PTSD and the Rand Study

C-SPAN hosted Terri Tanielian to talk about a year long report by Rand called Invisible Wounds of War, about PTSD.

What I found interesting was the way she completely dodged answering some questions from callers.  For example, one caller said that diagnoses for PTSD are entirely based on forms filled in by the patient.  The caller said that there are physical based tests (stress reaction?) for determining PTSD more accurately.  Terri didn't address that at all.

Another caller had two good points which Terri avoided completely.  Are soldiers getting discharged so the military can avoid paying benefits?  This article from the Nation says that they are being pushed out on a personality disorder discharge.  Terri pretends the question was never asked.  Then the same person said that, at Ford Hood at least, members of the VA used to help soldiers fill out their forms, to maximize their benefits, but then the military stopped them from helping.  Terri talks, but never comes close to addressing the actual question.

By the way, even though she did an abysmal job, dodging questions, she always fucking said "That's a really good|important question."

Terri admits that although 25 people supposedly worked on this report for nearly a year, one peice of information they did not bother to collect was what military job (Military Occupational Specialty) the former servicemembers had!