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Counselors forced to sign form to NOT treat PTSD?
In this case, WTF does not seem harsh at all. Is this how the DOD plans on cutting down PTSD rates?
Missoula therapist fights human resources firm over confidentiality, PTSD treatment for soldiers
By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian
Outraged by a change in a counseling contract that provides mental health care to military personnel and their families, a Missoula therapist is waging a one-person war to defend soldiers’ rights.
Taking on this battle is David Stube, a licensed clinical counselor who is fighting Ceridian, a global human resources firm that is contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense to provide psychological health services to soldiers.
The issue came to light in January when Ceridian sent a letter to counselors it contracts with in all 50 states. The letter asked those professionals to sign an addendum that not only waives doctor-patient confidentiality, but also forces counselors to agree not to provide counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, addiction issues, or violent or suicidal behavior. Stube refused to sign the addendum and believes Ceridian’s new requirements and the Defense Department’s acceptance of those changes are unethical. Now, a few months into the fray, he’s recruited and gained support from Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.
“If you are a soldier or in a soldier’s family, this means you can no longer be counseled for these conditions, even though all military websites refer all soldiers to Ceridian MilitaryOne Source counselors for these exact issues,” Stube said. “The websites neglect to tell the soldiers that the counselors have agreed to not treat PTSD, depression, addiction issues and problems with dangerous angry behavior.
“Furthermore, if the counselor does not post their clinical notes after each session on the Ceridian website within three days after seeing the soldier, the counselor will not be paid,” Stube said.
read more here
Missoula therapist fights human resources firm
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=96703
Posted by Chaplain Kathie on Apr 17 2011, With 0 Reads, Filed under Health, PTSD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Well, heck, the VA has had this policy for almost a decade now. It is only logical to assume it would spread to private corporations at some point.
Side note, MacDonald, this is fairly important post, can you hog it up with some totally off-topic spam?
Some people in congress still don’t get it. Privatizing the VA is turing veterans care over to FOR PROFIT companies and in turn would cost more money.
The other point is that the DOD seems more and more like the Department of Dense because early diagnosis and treatment actually saves money in the long run. Treating PTSD when it is mild reverses a lot of the symptoms. Waiting only makes it worse. All this is doing is prolonging the diagnosis because sooner or later, they will get the right one.
A veteran told me that surviving combat was the easy part. Now maybe more people will discover why most veterans feel that way. What’s next? Telling an amputee his legs are not really gone?
some people still dont get it. signing up for the military is the worst decision a person could make ( or be conned into ), not just for the rest of the world, but for themselves too.
you have better ideas? world peace, perhaps? how do you plan to achieve that?
Thank you Sharon. Some people live in a dream world where every nation lives in peace with all other nations and there is no one willing to do anything to take over another country. While it would be wonderful for that day to come, having peace in your own country depends on the men and women willing to provide it with their lives. That’s what our military was intended to do yet when they are used for other reasons, like greed, people suddenly forget what it would be like without them.
History is filled with action after action that began with one king wanting to take over the world. The defenders were willing to die to protect their homeland. People like Jackson want to see the negative aspect of service so they can ignore the fact these people are willing, ready and able to do whatever it takes to defend this country. How they are used is up to the elected “kings” holding all the power.
As a former resident of the VA (not PTSD) I think this should be taken care of quickly. I personally know vets with it and it’s to be treated ASAP.
I know first hand about PTSD, seeing I have been treated for it for the past 10 years now… I wish I had realized I suffered from 30 years ago, as I know my life would have been different… But even now I notice the changes in my treatments at my VA Hospital… My Appointments and treatments have been so spread out to 6 months or more now, compaird to the past when they were much closer together.. I’m being treated there for some other things as well, and in the last few months even the same meds I have been getting for the past 10 years have been changed… Now that I’m 100% service-connected for my heart problems secondary to my 30% PTSD, I notice a big change in the clinics I go to, and even the attitudes of a few of my Doctors as well…
I had NO conplaints with my care there up until the SOB’s(GOP)started their hollier than GOD act since the 1st of this year…. I feel that bitch Backman and that cry baby Bonner are making cuts behind our backs….. And this is only the beginning….
