No Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
This is not a post about a nursing home case. But it is interesting. I was emailed a blurb about an article on how the VA is directing their staff (presumably doctors) to avoid diagnosing patients with Post Traumatic Stress disorder.
The email was titled "suggestion" - and it "suggested" diagnosing patients with a diagnosis which would provide lower disability payments. Now, of course, the email doesn't come out and say that - it does, however, come out and say that they should consider a diagnosis of "Adjustment disorder R/O PTSD" - Adjustment disorder certainly sounds less expensive.
I think all of us have had or will have adjustment disorder ~ adjusting to a new job, adjusting to a new marriage, adjusting to a new divorce, adjusting to a new baby, adjusting to a new house . . . . This is a far cry different from what some of our Soldiers returning home from war experience. Adjustment disorder doesn't seem to accurately cover it.
I recall after the first Gulf War, one of my close friends who was a Marine on the ground in Kuwait mercifully came home in one piece - and on the 4th of July, he was hiding behind the couch and under the table from the sounds of the firewords in the neighborhood - that sounds like a little more than adjustment disorder to me.
Our government wants us to support our troops and support this war . . . I think this sort of thing suggests that once they come home, the sentiment is a little different. I do support our troops, and I pray that they come home in one piece, and that when they do, our government will continue to support them - That includes proper diagnosis and treatment.
