Thursday, November 15, 2007
Be All You Can Be... My Ass
As I drove home this evening, I heard on NPR the continuation of a story that began on Veteran's Day: that of lack of access to mental health care for soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Are you ready for this? Soldiers with PTSD are being drummed out of the corps for "personality disorders" and being denied military benefits. Thousands of them!
Those who haven't been kicked out are harassed by their commanders, since they're often late for formation, for drinking and drugs, less than their former soldierly selves. And now commanders are kicking them out as if they'd never had the stuff to be accepted by the Army in the first place.
Figures haven't been released by the Marine Corps yet, but the Army figures show that 40 per cent more soldiers have been kicked out for "behavior" and "personality" problems that commanders do not connect to the war, even though many of the behaviors described are symptoms of PTSD.
So great. It's not that vet care has been so immediately forthcoming, even on the medical frontier, but now the brass has decided to use these kids and then dump them on whatever trash heap they can find. Meanwhile in the civilian world, ex-soldiers will find no comfort: in the name of fiscal responsibility, these bastards are cutting back on public health programs elsewhere.
Will we ever recover from this administration? And where, oh where, is the accountability for this ever-growing list of dastardly deeds?
Are you ready for this? Soldiers with PTSD are being drummed out of the corps for "personality disorders" and being denied military benefits. Thousands of them!
Those who haven't been kicked out are harassed by their commanders, since they're often late for formation, for drinking and drugs, less than their former soldierly selves. And now commanders are kicking them out as if they'd never had the stuff to be accepted by the Army in the first place.
Figures haven't been released by the Marine Corps yet, but the Army figures show that 40 per cent more soldiers have been kicked out for "behavior" and "personality" problems that commanders do not connect to the war, even though many of the behaviors described are symptoms of PTSD.
So great. It's not that vet care has been so immediately forthcoming, even on the medical frontier, but now the brass has decided to use these kids and then dump them on whatever trash heap they can find. Meanwhile in the civilian world, ex-soldiers will find no comfort: in the name of fiscal responsibility, these bastards are cutting back on public health programs elsewhere.
Will we ever recover from this administration? And where, oh where, is the accountability for this ever-growing list of dastardly deeds?
# posted by Lulu Maude @ 5:35 PM 
Comments:
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i am retired social worker, both medical and psychiatric. The implications of one diagnosis vs. the correct one is OUTRAGE of epic proportions. Its criminal, its neglect and the military psychologists and psychiatrists that COLLUDE with this are dispicable and how they can live with themselves is beyond me. Let alone alone the American Psychological Asso. colluding with torture (another topic) This professional organization needs to be called on the carpet for COLLUSION and violating Patient Care ethics. I am incensed !
The ramifications and consequences of mis diagnosis like these are really extensive - too extensive for the comment.
Its got me seeing RED right now. pure manipulative EVIL - medically unethical...end. rant. here.
The ramifications and consequences of mis diagnosis like these are really extensive - too extensive for the comment.
Its got me seeing RED right now. pure manipulative EVIL - medically unethical...end. rant. here.
PP really said everything that was on my mind too...wow..she nailed it...and your post did too...this issue is such a frigging mess...ouch...horrendous...Over at Watergate Summer I am blogging PTSD and also VET suicide this week- please come over- the suicide stats are worse than iraq- more are dying here then there...it is that simple...and outrageous....I am studying PTSD to get an advanced Degree- I am even trying to fastrrack so I can get it sooner....( online college)...
this is such a crisis....
thanks for blogging on it...
this is such a crisis....
thanks for blogging on it...
E, and company - here is recent event for you to ponder ITs a tragedy but a lot of the the Viet Nam vets are getting their more or less controlled cases re kindled , badly ! There is a case and its just one where on Bluebloggin a neighbor and a friend in his early 60's suicided - yes ! Leaving his work, and family behind - the diagnosis or dx. = PTSD
This war is making some of the more fragile or even the less fragile VV vets sick again ! Its alos i believe taking its toll on community mental health of the families and the country at large though BABS would protect her beautiful minds , the country knows what is going on - last night here on the PBS show NOW , they covered the suicide of VET topic. And the recycling of youngsters back though they are suffering mental illness , which of course only gets soo much worse without care...they covered those who take their gov issued weapons and END it ALL. - this is where i loose it !
