VA pulls PTSD Medicated hat from store

VA pulls questionable hat from D.C. store
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 6, 2011 9:34:50 EDT

Someone at the Veterans Affairs Department Medical Center in Washington, D.C., has an odd sense of humor.

On Wednesday, outpatient Tom McCuin, an Afghanistan war veteran, snapped a photo of a hat emblazoned with the phrase: “Warning: This Vet is Medicated for your Protection,” available for sale in the lobby gift shop at the hospital.

He then posted it on Facebook and Twitter.

“My first reaction was, ‘Oh, that’s pretty funny,’ because I have a tendency to laugh at inappropriate things,” McCuin, an Army Reserve officer, said in a telephone interview. “My wife, who has much less a sense of humor about these things, thought it was awful.”

McCuin said that instead of purchasing the hat for his car’s dashboard as a joke, he shot VA’s social media department the photo he had taken, along with a tweet: “Nice message, guys,” he wrote.

VA officials quickly responded with their own message. “This does nothing except perpetuate stereotypes. Unacceptable anywhere near a VA Medical Center.”

That morning, VA had posted on its Vantage Point blog an article about post-traumatic stress disorder, urging veterans to seek treatment. “Don’t let stigmas about PTSD and TBI get in the way of treatment,” the VA social media sites urged.
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