quite well. what i began to realize is, most of them had served in vietnam and we even had a few who had served in korea. and how when they came home, they began this journey of disconnection from their families and their communities. i just knew we could do better. i had had personal experience. my dad served in the pacific in world war ii. served in korea. and how when they came home, they began this journey of disconnection from their families and their communities. i just knew we could do better. i had had personal experience. my dad served in the pacific in world war ii. like others of his generation, he never talked about that. never. not a word. nor did any of my uncles that had served or my friends parents. but it had taken a toll on him emotionally and physically. i did not understand that until years later. now, obviously, we know better, but we also know the statistics, right? we know 30% of active duty and reserve military, 3/4 of a

million people, men and women, deployed in iraq and afghanistan, have a mental health condition. and we know the military has made great strides. i think the v.a. is an amazing organization that has raised the bar on understanding mental illnesses as well as treating them. but we still have work left to do. less than 50% of returning veterans in need of treatment get it. and the results of that is really a national tragedy and some of you in the audience are actually from suicide prevention organization. and we know now almost 22 veterans a day commit suicide. so we are here to launch mental health for veterans because we really are our brothers and sisters keepers. each of us can help. each of us can find something we can do to help someone we know who served. if you have been trained in

mental health first aid, you have the skills and confidence to do just that -- to help. we have had the support of some extraordinary policymakers on the hill. senators mark agates, kelly ayotte, and represented of lynn jenkins and ron bobber. really representatives and senators from across the country. their advocacy secured $15 million that is going to state and local school districts to train school personnel and mental health first aid for you. we are very grateful to them, what they have done will live on and now we need their help in terms of moving mental health first aid for the military. and we will do that. the other thing that has happened is eight state and eight more are considering it, are allocating money from state

budgets. they are supporting local instructors and local communities. so this is an amazing program that people understand, they can feel, they can touch, and they can support. i am very fortunate today to be with some great speakers. before we do that, i want to introduce and acknowledge jeannie campbell, the executive vice president of the national council. she is way in the back. she served for 22 years in the navy, is another reason why this is so important to the national council. and in addition to everything else she does at the national council, she leads all of our military initiatives. so thank you. with us today, and i'm going to introduce all of them then they will speak and then i will help moderate what we hope will be a robust q&a period. we have patrick kennedy, a tireless champion for those

living with addiction and mental illness. we would not have parity and equality with physical health is a were not for him. he continues to do great things in so many ways, including in the cofounder of one mind. tom tarantino, is the chief policy director for the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. he is also a former army captain. he served in iraq in both the calgary and mortar platoon leader and was awarded the combat action badge and the bronze star. theresa buchanan is the director of youth initiatives for the national military family association. she manages operation purple, which supports ella terry families expressing the challenges of reunion and reach integration. we also have two very exceptional mental health first aid trainers. they trained instructors and local communities.

sharon thomas parks served three years active-duty in the marine corps before cofounding a suicide and crisis center. she is a licensed professional counselor and has been a national mental health first aid trainer since we began in 2008. liz reagan has also been a trainer since 2008. she has worked with a wide variety of groups as a facilitator and a trainer and she is the wife of a veteran. her husband served in the u.s. air force and southeast asia. and we have a student of mental health first aid, the lovely tosha barnes. she is from taxes, a i've gotten to know in this role and come to really admire and love. and she is a decorated military veteran, discharged just in january after eight years of service. formally a member of the 82nd airborne, she is currently the

volunteer coordinator for the military veterans here network. we are committed to doing more to support our veterans. and mental health first aid is just one piece of a very important puzzle. with that, let me turn the podium over to patrick kennedy. >> thank you very much, linda rosenberg, and thank you, daschle council, for spearheading mental health first aid and today for spearheading it for none other than our nation's heroes, our returning veterans from iraq and afghanistan and for all veterans and for their families. i had the honor of being a cosponsor of the mental health parity and addiction equity act, which simply said the brain was part of the body. that was the law. the brain is part of the body. it is shocking that that law did not even doesn't -- signed into

