Gates: Purple Heart for PTSD 'Needs to Be Looked At'
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2008 - With growing recognition of the toll
post-traumatic stress disorder has taken on U.S. forces, Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates
said the Defense Department may consider awarding Purple Heart medals to
combat veterans afflicted with it.
"It's an interesting idea," Gates said when asked about the concept during
a
May 2 media availability at Red River Army Depot, Texas. "I think it is
clearly something that needs to be looked at."
Gates' comment followed his visit the previous day to Fort Bliss, Texas,
where he toured the post's Recovery and Resilience Center, which is using
a
holistic approach to treating troops with PTSD.
John E. Fortunato, who conceived of and runs the center, told reporters
that
awarding the Purple Heart to PTSD sufferers would go a long way toward
chipping away at prejudices surrounding the disease. Because PTSD affects
structures in the brain, it's a physical disorder, "no different from
shrapnel,"
Fortunato said. "This is an injury."
The Army classifies PTSD as an illness, not an injury, so troops with PTSD
don't qualify for the Purple Heart. That distinction is limited to troops
killed or wounded in a conflict.
"I would love to see that changed, because these guys have paid at least
as
high a price, some of them, as anybody with a traumatic brain injury, as
anybody with a shrapnel wound," Fortunato said.
Not recognizing those with PTSD with a Purple Heart "says that this is the
wound that isn't worthy," Fortunato said. "And it is."
Fortunato said he'd also like to see a regulation prohibiting harassment
of
troops with PTSD, similar to regulations banning racial or sexual
harassment.
"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."
Soldiers still get laughed at for seeking mental-health services or told
that it will ruin their careers, he said. Some in the force view people
with
PTSD as weak, believing that if those with the disease "just sucked it up
and
soldiered on, [they would] could get over this," Fortunato said.
"The Army is making a lot of strides toward changing that, but it's a slow
go, because it has to happen at the grassroots level," he said. "Like any
other prejudice, it's hard to die."
During his visit to Fort Bliss, Gates announced a new policy in which
combat
veterans no longer have to acknowledge on their federal security clearance
forms that they have received mental health care for combat stress. Gates
said
he hoped the policy would eliminate troops' concerns that seeking
mentalhealth care can cause them to be denied a security clearance and
threaten their
careers. He also expressed hope it would take the stigma away from seeking
treatment.
Gates called on senior noncommissioned officers to encourage their
soldiers
who need it to get care, and to let them know that doing so is a sign of
strength, not weakness.
"All of you have a special role in encouraging troops to seek help for the
unseen scars of war -- to let them know that doing so is a sign of
strength
and maturity," Gates told soldiers attending the Army Sergeants Major
Academy,
at Fort Bliss. "I urge you all to talk with those below you to find out
where we can continue to improve.
"Those who have sacrificed for our nation deserve the best care they can
get," he continued. "As I have said before, there is no higher priority
for
the
Department of Defense, after the war itself, than caring for our wounded
warriors."
__________________________________________
I always thought combat caused PTSD should be awarded the purple heart.
Maybe the military is finally realizing that those with PTSd are not
cowards.
|
