Moral Injury, Beyond PTSD.

[Evans]

Bullshit, what are you apologizing for? You have an opinion and we want to hear it.
Trust me, if I or any other member of staff think you're a full of shit cunt, we'll tell you. Differences of opinion are welcomed, that's how we sometimes learn to expound our thoughts.

Understood, then my opinion is that yes the system is fucked, but the system is still people. It may be the persons command or it may be shitty docs, but it comes back to people and them being lazy. I can be a doc, have a patient come in, and have two options...Help them to the best of my ability or find a way to Med Board them because its easier. I've seen that happen to many times, and it pisses me off when it does.

The military is all about meeting numbers anymore. If they can get rid of you and still meet numbers they will. It's "easier that way", but by no means is it right. And that kind of thing doesn't help destigmatize Mental Health, it makes it worse. Our job isn't to weed out those with problems, it's to help those who need it. What sucks is success stories don't get out to the public, but if shit hits the fan it's our fault. It's a losing battle and will be until we have all squared away docs that won't try to easy way out of seeing an individual by Med Boarding them, and once we can get over the whole "You're a pussy if you get help, just keep it to yourself and press on."

 

[AWP]

[QUOTE="Evans, post: 343993, member: 6856] What sucks is success stories don't get out to the public, but if shit hits the fan it's our fault.[/QUOTE]

In your experience, what percentage of success stories do you see? Or better, success stories vs. failure vs. Med Boarding (I try to differentiate between the last two. Who sees a Med Board and who doesn't)?

 

[Evans]

In your experience, what percentage of success stories do you see? Or better, success stories vs. failure vs. Med Boarding (I try to differentiate between the last two. Who sees a Med Board and who doesn't)?

Thats kind of a tough one to answer from my limited experience (1 year in career field and only one duty station so far), but I will say that it also depends on the motovation of the patient. It is also hard to give you an accurate number for this because alot of our PTSD patients aren't actually deployment related, but more from abuse during childhood.

That being said, I do recall a few cases of deployment related diagnosed PTSD that the patient actually did the homework (desensitization at different public locations and tracking their SUDS in this case) and noticed the improvements, became motivated by this to share more during sessions, and was actually cleared of all profiles. We have a few docs here that are trained for PTSD patients, and I think thats why sometimes places like the VA or other installations fall short or don't take as good care of these patients as they could.

To actually answer your question though, I would say, for our clinic here, atleast 75% -80% (estimate) carry on with their career with no negitive impact. Those that don't are usually Med Boarded, and that is only because they are legitimately unable to continue the mission. And even with those patients, we continue to see them until the day they separate to make sure they have some sort of set up afterward. But I can only speak for our clinic on that. I can do some research on that though to get a more accurate number for you.

 

[AWP]

I can do some research on that though to get a more accurate number for you.

No need unless you want to. I was simply curious, not calling you out. I'm a little surprised at your estimate, not because I doubt you, but I honestly wonder if your location is not the norm or maybe if the AF is doing a better job than the other services or some other factor.

The reality is that we'll probably never know exact numbers. I'm cynical, but if the VA or DoD ever released any numbers I'd immediately shave 10-20% off of those figures. I think the problem is bigger than the gov't would like to admit and I think there's a certain amount of "ostriching" going on (head in sand) in the hopes that the problem will go away. One case in point: Lariam/ mefloquin.