DOD MAKING ANOTHER BAD MOVE ON MENTAL HEALTH

DOD revising questions about mental health
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, February 15, 2008


WASHINGTON — Defense officials are revising questions about mental health counseling in their security clearance questionnaires in an effort to help fight the stigmas associated with traumatic stress disorders.

David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, said Wednesday that the goal is to strike a balance between getting the information investigators need and making servicemembers more comfortable with the process.

“It’s widely perceived that (seeking counseling) is a deterrent to receiving your clearance,” he said. “I think we’ll be able to change it to better assure people they can answer that question without imperiling their situation.”

He did not specify exactly what the changes will be, but they won’t involve completely omitting questions about past psychiatric counseling.

Currently the security questionnaire requires applicants to provide information on sessions regarding “mental health related conditions” including the name of the counselor and dates of care.
go here for the rest
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52506

Huge problem about to get worse. When Congress passed the bill that would stop veterans from having a gun permit if they had mental health issues, the veterans were up in arms. Many worried that they would lose their jobs if they came forward and were diagnosed. A lot of them had to turn to private psychologist to protect their jobs even before this passed.

Just because a veteran has PTSD that does not make them all depressed to the point they want to commit suicide, which was the intent of the bill. They do not all go out and commit crimes. They do not all end up homeless either. We cannot dismiss those who develop PTSD at such high levels they do fall into these categories, but we fail them when we lump them all in together.

When you read the symptoms of what PTSD, it is true they can experience all the symptoms but it is also true they can experience some of the symptoms. They do not always fit all sizes. If the DOD and the VA got their act together and consulted the psychologist who treat and know these veterans they would stop doing stupid things that will only add to the reasons veterans and active duty forces do not seek help. They may need to, they even may want to but with so many barriers up, they may find themselves refusing to seek help. The goal is to get them in for treatment as soon as possible and we should be doing everything to accomplish this, not putting up more walls to keep them away from the help they need.

People like me can get them past the stigma and get them to understand what PTSD is but what we cannot do is prevent the DOD and the VA from making very bad decisions.

Battlemind should be surrendered

Battlemind should be surrendered.
by
Kathie Costos

They started to talk about Battlemind in 2005. The post I did earlier along with all the news reports of PTSD and suicides prove Battlemind does not work. They must have pulled the video to Gilgamesh . The link no longer works. Were they humiliated into removing it? The odd thing is the coding on the following links still has gilgamesh in the link. Very odd.

Clinical practice guideline has http://www.pdhealth.mil/gilgamesh/training_briefs/1.Introduction.wmv and so on. The cartoon itself seems to be gone.




DoD/VA Post-Deployment Health Clinical Practice Guideline (PDH-CPG)
Training Table of Contents
PDH-CPG Training Briefs are seven condensed (7-12 minute) training modules produced by the DoD Deployment Health Clinical Center. These modules were designed to provide clinicians with guidance on implementation of the DoD/VA Post-Deployment Health Clinical Practice Guideline (PDH-CPG).(Produced by DoD Deployment Health Clinical Center)
Introduction
Primary Care Screening
Primary Care Evaluation
Clinical Management and Follow-up
Clinical Health Risk Communication
Coding and Documentation
Post-Deployment Health Assessment (PDHA)
These are pretty good. The problem is that Battlemind is still being used on the troops as well as their families. The death rates related to PTSD have gone up and so have the divorce rates.


This is the attitude of most of the professionals in the DOD and the VA who actually treat the men and women who serve this nation instead of those who come up with crap to act as if they do.

"Therefore, the number-one thing we can do to help vets is to prevent avoidance," said Phipps, who admitted that she's not offering a magic bullet. "They don't need to hear 'Get over it,'" she said. "We should be saying, 'Get through it.'" Kelly Phipps, Ph.D.: http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/9/2

Operation Homefront ouit of Illinois did an online survey. The numbers are very telling of the hardships they go through.

