personality disorders, the military's way of dumping soldiers who sustain psychiatric damage

[laststeamtrain]

PERSONALITY DISORDERS....Over at Watching Those We Chose, Blue Girl has the latest on personality disorder discharges, the military's way of dumping soldiers who sustain psychiatric damage during war by claiming that their problems are merely preexisting conditions that they'd had all along. Discharged soldiers are denied all future benefits and VA care, and in some cases are even required to pay back reenlistment bonuses they've previously received.

Republicans in general still aren't willing to investigate to see if personality discharges are being abused, but Kit Bond and Claire McCaskill of Missouri have managed to set aside partisan differences long enough to cosponsor an amendment that would suspend personality discharges temporarily until the whole process has been thoroughly reviewed. Good for them. More here.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_07/011685.php

[melnjones]

1. un fricken believable. nt

[Cameron27]

2. I just got an email about it:

"Taking Care of Our Veterans

We have been disturbed by the stories that continue to surface about the
medical care being received by our returning servicemen and women.
Supporting our troops entails providing them with the complete, timely and
excellent care for injuries they sustained during their military service,
at the very least. Providing this care is a moral obligation for our
nation and should be our highest priority at home.

As an example of our concerns, recent stories are alleging that some
servicemen and women are being misdiagnosed as having pre-existing
personality disorders. However, the evidence suggests that they may be
suffering from injuries related to their service. This diagnosis has
resulted in these soldiers losing medical benefits.

We cannot ignore the possibility of an injustice to any of these veterans.
Technicalities and misdiagnosis should not cause them to lose medical
benefits. Therefore we ask you to join us in signing the petition below
which asks the Secretary of Defense to formally report in detail to the
American public on each of the issues raised in these allegations and
confirm that all of our servicemen and women are receiving the medical
benefits they have rightfully earned. If this is not provided, or if the
Secretary of Defense's report is inadequate, we strongly urge that
Congress hold hearings to allow our veterans to speak.

This war has many tragedies; we want to do whatever we can to make sure
this is not another one. Please join us."

http://web.davematthewsband.com/petition /

It's terrifying to think that there's actually a strategy of misdiagnosing veterans with psychiatric disorders. It just doesn't get much lower than that.

[Kurovski]

3. It never ends.

Lies for profit, or at least to save a few bucks.

K&R.

[maximusveritas]

4. Why didn't the military properly screen them before?

Maybe it has something to do with their need for more troops, no matter what personality disorders they may have. And then when they predictably suffer in the war zone, the military just tosses them aside. Quite a sad state of affairs.