When all the dust settles from the Anti-American crap that Congress is up to, you can bet the farm, that we Veterans will get a good screwing as always…
And what about this budget crap I heard on the news last week, that if they don’t raise to cap, that Social Security, and VA benefit checks won’t be paid out????
Where is FOX News on this one????? Where is the so called tea party when you need them???
Can’t wait to see what happens next…
GOD Bless America nad Her Veterans
They pushed my husband’s appointments back too. He’s on a lot of medication and has been in therapy since 93. He used to go every month and it helped plus they were checking on his medications. I can’t tell you how many times they increased the dose or changed it.
The GOP plan is to cut 1.3 million veterans off from care at the VA. They don’t care most of these veterans have claims tied up, so they do not qualify as “service connected” until the claim is approved. They don’t care that all of them already paid the price when they decided to serve in the first place. To the GOP, it isn’t a debt we owe the veteran but it is “welfare” they don’t want to pay for.
FOX is useless when it comes to what the troops and veterans are going through, but so are the rest of the them.
WHO KNOWS WHY THE VA IS CONTADICTING THEIR OWN LAWS ON PTSD. THEY NOW HAVE THIS SALLY SIEDEL WHO SAYS VIETNAM VETERANS HAAVE NO AMBITION TO GET BETTER DUE TO THE BENEFITS THEY RECIEVE FOR THEIR DISIBILITY.THIS IS SUCH CRAP, THEY DON’T EVEN AWARD US BENEFITS FROM WHEN WE ARE FIRST DIAGNOSED AFTER YEARS OF SUFFERING WITH NO DIAGNOSIS. THEN WHEN THEY TREAT YOU ITS ALL ABOUT HOW MUCH MEDACINE THEY CAN GIVE YOU THEN IF YOUR LUCKY TO DISCUSS YOUR PTSD FOR 15 MINUTES AND THIS IS EVERY 3 MONTHS OR SO. THAN A QUACK LIKE THIS LADY SAY WE DON’T WANT TO GET BETTER.WHY DON’T THE V.A. TRY TREATING US PROPERLY WITH COUNCELLING AND CUT BACK ON THE DRUGS THAT OFTEN KEEP US IN LALA LAND AWAY FROM REAL REALITY.I BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH PTSD AT 70% AND CAN SAY I’M WORSE THAN I WAS WHEN AWARDED FINALLY IN 2004 FOR MY PTSD. SO WHO HAS ANYTHING TO SHARE ABOUT THIS
First of all the VA does not have that confidentiality waiver that this DOD contract is talking about. No one including the DOD has automatic rights to a veterans file in the VA and the Vet Centers. If there is eminent danger like suicide or homicide things, there is no confidentiality because of duty to warn. I am sure that the DOD would like to have access to all and any mental health records of soldiers, reservists, and guard they can get, so it is up to the practitioner to protect the client. Watch for these subtle changes over time because they, the DOD, VA and contractors, may end up falling under “National Security” umbrella and then its a whole nother ball game. When the VA and Vet Centers started taking on “active duty” veterans, they opened up a can of worms and it is just starting to manifest. I warned various Senators, Congressmen, and VA officials about this but in their rush to all look good in treating “Our Heroes”, they did not take seriously what I had to say. We mental health practioners that are not in the active military are not bound by “Group Think” or “National Interests” (What ever the hell that is). We are trying to build a sacred healing trust to bring these folks back into the “World” of relative sanity compared to the hell realm they came back from. To do anything else is a disservice. The VA and Vet Centers should not be in the business of helping a soldier prepare for another war zone deployment. That is the militarys job, not a civilian gov. organizations job. The two, DOD and VA, need to stay as seperate as possible for the benefit of clean mental health diagnosis and treatment with the veterans mental well being the primary focus. The militarys primary focus is the mission and the preparedness of the soldier for that mission. The soldiers mental health in this instance only needs to be adequate for deployment. This means that the soldier may or may not be fit for family and civilian life. Go figure. Now hopefully you see the difference in these two missions.