Military Family Survey Results
Release of results from on-line survey regarding military families and deployment.Operation Homefront Illinois conducted an on-line survey from October 1 of 2007 until January 28, 2008 on our website

www.Operationhomefront.net/Illinois.

The purpose of this survey was to assess what the families of the military need and what is needed to support them. The survey was open to all members of the military and their families. The results of the survey highlighted several problems that military families have been going through for several years.

Highlights of the Survey
Forty six percent (46%) of the families felt that they were not given proper information regarding their loved ones deployment prior to them being deployed.

Forty-seven percent (47%) of the families communicated with their Servicemember via email or instant messenger on the internet.

Forty-nine percent (49%) of those surveyed were married 4 or more years.

Twenty eight percent (28%) stated that the deployment has had a significant or major impact on the child of a deployed Servicemember.

Eleven percent (11%) of the children of deployed Servicemembers required professional counseling to deal with the deployment.

Forty-seven percent (47%) of the families communicated with their deployed Servicemember via email or instant messenger on the internet.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of the families surveyed were not told about the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Ninety-two percent (92%) of the Servicemembers surveyed were not tested nor had no knowledge of being tested for PTSD.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of the Servicemembers surveyed either suffer from PTSD or are unsure if they suffer from PTSD.

Forty-one percent (41%) are not getting treatment for PTSD

Twenty-two percent (22%) were not able to find employment when coming off of Active Duty

Forty-six percent (46%) of the families surveyed find it difficult to impossible to attend a Family Assistance program.

Twenty-seven percent (27%) of the families and Servicemembers surveyed required financial assistance either during or after deployment.

Eighteen percent (18%) of deployed Servicemembers credit ratings went down as a result of being deployed.

Twenty-nine percent (29%) had issues with creditors

Comments from those who took the survey:

I believe that FRGs still exist primarily to "distract" wives and families during deployments. As such, they lose a very valuable opportunity to prepare families with knowledge and support to mitigate the effects of PTSD and other injuries. They also deny these families the valuable wisdom that a parent of a soldier may poses.

Deployment affects families very profoundly - and ways need to be found to lessen the negative impacts - and promote a positive caring environment among these groups with less emphasis on military needs and more emphasis on family needs. The military is correct in its assumption that they need to keep "strong" families behind their Servicemen and women - but they have in no way addressed what that looks like.

The "Battlemind" program dealing with PTSD and TBI is simplistic almost to the point of being insulting - dealing with two very complex issues as a simple "cause and effect" scenario. The psych care afforded to active duty military personnel is at best "sketchy" and at worst, dangerous.

Physicians are encouraged NOT to use best practices in dealing with these cases and rather than making decisions based on the best interest of a sick soldier - instead defer authority to the command making the primary interest "the mission". Unless and until these things change - I believe that our military readiness will continue to decline - as people "get out" to seek appropriate care for the seen and unseen wounds of war - that affect both our men and women in uniform and their families who love and care about them.

go here for more
http://www.polishnews.com/section,204,military-family-survey-results.html

So what good has come with programs funded with tax dollars like Gilgamesh and Battlemind produced? When will they get serious about all of this? Your guess is as good as mine and mine, is never. They know what redeployments do to the troops and the families, but they do it anyway. They know what the extended tours do to the troops and their families, but they do it anyway. They know just about everything they need to know but still have to "study" the problem instead of solving it. For all they know you'd think they would have been able to find solutions for some of this but they haven't.

Experts in their right mind know early treatment works best but as you can tell by the survey above it must be mostly lip service because it isn't being done. The press releases sound as if they are taking all of this seriously but then a few months down the road we find out that nothing has been accomplished on the kind of grand scale it was sold as. These are the reasons we are still losing more when they come back home that we do from a bullet or IED. The problem is in all likelihood we will keep burying more and more on our soil from the enemy they brought back with them then we do from the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

DOD contract of $6.5 million to promote "support" of the troops?