law until 2008, which means it was historic in this country that insurance companies in addition to the federal government would not recognize the brain is part of the body, would not reimburse for brain illnesses the same way they would reimburse for any other organ in the body. so we have come a long way in just a few years. we have this law in the books. and now in this next two months, in july, that law will be in effect for all insurance companies in this country. so they will have to treat equally all illnesses of the brain as they would any other organ in the body. that is why the timing of mental health first aid is so appropriate to really support now more than ever, because with this treatment now being reimbursed -- of course, you have to do a lot of work to make sure this comes to fruition, no doubt. but with the system in place, we

first need to make sure the people who need treatment get that treatment. and as someone who is a consumer of mental health services, who suffered a long time with a mental illness, there is this phrase -- the elephant in the room. when you're in the midst of suffering from a mental illness, everybody knows it that you, and no one will tell you that you need help. i know i probably would have ended up getting help earlier or staying in recovery earlier had i had the support of people who would have known that by trying to give me help, they were not interfering in my personal life. they were trying to save my life will stop so we need a change of our attitudes and our mindset when we see someone suffering from a mental illness or addiction. we need to not look at it as a character issue, but the

chemistry issue. their brain is ill, but he can get better with treatment. in the first step toward treatment is identifying they need the help and referring them to the appropriate resources that can get them that help. under the parity law, will be reimbursed for that help. so why veterans? we understand brain injury and posttraumatic stress, or the signature wounds of this war in iraq and afghanistan. you know what we call them? invisible. it is shocking that we still call these wounds invisible when in fact the trauma of serving in a combat zone changes the brain's chemistry because of the stress associated. we know if you have a traumatic brain injury, you suffer a physical wound of war, and yet because we cannot see it on the outside, the government still does not award purple hearts for

the signature wound of this war. shocking. shocking. i think that will someday come to change if we begin to do what we need to do to be there for our veterans. let me make this final analogy. our heroes, if they were trapped behind enemy lines by al qaeda or the taliban, would have our first responders, our special forces go in there tomorrow to kick down the doors and bring them home. why don't we apply that same idea to our returning veterans who are held hostage, who are literally prisoners of their war injuries and their behind the enemy lines up shane and stigma that are associated with having a brain illness? what i see with these mental

health first aid, veterans and to help first aid, first responders, is our 911 force. here at home. it has what they are doing is just what our special forces do. they are kicking down the doors of these returning veterans who are alone, isolated, and no one is reaching out to help them but the people who are not trained to know how to help them and to bring them home, not only in body, but to bring them home in mind as well. thank you for letting me be here. now have the honor of turning the microphone over to one of those heroes who not only served our country in uniform, but is also serving his fellows in uniform and his fellow veterans through his advocacy at the iraq

afghan war veterans of america, one of the premier veteran service organizations which is changing the landscape and how our government and how our country receives its returning heroes. tom tarantino. >> thank you. god, i don't think i really deserved all that. but i appreciate it. i want to thank the national council for having us all here and talking about this. and the chief policy officer for iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. we are the first and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization fighting for this generation of lawyers. i myself, being a soldier, i was thinking last night about first eight. i was thinking about all of the training of had my life. i am not a medical professional. my job was not to kill the people, it was to break things and hurt people. i'm thinking about everything i have learned through the

military. everything i learned in high school. you star first aid training in high school. they teach you cpr and how to identify heatstroke and all the stuff you learn in health class. in the military, they teach you skills like how to run an i.v. line, how to treat someone for shock. they do this because by giving first aid for these immediate injuries, it saves lives. it saves lives. and yet the one thing we don't learn how to treat and we don't learn how to identify are the mental health injuries. is it because these injuries -- as patrick said, aren't invisible, but they are not readily apparent. it is absolutely critical across america that we learn to treat these wounds as they are, as wounds. i talk to soldiers and they say,

i don't want to get treatment, i can deal with it. i say, look, man, if you had a hole in your chest and got shot, you would not walk around with it will stop a say, absolutely not. why would i do that? it's the same thing. if you have an injury, walking around that injury is dangerous. it is dangerous to you because you are basically letting your wounds faster. we are on the front lines of the fight to combat suicide. 22 veterans a day are dying by suicide. suicide isn't the problem. it is the end result of a series of problems, of a series of failures that could have been alleviated at the beginning if someone had known, just like we know how to run an i.v. or check for heatstroke, how to identify mental health injuries from the start. this is critical. this type of training should be everywhere because the only way

we're going to get to a point where we can adequately treat mental health women's early on is if we break this down across the american culture. that is one of the things that is so impressive about this mental health first aid program is that it isn't just about veterans. there are not that many vets out there. there are 2.5 million iraq and afghanistan veterans, about 29 across the country. if we only speaking to the veteran community, we will never fix the problem. if we give everyone armed with the same knowledge as we do about basic first aid in high school and do that for mental health, we will be at a point in this country where nobody has to live with the mental health injury in the shadows.