You’re right. The DOD wants boots on the ground and they didn’t care how they got them. The Army released a study several years ago about redeployments increasing the risk of PTSD by 50% but they kept doing it. They were warned that they needed to treat it in theater with mental health professionals the same way civilians treat trauma with crisis teams, but they didn’t care. They were warned about wasting time between trauma and help but they let them wait and ended up with mild PTSD turning into a full blowout. They were warned the programs they were coming out with were not working, and in some cases, making it worse, but as suicide numbers went up they repeated the same programs with different titles. The VA ends up repeating the DOD’s mistakes and the veterans have to pay for all of it.
Thank you for trying to warn them. At least you can sleep at night. I wonder how the heads of the government agencies can.
Chaplain Kathie the heads of government must sleep very well knowing that they only care about themselves… In the frisr place they feel they are so much better than the rest of us little people…. How many rich care about the poor??? They grow up useing the hired help, they go to their high class schools, they find ways to stay out of the military, and their daddies keep their pockets full of cash.. So why would they care about the rest of us???
As far as our military is concerned, to them it’s just a game, like playing with plastic soldiers as little kids… They live in a make beleive world, surrounded with others in the same frame of mind…
Look what has happend in the past 2 1/2 years within the VA… They were making improvements, working on the backlog of claims. and I did see a lot of good being done at my VA…
Now, since last November with the SOB’s and the tea party in power, I have noticed as stated in my earlier comments, Big changes and cutbacks in my care… Even the clinics I go to, which used to be full all the time, are now not as busy… Good Job Weeper Bonner, and Backman… Screw the pooch as usual, and lets just ignore the very ones you have put in harms way fighting you corperations buddies wars…
YES I CAN”Y WAIT FOR 2012 to fire these A–holes…
I really wish people had paid attention to what they were voting for when they decided to vote for members of a party that got us into all this in the first place and voted against the people fighting for them.
AMEN, I could have not said that better myself…
lol – yeah, everything will be much better if the republicans are in power…
well, good luck .. hope you get what you want, but when youre being screwed the same way by the republicans.. THEN WHO YA GONNA BLAME?
if you were not forced at gun point to join the military, then theres onely one person to blame. if you want to help anyone, tell them not to join the military.
Just saw this – a bit late. But I’m very ill and spending most of my time in bed fighting a Staph group B infection that the VAMC in Helena, MT refuses to treat me for. So I am at death’s door here – and not very functional any more.
I can’t get Psychiatric care in Montana either. No explanation – I was referred to see someone in the town I live in. When I expressed my desire to see someone other than this person as I knew this person, I was then refused care completely.
The VAMC in Montana has some MAJOR problems!
The VA Regional office next door to the hospital is the same one that tells me nothing that happened to me while on active duty happened while I was on active duty – in spite of the fact that it’s all included in my medical records. And, the diagnosis I have of “PTSD due to MST” did not happen while on active duty either.
The VA folks in Montana do not know how to read or write. That’s a simple fact of life here.
Thank you, once again, Chaplain Kathie for a good article!
There are a lot of questions that I have about this but to save you some time, this is the page you need to see what you are supposed to be getting from the VA based on your standing (claims and disability rating).
http://www.va.gov/opa/publications/benefits_book/benefits_chap01.asp
If you should have been getting help from them, then call the media so they know about how you have been treated and may be able to stop this deplorable treatment for others as well.
Telling you I’m sorry for what you have been going through seems of little good to you right now. You need help more than just my sympathy.