Nothing against America Supports You but this is bullshit!

Report: DOD may award PR contract for America Supports You
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, February 10, 2008



ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Department could award a contract of up to $6.5 million for a public relations firm to promote America Supports You, according to the magazine PR Week.

The move comes as the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office is conducting an audit looking at how Stars and Stripes was used as a conduit to transfer money from American Forces Information Service to a public relations firm hired to promote the newspaper and America Supports You.

American Forces Information Service and Stars and Stripes fall under the purview of Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for internal communications and public liaison.

Barber also runs America Supports You, a Defense Department Program that gives publicity to nonprofit groups that support U.S. troops.
go here for the rest
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52340

Do you think that kind of money would be better spent maybe opening some veteran's centers across the country TO GIVE THE WOUNDED SOLDIERS WHAT THEY NEED TO REALLY BE SUPPORTED? $6.5 MILLION AND HOW MANY LIVE IN AREAS WITH NO MENTAL HEALTH HELP AT ALL? HOW MANY HOMELESS VETERANS WITH NO PLACE TO SLEEP? $6.5 MILLION FOR PR WORK? ARE THEY NUTS?

Fort Campbell to be first to get such facilities from DoD funding

The DOD and the VA need to get centers open and running across the country now. They need to do what is being done at Fort Campbell. More, they should use the empty buildings across the country and put in Vet's centers to take care of all of them until they have these buildings ready for them. Don't make them wait until we are ready to help them. They didn't make us wait when we sent them to get wounded.

New post clinics to fight dual threat: PTSD, TBI
Fort Campbell to be first to get such facilities from DoD funding
By JAKE LOWARY
The Leaf-Chronicle
Fort Campbell has found itself at the forefront of a different kind of fight — to keep soldiers healthy.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury have vaulted to utmost importance with military officials as more and more soldiers return from deployments with noticeable symptoms of the conditions.
Soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division are no exception, said Maj. Michael McGhee, M.D., chief of neuropsychological services at Fort Campbell.

For that reason, two separate clinics are being built on post to help treat soldiers who have suffered such injuries.

Condition details
About 20 to 25 percent of soldiers who have returned from combat have shown signs of PTSD, McGhee said, noting "a significant problem has been recognized."

"They are clearly having PTSD problems" he said.
click post title for the rest

Battlemind bullshit

14. Januar 2008
Battlemind: Preparing Soldiers for combat, home life
By Susan Huseman USAG STUTTGART
STUTTGART – Today, every Soldier headed to Iraq and Afghanistan receives Battlemind training, but few know the science behind it.

Dr. Amy Adler, a senior research psychologist with the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit-Europe, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, visited Patch Barracks to break down the program, which is a system of support and intervention.

Not every Soldier who deploys downrange is at risk for mental health problems. The main risk factor is the level of combat experienced, Adler explained to her audience, comprised predominantly of medical, mental health and family support professionals.

Army studies show the greater the combat exposure a Soldier encounters, the greater the risk for mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anger and relationship problems. When Soldiers first return home, they may not notice any problems; sometimes it takes a few months for problems to develop.

http://germanamericanfriendshipbracelet.blogspot.com/
2008/01/battlemind-preparing-soldiers-for.html

BULLSHIT!

http://fhp.osd.mil is the official Web site of Force Health Protection & Readiness Policy & Programs Skyline 4, Suite 901, 5113 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041 The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsements by the Force Health Protection & Readiness Programs of the linked Web sites, or the information,products or services contained therein. Privacy and Security Policy Webmaster PDHRA Outreach
PDHRA Information Site was last updated on 04/19/07.
http://fhp.osd.mil/pdhrainfo/battlemind.jsp

Battlemind started almost a year ago and has done, nothing! Since then soldiers are still being discharge under "pre-existing" conditions, TBI is still getting confused with PTSD, they are still committing suicides and yes, homicides, and still being told they have to wait to have their wounded minds tended to. For all the "steps" taken to address the problem, it looks like they are still in training shoes learning to take baby steps, when they need a great pair of rocket roller blades! Give me a break!

