SGB treatment now available for local first responders

Benjamin Bullard, The Cullman Times, Ala.
Updated ·4 min read

Jul. 18—Earlier this year, an innovative treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder became available locally to veterans who previously had to travel out of Cullman County to receive it. Now, the treatment, administered free through a state pilot program in its second year of funding, has become available not only to military service members but to local first responders as well.

Alabama Sen. Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman) first obtained funding to make the treatment, a novocaine injection administered at the base of the neck known as the stellate ganglion block shot, available in Cullman. In its first year, the program was offered only to local veterans; when funding was secured for an additional year, it was opened to veterans statewide.

Now Gudger and local supporters of the SGB shot are hoping the treatment's expansion to law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs and other first responders suffering from PTSD will help secure state funding for a third year, while building a body of data that demonstrates its overall effectiveness.

In Cullman, veterans and first responders can receive the SGB treatment at WellStone Behavioral Health, which serves as the state-approved mental health provider to administer the program and report on its outcomes. Patients start that process by scheduling an initial consultation at WellStone, receiving the shot if they qualify, and then returning within 4-6 weeks for a followup consultation.

"It starts with an interview, and we use an assessment tool that was created by the VA, originally, to measure PTSD symptoms," explained WellStone COO Chris Van Dyke, noting that the PTSD scoring system used in that initial consultation is employed once again, 4-6 weeks later, to gauge how the SGB shot affects each patient. "We use the same assessment tool, just to see how it's affected your score," he said.

The SGB shot isn't available to veterans at VA hospitals, and Gudger said some local veterans expressed reluctance in the program's first year that the data that the program collects might compromise their eligibility to receive other VA treatments. As the program expands to include first responders, he emphasized that it has never associated patients' personal information with the data it reports to Veterans Affairs or to the state.

Instead, he said, each patient's identifying information remains anonymous.

"The key," Gudger said, "is getting more people into this program. and I think it's crucial that people know that this is free [and that] we are not giving your personal information out on this data that we're taking to the state. We don't know your names, your social security numbers, or anything like that. We just want to know, 'Did this shot help with where you were before, with PTSD, and where you were afterwards?'"

"Veterans are afraid of losing their benefits and don't believe us sometimes when we say that we're not going to share their information," said Van Dyke. "But we don't share any information with the VA, so there's no mechanism for that to happen. and even the data that we do collect, we don't share any names, any personal identifying information with the state."

Since the program's inception, the number of SGB shots available for free has increased from 160, it its first year, to 320 for 2023. Though the treatment has been available in Birmingham since the beginning, it's since been offered locally, via WellStone, which currently schedules SGB shots on Fridays for those who qualify.

In its earliest days, anecdotal word of mouth suggested that the SGB shot offered tremendous promise for alleviating PTSD symptoms in veterans. As with most procedures, not everyone who's received the shot has obtained the relief they'd been seeking — though as WellStone continues to examine its recent local data, said Van Dyke, the outcomes appear to favor its effectiveness.

"So far, we've had 79 people that we've sent through this program," he said. "And of the data we've collected, we've seen a 62 percent reduction in PTSD symptoms for veterans, and a 98 percent reduction for first responders. ... So when you think about your symptoms of PTSD being less than half of what they were, that's really good. That's a good result. With most mental illnesses, the treatment doesn't result in that much of a symptom reduction."

To learn more about the SGB treatment for veterans and first responders, contact WellStone (256-734-4688) to schedule a consultation, which can be done either in person or online. To put a local veteran in touch with the program, or to seek support for a veteran in your life who's suffering from PTSD, contact the Cullman VFW Post 2214 at 256-739-6611. The VFW also hosts an informal PTSD support group each Wednesday at 7 p.m. at its post at 112 Veterans Drive SW in Cullman.