Santa Barbara AHEPA Chapter 243

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Serving those who serve : Dr. James Angelos heads to Iraq to help those in combat zone cope with
stress
NORA K. WALLACE, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
June 23, 2008 7:07 AM
After 21 years of private practice treating the psychological needs of children and adolescents, Dr. James Angelos is packing up his office,
saying farewell to patients, shredding documents and filing away important papers.
The 60-year-old psychologist is not retiring, however.
He left this weekend for the start of a year-long appointment to the Office of Medical Services in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, where
he will treat civil servants -- and some Marines -- trying to cope with the stress of being in a war zone.
Once situated in Baghdad, he will be in charge of directing patient care at the Embassy, as well as coordinating psychiatric medical
evacuations, consulting with Embassy personnel about how to manage workers coping with the stress of being in a war zone and also
facilitating teamwork among the various groups staffing the Embassy, including foreign nationals.
The job is classified as a "limited, non-career opportunity."
The chance to go to Iraq came following a discussion with the partners in his practice as they talked about all the people coming home from
Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorders or traumatic brain injuries. They thought they could help out, and maybe volunteer at Camp
Pendleton, near San Diego, for a day or so. But nothing materialized until he saw a job posting last October in a psychological association
magazine. The State Department was seeking someone with prior military service who "possessed comprehensive and extensive experience
evaluating and treating individuals with catastrophic or traumatic physical and/or psychological injuries, including post-traumatic stress
disorder and traumatic brain injury," to serve in a diplomatic position in Iraq.
Dr. Angelos' prior military service was a stint in the Army after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1970 with a degree in
psychology. He served two years active duty in Germany, and then spent four years with the California National Guard, as a sergeant
directing a field artillery unit and doing intelligence analysis.
After thinking about the Embassy job for a few days, he sent in an application letter,
and then told his wife, Ruth, and office partners.
"Years ago, it was impressed upon me that along with the privileges in life, there are
also obligations," Dr. Angelos explained.
"I have lived a privileged life personally and professionally. I wanted to step up and
step away from a quite prestigious, lucrative practice in Santa Barbara and just go."
People have asked him, he said, if his decision was politically motivated.
"This is not a political comment at all," he stated.
"Whether you support the president or not, this is an issue of me supporting the
people who are involved there. That's what it's all about. I've come to realize my
physical absence paradoxically will raise awareness of what's going on there."
Recently, he attended a conference on combat-related stress, and learned that there
are an estimated 300,000 cases of returning veterans with post-traumatic stress
disorder.
"The V.A. has no idea what to do," said Dr. Angelos, who has lived in Santa Barbara since 1986. "Part of what may go on (while he's in Iraq),
we may have discussions about how to facilitate getting people into treatment quickly."
When her husband first announced his intentions, Ruth Angelos said her immediate reaction was, "You what? Where did this come from? Are
you kidding?"
Ultimately, she realized that the timing was appropriate, as the couple's children are grown and on their own.
"Being in the military before, he has a heart for soldiers, so that's good," said Mrs. Angelos, assistant to the director of library and supervisor of interlibrary loans for Westmont College.
"That's the hidden Rambo in him ... I'm very proud of him. It's a really important thing he's doing."
She said there was time between her husband's application submittal and his job interview, when he was questioned whether he was serious about the endeavor, and whether it was a
good thing to do.
"In a way, you feel a little stunned," Mrs. Angelos admitted. "There's so much unknown. It's a totally new thing. In his field, he takes on so much of the strain and stress of the people he
talks to, I wonder about the stress for him. We did talk about that."
Dr. Angelos' workload will change significantly once he arrives in Iraq in August. Now he sees about five patients a day, and consults for a few days at Solutions at Santa Barbara, a
licensed adult residential facility and adult day care for brain injury rehabilitation. In Iraq, he's been told he'll be working six days a week, with extended hours.
"I'll be seeing a great deal more people on a day-to-day basis," explained Dr. Angelos, who previously worked for the nonprofit Rehabilitation Institute at Santa Barbara. "The difference is
going to be, someone may not have been in an auto accident, but maybe they have concussion injuries or a traumatic brain injury. They may have the constant stress of extended tours of
duty."
A medical internist runs the Embassy clinic, where two nurse practitioners and one psychiatric technician also work. He will be the only clinical psychologist on staff. For the next month,
he'll go through orientations in Washington, D.C., including courses on counterterrorism, surveillance detection and firearms familiarity.
Dr. Angelos and his wife have three children: Julie, 29, Nicholas, 27, and Lauren, 24, all Santa Barbara residents. Julie is due in September to have the couple's first grandchild, a boy to
be named Richard James.
Lauren Angelos said she has mixed feelings about her father's departure, but that ultimately she is proud of him.
Dr. James Angelos, above and below, will be
working for the State Department at the
U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for a year.
MIKE ELIASON/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Dr. Jim Angelos stands with his wife, Ruth.
Santa Barbara News-Press Page 1 of 2
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=LOCAL&ID=565320204943491097 6/26/2008
"Ever since I was little, he had his war movies, his Army films," she recalled. "He would turn on his cadence tapes and go jogging. He loved his time in the Army and wished he could have
done more."
She said she wasn't surprised he chose to take the job, but she wasn't happy either.
"I realize the place he's going to be going, regardless of it being an Embassy, the danger level is not ideal to be there," said Ms. Angelos, who begins law school in San Diego shortly. "But
it was something none of us decided to protest or say anything about. He has done so much for us and our family ... It's his time to do what he wants to do. You couldn't describe a better
situation for him."
Earlier this month, Dr. Angelos received a commendation letter from the Order of Ahepa, a philanthropic organization through his church, St. Barbara's Greek Orthodox Church for
participating in the war effort at a time when many people observe the war as "a distant event in which we are uninvolved and therefore it is not in our consciousness."
His actions, according to the letter, speak to the organization's ideals of love of people and man's commitment to humanity.
"We know that our soldiers return home as changed individuals," the commendation states.
"When the delicate emotional center is warped by the stress of combat, it needs healing. Too many combat veterans return home only to have the emotional manifest later into the
physical body as a cascade of illness syndromes.
"You have chosen to break through the isolation of this modern world by volunteering to use your skills as a physician to heal that center of perfect energy and forestall the onset of the
imperfect manifestation in the physical body. This service to your fellow man is imbued in every good physician. Indeed it is an unselfish ministry of the highest order. This recalls a prior
generation with its ethos of self sacrifice."
As he prepared to leave, Dr. Angelos said he considered his personal safety, and was even asked to ponder his fate during his interview process.
"I can't worry about that," he said. "If I die on the first day I fly in, that's my fate. I'm not worried."
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