Sunday, December 2, 2007

PTSD wounded by degrees

"It's a disgrace," said Tom Whiteside, a former Marine and retired federal law enforcement officer who lost his free housing after his daughter's physical wounds had healed enough that she could be moved to the psychiatric ward. A charity organization, the Yellow Ribbon Fund, provides him with an apartment near Walter Reed so he can be near his daughter.


'A Soldier's Officer'

By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 2, 2007; Page A01

In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.

Her hands trembled as Maj. Stefan Wolfe, the prosecutor, argued that Whiteside, now a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed, should be court-martialed. After seven years of exemplary service, the 25-year-old Army reservist faces the possibility of life in prison if she is tried and convicted.
click post title for the reet
I know I posted about case yesterday but I was reading the Washington Post and saw this part. It's in bold above. Is the military really treating the PTSD wounded as if they do not need their families as much as when they have a wound to the body? Is this really what they think?
PTSD wounded by degrees according to who? Who decided PTSD wounded didn't need their families near them? Who came up with this rule treating PTSD combat veterans as second class wounded?

This is outrageous. When they are wounded by trauma they need all the support they can get, not isolated from their families or subjected to filthy living conditions. How can the DOD get away with this? How long has this been going on? For them to dismiss the fact the families also need support and knowledge to prepare them for the veteran returning home is a wound to the family as well. Lord I find it astonishing they have learned so little about taking care of the wounded. Will they ever get any of this right?kc

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