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By Rick Maze
Times staff writer

Senate Democrats unveiled a bill Tuesday aimed at providing counseling and benefits for combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The bill, S 2500, the Healing the Invisible Wounds Act of 2006, aims to prevent the Bush administration from cutting disability benefits for veterans with combat stress and to improve counseling and readjustment services for National Guard and reserve members, sponsors said.

Sens. Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii; John Kerry, Mass.; Frank Lautenberg, N.J.; and Hillary Rodham Clinton, N.Y. are sponsoring the legislation.

“Many of the men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from some of the most severe physical injuries. However, even more of these brave service members have invisible wounds — difficulties with adjusting to not being on the battlefield or dealing with long-lasting visions and experiences that they encountered,” said Akaka, ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

The bill “is intended to ensure that these men and women receive the readjustment counseling and mental health services necessary to transition into what we hope to be a full and productive life after combat,” added Akaka, a World War II veteran.

Kerry, the former presidential candidate and a Vietnam veteran, said, “We owe our troops more than a polite thanks and best wishes. We need to stand by our troops during and after their service. The wounds of war are not always visible, and this is not an area we can continue to shortchange our veterans.”

The bill includes $180 million extra for readjustment counseling and mental health services at Vet Centers, and a promise of one-on-one counseling for returning veterans in addition to group counseling.

Akaka said it’s important to ensure that that counseling and other help is available as soon as combat veterans return because “the transition period for these soldiers is extremely critical, so critical that it can, in some cases, mean the difference between short-term readjustment issues and severely chronic psychological conditions.”

Guard and reserve members can demobilize so rapidly after returning from deployments in Iraq or Afghanistan that “they sometimes do not receive or are overwhelmed by the benefits information they need,” Akaka said. That is why the bill requires counseling to be available within 14 days of returning from combat, and that service members be kept on active duty to receive counseling, he said.