Topic: Is this the way? | |
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I believe they have it on the police force too, or at least to a point.
After a fairly grislycase. lets say involving the death of a child, most stations by my understanding have a mandatory time frame for the officers involved to go to couinseling just for the chance to let it out and unwind. |
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Daniel your point that they have this on the police force is a good one.
I'm a little in the middle here. In the link there was the following comment: "Twenty percent of the soldiers in Iraq screened positive for anxiety, depression and acute stress, an Army study found." From what I see type 'A' personalities often induce that sort of stress upon themselves, including anxiety, depression and to a much lesser extent acute stress. I expect that more soldiers get that particular kind of acute stress than the general public. I have to say though that many may have a predisposition to this sort of anxiety which may be brought on by their experiences in Iraq or simply brought out early by their experiences there. Mental disease is a complicated thing, the leading method for management of mental problems currently is medication of one form or another. All the phallic stuff and Freud has been largely discounted and nobody gives much credence to related psycho therapy with endless sessions of "how was your childhood" and such. So basically medication is the accepted answer for most situations involving mental issues. If the army refuses to take this approach in favor of therapy, well maybe they are behind the times of the miracle happy pills. On the other hand maybe they are trying to make a reasonable choice of helping people to cope with their troubles without medication. Group discussions and therapy might facilitate the necessary calming needed in many cases where people are marginal. I suppose they have to start there. I'm not sure I got the point that the veteran services were negligent, as the person starting the topic was implying. How about this: try a new news source besides MSNBC. Mostly they are just looking for heart strings to yank this way and that. I expect the vet services are making informed decisions about these matters and trying to do the best they can. I see some light in the tunnel because this government is trying to be considerate of the soldier's needs and take proactive steps to help them after service. When you see the gov't tell them all to go to hell and bugg off then you'll have a more valid point, but you and I both know you aren't going to see that. |
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Dont get me wrong, I believe in Freud and (scrolling down to double
check the name lol) other phallic thoughts. I am trying to get a degree in counseling as it is. However, the problem I am seeing is that in some cases yes medication IS needed. A good example is bipolar disorder. For those that do not know let me give a bit of spychology lesson. BIpolar consists of two polar issues just like it sounds. These issues are depression and mania. Depression is actually a uni-polarity, or a one sided polarity. As is Mania (which is the dead opposite of depression) I am keeping this extremely simple and a lot will get skipped over due to this, but you get the idea. Now, someone with BIpolar suffers from both mania AND depression. In other words, they go from one extreme to the other, and they have no control of the process cause it is a chemical imbalance that causes it. It is widely believed that this imbalance is due in part to the brain not producing neccesary chemicals or not enough of them to maintain the balance. Now what causes the brain to not produce these chemicals when it used to do so with no questions I dont think anyone knows. Now, in order to treat bipolar you need both ocunseling AND medication, obviously in order to balance out the chemical issues. And it is like I said it is to treat, not cure. To the best of my knowledge bipolar is not a cureable problem, but hasd to be under medications for the rest of their lives to keep the balance. Some bipolar patients are just fine and capable of working and leading normal lives as long as they maintain their meds, others arent. Now with all this said, the va does not want to declare someone disabled. This is an arguable belief for many reasons but it is obvious truth when you look into everything and when you go through it yourself. The main reason they dont want to is they do not want to pay he soldier the pention they would be authorized for a service conencted disability. Now this IS my opinion yes, I have no way to prove it. But I ask that you watch and read up and start looking into how veterans are truly treated/untreated. and one final thing to remember. In my ex-wifes case she is admitted to Psychiatric care due to an inability to care for herself at this time, and the inability to make sound rational decisions due to the fact that her bipolar is so severely out of order. It is definitely only a temporary hospitalization but it is until she can care for herself. now, you wanna know something real scary? That said she is allowed to sign out and wander the city ON HER OWN WHILE UNSUPERVISED any time of day she wants as long as she makes her group sessions and sees her psych for five minutes one day. This very same hopsital allowed her to shack up with a fellow pstient the first time she was there, IN HIS ROOM N THE WARD (even though sexual promiscuity is one of the primary identifying factors for mania disorder). This has already been proven and investigated by the local da after I informed them of hte issue. Wether or not anything will come of it I have no idea. But my point in all this gibber gabber is that the va is not as squeeky clean good for the public as it likes to appear, and they do everything they can to cover this up. |
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just to let some in on how the stuff works with the army and mental
illness (well here at the 101st). first you get referred either by yourself or by someone else to go see the mental health people, you attend your first "session" which is nothin more than an indepth questionier, especially when it comes to the war stuff, questions like how many times have you been under fire, how many times have you seen people shot, dead etcetera. then its into your family life, love life, prior army life. if you have ptsd from iraq, then they take into account the how many times bloody stuff questions, if you havent seen it then you do not qualify for combat related ptsd- pretty simple. if you do then it is on to what is called a "meb" or a "mmrb" both of which are medical evaluation boards, one puts you out of the army the other keeps you in but transfers you to a different job (that supposedly you can handle). there is a lot to it trying to get out of service- bare in mind some people dont want to go to iraq so they try everything they can whether it is saying oh im gay to snorting cocaine to gaining weight to failing pt test over and over and over again. its pretty tough for a person who is bonafiably f**ked up to get out. having said that, ive seen people walk out of a board with upwards of 60% disability, 30 for mental illness related to COMBAT. then there are the settlements, a year salary up to 18 months at your pay grade. everything is worth X amount- just like within most work places, fingers eyes legs all worth a different amount. sucks but such is life. 100k check for a spouse of a dead soldier on top of the 400k life insurance policy we all have. but anyway maybe im missing the sensative side of this, just like the guy in the link provided by the poster, i get fed up with all the crying about it, grow up or get out, better yet dont sign up for it in the first place- hey if you enlist (freely your descision) and dont expect to go to war then maybe your not smart enough to join, but hey im just a guy who patches people up doc |
