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A PURPLE HEART FOR PTSD? -- Army psychologist
makes controversial proposal even though PTSD
does not meet regulatory requirements for medal.
This idea is wrong. Period!
For more about the Purple Heart, use the VA
Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=purple+heart&op=ph
For more about veterans and PTSD, use the VA
Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=ptsd&op=and
Story here...
http://www.stripes.com/
article.asp?section=104&article=54536&source=rss
Story below:
-------------------------
Purple Heart urged for veterans with PTSD
By Jeff Schogol
Stars and Stripes
A military psychologist suggests making troops suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder eligible for the Purple Heart to help
remove the stigma of a disorder affecting about 20 percent of combat
veterans.
Such a move would be a major change in the Purple Heart awards policy,
which does not classify PTSD as a combat wound.
John E. Fortunato is chief of the Recovery and Resilience Center at Fort
Bliss, Texas, where he treats soldiers suffering from PTSD.
During a visit to Fort Bliss on Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates
praised the center, which uses intensive individual therapy and
nontraditional ways such as acupuncture, meditation and yoga to treat
PTSD.
At Red River Army Depot on Friday, Gates said it
was an “interesting idea” to award the Purple Heart to troops suffering
from PTSD, adding the issue is “clearly something that needs to be looked
into.”
On Thursday, Fortunato said PTSD is a “physical disorder, at least in
part,” because it damages the brain, making it no different from shrapnel
wounds.
However, an Army regulation precludes troops suffering from PTSD from
being awarded the Purple Heart, he said.
“I would love to see that change, because these guys have paid at least a
high — as high a price, some of them — as anybody with a traumatic brain
injury, as anybody with shrapnel wound, and what it does is it says this
is the wound that isn’t worthy, and I say it is,” Fortunato said.
 Asked to respond to Fortunato’s comments, the Army provided a copy of Army
Regulation 600-8-22 on military awards, which lays out the criteria for
the Purple Heart.
The regulation defines a wound as “an injury to any part of the body from
an outside force or agent,” such as bullets, explosives and shrapnel.
Post-traumatic stress disorders are among the injuries that do not merit
the Purple Heart, along with heatstroke, frostbite, trench foot and
self-inflicted wounds.
Sailors and Marines suffering from PTSD also are not eligible for the
Purple Heart, Navy spokeswoman Ensign Laura Stegherr said.
To receive the Purple Heart, servicemembers must be wounded as a result of
enemy action, and they must have been treated by a medical officer at the
time of injury, Stegherr said in a e-mail Friday.
“PTSD does not meet these two requirements and does not meet the
eligibility for awarding of a Purple Heart,” Stegherr said.
Stars and Stripes’ query to the Air Force on the matter was still open by
deadline on Saturday.
Even some of the soldiers who suffer from PTSD feel that they do not
deserve the Purple Heart, Fortunato said.
“Do you know what’s said is that, like [with] most other prejudices, the
people with a disorder often ingest their own prejudice … So a lot of them
[soldiers] have internalized PTSD phobia,” he said.
Fortunato also said it would help destigmatize PTSD if there were specific
punishments for superiors who harass troops with PTSD.
Such harassment includes making fun of troops suffering from PTSD, such as
when a first sergeant — who was later removed — grouped troops suffering
with PTSD together and dubbed them “The Brokeback Squad,” he said.
“Until there are sanctions that make a superior pay a price for harassing
a soldier with mental health problems, I don’t know that it will change
that much,” Fortunato said.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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