Army reviews mental health cases going back to 2001 | Health and ...

The move by Army Secretary John McHugh and Gen. Raymond Odierno, Army chief of staff, comes after findings this year that several post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses at a base near Seattle were wrongfully reduced to lesser illnesses during medical retirement evaluations.

?We owe it to every soldier to ensure that he or she receives the care they need and deserve,? McHugh said in a statement, adding that the military ?must ensure that our processes and procedures are thorough, fair and conducted in accordance with appropriate, consistent medical standards.?

Army Undersecretary Joseph Westphal, and Gen. Lloyd Austin, Army vice chief of staff, will lead the review.

This year, the Army investigated behavioral health cases at Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Seattle, where soldiers complained that their PTSD diagnoses were downgraded to lesser illnesses.

The probe is ongoing, but more than a hundred of those PTSD diagnoses have since been restored. In addition, three officers, including the hospital commander, Col. Dallas Homas, and William Keppler, head of a psychiatric team that had changed PTSD diagnoses, have been placed on administrative leave.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who pressed for an investigation after soldiers complained to her about the way they were treated at Madigan, applauded the servicewide review.

?The Army clearly realizes they have a nationwide, systematic problem on their hands,? she said. ?The Army needs to fix the inconsistencies we?ve seen in diagnosing the invisible wounds of war.?

A statistically valid cross section of cases and retirement evaluations from Army hospitals across the country dating back to 2001 will be reviewed to see whether problems exist beyond Madigan, the Army says.

The effort by Westphal and Austin will be supported by a new task force led by Lt. Gen. David Perkins, who led the first troops to seize and hold the center of Baghdad during the Iraq invasion in 2003.

Raymond Chandler, sergeant major of the Army, will be a special adviser to the project.

The service will develop processes for current and former soldiers to seek redress if they were not properly compensated for their combat-related mental illness, the Army says.

Last month, the Army issued new guidelines for the assessment and treatment of PTSD, urging ?particular caution? in reducing a diagnosis to a lesser illness.

At Madigan, soldiers blamed the problem on a special ?forensic? psychiatric team established to review medical retirement evaluations. If the providers found it necessary, a PTSD diagnosis could be reduced to a personality or adjustment disorder, or even a finding that a soldier was faking the illness.

According to an Army investigative document, Keppler was quoted as complaining that PTSD diagnoses pay out $1.5 million in retirement over a veteran?s lifetime and that doctors should be ?good stewards? of tax dollars or the Army and Department of Veterans Affair would ?go broke.?

Article source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-05-16/PTSD-army-review-mental-health/55024632/1?csp=34news

brandon lloyd brandon lloyd celtic thunder fabrice muamba collapse prometheus trailer patrice oneal shamrock