Investigation needed Ambien and military use

I received this email from a worried parent.

My son instant messaged me last night. he was going to bed and said that he is being given 3 doses of Ambien by the flight surgeon to help the crews sleep each night. I looked up Ambien and don't like the effects.

But for now, I cant get answers on why they get Ambien and what else.

He is right to be concerned.

FDA Requests Stronger Ambien Warnings
By Jeralyn, Section Off Topic Posted on Wed Mar 14, 2007 at 03:45:07 PM EST Tags: Ambien (all tags)
In addition to sleep-driving, sleep-eating emerging as side effects of Ambien, Lunesta and similar hypnotic-sedative sleeping pills, there is also sex while sleeping.
The FDA is asking the makers of Ambien and similar drugs to strengthen the label warnings on the drugs to disclose these and other risks.

More....
The 13 drugs involved are: Ambien and Ambien CR, made by Sanofi Aventis; Butisol Sodium, made by Medpointe Pharm HLC; Carbrital, made by Parke-Davis; Dalmane made by Valeant Pharm; Doral made by Questcor Pharms; Halcion, made by Pharmacia & Upjohn; Lunesta, made by Sepracor; Placidyl and Prosom, made by Abbott; Restoril, made by Tyco Healthcare; Rozerem, made by Takeda; Seconal, made by Lilly.
There's other side effects too:
Last December, the FDA sent letters to the drug makers, asking them to revise their product labels to include warnings about the potential for severe allergic reactions -- called anaphylaxis -- and severe facial swelling -- called angioedema.
At that time, the FDA also asked the manufacturers to add warnings about complex sleep-related behaviors, including sleep-driving, making phone calls, and preparing and eating food or having sex while asleep, Katz said.
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/3/14/16457/3615

But there are even stronger warnings when it comes to the military. Is anyone looking into the connection with soldiers "flipping out" and going on killing rages? Is anyone looking into non-combat deaths in 20 year olds with heart attacks? Died of "natural causes" in young, strong, healthy soldiers, is not "natural" or "normal" and this needs to be looked into. How many of the non-combat deaths can be connected to these kinds of medications?

The most commonly offered treatment for insomnia has historically been a prescription for benzodiazepines [e.g., triazolam, temazepam). Although studies have found benzodiazepines to be effective for insomnia in the short term,9 several problems are associated with chronic use. Potential iatrogenic effects of benzodiazepine treatment for insomnia include psychological dependence and tolerance,' decreased daytime functioning, l'-'3 poor sleep quality,'4 and "rebound insomnia upon withdrawal.15 Furthermore, the internal validity of clinical trials of benzodiazepine hypnotics has been seriously challenged.'6 Within military medicine, benzodiazepine use must be even more closely scrutinized because chronic benzodiazepine use poses special concerns among active duty military personnel. A more recently introduced pharmacotherapy for insomnia is zolpidem tartrate (i.e., Ambien), a nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic. Ambien use has been associated with decreased sleep onset latency, increased total sleep time, decreased total wake time, and increased sleep efficiency. Furthermore, after 7 nights of use, the drug was still effective at reducing sleep latency and increasing total sleep time.17 Nonetheless, as with the benzodiazepines, the Physician's Desk Reference'$ recommends limiting use of Ambien for short-term use (e.g., 7-10 days).
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200003/ai_n8893945

Why such a warning? Consider this;

“Soldiers I talked to were receiving bags of antidepressants and sleeping meds in Iraq, but not the trauma care they needed,” says Steve Robinson, a Defense Department intelligence analyst during the Clinton administration.

Sometimes sleeping pills, antidepressants and tranquilizers are prescribed by qualified personnel. Sometimes not. Sgt. Georg Anderas Pogany told Salon that after he broke down in Iraq, his team sergeant told him “to pull himself together, gave him two Ambien, a prescription sleep aid, and ordered him to sleep.”

