On Nov 11, 2009, at 8:40 AM, TurquoiseB wrote: > I think that pretty much says it all about the > quality of VA care. 1,461,615 people went with- > out health care rather than take advantage of > the "free" health care at the VA.
It's interesting how we can use Militarism to rake in $billions$ for all the Daddy Warbucks out there, but we can't provide psychiatric first aid for the hordes of soldiers coming back with PTSD. The risk for PTSD goes up logarithmically for each deployment you undergo--and since Bush Co., we now recycle these kids multiple times. Despite that, and what we know, there are inadequate mechanisms in place to prepare or provide for these realities. My partner has been working for the past 9 months with the Red Cross to train providers in pre- and post-deployment settings to provide psychiatric first aid and preparation to the families of Vets and she's been repeatedly floored by the lack of preparation and the lack of return psychiatric services. You can't redeploy them if they're diagnosed with a war-related psychiatric disorder, so the wisdom seems to be 'don't let them get diagnosed or refuse to diagnose PTSD and other disorders. Recycle till no longer usable.' Chilling really.
