Ollie North Misrepresents Facts About "PTSD"!

[Gimpy]

UNEMPLOYED VETERANS AND OLLIE NORTH -- OLLIE BLAMES MEDIA, PSYCHIATRISTS AND "CONSTANT HARPING ABOUT PTSD" AS REASONS FOR THE HIGH VETERAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE --WE HAVE A SERIOUS MISREPRESENTATION OF THE FACTS HERE!

In a recent opinion piece, Ollie North tried to simplify the problem of unemployed veterans. And, in doing this, he paid the ultimate DISRESPECT to veterans.

Here is the quote...the red emphasis is mine:

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"Part of the answer is found in the fact that so few corporate executives and personnel managers are veterans themselves. Couple that with a drumbeat of adverse publicity about the war, a mainstream media fixation on military ?atrocities? and the constant harping about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder -- PTSD -- and one has to wonder how any war veteran gets hired. On a recent flight to Texas, my seatmate, a corporate CEO, asked if ?all the troops coming back from ?over there' were ?screwed up.'? He cited a study alleging that, ?more than a third of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan needed psychological treatment.? The actual number -- according to the American Medical Association -- is 35 percent -- a figure compiled by psychiatrists who have made diagnosing PTSD a self-employment program."
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Ollie North should know that DoD and VA studies have come up with similar numbers. Yet he fails to mention this.

The problems our troops are having with mental health issues are not the fault of the media...or psychiatrists...or "constant harping about PTSD"...

These problems are real.

Trying to dismiss the problems with such nonsense is simplistic, uncaring and disrespectful of our troops and veterans.

This is shameful behavior that only helps to further stigmatize those with mental health issues.

North should be ashamed of himself and certainly should be admonished and deserves all the criticism he can get for this misrepresentation of the facts!

There are many things in his op-ed piece that are appropriate and factual that I happen to agree with, but his complete and utter failure to report the "facts" in this article indicates just how far 'off-base' his 'opinion' really is!

The Link to the entire opinion piece is here... http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,92792,00.html

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[SparrowHawk62]

Say it's not so Ollie, please don't join the ranks of John Kerry!

Oh OH the shredder is back.

[MORTARDUDE]

Well...I wish there had been more "harping" in the early '70s...when Vietnam vets had to wakeup the damned psychiatric establishment to PTSD....

Larry

[Gimpy]

guys are right................on ALL counts.

Looks like "Ollie" needs a little 'waking up" and 'shaking up' to the facts of the matter about PTSD!............... :cd:

[SuperScout]

As a taxpayer who has had to hire people and make a payroll, I can understand the misgivings of the CEO that Ollie was talking to. With the cost of providing health care benefits to employees, a company wants to hire to most fit, able people it can find. Granted, most non-veteran CEO's and other upper management folks don't know Shinola about the military, much less PTSD, but they do understand the reality of the "bottom line" of the corporate ledger sheet. The potential medical "baggage" brought to the table by current vets may obviate against their being employed.

And just what is the "high veteran unemployment rate"? Is the veteran unemployemnt rate any different than previous eras of veterans?

One has to wonder about the percentages of veterans diagnosed with PTSD and the cottage industries that has grown up around the psychiatric community. It wasn't all that long ago that 'attention deficient disorder' was suddenly brought into the limelight, and viola, a new drug was created to deal with it, and a whole new batch of patients was brought to the couch. Society in general is now suffering the adverse side-effects of the first Ritalin generation with profoundly higher crime rates, suicide rates, and other negative markers as compared to their non-Ritalin peer group. I am totally convinced that some veterans have indeed suffered the type of trauma that causes long-term and lingering ill effects, and my heart goes out to them; I personally witnessed the very same things that adveresly impacted others, while having minimal effect on me. But it seems that the psychiatric community wants to diagnose PTSD everytime someone sees any hangnail or feverblister.

I would interpret the "constant harping" comment as an example of how the MSM is using that issue to drive a wedge between the military and the public, a tactic they have used before. Back in our generation, we were all labelled as "baby killers," but now the switch has been made to potential health care drainers as sufferers of PTSD.

[Gimpy]

am I not surprised with this 'simplistic' and 'excusatory" response!........... :cd: :cd:

[SuperScout]

And why am I not surprised that your paradigm is so narrow and negative, that it prevents you from seeing anything else?

[Packo]

Well.....sorry to interject here but since this is something kinda up my alley, let me just say this. I believe there are a lot of "readjustment" problems with our returning veterans, just like there were with veterans of all era's. (Watch "Best Years of our Lives" and another great "readjustment" movie that I can't think of the name of but has Robert Mitchem and some other guys, or yeah, Guy Madison, ...one is a Marine with no legs....help me somebody) Anyway, just returned from Ft. Stewart Gawja a big meeting with the Winn Army Hospital people, and a shrink from the famous 3rd I.D. (Dog Faced Soliders....The Rock of the Marne...and Audie Murphy.) These guys have been at the broken end of a bottle since the start of this war and the amount of full blown PTSD is remarkably SMALL. The amount of symptomatic, natural, and to be expected, is in the norm, but full blown PTSD, no. The 3rd ID prides itself in what they do for the returning vets and they are doing a great job. Now, I have 192+ 0311's in Weapons Bn at PI. I am treating quite a few for, now please, this is NOT AND I REPEAT NOT POLITICAL, a bunch of READJUSTMENT PROBLEMS BUT NOT FULL BLOWN PTSD, VERY FEW, 1%, MAX. No body can say that I would, for any political reason, deflate the figures I'm working with because I am a firm believer in PTSD and the devistating affects it can have, but due to what happened to us and a greater understanding of the problem, these G.I's are getting education early, something we, and our older brothers never got. So...when I look at what Ollie says, what I derive from that is that because of the media hype about PTSD, it can scare employers from hiring returning vets....just like we were all painted with the "crazed Vietnam Vet" lable. Don't forget, most employers out there have never seen the Elephant and can only go by what the media portray's. I will also say that I have had quite a few returning vets beggining for treatment for their PTSD only to find from their units that they saw nothing and were on remote air bases. These guys are so much more educatated to VA bennies then we ever were. I had a O-5 Chaplain trying to pull a PTSD diaganosis 2 day's before his EAS, ETS to us old guys, only to find that he was never even near combat. So...what does all this mean, well, I can see both sides and those of us who are Veterans advocates can take what he said as disrespectful, and those of us who also read between the lines see that, I believe this, is what he's saying is that the more the media harps on our guys coming back with PTSD, the more employers who don't have a clue, will say the hell with hiring a vet. Let's all relax here and be happy that our sacrifices and lack of treatment has led to sometimes an overkill, as some of my Marine 03's put it, in the military for looking out for PTSD.

Does any of this make sense? Been partying a bit this evening.

Also, going to Cherry Point, NC Weds for a big conference on more of the same. Will give y'all a report when Deb and I get back, which won't be to at least Saturday. Boondoggle city...here I come!

Pack

[Arrow]

Packman,

You're five by five, lookin' forward toyournext installment when you get back from Cherry Point.Sure appreciate you keepin' us all straight! Thank you brother. Sis