Dempsey has doubts about probing mental health

[unhappycamper]

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/09/dempsey-has-doubts-about-probing-mental-health

Dempsey has doubts about probing mental health
© September 18, 2013
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, says those who have served in the military should not be stigmatized by having to answer questions about their mental health status on security clearance forms.

Dempsey's comments were part of a news conference in which Pentagon leaders announced a review of the security clearance process in response to Monday's shooting at the Washington Navy Yard.

Aaron Alexis, a former Navy reservist, had been undergoing mental health treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs but was not stripped of his security clearance.

Dempsey expressed doubts that questions about mental health on an application form would have revealed the problems Alexis was experiencing.



unhappycamper comment: Perhaps General Dempsey has not heard of PTSD or TBI?

[Jackpine Radical]

1. OK, maybe items on an application form might not have revealed the problems.

How about extensive psych exams of all returning veterans, with therapy provided for those who need it, and support for those whose psychic wounds don't heal well?

The current system encourages people to conceal their problems rather than seeking help. So what we get is traumatized vets becoming cops and entering other high-stress occupations, becoming domestic mercenaries like the "Bulletproof" guys running around Northern Wisconsin with assault rifles to defend the Gogebic mine site. What could go wrong?

[jakeXT]

2. That's what they say

Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis had sought treatment for insomnia in the emergency rooms of two Veterans Affairs hospitals in the past month, but he told doctors he was not depressed and was not thinking of harming others, federal officials said Wednesday.

Those walk-in visits came just two weeks after Alexis had called police in Rhode Island to report hearing voices and feeling vibrations sent through his hotel-room walls. On Aug. 23, he went to a VA hospital in Providence. Five days later, he went to another one in Washington, seeking a refill of the medication he had been prescribed in Rhode Island, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

In both cases, doctors sent Alexis home with the medication, identified by law enforcement officials as Trazodone, a generic antidepressant that is widely prescribed for insomnia. The VA doctors told him to follow up with a primary-care doctor. It is unclear whether he did.

“Mr. Alexis was alert and oriented, and was asked by VA doctors if he was struggling with anxiety or depression, or had thoughts about harming himself or others, which he denied,” the Department of Veterans Affairs said in a memo sent to Congress on Wednesday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/navy-yard-gunman-aaron-alexis-told-va-doctors-he-was-not-thinking-of-harming-others/2013/09/18/aee01b22-20a6-11e3-b73c-aab60bf735d0_story.html



Alexis told police he believed people were following him and "sending vibrations into his body," according to a Newport police report.

He told police that he had twice moved hotels to avoid the noise he heard coming through the floor and the ceiling of his rooms, and that the people following him were using "some sort of microwave machine" to prevent him from sleeping.

"Based on the naval base implications and the claim that the involved subject, one (Aaron Alexis) was 'hearing voices,' I made contact with the on-duty Naval Station police," a Newport police officer wrote, adding that he faxed his report of the incident to Navy police.

The Newport police report said Navy police had promised to check if Alexis was in fact a naval base contractor.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/17/us-usa-navy-shooting-idUSBRE98F0DN20130917