they can get treatment. the one thing we do know is that getting treatment is the most effective way to prevent the tragic consequences of mental health injuries later on. i am incredibly appreciative that this program is out there and incredibly appreciative this is starting to move across the country. i hope we get to a place and i can come back in a few years and talk about how we have all been armed with this basic knowledge. we have these tools in our toolkit, and we can all identify these issues early on. not just to help our bodies, but also to help ourselves. thank you very much. following the is theresa buchanan. she works with operation purple, one of our best friends and partners in the veteran community and an absolute tireless advocate for quite often the people who are forgotten and are committed, the military families. i thank her for her work. theresa buchanan. [applause] >> tom, thank you for those kind

words. i'm delighted to be up to join you, patrick. thank you, linda, and the rest of you, to be on this panel today. as tom said, the families are critically important in this journey. we certainly, since 1969, had been an organization that is advocated for the military family because long before we recognized that our senior leadership were not willing to accept the fact that there were social services and what it would need to provide any type of support to the family, there were those women and years ago sitting around a kitchen table who formed this organization, who went out there to lobby for those friends who were left destitute after the service member died because the pension at that time went with the death of the retiree.

we were part and parcel part of that very first success of the survivor benefit plan that today is commonplace throughout the military services. mental health first aid for veterans. i think what we are hearing today from everyone who up here will continue to hear, really should resonate with us all that the mental health needs and the call for nonthreatening opportunities for veterans, and most important, their families and those in their community, to have access to resources that increase knowledge of the issue and provide responsive strategies remains both a significant concern and an american societal responsibility. depression. talking about substance abuse, addiction. the self-isolation, whether we like the fact they're called invisible wounds and is hoping sin because of those who are

walking around and don't get the same respect and response from our american public as those who do have the physical wounds because they're each suffering entering as badges of honor in her own special way, that where does go to suicide. as tom said, we have embraced that and we are very concerned about 22 veterans a day are committing suicide. and that is the end result of a lesion of other types of things that have gone to for -- legion of other types of things that have gone on before. what about the undocumented family members committing suicide? that is happening, too. those numbers are not being counted. we are looking for the possibly some legislation being submitted that is going to start to have the requirement to start counting these numbers, but we have untold numbers that are out there.

that is one of the things that happens. when these families moved out into the communities, they are lost from the roles of really oversight unless they have reached out for connection with the v.a. 1% have served to protect our freedoms. the rest of us have the responsibility to honor and ensure the healthiest tomorrow for their lives and future productivity. what i like about the mental health first aid for veterans and servicemembers and their families is it stands as a key component and behavioral health support. lagee, the action plan, and we will be talking further about this, but it is really concrete and simple. where you are assessing for suicide or harm, listening nonjudgmentally, giving reassurance and information, encourage appropriate professional help, encourage self-help and other support strategies. adjustments are taught how to support someone developing signs

in an emotional crisis or mental illness. since 2004 when the national since 2004 when the association launched the purple program, dealing withtially military children of the .eployed we later recognize the importance of the family model the work with family struggling with reunions. they come back together after these multiple deployments and have moved into similar type programs that we do at environmental education centers. we want to marry up the healing , as has beenso broken before, treating the brain, giving the brain an opportunity to come to the focus on with the

program. exercises.ptive the point of my mentioning this thee learn early on is that psychological welfare was paramount. a advocacy.sion is we have been advocating for mental health support because we recognize that there is a dearth of that available. we wanted to be accessible. if we can get access to these services that they are not equally available, there will not be any progress made here. we have also recognize the importance of trained mental health support and we provide

scholarships so that we can have military spouses get credentialed so they in turn can join the cadre of dedicated mental health professionals. we also have an app, which serves as a portal to the assistance program that can also provide on your smartphone access and perhaps access to mental health first aid for veterans. one of my big take away that i hope you'll take away is families and communities have all different types of definitions. we don't look at what was perhaps the traditional because they have all become traditional families. we have moms and dads caring for service members who are connected to the military. we have opened up to where we have partners -- the world has

