PTSD in troops dismissed to save money! Was it worth it?

I am posting this is very large type so that no one misses a single word of this.

Four who committed suicide so that the government could save money! Many more each week did the same thing. Over 12,000 a year tried to.

VA e-mail: Save money, do not diagnose PTSD

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 15, 2008 17:17:30 EDT

Two veterans advocacy groups have asked for copies of all documents relating to the Veterans Affairs Department’s post-traumatic stress disorder policies after an e-mail surfaced asking VA doctors to keep costs down by giving diagnoses of adjustment disorder instead.

Veterans diagnosed with PTSD are eligible for health benefits and, in some cases, disability retirement pay. Adjustment disorder, on the other hand, is considered a short-term diagnosis, and does not qualify veterans for benefits, said Brandon Friedman, vice chair of VoteVets.org, one of the advocacy groups.

“They can say, ‘Ah, you’ve got something temporary, it’ll go away, so we don’t need to pay you for the rest of your life,’ ” Friedman said.

He said several veterans have told him they were diagnosed with adjustment disorder rather than PTSD, and that they felt they had received the wrong diagnosis.

“We hear anecdotal evidence all the time that VA is trying to cut costs by not diagnosing PTSD,” said Friedman, a former infantry officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “But we’ve never actually seen proof that it was being done in an organized way.”

The e-mail, which Friedman said came from a VA hospital’s PTSD program coordinator, was apparently sent to several VA employees at that hospital. A psychologist from the hospital in turn sent it to VoteVets.org, Friedman said.

“Given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans, I’d like to suggest you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out,” the e-mail states. “Consider a diagnosis of adjustment disorder, r/o [rule out] PTSD. Additionally, we really don’t ... have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD.”

The e-mail also states veterans are appealing their compensation and pension ratings based on diagnosis from his staff.

VA Secretary James Peake acknowledged in a statement that the e-mail did come from a VA facility, but said it’s not official policy.

“A single staff member, out of VA’s 230,000 employees, in a single medical facility sent a single e-mail with suggestions that are inappropriate and have been repudiated at the highest level of our health-care organization,” he said. “The employee has been counseled and is extremely apologetic.”

VoteVets.org and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a Freedom of Information Act request May 14 asking VA for all documents relating to PTSD, said Naomi Seligman Steiner, spokeswoman for the latter group.

“We’re not head-hunting,” Friedman said. “There are a lot of great people who work at VA who have helped me and my friends. We had to file the FOIA to get to the bottom of this. Is it from the head of the VA? The presidential administration? Or individual hospitals? I would like to know where this directive is coming from.”

Peake said his staff “works hard” to make sure mental health issues are accurately diagnosed.

“VA’s leadership will strongly remind all medical staff that trust, accuracy and transparency is paramount to maintaining our relationships with our veteran patients,” he said. “We are committed to absolute accuracy in a diagnosis and unwavering in providing any and all earned benefits. PTSD and the mental health arena is no exception.” http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/military_va_adjustmentdisorder_051508w/

Infuriated? Disgusted? Ashamed? What word would best describe what you are feeling right now? How about for the last couple of years as all of these secrets, lies, manipulation, neglect, have been finally reported on?

Do you fully understand what this all means? It means that what the veterans have been saying, what their families have been saying while watching them die a slow agonizing death, burying them after their suicides, that it has all been one gigantic lie after lie. It means this government, under the high and mighty Bush, the man who I and everyone else in the country has been attacked for reporting on what he's been doing along with the help of his faithful servants in the Senate and the House, have been doing against the troops at the same time they have been using them to do as they damn well please!

Have you ever counted the number of times they took to the floor and screamed about the need for tax cuts and breaks for the rich at the same time they were trying to save money on not taking care of the troops? Have you counted the number of times they said there was not enough money to fully fund the VA at the same time they had no problem asking for more and more money for Iraq and the contractors in Iraq at the same time they were letting bases fall apart and Walter Reed turn into a house of horrors for some of the wounded?

This was on ICasualties.org

05/15/08 AP: Contractors, insurance firms gouging taxpayers, panel says
A poorly run Pentagon program for providing civilian employees in Iraq and Afghanistan with workman's compensation has allowed defense contractors and insurance companies to gouge American taxpayers, a House oversight committee said Thursday.

This along with a mountain of bills we have had to pay out to the contractors for ripping us off, they never once said that there was not enough being done for the troops. And exactly how did they get away with all of this? It was easy. Because people who claimed they supported the troops didn't. The ones who attacked and harassed the people standing up for the troops, the ones who claimed others were not supporting the troops are finally being found culpable for their deaths!!! Does any of this sink into the neo-cons minds yet?

