Sun editorial:

Outrageous e-mails

Congress must learn whether VA e-mails reflect individual opinion or department policy

Wednesday, June 4, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

Many of our combat troops have served multiple and extended tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where terrorists and enemy insurgents are relentlessly bent on killing and maiming them.

Naturally, because they are human, the experience changes many of these troops. Memories of gunfire, bloodshed and destruction are not easily repressed upon return to civilian life. They can haunt a veteran, causing him to have nightmares, to be easily angered, to distrust even his family and friends, to reject relationships, to have trouble holding a job, and to start drinking heavily or taking illegal drugs.

There is a name for this: PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder. It has been associated with combat veterans for decades. Just last week the Associated Press reported that 40,000 troops have been diagnosed with PTSD since 2003.

The country has a moral obligation to veterans diagnosed with this condition, and fulfilling that obligation is the job of the federal Veterans Affairs Department, regardless of cost.

This is why the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs is holding a hearing this morning to inquire whether this obligation is being fully met.

Testifying before the committee will be Norma J. Perez, the former PTSD coordinator at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Temple, Texas. On March 20 she sent this e-mail to mental health professionals whom she supervised: “Given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans, I’d like to suggest you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out.” As an alternative, she suggested that veterans be tagged with “adjustment disorder,” a less intense condition that disqualifies veterans from receiving PTSD disability benefits.

She also wrote that “we really don’t have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD.”

Just months ago, internal e-mails written by the VA’s top mental health official were also leaked, showing that suicides among veterans were being downplayed in public statements.

The Senate VA committee should determine whether these e-mails reflect the opinions of individual staffers — or Bush administration policy.

Discussion: 2 comments so far…

By unklerob

6/4/08 at 11:41 a.m.

Suggest removal

They don't have the time to do the research for PTSD? This disorder is not new and maybe someone over there next to Bush should have slapped his hand before he took it upon himself to lie to the world and declare a war that has yet to produce anything worth the American and allied troops that have lost their lives because of America's greed and the greed of the President of this downward spiraling nation. It is a shame that our troops have to come home and fight with the same administration that sent them into this mess only to be told that their condition is unwarranted.

Robert G. Jennings II
By Johnathan_Abbinett

6/4/08 at 12:35 p.m.

Suggest removal

The VA counselors, social workers, psychologist and psychiatrist should be focused totally on accurately assessing, diagnosis and treatment of the disabled vets - they have nothing in their job descriptions, nor the administrative training, that authorizes or requires them to address the merit of compensation - that is done by trained VBA (Veteran's Benefits Administration) case workers - NOT VA medical staff!

"Outrageous?" I'd say a better word is DISPICABLE! These most deserving disabled vets are being cheated out of the care they need to transition back into civilian life - and the amount of compensation they do receive is paltry by civilian disability compensation standards!

This is a national shame that has turned into a national nightmare - and Bush & Company are at fault for cutting the budget, time and time again - now, the VA is overwhelmed and has fallen into systemic malaize - while the suicide rate is going off the charts!

We now know what causes PTSD, how to prevent PTSD and how to treat PTSD - thanks to the sacrifice of another generation of disabled veterans from the Unjust War in Vietnam (and thousands of vets that went into the VA system and cleaned it up). We knew years ago that we needed to re-align the Vet Center Counseling Program and provide direct oversight for this critically important program and expand many of the Vet Centers into Super Vet Centers with satelight offices doing outreach in rural areas - and none of that has been implemented!

Shame, SHAME on Bush and the radical, right-wing, neo-con, nutcase Republicans that have supported this unnecessary, immoral, illegal and Unjust War in Iraq, like Ensign, Gibbons, Porter and Heller!