Spent the morning getting to roll-play the bad guy for a SWAT training scenario, which was fun. Got to enjoy giving a hard time to a few of our negotiators as things went on (all in good fun guys!), and wrapped things up with a nice handcuffing session... Who says this job has no benefits?
Then I went off to an "appointment to schedule a further appointment" at the local VA hospital. Which led to the dilemma of the day... During the pre-appointment interview with the nurse we started with the standard health screening questions, and then went into a series of questions regarding mental health, PTSD and such.
On the one hand, I think this is a good change - for far too long such things were ignored until it was too late, and there was a general stigma about even talking about this stuff. It's nice to see the VA system trying to address the problem, and hopefully it is reaching some of the men and women who need it.
On the other... listening to the way some of the questions were phrased, some of it just seems a bit too "canned checklist response puts you on a list" kind of thing. Not saying it in a tin-foil hat kind of way, but I can see how this system might over-diagnose such incidents the way far too many kids get the ADHD label these days.
Curious as to what everyone else thinks.
5 comments:
My opinion is that the medical field is free to ask any question they choose , and i am free to either steer the conversation back to why i am seeing them in the first place , or tell them to shove it .
I have started dealing with the VA with certain issues and PTSD ain"t one of them. There is a proclivity for the VA to report to the feds that you are angry and a possible threat and before you know it, you have a stack show up to seize your guns and deprive you of your second amendment rights because you have "mental issues". A lot of vets will not report themselves or take advantage of the assistance because of this. This policy is absurd and counter productive.
Need to be a little wary of those -- they are being used recently to disarm vets.
http://www.examiner.com/article/decorated-marine-disarmed-by-law
I imagine becoming a prohibited person would be a problem with your career.
I'm not thrilled. As others have pointed out, this information is being used against vets. Most who need help won't ask because they fear the consequences.
The people who *are* desperate or foolish enough to let the folks at the VA know they have possible PTSD are not generally being treated in any way that will help them get better anyway. How PTSD works and how the government (VA and DoD especially) seem to think it works are not very much like one another.
Concur with MSgt and Phelps... Be VERY careful how you answer, and watch out if they starting asking specific how many guns/how much ammo questions... Appears some folks have gotten that set too!
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