changed. it is important for us to recognize to be inclusive with families. it is also important to realize we're talking about the importance of the families being a support network because the veteran with mental illness or addiction does not stand alone in his or her treatment. the family support is key to the successful support in treatment. we must not forget that. most importantly, we must continue to reduce the stigma associated with seeking treatment. i think we're all going to vow together to work together to truly underscore that seeking treatment is a strength, a sign of strength and not a sign of weakness. mental health first aid for veterans is a major step in the right direction to make that happen. thank you. >> thank you, linda. i think the national council for

this event. i feel honored to be here today. i am sharon thomas parks, a veteran of the united states marine corps. since leaving the marine corps, i have had a long and satisfying career in behavioral health. i have been a trainer for the past six years. i have trained hundreds of people from public safety officers, many of whom are veterans, to university faculty and staff and students, and health care professionals. the most frequent comment i hear from mental health first aid participants is, i wish i had this training 10 years ago. so while i was in the marine corps, i was part of a very cohesive unit. we drilled until practice became second nature. mental health first eight has a similar approach to repetition

-- first eight has a similar approach to repetition. it was kind of a natural fit for me to get involved in mental health first aid. because it provides support for the person who's in the training winning in battle is not about doing it on your own. it is about being part of a cohesive unit and never leaving your buddies behind. mental health first aid is sort of the same idea, that it is not about leaving someone in distress out there alone by themselves in the world. when i left -- when i was discharged from the marine corps, i felt alone, isolated, and disconnected. those are three factors that put all of us, particularly veterans, at risk for developing

a mental health problem. my transition home might've been a little easier if my family was trained in mental health first aid. fortunately, i just created the support that i needed. i was able to cofound a suicide and crisis intervention center. now, not everybody can do that. and we really should not expect anybody to have to do that. my military training and experience gave me confidence. and i got involved in mental health first aid because it gives people that same kind of confidence. not to run away in fear from the mental-health problem. it gives people confidence to engage a person who is expressing mental health challenge and to ask, are you

ok? do you need help? so winning the battle against mental illness can't be done alone. it is not done alone. if we don't offer help to a veteran in distress, we are leaving a warrior behind. mental health first aid gives people an action plan like teresa mentioned. it is an action plan and it provides the training to help make that action plan become second nature. this is an extraordinaire program that will benefit veterans, their families, and their community. i am very proud to be a part of mental health first aid. thank you.

>> it's a little tight back here. >> hi there, i am liz rearden. i've been a trainer for the past five years. i'm the very proud spouse of an air force veteran. my husband dave served from 1971 to 1975 in southeast asia. you talk about the invisible wounds of war. i know what it is like firsthand have someone who you live -- really loved to have to go through that. train number of years, i did not know what to do. i figured, it is vietnam, long time ago, time will heal those well, it doesn't. i did not know to say. finally, we got ourselves down to the veterans administration hospital in white river junction vermont where they have a primary mental health clinic. we finally got down there.

the very first thing they said to us when we walked in the door was, thank you for your service. and that opened a door for us because also, they were so nonjudgmental. my husband was able to tell his story. they were not surprised. i said, of course, why wouldn't you go through this? but we are concerned about you. those words open the door for recovery for him and the other guys or the program with him. and now, a number of years later, he is healthy and strong, and healthy and strong because someone new the words to say to open the door to help him get treatment. he is also here because we talk about the buddies, the band of brothers in his program. i saw that platoon working in or helping each other out. the most important reason why he is here healthy and strong is because of him. he is here because of his courage, his sacrifice, and his persistence in getting treatment.

i am really, really proud of him. that "we are concerned about you" is what opened the door for us. those are the words we learned to say in mental health first aid. often, those of us who are family members, do not have the right words. with mental health first eight, a gives you something to say, way open that door. the other wonderful thing about this program is, it was designed by veterans, families, and those who are involved in love them. it helps us because the people who have been there are helping us as we go forward. those words changed my life and my husband's life and you can change other people's lives as well. i have, and my sisters and cousins and brothers generations, we have a bunch of young people coming in. young people who have served were coming out, young people going in.