FOR WHAT ? OIL , i believe that because this "misssion" is so muddled and involves so many innocents , so many undertrained reservists for gorilla warfare - they cannot justify or rationalize how the mission is noble - they see are not liberating anything or anyone - and the triple or more tours without rest..i swear I want to see Rumsfeld , bush , cheney all chickhawks IN THE HAGUE ! And i will repeat That the APA needs to have its members stop colluding with the VA and the CIA - back when i practiced we had a CODE OF ETHICS that FORBID SOCIAL WORKERS , from COLLUSION. That is why i am happy i was a social worker and not a psychologist..shame on them too !
This war is making some of the more fragile or even the less fragile VV vets sick again ! Its alos i believe taking its toll on community mental health of the families and the country at large though BABS would protect her beautiful minds , the country knows what is going on - last night here on the PBS show NOW , they covered the suicide of VET topic. And the recycling of youngsters back though they are suffering mental illness , which of course only gets soo much worse without care...they covered those who take their gov issued weapons and END it ALL. - this is where i loose it !
FOR WHAT ? OIL , i believe that because this "misssion" is so muddled and involves so many innocents , so many undertrained reservists for gorilla warfare - they cannot justify or rationalize how the mission is noble - they see are not liberating anything or anyone - and the triple or more tours without rest..i swear I want to see Rumsfeld , bush , cheney all chickhawks IN THE HAGUE ! And i will repeat That the APA needs to have its members stop colluding with the VA and the CIA - back when i practiced we had a CODE OF ETHICS that FORBID SOCIAL WORKERS , from COLLUSION. That is why i am happy i was a social worker and not a psychologist..shame on them too !
As the former deputy chief of public affairs at the VA, I can't tell you how many Vietnam vets were discharged with severe psychiatric conditions, most commonly PTSD.
That shit's expensive to treat, so you gotta hand it to the Bush administration to get ahead of the curve and ditch these crazy soldier crybabies for exhibiting all these horrendous symptoms before the government and the VA has to pay for all that pesky veteran medical treatment.
That's right- con them into enlisting, keep extending their deployments, use them up like toilet paper, then give them the boot them once they are too shot to shoot.
By now, even the sweetest, most religious little old ladies should be calling the Bush War Machine a bunch of sniveling, heartless motherfuckers.
We can only hope one will take matters into his or her own hands once they discover there is no justice for Iraqi war veterans, and return to frontier justice.
That shit's expensive to treat, so you gotta hand it to the Bush administration to get ahead of the curve and ditch these crazy soldier crybabies for exhibiting all these horrendous symptoms before the government and the VA has to pay for all that pesky veteran medical treatment.
That's right- con them into enlisting, keep extending their deployments, use them up like toilet paper, then give them the boot them once they are too shot to shoot.
By now, even the sweetest, most religious little old ladies should be calling the Bush War Machine a bunch of sniveling, heartless motherfuckers.
We can only hope one will take matters into his or her own hands once they discover there is no justice for Iraqi war veterans, and return to frontier justice.
# posted by 
: 6:38 PM
: 6:38 PM
This is a MAJOR issue....but all along the military has dragged it's collective ass- at first to even recognize PTSD existed, and then to begin addressing how to treat it. I think they used to just call it *military fatigue*.... yes, you are just a little tired of the slaughter & inhumanity- suck it up, be a man & press on. You can;t go through the horrors of war & not be effected. So many WWII Vets "dealt with it" by NEVER TALKING ABOUT IT.
It was too traumatic to revisit. Vietnam was a brutal war, not only witnessing the crude jungle warfare, but the destruction of remote villages taking all of what little these people had in the world. So many died, and so many wished they had died. With PTSD, really a part of you dies too.
I think it is just a matter of time before someone with PTSD sent back to war for multiple tours of duty, snaps. I have heard the rate of desertion is up to some of it's highest levels. After all, this is the war of the willing, right? What if suddenly, the troops became *unwilling*?
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It was too traumatic to revisit. Vietnam was a brutal war, not only witnessing the crude jungle warfare, but the destruction of remote villages taking all of what little these people had in the world. So many died, and so many wished they had died. With PTSD, really a part of you dies too.
I think it is just a matter of time before someone with PTSD sent back to war for multiple tours of duty, snaps. I have heard the rate of desertion is up to some of it's highest levels. After all, this is the war of the willing, right? What if suddenly, the troops became *unwilling*?
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