Pentagon may drop mental health question

[proud2BlibKansan]

By PAULINE JELINEK and ROBERT BURNS
Associated Press Writers

Charles Dharapak


U.S. troops would no longer be asked to reveal previous mental health treatment when applying for security clearances under a proposal being considered by the Pentagon.

The idea stems from the finding that service members avoid needed counseling because they believe that getting it - and acknowledging it - could cost them their clearance as well as do other harm to their careers, The Associated Press has learned.

"This is just one of several items under review by the Department of Defense and the services in an effort to remove the stigma associated with mental health issues," said Air Force Maj. Patrick Ryder.

The proposal is to omit a question regarding mental health treatment that appears on a form required by the Office of Personnel Management, the agency that does the majority of investigations for granting clearances to military and civilian workers in the federal government.

http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/152323.html

[ShortnFiery]

1. Categorically back-a**ward logic ... just plain WRONG!

The reason people of BELIEVED good character are granted clearances is NOT because they are as "pure as the driven snow" but because they are LESS LIKELY to be blackmailed or bribed.

There are many people of homosexual orientation holding HIGH security clearances within intelligence divisions of Government / Military within THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE because they live "in the open" and, as such, (ta da!) can't be blackmailed. :wow:

IMO it is wrong NOT to divulge any mental illness (or any other information that could be used as blackmail) to those who are granting you a clearance. Especially previous treatment that is associated with the "non-manly" stigma of Clinical Depression. If those who do your background checks and later grant you a clearance KNOW that you are also "up front" (not ashamed of) your mental illness, THEN you can NOT be blackmailed, ergo YOU are a GOOD CANDIDATE for a Security Clearance.

However, if you don't answer the question and you are later confronted for information and threatened with "the revelation" of your mental illness ... well, that's an OPEN invitation to encourage your enemy to PLAY ON THAT WEAKNESS, i.e., that of being open to blackmail, NOT the mere fact that you have a mental illness.

Like the bogus "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, this one stinks to high Heaven. :thumbsdown:

On Edit: 20% of the population at any one time can be diagnosed with Clinical Depression. If you've suffered one clinical depression, the fact that you have recovered does not mean that you are cured. There is NO shame in admitting other difficulties which many of us wouldn't publicize but should not be ashamed of either, i.e., such as specific phobias.