Other soldiers self-medicate.

“We were so junked out on Valium, we had no emotions anymore,” Iraq vet John Crawford told “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross. He and others in his unit in Iraq became addicted to Valium.

“It concerns us when we hear military doctors say, ‘It’s wonderful that we have these drugs available to cope with second or third deployments,’” Joyce Raezer of the National Military Family Association told In These Times.

“But that statement makes military spouses cringe,” she continues, “Soldiers are saying ‘we don’t have time to recover.’”

Marine psychiatrist Cmdr. Paul S. Hammer confirmed to San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Rick Rogers that Marines with PTSD are returning to Iraq.

In many cases, their problem is labeled stress. “Army docs have told me that commanders pressured them not to diagnose PTSD because it would cut into combat power: the ability to project men and women into war,” says Robinson. “The docs admit that the decision is unethical, but are unwilling to take the huge career risk of becoming a whistle blower.”

http://www.williambowles.info/gispecial/2006/0606/010606/gi_4f1_010606.html

When you look at the non-combat deaths with vehicles, there are many of them. The question is, how many were given Ambien before they happened? Is anyone looking into any of this?

Ambien Linked to Traffic Arrests
The popular sleeping pill Ambien appears to be showing up increasingly as a factor in traffic arrests in the United States, The New York Times reported.
Ambien is among the top 10 drugs found in impaired drivers by some state toxicology laboratories. For example, Ambien was found in the blood of 187 arrested drivers in Wisconsin from 1999 to 2004. In Washington state, Ambien was a factor in 78 impaired-driving arrests last year, up from 56 in 2004.
Some traffic arrests where Ambien was believed to be a factor included drivers who later claimed they were sleep-driving and had no memory of getting behind the wheel after they took the drug, the Times reported.
Ambien is the best-selling prescription sleeping pill in the United States, with 26.5 million prescriptions filled last year.
The drug's maker, Sanofi-Aventis, said the drug is safe when used as directed. However, spokeswoman Melissa Feltmann wrote in an email: "We are aware of reports of people driving while sleepwalking, and those reports have been provided to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of our ongoing post-marketing evaluation about the safety of our products."
FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said the current label warnings on Ambien are sufficient. The warnings say the drug should not be used with alcohol and in some cases can cause sleepwalking or hallucinations, The Times reported
http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/health/content/shared-auto/healthnews/prss/531464.html

The other problem is Zoloft and Paxil

Paxil / Zoloft
Depression / Anxiety Disorders drug linked to suicide

Looks like the company had problems in the past accused of hiding data:

From Boston Globe

Sanofi says to fight class action bid
EmailPrint Text size – + January 4, 2008
PARIS (Reuters) - Drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis , the target of a lawsuit seeking class-action status filed on behalf of shareholders, on Friday vowed to fight allegations it hid the side-effects of its anti-obesity drug Acomplia.

more stories like thisA Sanofi-Aventis spokesman told Reuters that the company had seen the statement issued by the U.S. law firm that filed the lawsuit, Schiffrin, Barroway, Topaz & Kessler, and that it was "disputing the allegations contained in the statement and plans to vigorously defend itself."

Sanofi-Aventis had no further comment.

In a statement available on its website, the law firm said the suit was filed in the U.S. district court for the Southern District of New York "on behalf of all purchasers" of Sanofi-Aventis securities from Feb 17, 2006 through June 13, 2007.

"...the complaint alleges that the company failed to disclose material adverse data concerning Zimulti's tendency to cause a statistically significant increase in psychiatric problems, including suicidal thoughts and actions," the statement said.