they are nephews and cousins and sons and daughters. i have members of my family and members of people in my committee saying, what do i do? what can i say? mental health first aid can help us know what to say. everybody pretty much has a veteran in their lives. somebody you know, somebody who might be family, it could actually be you. what is so wonderful about mental health first aid, gives us that resource and the ability to connect. i am very proud of being part of this. i expect this is going to make a huge difference and other people's lives and i'm looking forward to that. thank you very much. >> thank you, liz. i would also like to say thank you to my fellow brothers and sisters in arms, thank you for the family and the friends that

i continue to network with in this journey. my name is tasha barnes. i am here with several hats on. i'm a veteran. i served with the 82nd airborne. after leaving the service, i became a peer specialist and a volunteer court nader for the veteran peer network and the great state of texas. i have been a student of mental health first aid and i firmly believe in that this program, like mental health first aid for veterans, will change our country for the better. i am listed as a soldier nine years ago and i was part of an extraordinary units that supported one another through everything. they were my family. when my service ended, i just wanted to get home safely.

i assumed everything else would fall right into place once i adjusted and became a civilian again. but after returning home, after four months of searching for a job and not finding one, i was in despair. here i was, a college student and a veteran, but could not get a job. i was struggling emotionally. i found it hard to reconnect with the community i had previously been a part of. i was depressed and i was suffering from anxiety. i had trouble sleeping. and when i would hear loud noises and alarms go off in the middle of the night, i instantly will look for my rifle -- thinking i was back in afghanistan under mortar fire.

as many of us know i'm a veterans can be reluctant to ask for help. we believe it is up to us to solve our own problems and that asking for help is a sign of weakness. now i know it is not weakness, it is a sign of strength. but i was afraid to admit i could not turn it around on my own. and i was very, very lucky to have family and friends who supported me through that time, including a colleague who literally grabbed me by the hand and led me to community support program. that one action change my life. she did not have all the answers, but she knew i needed help. and she knew where i could find it.

she connected me with resources that help me -- pull me out of that dark come a dark place. that is what mental health first aid is all about. it is recognizing the signs of depression -- anxiety, addiction and mental illness -- and connecting people with help. in the texas panhandle, i cover 30 counties. in many of our communities are rural and secluded and too many people are uninformed about what mental illness looks like or even where to access help. but mental health first aid gives us the tool to educate everyday citizens, both veterans and civilians, and how to recognize the signs of someone in need. veterans and their families have specific needs, and this program

being launched today has been tailored for those needs. every one of us in here is familiar with regular first aid. i absolutely believe everyone should be trained in mental health first aid as well. it is especially valuable for our community leaders, our law enforcement, our educators to be able to not only recognize mental illness and substance abuse, but direct you to those resources. but those of us who work with veterans and members of the military know that this kind of education can make a huge, real difference in the lives of veterans and their families as they manage this transition home. in my nine years of working with veterans and servicemembers, everyone who has taken the

mental health first aid emerges believing a veterans program will have the power to change and even save lives. i am truly honored to be here today to see this become a reality. thank you once again for everybody here. >> thank you. >> thank you for your service. [applause] >> ok, now it is your turn. questions. >> thank you all for your service and for this terrific program. i am a licensed independent clinical social worker who is done outpatient mental health in the clinic in virginia, which is affiliated with belfour.

my question i think will direct to tom tarantino and theresa buchanan. the rest of you can chime in. when i work with these families, this a very different population. the continued family relocation and having to move around to different cities and towns was an issue. however, when i worked with families from pentagon, one of the concerns that was raised by the officer and his family, well, my son or daughter may want to join the military, what about confidentiality? my charting was severed from the military. what are going to be the repercussions? what about confidentiality? i think the military struggling with, it's ok to get treatment, but that was a major concern that came out of this, even from the spouses, the confidentiality.

