Fort Hood Task Force Meeting on PTSD

The entire Houston Chronicle article is well worth a read:

Led by Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, the task force will make recommendations to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in May after holding a series of meetings with service members, dependents and care providers. Congress' call for a global study of DOD mental-health services is "a tremendous way to do the right thing for our military and their families," Kiley said. ...

Those who seek mental health care risk retributions, one soldier claimed. Spc. Ellen Roderick, an Iraq veteran with PTSD, said she had a good experience in counseling but a tough time in her former unit. "We've had problems being denied (medical) appointments. We've been ridiculed by our leadership. We've been held back from promotion," she said. "A commander in the unit I was formerly in actually flushed a soldier's medications," she said. "We were just completely shocked that a commander thought that was OK to do."

"If you try to get help, they often label you as crazy and it's even worse if you're a woman in the Army — it's twice as bad," Roderick said. And because of the stigma sometimes associated with treatment, Roderick said soldiers often mask their problems with "self-medication."

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• dod
• ptsd
• studies
• meetings
• stigma
• army