On June 13 an advisory committee said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should reject the proposed pill, called Zimulti in the United States, because of concerns it could increase suicidal thinking and depression.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/
2008/01/04/class_action_sought_against_sanofi_
report/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news

You would think the DOD would be a bit more careful of the way they treat our troops than to pull something off like this, but it looks like they have been doing this kind of thing for a very long time. The parent who emailed me is a veteran who was treated the same way. That's why he's worried about his son. Can you blame him?

More wounded, less doctors and nurses than during Desert Storm

Shortages could be hurting Army health care

By Laura Ungar - Gannett News Service
Posted : Saturday Jan 12, 2008 7:52:09 EST

Injured in a roadside blast in Iraq, Sgt. Gerald Cassidy was assigned to a new medical unit at Fort Knox, Ky., devoted to healing the wounds of war.

But instead of getting better, the brain-injured soldier from Westfield, Ind., was found dead in his barracks on Sept. 21. Preliminary reports show he may have been unconscious for days and dead for hours before someone checked on him.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., linked his death in part to inadequate staffing at the medical unit. Only about half of the positions in the unit were filled when Cassidy died. The Army is investigating the death and its cause, and three people have lost their jobs.

“By all indications, the enemy could not kill him, but our own government did,” Bayh told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Not intentionally, to be sure, but the end result apparently was the same.”

As more wounded soldiers return from war, critics say staff shortages and turnover have affected the quality of health care at Army posts across the nation.

Overall, the Army’s Medical Corps has downsized significantly since the Persian Gulf War in the 1990s, dropping from 5,400 to 4,300 physicians and from 4,600 to 3,400 nurses.

According to the Department of Defense, more than 29,000 service members have been wounded in action in Iraq or Afghanistan in the last six years, compared with fewer than 500 in Operation Desert Storm.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/army_doc_shortage_080114w/

This is what I've been screaming about since before the invasion of Iraq. No one was ready for any of them and they started to care too late for too many. I often wonder what would have been happening if the media didn't report on any of this. Then I wonder what could have been done if they reported on all of this sooner.

Watch wounded and waiting and see what this is doing to all of them.
PTSD Soldiers Wounded And Waiting
12 min - Aug 24, 2007 -
star(5.0,4)
(4 ratings)
And Waiting...The men and women we send into combat are wounded and waiting. Why? Why do they have to wait to have their wounds treated

47% Warrior Transition Unit Positions not filled yet?

Critics blast shortages, turnover in Army care

By Laura Ungar - The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
Posted : Wednesday Jan 2, 2008 11:55:02 EST

Injured in a roadside blast in Iraq, Sgt. Gerald Cassidy was assigned to a new medical unit at Fort Knox, Ky., devoted to healing the wounds of war.

But instead of getting better, the brain-injured soldier from Westfield, Ind., was found dead in his barracks Sept. 21. Preliminary reports show he may have been unconscious for days and dead for hours before someone checked on him.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., linked his death in part to inadequate staffing at the unit. Only about half of the positions there were filled at the time. The Army is still investigating the death and its cause, and three people in Cassidy’s chain of command have lost their jobs.

“By all indications, the enemy could not kill him, but our own government did,” Bayh told the Senate Armed Services Committee recently. “Not intentionally, to be sure, but the end result apparently was the same.”

Bayh pointed to a September report from the Government Accountability Office showing that more than half of the Warrior Transition Units nationwide had shortages in key positions at the time. Of 2,410 positions, 1,127 — or 47 percent — had not been filled.

go here for the rest

DOD claims 85% of discharges for personality disorder were right?

Military Works to Improve Personality Disorder-Based Discharge Process
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service


WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2007 – The military is working to improve the way it implements a policy of discharging troops based on pre-existing personality disorders, Defense Department health officials said today.

Several articles in summer 2007 claimed that some 22,500 troops had been discharged -- in some instances, wrongly discharged -- after being diagnosed as having personality disorders. In response, the Defense Department launched a “secondary review.”

