(Air Force Times) Backtalk: DoD, VA must hire more mental health counselors

[unhappycamper]

DoD, VA must hire more mental health counselors
By Michael Cox - Special to the Times

“Pentagon: No Purple Heart for PTSD” dramatically illustrates how the military continues to labor under the misapprehension that psychotraumatic injuries suffered as a result of combat are somehow less important than physical injury.

Implied in this decision is that only troops predisposed to psychological illness suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

With their decision, our leaders continue to reinforce the belief that service members who develop PTSD are somehow responsible for their illness. Nothing could be further from the truth. PTSD is a combat injury acquired from enemy action.

There is no way to predict who will be the victim of PTSD. The disorder is like a psychotraumatic tornado, seemingly dropping out of the blue to strike one, then jumping to the next victim 50 feet away.

We cannot continue to think combat-related physiological injuries are different from combat-related psychological injuries. They are not.


Rest of article at: http://airforcetimes.com/community/opinion/airforce_backtalk_hire_021609/%2e

[DrDan]

1. I wish congress would hire some mental health counselors - there are a lot of nut-cases there