How the Army Fails Soldiers: Fort Hood Psych Crisis

FENCE-JUMPER: ANOTHER VICTIM OF 'PSYCH CRISIS' AT FORT HOOD?
'Omar is not some maniac. He's a veteran who needs help'
WND
Chelsea Schiliing
September 22, 2014

Only five months after a senior neuropsychologist in charge of Fort Hood’s outpatient psychiatry clinic revealed to WND a crisis in psychological testing and treatment at the U.S. Army post, a decorated war veteran who sought therapy at the installation is now in federal custody for jumping the White House fence and bursting through the executive mansion doors.

On Sept. 19, Omar J. Gonzalez, a 42-year-old Army veteran who had deployed to Iraq three times and was injured by a homemade bomb, jumped over the north fence, sprinted across the lawn and was stopped only after he entered the White House doors.

Gonzalez has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia and was being treated at Fort Hood, Texas, for a time, according to his former stepson, Jerry S. Murphy.

A psychiatrist at Fort Hood prescribed Gonzalez medications, he said.

An unidentified family member told the Los Angeles Times Gonzalez said he had planned to go to a Veterans Administration hospital to seek treatment after his exit from the military in 2012. The person said Gonzalez had been taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication, but he was unsure if Gonzalez had stopped.

“Omar is not some maniac,” he said. “He’s a veteran who needs help.”
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FORT HOOD POST MORTEM: CRISIS IN PSYCH TESTING
Top doctor warns, 'There's no way to keep up with the workload'
WND
Chelsea Schilling
April 13, 2014

Soldiers assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division's Company F, 3rd Assault Helicopter Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Travis Zielinski)

The Army terminated its psychological testing contract at Fort Hood, Texas, only seven months before Spc. Ivan Lopez’s eight-minute shooting rampage that left Lopez and three other soldiers dead and 16 more wounded on April 2, WND has learned.

Instead, Fort Hood – one of the largest military installations in the world and the primary hub for deploying U.S. soldiers overseas – has been using free tests it finds on the Internet to evaluate soldiers’ psychological health and only employs a single neuropsychologist to treat up to 500 soldiers a month.

And while the post’s traumatic brain injury clinic has a brand-new hot tub in storage, it receives little money to test soldiers for psychological trauma.

The senior neuropsychologist in charge of Fort Hood’s outpatient psychiatry clinic – who resigned from his position only two months ago – tells WND the post has insufficient resources to treat soldiers seeking psychological help, including:

Inferior testing and evaluation procedures,
Lack of adequate funding for clinic services,
Senior mental health professionals forced into retirement by the Army,
Months-long wait times for soldiers seeking evaluation and treatment for psychological conditions,
Only one trained clinical neuropsychologist for more than 50,000 soldiers
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