In the ongoing investigation thus far, officials have reconfirmed that 85 percent of servicemembers initially determined to have personality disorders were correctly diagnosed. Roughly 1.5 percent, however, were misdiagnosed, officials said.

“We have looked at most of them, and some, on review, have been incorrect diagnoses,” Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, told reporters at the Pentagon today.

Casscells denied the most inflammatory claim made in the articles: that the military was shirking its responsibility to those affected. “When the articles first came out, the tenor was, ‘Military is labeling people (with) personality disorders so they don’t have to pay benefits,’” he said. “We did not find any evidence of that.”

Echoing Casscells’ comments, Air Force Col. Joyce Adkins, director of psychological health and strategic operations, defended the policy, but acknowledged possible flaws in implementation.

Adkins clarified that a personality disorder does not necessarily bar an individual from serving in the armed forces. “Certainly there are many people who have personality traits that we would characterize as a disorder who have stayed in the military,” she said. “It’s only when their personality doesn’t fit well with the job that they are separated.”

Moreover, Adkins said a “separation,” or discharge, on the basis of a personality disorder can benefit the discharged servicemember because it serves as a “safety valve,” freeing the servicemember from further obligation to military service.

“If you have a job and you don’t fit well with that job, you can quit,” she said. “In the military, you can’t just quit that easily. This is a way to say that this person doesn’t fit well with this job and to allow them to pursue other employments.”

Adkins added that the “large majority” of such discharges occur within the first two years of military service.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48489
Linked from VAWatchdog.org
Then this would mean they let in people with personality disorders and all their pre-enlistment test are not worth crap. It would mean that they have a lot of soldiers running around with mental disorders. Wouldn't it? So what do you think the DOD should really be releasing in these case? That they are wrong 85% of the time, or they were right and their test make sure those who enlist are in fact fully capable of carrying out their orders? We're talking about 25,000 veterans here. Somehow I doubt they all took the test and bluffed their way through them. I really doubt they were rightfully dishonorably discharged. If they are trying to save money by admitting combat causes trauma and some develop PTSD, then they not only lost their reputation for taking the best and the brightest, they also dishonored the military as a whole by trying to pull a stunt like this. kc

Mark Fiore better advocate for veterans than the DOD or the VA

You have got to watch this cartoon from the mind of Mark Fiore.

The Surge at Home
Cartoon by Mark Fiore November 29, 2007

Click here: The Surge at Home


This cartoon requires Macromedia's Flash Player. If you don't see the cartoon above, download the player here.
Mark Fiore is an editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a web site featuring his work.

I have to say this was a great job. A cartoonist managed to put together a better video than the DOD ever could on what our troops face when they come home. Maybe they should have hired him when they were putting together the crap video of Gilgamesh.
Ok! I admit it. I am still angry over this. It still gets to me the VA came out with this cartoon to address PTSD in our troops coming back. I still wonder how much they paid for it. I'd also like to know how they did it because, I may be bias but I think mine are better than this cartoon! They should have just used this Ouchy one because it was a lot more informative.
I have a feeling this was the work of Daniel Cooper.

Top VA Official: Bible Study "More important than doing [my] job."Posted on: September 5, 2007 - 11:08am by Aaron Glantz

new article on Inter Press News Service on a complaint brought by Veterans for Common Sense and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The groups are demanding an FBI investigation of Daniel Cooper, President George W. Bush's Undersecretary for Benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Their complaint stems from an appearance Cooper made in a fundraising video for the evangelical group Christian Embassy, which carries out missionary work among the Washington elite as part of the Campus Crusade for Christ.

