Those zany VA administrators, always trying to figure out ways to screw those who protect them while they whittle away benefits for our soldiers...
Maybe the next war we should send just the politicans who decide to wage it, along with all the folks who have previously failed to adequately care for those who have fought before them....
PTSD Bingo
from: Bonnie Goldstein
Posted Monday, May 19, 2008, at 11:31 AM ET
A recent RAND Corporation study reported that one in five returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan experiences post traumatic stress disorder or major depression. Sufferers of PTSD characteristically have "lived through a traumatic event that caused them to fear for their lives, see horrible things, and feel helpless." PTSD patients are often suicidal, and a misdiagnosis can prevent appropriate care.
On March 20, Norma Perez, team leader and psychologist at the Temple, Texas, Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center, sent an e-mail (below) to medical workers asking them to "refrain" from diagnosing veterans with PTSD. The facility PTSD program coordinator wrote that, due to the increase in "compensation-seeking veterans," social workers and psychologists should consider ruling out PTSD and instead render a diagnosis of the less-serious "adjustment disorder." Perez warned colleagues that "there have been some incidence [sic]" where veterans receiving non-PTSD-level compensation and pension appeal their cases "based on our assessment." (According to the Veterans Benefit Administration, PTSD "qualifies as a disability" entitling a veteran to an "improved pension.")
Perez's "suggestion" was offered partly because "we really don't … have time to do the extensive testing that should be done" in order to diagnose PTSD. After her e-mail was forwarded to VoteVets.org and released last week, Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake announced the e-mail was "inappropriate" and declared it "repudiated." Perez, meantime, has been "counseled and is extremely apologetic."
