What happened to over 22,000 dishonorable discharges for Personality Disorder?

I know I must be beating my head against the wall on this one, but I'm used to it and my head has gotten a lot harder over the years. I really would like to know what is being done to correct the P.D. discharges, give them back the money that they were forced to repay and honor their claims? Is it too much to ask? Is anyone even looking into reviewing these case? I'm not talking about the ones that did receive attention in the media. I'm talking about the ones who we will never hear about but they are suffering and need justice. What is being done for them?

'Personality disorder' assessment allows for quick honorable discharge but tags veterans with a label that is hard to remove.

By ANNE USHER
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Sunday, December 24, 2006

WASHINGTON — Soldiers suffering from the stress of combat in Iraq are being misdiagnosed by military doctors as having a personality disorder, lawyers and psychologists say, which allows them to be quickly and honorably discharged but stigmatizes them with a label that is hard to dislodge and can hurt them financially.

Though accurate for some, experts say, the personality disorder label has been used as a catch-all diagnosis to discharge personnel who may no longer meet military standards, are engaging in problematic behavior or suffer from more serious mental disorders. For returning veterans, the diagnosis can make it harder to obtain adequate mental health treatment if they must first show they have another problem, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

"It's an absolute disgrace to military medicine," said Bridgette Wilson, a former Army medic who is now an attorney in San Diego serving mainly military clients. "I see it over and over again, the dramatic misuse of personality disorder diagnosis. It's a fairly slick and efficient way to move some bodies through."

Military records show that since 2003, 4,092 Army soldiers and another 11,296 men and women in other branches of the armed services have been discharged after being diagnosed with the disorder.

A government worker at Fort Carson in Colorado who has access to personnel records and who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job said Army psychologists there have diagnosed some soldiers with a personality disorder after a single evaluation lasting 10 minutes to 20 minutes.

Several soldiers at Fort Carson interviewed by Cox Newspapers said they have been given or offered the diagnosis in a handful of meetings lasting less than an hour.

The personality disorder diagnosis can result in a soldier getting an honorable discharge within days, which can be appealing for many returning from Iraq.

The timing of many of the discharges, in some cases within months after soldiers have returned, appears to violate the military's rules, which say a personality disorder diagnosis should not be made if a soldier is experiencing "combat exhaustion or other acute situational maladjustment’s."

Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said he is unaware of any related discharges within three months of a deployment and has "full confidence in our medical personnel in their decision-making."

Nonetheless, he asked Army surgeon general Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley two weeks ago to review complaints of inadequate mental health care at Fort Carson. He said it was begun before Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Barack Obama of Illinois and Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri wrote a letter asking him to investigate such concerns after they were raised in a broadcast on National Public Radio.

"I'm concerned with any allegations that suggest we may have not taken the steps that we need to take to ensure that people are properly cared for," he said, adding that soldiers are receiving the best mental military health care in history.

Proper evaluation

A personality order is defined as a deeply ingrained, abnormal behavior pattern that appears during childhood or adolescence.

Critics say that many soldiers returning from Iraq who are tagged with that label actually have post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from their combat experiences. A review of four soldiers' medical records at Fort Carson and records from a soldier at another post show that they were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder before or after their discharge.

Recommending a discharge on the basis of a personality disorder is a faster process than discharging someone for mental health problems of another nature. It requires only one military psychologist's finding, and the paperwork usually takes only a couple of days.

A diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, on the other hand, must be handled by a medical review board, which must confirm that the condition stems from combat, a process that usually takes several months.

Dr. Joseph Bobrow, a former chief psychologist at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco, said a personality disorder is one of the most difficult diagnoses to confirm, particularly when there is cumulative trauma.

"I think it's ludicrous to make a diagnosis of personality disorder in a 20- to 40-minute interview," he said. "Even if you do a complete battery of psychological testing and intensive and informed clinical interviews over a week, some of those results can be and are contested in a court of law."

Some of the soldiers at Fort Carson say they had been told by Army psychologists that the Department of Veterans Affairs would take care of them if their troubles persisted. A personality disorder, however, is considered a pre-existing condition, not one related to a soldier's service, and Veterans Affairs can treat but not give disability benefits in these cases.

Many soldiers who sought mental health counseling after returning from Iraq, like former Spc. Donald Schmidt of Chillicothe, Ill., say they learned only after their discharge that they must repay part of their re-enlistment bonus based on the portion of time they did not serve — more than $10,000 in Schmidt's case.

He and many other soldiers interviewed by Cox Newspapers, lawyers and veterans groups also say they were not cautioned that a personality disorder diagnosis could damage their job prospects because prospective civilian employers may request access to their discharge papers. Those records usually describe anti-social traits and behaviors they are said to probably possess.
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William Wooldridge, who was an Army specialist in Iraq, says he was dismissed from the service for having a personality disorder.
During his second enlistment, Wooldridge says he underwent a stressful deployment to Iraq and had a breakdown. When he returned to the U.S., he was evaluated by an Army psychiatrist and received a discharge for having a personality disorder.
Wooldridge fought the diagnosis and eventually got it changed to PTSD.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15323415

In October 2004, Jonathan Town, a young Army soldier, was delivering mail at his base in Ramadi when it came under fire.
While he was running for shelter, he says, a rocket exploded "3 feet above my head, leaving me unconscious on the ground, with a severe concussion, shrapnel in my neck and blood pouring from my ears."
Town was rushed to the medical unit, treated for his wounds and given a day to rest. He returned to duty the next day.
"Two months later, I was awarded a Purple Heart for my injuries I suffered on that traumatic day in October," he says. "This is where everything started to go downhill for me. Throughout the next 9 months, while continuing to serve my country, I battled nonstop headaches, bleeding from my ears and insomnia."
Despite the fact that Town hadn't had those symptoms before — and had passed psychological screenings when he enlisted and re-enlisted in the Army — Town was diagnosed with what Army doctors called a pre-existing personality disorder. So when Town was discharged, he got no access to medical care and no disability benefits.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12234129