>> your question is about confidentiality of records? >> the program is great, but when you get on the bases and the charting -- thank you. >> thank you for your question. you raise what has been problematic for years. i worked and family advocacy in the 1990's and recognized in terms of just that fear because it also can compromise their clearances and if you're in an installation, who is going to find out. one of the programs that has evolved from that and is made a significant difference, i think, is the military family life consultant program. the department of defense did instituted a few years ago during the wars. one of the advantages of all

licensed clinicians, mental health professionals, is they don't document think counters. they're not -- they are really making some terminus inroads with helping to mitigate the stigma associated. this is going to be a time-honored process that has occurred. there are resources out there having people, the credibility factor, talking to someone else saying, i used this person and it is going to be fine. there is that concern. we are concerned. i know you're concerned because of the impact with the troop drawdown. no one wants a mark on their record that is going to set them apart or make them perhaps more vulnerable. i think if we continue to work -- that program is there. there is huge support for it. it seems to have great

acceptability with the families because they're placing people in schools, placing people in communities, and also having them at programs so they can then to some of the linkage. for the veteran, it will not be as much of an issue. but getting over the hurdles. >> tom? >> i will be brief. ultimately, and we're still a long way from this, but we need to get to a place we don't worry that much about confidentiality. you don't telik respective employer you broke your arm three years ago -- you don't tell a prospective employer you broke your arm three years ago. we need to educate everyone and that will help us get there. >> one of the branches of military that has more mental health provided in any other branch of special forces.

why would these folks who jump out of planes from a swim underwater for two miles without breathing, come out on the beach and speak five languages, take out osama bin laden and home before dinner time ridding to their kids, why would they need until health? you know what the commanders answer to me was? we don't look at mental health as a sign of weakness, we look at it as an opportunity for strength. we call it in the military a force multiplier. i'm like, i hope we can take that same idea and bring it to the rest of the country because the military has figured out that they need people at their optimal strength -- physically and mentally. so by getting help, you improve your optimal strength. and don't we as americans onto be at our best?

why would we reject something that would make a stronger? i think as tom said so eloquently, we have to take this question head on because it is framed adequately for most of america's public right now, but it is an attitude, hopefully, that will change as some said because we look at this in a totally different way. the mental health is for people who want to be stronger. >> thank you. another question, please. >> i am mike turner. we spend about 18 months looking at a dozen of the best programs in the country and try to discern what are the features that have the most impacted at the community level. we absolutely felt the programs that involved peers as the first point of contact were incredibly successful. rather than a question, just an

urgent request, trying to mental health first aid in the hands of the peers. it automatically incorporates many mental health -- >> one of the things we have done, mike, in every other group we have worked with, the instructors are from that group. so probably between 10% and 20% of the instructors today have lived experience with either mental illness or substance use problems, and the same thing as we launch this. we're looking for people like t ousha to become instructors and work with veterans groups. great point. another question, please. the other thing is, who have been very good about it, continue to identify where you are from, who you are and where you're from.

>> i am patricia with the military times newspapers. you mentioned the amount, the cost of the youth program. was wondering what the estimated cost of this program is and where the funding sources are? >> we estimate that if there were no sources of support, so you had to rent space, yet a pay for an instructor's time, you had to buy the materials, serve coffee and maybe lunch, which it is an eight hour program -- it will cost about $150 to be trained. in all cases, it has been supported through either philanthropy our government funds. so there are some corporations that are using it to train managers, human resource managers. they in fact are expending their own dollars on the space and the time of the trainers and all of that. but for everybody else,

foundations across the country have stepped up. as i mentioned earlier, eight states and i think eight more have allocated money from their state legislative budgets and of course, the congress right here in d.c., bipartisan, appropriated $15 million that will go to ogle school districts and state school districts -- local school districts and state school districts. >> if i can answer that in a different way. do we ask, to cost to put a defibrillator in an airport? do we ask a much it costs to do cancer screening? we would not think of asking that question. and no one would think we did not have the money to do it. with the lives we would save. the thought that we would have to think about the dollars, when is someone else pointed out here, the suicide rate amongst our returning heroes is indictment on us as a nation.

indictment on us as a nation. and we can do better. the fact we don't even keep track of how many of our returning heroes and up in county and local and state jails because there is no counting of how we return our veterans home, and we welcome them home with open arms or put them in a jail cell? tragically too often, we are locking up the very people who fought for our freedom because they're not getting the proper care and treatment for the "invisible wounds" of war. it is scandalous. i think this press conference is so vital because it starts to turn the tide on how we view these "invisible wounds" and we start treating them with a visible response rather than the invisible response that too often we have treated these wounds of war, by the way, we turn our back on the veterans who are suffering from posttraumatic stress and brain

injury instead of turning toward the challenge their facing insane, how can we help you dash facing and saying, how can we help you after all you have done for us as a nation? i think our veterans for their service and we owe it to them to do a better job than we have done so far and welcoming them home. >> well said. ok, we have hit the noon mark. well done. i hope those of you who continue to have questions will feel free to come up and ask them. and if you need more are v student campus c-span's