How many of them had to bury their sons and daughters who their heroes in the GOP refused to take care of and now, now the evidence comes out. Not from some all mighty war bloggers who have lived high on the advertising of their sites. Not from some flag waving, lapel pin wearing, GOP elected lobbyists making their next career move and rubbing shoulders with the rich and powerful they were making even more rich and more powerful off this blood sucking occupation they refused to stop calling war, but by people who deeply cared for the lives they saw no problem in wasting. Yes, I said wasting!!!! And I will scream it into every scum of the earth hack who refused to see what was being done to them! I will scream it because they refused to listen to the cries of the troops who were begging to be heard by them. I will scream it until they finally get it into their thick sculls that it is not the Republicans who support the troops but it is the Republicans who use the troops and then refuse to take care of any of them!!!!

My Lord, what the hell is wrong with those people? Do they have the slightest clue what they have been doing to the troops? To the veterans? To anyone? Do they know what they've been doing to the families of them? Didn't they understand they have all been wrong when the members of the armed forces donated their presidential campaign money to the two biggest oppositions to them and the two who screamed the loudest about getting the troops out of Iraq? That's right. Obama and Ron Paul got most of their money! Did they ever wonder why that was?

I wonder if they ever even listen to the troops when they come home and they tell their families what they went through? I guess they are too busy only reading the troops who support the occupation of Iraq and want to paint a picture that can trump Valley Forge. They also didn't notice how many of these bloggers are being paid by defense contractors and the government to post the propaganda. After all, that's where all these claims come from. All the glorification of what is being accomplished in Iraq at the same time we're reading reports that most of the Iraqis no longer have clean water to drink and the rest that is going on there. How could they know? They didn't even want to invest the time in checking out the news reports from across the globe to be able to find out.

The men and women who enlisted deserved so much more out of them but they never received any of it. Aside from the gangs that the DOD made arrangements for to allow in to keep up the recruiting numbers and the others who had to get moral waivers, the others were born heroes. They felt a need to serve this nation and now I wonder why they were even willing to considering how much this nation has let them down. The men and women who laid down their lives for this nation did not waste their lives. All their patriotism, all their nobility, all their commitment, bravery and courage, their willingness to sacrifice for the rest of us, all wasted by Bush and his appointees that the rest of the GOP defended. How can any of them ever go to the convention and feel proud of what they not only allowed to happen to the troops, not only approved of, but demanded the ability to continue to do it to them?

I have friends who are Republican and they feel no need to associated with any of those who still want to support Bush and the elected in our congress who have anointed Bush no matter if he deserved it or not for the sake of power. All the GOP bloggers out there should be ashamed of themselves. All the talking heads on cable who kept on supporting all of this should be ashamed of themselves for selling the lives of the troops in order to get the ratings. I hope whatever Bush supporters hoped to gain by supporting all this suffering and misery inflicted on the troops was worth it. They will have to live with what they allowed for the rest of their lives.

There is still no answer on those who have been discharged under personality disorders and given a dishonorable discharge instead of being treated for PTSD. Last report they numbered over 22,000!


Now add this to all of the above

The numbers keep getting worse. Here is heavy dose of real FOIA facts, compliments of VCS:

1,668,000 service members deployed to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, about one-half of one percent of the 300 million U.S. population.

Nearly 100 percent involved in combat for more than six years in Afghanistan and more than five years in Iraq.

600,000 estimated casualties from both wars so far, where only half sought medical care, according to a new RAND study limited to brain damage, major depression, and post traumatic stress disorder.

500,000 deployed twice or more into combat – which increases risk of post traumatic stress disorder by 50 percent.

300,000 treated at VA hospitals after their return home – and VA still lacks a plan to handle the flood of casualties so that veterans are not turned away.

288,000 filed disability claims against VA for military-related medical problems, and again VA has no plan to process these claims accurately or quickly.

58,300 forced to remain in war under stop loss – military orders that force a soldier to remain in the military past the end of their enlistment contract. Many of these soldiers are on their second and third war deployment.

43,000 deployed combat after they were already declared unfit by a doctor – with broken legs, brain damage, and post traumatic stress disorder.

120 veterans complete a suicide every week. And 1,000 attempt suicide while under VA care each month. This is VCS in action, working hard to ensure that America does not forget about the sacrifices of our servie members, veterans, and families make.
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/10115