Friday, June 21, 2013

Post No. 16 - PTSD as first item on the agenda

Reporting for Roll Call -16:15 Hrs.-6-21-13
Hi LT:
Re: PTSD - Okay, you recommend that PTSD should be the first item on a veteran's agenda,to get his prmary doctor to set up an appointment with Mental Health Clinic, for an evaluation, and that this should be done completely separate from any other medical problems. Per your comment, to mention anything else just gives the VA bureaucracy a stronger opening to stall when it comes to filing a claim.
What this tells me is that the medical channels at the VA really have little to say about determining "disability". All they can do is give the medical facts about a given case, but not provide any kind of evaluation relating to disability. If that's the case then that's another one of those "landmines" in the process we were talking about.
Now, having gotten that appointment with the Mental Health folks, our Cherry Troop then faces whatever phsychological hoops these want him to jump through. And from that...are they the ones who make an evaluation about his level of PTSD? If so what happens next?
Re: For other problems, like Agent Orange impacts, you seem to be recommending that these be done separately. A shotgun approach?
Maybe it's just me, but such a piecemeal approach seems as cockamaimy a process as can be imagined. That's what it sounds like to me...but what do I know?
CENTURION