PTSD Review Patients Struggle to Amend Records

Aaron Ostrum and his wife thought they got a blessing early last year when the Army reconsidered the former soldier’s mental health records and changed his diagnosis to post-traumatic stress disorder.

The couple believed the adjusted diagnosis more accurately reflected the psychological toll of his experiences inspecting mass graves in Bosnia and serving on security details in Baghdad. They expected the PTSD diagnosis would get him better care and more money in monthly disability benefits to support his family.

A year and a half later, they have the PTSD diagnosis in hand, but they’re still struggling to get the Army to follow through with changes to his service records and retirement benefits. “What else do they want? I don’t understand,” the former Washington National Guard specialist said in an interview at his Pierce County house.

Ostrum, 35, was one of more than 400 military service members and veterans called back to Madigan Army Medical Center in early 2012 amid concerns that doctors there had improperly diagnosed PTSD in such a way that soldiers received fewer benefits than they deserved. Patients met with doctors from other hospitals in what the Army called a fusion cell at Madigan.

Of that group, 158 left the process with new diagnoses for service-connected PTSD. The Army says 13 of them still have unresolved cases in terms of diagnoses or final adjustments to their retirement benefits.

Read more: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/09/09/ptsd-review-patients-struggle-to-amend-records.html?comp=700001075741&rank=4

Republicans Must Help Our Veterans

To the surprise of many and according to Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) suggested to the audience at a town hall event in Phoenix Thursday that marijuana legalization should be “on the table.” It could be that after all of the time spent in an enemy prison camp in North Vietnam, the Senator from Arizona can understand the pain other veterans suffer. This unforgiving mental anguish is commonly known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

The Veterans Administration is starting to listen to many other veterans who complain about harsh drugs prescribed by VA doctors for PTSD. John J. Walters writes that “treating PTSD with marijuana could curb veteran suicides.” Veterans committing suicide is averaging 22 every day. It has increased more than 20 percent since 2007.

Prescribing powerful psychotropic (mood altering) drugs like Lorazepam for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety is common practice among military doctors, writes Walters. Drugs like Lorazepam do not help our vets coming home with PTSD.

Read more: http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2013/09/republicans-must-help-veterans/

Protecting Survivors, Holding Commanders Accountable, & Bringing Perpetrators to Justice

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill – a former courtroom prosecutor of sex crimes, and senior member of the Armed Services Committee – is leading the effort in Congress to curb sexual assaults in the military.

Click HERE to read a recent column by Claire and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, making the case for historic reforms that maintain military commanders’ accountability.

• Introduced legislation to strip commanders’ authority to dismiss jury convictions against sex offenders, while also imposing new requirements that strengthen accountability in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

• Expanded her legislation and gained bipartisan support from Republican Senator Susan Collins, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, and fellow Missouri Senator Roy Blunt – as well as Republican Congressman Mike Turner and Democratic Congresswoman Niki Tsongas.

Read more: http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/MilitaryJustice/

Soldier arrested for series of sex assaults at gunpoint

A 25-year-old Anchorage-based soldier is in custody after being arrested in connection with a series of sexual assaults at gunpoint in Anchorage since July, Anchorage police said.

Tony Earl Bullock Jr. was arrested on Monday and charged in a nine-count felony complaint with multiple charges of sexual assault and assault with a weapon after police served search warrants on locations where Bullock lived, including his barracks room on the Army side of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and a Mountain View apartment he shared with his girlfriend, police said.

Police said Bullock’s arrest stems from three reported sexual assaults. A young woman reported being abducted off the street in Mountain View on July 16 and forced at gunpoint into a secluded alley, where the suspect forced “multiple sex events” on her, police said. On July 17, a young woman was abducted at gunpoint on Bragaw Street and subjected to “multiple similar sex acts,” police said.