In the video, Cooper says of his Bible study, "it's not really about carving out time, it really is a matter of saying what is important. And since that's more important than doing the job -- the job's going to be there, whether I'm there or not."Since Cooper was appointed the head of the Veterans Benefits Administration, the number of veterans waiting on their disability claims has increased dramatically, from 325,000 in 2002 to 600,000 today.
http://www.warcomeshome.org/content/top-va-official:-bible-study
-%2526quot%3Bmore-important-doing-%5Bmy%5D-job.%2526quot%3B

This is how they were selling this video.

gilgamesh
Online course materials outlining the epic of Gilgamesh and its historical setting.
novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/eng251/gilgameshstudy.ht... - 31k - Similar pages
http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/eng251/gilgameshstudy.htm

Gilgamesh at VA Free Government Information (FGI)
I'm not exactly sure what to say about this new training video on the VA website ... The Epic of Gilgamesh. Clinical Practice Guidelines for Post-Deployment ...
freegovinfo.info/node/810 - 23k - Similar pages
http://freegovinfo.info/node/810

A Short Discussion of the Influence of the Gilgamesh Epic on the Bibleby
Brenda W. Clough

In the course of the research for HOW LIKE A GOD I’ve done a lot of reading on Mesopotamian legend. This is a brief discussion of the Gilgamesh epic as it relates to the Old Testament. It was originally written on the fly in response to an on-line question, and turned out so relatively cogent that I saved it.

The most well-known parallel between the epic and the Bible is of course the story of the Flood, in Genesis 6-7. This is essentially equivalent to the story that Utnapishtim, the Sumerian Noah, tells to Gilgamesh on Tablet XI. Even the way the narrative is laid out is similar – the gods put a bug in Utnapishtim’s ear; a description of how the ark is built (“daubed with bitumen,” a common glue or mortaring agent in Mesopotamia); everyone piles in, and it starts to rain. When it’s over, Utnapishtim releases a dove, then a swallow, and finally a crow, however – an interesting change of detail.

However, the section of the Bible that really seems linked to Sumerian mythology is the book of Ecclesiastes. The writer of that book informs us, in Eccl. 12:9-10, that in the course of composing it he read widely, presumeably everything that he could get his hands on in those days before inter-library loan and the Internet. From internal evidence it’s obvious that he read some version of the epic of Gilgamesh. It’s fascinating to see that the story, already very ancient by Biblical times, circulated so widely in the Middle East.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (in the Revised Standard version) runs, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.” This appears in fragmented form in Tablet V column ii of the epic. (If you want to look at the tablets in English translation the best one is by John Gardner.) It was apparently a common proverb in the Middle East, and you can easily find equivalents all over the place in literature. It’s even in KING LEAR someplace. The one that I remember is from BEOWULF, “Bare is back without brother behind it.” (Alliteration’s artful aid, what?)

go here for the rest but you get the idea now.
http://www.sff.net/people/Brenda/gilgam.htm

Department of Defense to Armed Forces:It's your fault

Treating the trauma of war – fairly
In relabeling cases of PTSD as 'personality disorder,' the US military avoids paying for treatment.
By Judith Schwartz
from the August 20, 2007 edition

Bennington, Vt. - The high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among soldiers returning from Iraq is one of the many "inconvenient truths" of this war. Inconvenient largely because it is costly: The most effective and humane means of treating PTSD are time-intensive and long-term.

The military, however, has changed the terms and given many thousands of enlisted men and women a new diagnosis: "personality disorder." While the government would be obliged to care for veterans suffering from combat-related trauma, a personality disorder – defined as an ingrained, maladaptive way of orienting oneself to the world – predates a soldier's tour of duty (read: preexisting condition). This absolves Uncle Sam of any responsibility for the person's mental suffering.

The new diagnostic label sends the message: This suffering is your fault, not a result of the war. On one level, it's hard not to see this as another example of the government falling short on its care for Iraq war veterans. Yet there's another, more insidious, bit of sophistry at work. The implication is that a healthy person would be resistant to the psychological pressures of war. Someone who succumbs to the flashbacks, panic, and anger that haunt many former soldiers must have something inherently wrong with him. It's the psychological side of warrior macho: If you're tough, you can take it. Of course, we know this is not true. Wars forever change the lives of those who fight them and can leave deep scars.

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