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and ooops,
they do treat with meds by the way, love to pass out the drugs to people. thought i'd pass that along. doc |
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Daniel, I'm so sorry to hear about your ex's ordeal. It is little
comfort, I know to hear that she is not alone in how she is being treated. Recent estimates are that 40% of Army combatpersonnel coming back from Iraq suffer mental incapcity of varying degrees of severity, requiring treatment. Within that figure, the PTSD numbers are iffy, as it is a struggle to get the Army medical personnel to certify the problem. About 30% of the Marines come back with some level of medical incapacity. Volatile anger and violence, intolerance, fear of being out in public places, paranoia are among the core symptoms. The returnees go to Walter Reed army hospital. Those with PTSD are put into the mental ward, alongside people with schozophrenia, etc. They receive minimal treatment (e.g. 1 hour/week one-on-one care with a psychiatrist), and only a few hours a week in group therapy sessions. Walter Reed acknowledges the inadequacy of the care, and state that they do not have enough money to attract the needed psychiatrists. Soldiers are being dismissed from the hospital and service with some sort of disability payment, and yet they are not fit to return to civilian life. The concern is that they may be walking time-bombs, with deep unresolved anger issues, or suicidal with deep depression. I sense that this is going to be a problem that will confront America for years to come. It is a human tragedy of immense proportions, and will continue getting worse until we evacuate. It will be easy for civilians int he US to treat these men as ogres, but it is this country's actions in those theaters that has made them what they have become. They deserve and in a sense have earned our deepest compassion and help. Oceans |
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Hi doc, been awhile, happy to read you. Your info on the life insurance
surprised me. Is this something fairly new? I find the idea of 'combat' life insurance quite fascinating, especially in the amounts you describe. Imagine some questions: Who, in this government, researched and decided what insurance agency would be used? What agency (must be a pretty huge corporation)would back something so dangerously precarious, unless of course there are things they know, that we don't? What are the premiums to this company for this coverage, and who actually gets the policy? or more to the point, Is there actually a policy for the 'insured' and the insureds' family to review? That would be an interesting read. Knowing how our government works, when it comes to dealing with major corporations, I wonder about kickbacks too. And I wonder about the payouts too. For example, if one is not directly involved in a battle, but is taken out by a sniper, or an illness, while deployed, does the policy pay out? And On whose authority are the circumstances of death determined for payout to take place? Here's an idea, why don't you try going to an insurance company and asking them how much a $400 K life insurance policy would cost you? I just wonder if any would even insure a soldier being deployed to a war zone, or how much it would cost.. I must apologize if my cynicism in government matters is showing, but it is cynicism this government has earned over many miserable years of exploitation of it's citizens. Daniel has a personal story, but it is only one. I could tell you many, I have friends who work for the VA, some who quit because they could not stomach the lack of concern by this government in all areas of care. These are issues that have to be made public, and sometimes sensationalism is the best way to get them noticed by the people, as a whole. Many think that theirs is a personal case, a single issue, they are not even aware that there are thousands who are in the same boat. Doc, you may think NOW that you have made this choice and that you are willing to take whatever comes your way. But, I would like to think that we "the people" took steps to make the changes necessary, to assure that you will never have to suffer, needlessly, or alone, either medically, emotionally, or financially, because this government refuses to honor those who would give their lives for it's protection. I say, let the sensationalism begin, let it reek havoc and let the truth of people's true stories be known, and while we're at it, we might just take a serious look at this insurance thing too. |
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Doc,
I understand the problems in the military of people looking for a profile to avoid duty, but I think in this case it is better to err on the safe side. I believe it would be better to let the professionals, like Alex, weed out the shammers during treatment than to let someone in need of help be missed. These professional are trained and educated to recognize PTSD better than us, and when the fakers are revealed punishment can then be administered. This is a real problem and is not confined to American Soldiers or to this war alone. I found this site, it talks about the problem from a soldiers point. It talks about the studys done from as far back as WWI till today. It also talks about the problem that the American and Australian Army experienced with soldiers coming home from Vietnam. It is an Australian Vietnam Vetreans site! Check it out, it is in depth and in laymans terms so it is easy to understand! It is an Australian Vietnam Vetreans site! http://www.vvaa.org.au/experience.htm |
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damn doc GET BACK ON THOSE MEDS!!!!
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for the insurance questions red, I dont knwo about a combat insurance
versus the normal sgli (sodliers group life insurance), but when I was in the soldeir could opt to have the premium (I think it was 20 or 30 dollars a month) taken directly our of their check. And it was for however much the soldier chose, up to 200k. This insurance was paid out no matter what the circumstances of death (escept of course suicide); wether the soldier was deployed or not, wether death occured while on duty or on leave, did not matter. As far as who the policy carier is, I believe it was department of the army or somewhere up there, not an actual insurance agent. But I could be wrong on that as I never aske myself. Now as far as there being an extra 100g insurance for COMBAT soldiers I have no clue. there wasnt when I was in but that may have changed since. |
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