VA discouraged staff from diagnosing PTSD for ‘compensation seeking veterans.’»

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/15/va-discouraged-staff-from-diagnosing-ptsd-for-compensation-seeking-veterans/

VA discouraged staff from diagnosing PTSD for ‘compensation seeking veterans.’»

VoteVets.org and CREW released an e-mail today that reveals “a Veterans Affairs (VA) employee directing VA staff to refrain from diagnosing soldiers and veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).” The e-mail, dated May 1, 2008, complains about “compensation seeking veterans” and urges VA staff to rule out PTSD and “consider a diagnosis of ‘Adjustment Disorder’” instead:



Last month, RAND released a study showing that nearly 20% of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan — nearly 300,000 in all — “report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment.”

[PghTiny]

1. How to support the troops

Deny them the care they so desperately needs, take away their educational benefits, and other underhanded stuff. Sounds like the GOP mantra to me!

[babylonsister]

3. I used to think we were better than the GOP, but I'm not hearing

any outcry about this detestable behavior.

[islandmkl]

2. but...but...I thought the VA got all cleaned up....

"You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud"

--bob dylan 'masters of war'

[T Monk]

4. I hope this shows all military americans just who's screwing them

[ismnotwasm]

5. What Assholes

Not that I'm one bit surprised.

[BlueIris]

6. K & R & SHUT. IT. DOWN.

I'm so far past horrified, it's a dot to me at this point.

[hisownpetard]

7. Can the V.A. be sued for medical malpractice? This is beyond horrible.

A class action suit by a ton of vets sounds just about right, given this letter.

[gratuitous]

8. Veterans getting the change they deserve!

Is there a problem with this? Have we learned nothing from the past eight years? You're not supposed to go out looking for good things or trying to earn them. Well-connected white guys have been coaching us for years, and yet we still don't see, do we? Money simply falls out of the sky and into the pockets of the likes of Jeff Skilling or Ken Lay. They don't know anything about the companies they run, how the money is made, how the product is sold, or anything. They just deposit those fat compensation checks.

And yet, here are all these veterans, seeking compensation. It just happens, guys! If you search out the treatment that's been promised to you, you don't get it, and you surely don't deserve it. If you would all just go home, sit down and wait quietly like good little boys and girls, the compensation would seek you out.

Dang, it's just so obvious.

[spanone]

9. this is how bu$h* & his cronies support the troops....with rhetoric only

[fed-up]

10. hats off to the whistleblower that leaked the email-too bad it wasn't in time for the lawsuit last

month-well, end of April, beginning of may

[Ilsa]

11. ' We don't have the time to test the vets for PTSD. '

What if the volunteer army didn't have the time to go to war?

[Bluebear]

12. "We put yellow ribbons on our trucks & bought a Toby Keith CD. What more do they want?"