Sources tell Raw US military is discouraging post-war health screenings of veterans; Part 3 of exclusive series

Nancy GoldsteinPublished:
Monday October 30, 2006



(Continued from Mind Games Part I: The Things They Carry and Mind Games Part II: To Hell and Back: Spinning the Downward Spiral)

Mind Game III - Full Metal Lockout: The Myth of Accessible Health Care

If you were thinking of enlisting in the military and you read the press releases from the DOD and VA public relations machine, you'd think that signing up would make you part of a body of men and women who were the nation's greatest asset -- a corps that would enjoy every possible means of care at all stages of their professional and personal lives.

You'd go to the DOD's fancy Deployment Health Clinical Center (DHCC) web site and cling to the promise that its resources are devoted to "fostering a trusting partnership between military men and women, veterans, their families, and their healthcare providers to ensure the highest quality care for those who make sacrifices in the world's most hazardous workplace."

The site would assure you that all returning service members "receive a face-to-face health assessment" by a trained health care provider that includes an in-depth review of "each service member's current health, mental health or psychosocial issues commonly associated with deployments, special medications taken during the deployment, and possible deployment-related occupational/environmental exposures."

And who could blame you for feeling reassured? It's a level of medical attention and care that anyone would envy -- if, in fact, anyone were getting it at all.

"I don't believe that the DOD is having face-to-face screenings," says Paul Sullivan, Director of Programs at Veterans for America (VFA). "I have spoken with countless veterans who have advised me that at most they fill out the form, and many don't even do that."

Steve Robinson, VFA's Government Relations Director, agrees with his colleague. Although both pre- and post-deployment health assessments were mandated by law in 1997, Robinson notes that "previous reports from the US Government Accountability Office, (GAO) that looked at whether the form was being utilized correctly have already indicated that the DOD is not doing face-to-face screenings or making sure that everyone is filling out the forms."

In fact, a 2003 GAO report specifically found that "the percentage of Army and Air Force servicemembers missing one or both of their pre- and post deployment health assessments ranged from 38 to 98 percent of our samples."

"The post-deployment process was absolutely terrible and totally inadequate," recalls Paul Reickhoff, Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) . "Physicals were not mandatory as part of our post-deployment. There were no mental health screenings, unless you self-diagnosed by checking certain boxes on the 2796" (the post-deployment health assessment form).

Given the lack of mandatory screenings, coming forward with a possible mental health disorder is left to service members, who are both culturally and systemically repelled from doing so. The only chance they have of meeting face-to-face with anyone is if they answer "yes" to two or more of the four PTSD screening questions added to form 2796 in April of 2003 after years of lobbying by mental health professionals.

The disincentives for doing so are immense. They include the threat of being held behind at the demobilization location while the rest of the unit -- the people who have been your family for months or years -- goes out to celebrate, then goes home; the end of opportunities for advancement in the military, or as a fire fighter, police officer, or security guard; and the personal shame of being perceived as weak in one of the most macho environments this side of Giants Stadium.

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