annual competition that encourages middle and high school students to think about issues. the question students were asked to base videos on is what is the most important issue the u.s. -- shouldould consider in 2014. andrew devon or believes congress should mandate genetically modified organisms. >> we warned the fda at the time and this was 20 years ago, that if they did not label genetically modified foods there would be a consumer backlash against them because consumers would wonder what they were trying to hide. >> have you ever heard of a gmo, or a genetically modified organism? >> no. >> i think i have heard, but i am not exactly sure what it is. >> it's been a long time since i've been in college for science.

>> it is where they add chemicals to the fruit or veggies. >> i know it is a crop where they modify the genes to increase the yield or the taste, or something else about the plant. >> the switch in the dna structure -- >> you don't want to lose your seeds. >> we require fast food restaurants to post calorie counts. >> what happens 20 years down the road? >> to obtain a better understanding of these gmos, i set out to interview experts in the field of, and those personally affected by genetic engineering. my first question -- scientifically, how does an organism become genetically modified? >> a genetically modified organism, or a transgenic crop, is when a gene is taken from one organism and put into a different species. this is typically a bacteria or a virus. >> for example, splicing a gene responsible for regulating a winter flounder's body temperature into a tomato would yield a frost tolerant crop. although humans have selectively

bred plants forever, businesses like monsanto began genetically modifying seats in the 1980's to maximize farmer's crop yields and subsequently the global food supply. >> monsanto is a giant. >> they're trying to make products that sell, but products that sell are products that people want and people want products that are going to increase yield. roundup is an herbicide that former sprayed on roundup resistant crops so that plants will grow but the weeds will die. >> it is easy for these guys. they don't have the hassle. ve to be accurate. roundup takes care of it, for now. >> conventional farmers can produce more. >> monsanto comes after farmers. seeds and saynted

we cannot use their seeds for a second round of crops, but you can buy a new set. >> they check, even though they are not supposed to. they trespass. we know. >> monsanto has filed suit against farmers that save or replant these seeds to protect its investment in research and development. a group of organic farmers in new york sued the biotech giant in fear they would be sued if patented seeds from neighboring farms contaminated their fields the away and current. urrent.wind c >> foods that are most often genetically modified our corn, tomato, and soybean. >> approximately 90% of all corn and cotton and 93% of all

soybean crops landed in the united states are genetically modified. intent,suggestions of they are modifying rice. >> there are people starving and if we can get them the food they need, why not? gmo's safety and value of is highly disputed. it will not improve your life or health or nothing different, as long as you eat fresh. > >> gmo salmon and farmed salmon produce one third of the healthy omega threes that wild salmon have. -- the nutrient value is down by 70%. >> some professionals propose the increased consumption

correlates with the rise in allergies, autism, infertility, and even some forms of cancer. >> is it possible that what we are seeing is related to what we are eating? the answer is yes. >> others claim the intimacy between agro industry and the federal government has created a revolving door of conflicting interest at the consumer's expense. toporation sent someone government who is and expect -- an expert. that allows them to take advantage of it and it moves back and forth between the private and public sector. currentel taylor is the food safety czar at the fda. genetically modified organisms safe for human consumption? >> you watch the commercial for a drug on tv in the last 15 to

seconds are the warnings of the effects and side effects of the drugs. if you had to do that with the tomato, chances are, people would not buy it. scientists will do a study with an end goal in mind. it will set a research to show what their agenda was at the outset. >> i think there needs to be more research done. we do not have conclusive evidence to show these products are safe for consumption. global uncertainty has prompted countries to restrict or ban the .roduction and sales of gmo hasher congress, nor as da haveed -- some companies

assigned a non-gmo seal to their products. going to enforce labeling on everyone except gmo. that is the problem. government has decided in this case, this particular area does not have to comply. without transparency, we are left in the dark. responsible for determining whether gmo foods should be labeled, band, or ignore? you decide. >> to watch all of the winning videos and learn more about the competition, go to c-span.org and click on studentcam and tell us what you think about the issues the students want congress to consider. post your comments on the facebook page and previous using #studentcam. >> the city of detroit filed the largest chapter nine bankruptcy in history.