PTSD?

Armywife35

Armywife35

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
My husband is currently going through the MEB and has been told he has PTSD and has been put on medication for it. His PEBLO stated that she can not locate PTSD in his records but told him to include it as a problem he is claiming. He contacted his Behavioral Health Doctor and was told that he has it in his notes but wants to see how the medication is working for him at next appointment before he puts it in his records. He see the Behavioral Health Doctor first of December. He goes tomorrow for his physiological exam where he wants to claim PTSD. How will this effect the outcome? He's really not sure what to do at this point.
 
He was seen yesterday for the OTC C&P exam for physical problems. So I guess you would say he's going through his VA exams and he has two more coming up. I just don't want to see him ending up with the short end of the stick if you know what I mean.
 
I know exactly what you mean. I am a Vet and now a PEBLO, and i always make sure my Soldiers are taken care of.
 
I just hope that it works out because he contacted his doctor and I'm not sure what will happen now. I want him to continue to get treatment. They are calling what he has anxiety disorder and mild depression when the doctor looked him straight in the face two months ago and told him that he has PTSD and even put him on meds for it. Who does he need to contact? Patient Advocacy? An Ombudsmen? I'm not sure where to tell him to turn and he's so stressed out from this, he just wants to give up.
 
I would wait till all the exams are done and the PEBLO gets the C&P report. Also see what his 3947/NARSUM says. He will have the opportunity to appeal.
 
Ok, can the PTSD be added if the behavioral health doctor he normally sees officially puts in his medical records after the C&P exams are done? I know the NARSUM can take up to a month or more to be done so I'm wondering if there would be time to present that or if there would have to be an appeal?
 
the NARSUM should be done within 5 days of the C&P being sent to the PEBLO. There would have to be strong supporting documents to get it changed to PTSD. I would recommend seeing your local MEB counsel and see what they say.
 
When your husband does the mental health portion of his C & P make sure he lets the doc know he is being treated for PTSD by BH. If the guy is worth anything, he is going to ask some more questions and he will ask for the notes from BH. They should have a record of all his appointments and the meds he is on. The VA doctor should be asking for this stuff if it's not in the packet. Sounds like BH is stonewalling your husband. He will not be successful in doing that if the VA doc requests treatment records.

Has your husband seen BH more than once? Has he been doing PTSD groups?
 
Armywife35 said:
I just hope that it works out because he contacted his doctor and I'm not sure what will happen now. I want him to continue to get treatment. They are calling what he has anxiety disorder and mild depression when the doctor looked him straight in the face two months ago and told him that he has PTSD and even put him on meds for it. Who does he need to contact? Patient Advocacy? An Ombudsmen? I'm not sure where to tell him to turn and he's so stressed out from this, he just wants to give up.
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I'm in the early phases of what he's going through as well. I was diagnosed for PTSD by a doctor I paid out of pocket to see just to get an outside opinion - my BH team disagrees with her diagnosis and is refusing to even add the "Anxiety Disorder" that they claim I have instead as an unfitting condition.

I am getting all the documentation together to have a well written rebuttal if/when it comes to that. Lot of ground to cover before that point for me but IMHO the best thing that can be done is learn the system and where you can have input into it (Appeals/IMR etc) and be ready to provide clear hard hitting factual evidence based input.
 
ranger2992 said:
When your husband does the mental health portion of his C & P make sure he lets the doc know he is being treated for PTSD by BH. If the guy is worth anything, he is going to ask some more questions and he will ask for the notes from BH. They should have a record of all his appointments and the meds he is on. The VA doctor should be asking for this stuff if it's not in the packet. Sounds like BH is stonewalling your husband. He will not be successful in doing that if the VA doc requests treatment records.

Has your husband seen BH more than once? Has he been doing PTSD groups?
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Thanks for the information. He's put down PTSD on a form that had to fill out at a VA briefing. He has been seen at BH since Feb. of this year. He refused to attend the PTSD group settings because he has very hard time talking about anything and told me that one of BH's Docs said he didn't have to go.
 
afmatt said:
I'm in the early phases of what he's going through as well. I was diagnosed for PTSD by a doctor I paid out of pocket to see just to get an outside opinion - my BH team disagrees with her diagnosis and is refusing to even add the "Anxiety Disorder" that they claim I have instead as an unfitting condition.

I am getting all the documentation together to have a well written rebuttal if/when it comes to that. Lot of ground to cover before that point for me but IMHO the best thing that can be done is learn the system and where you can have input into it (Appeals/IMR etc) and be ready to provide clear hard hitting factual evidence based input.
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We had thought of getting an outside opinion but until last week he wasn't aware that the two BH docs hadn't put PTSD into the system for him. The doc that diagnosed it even showed my husband the paperwork where he wrote it down. Of course I told my husband to obtain a copy but he said the doc told him not to worry it would be in the system. I didn't believe the doc and now my husband is starting to see what I see.
 
Armywife35 said:
We had thought of getting an outside opinion but until last week he wasn't aware that the two BH docs hadn't put PTSD into the system for him. The doc that diagnosed it even showed my husband the paperwork where he wrote it down. Of course I told my husband to obtain a copy but he said the doc told him not to worry it would be in the system. I didn't believe the doc and now my husband is starting to see what I see.
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I had a hard time getting the military to recognize I had ANY type of BH issue (deny, deny, deny). So I gave up on them for awhile and went to the VA. The VA diagnosed me PTSD, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). When I finally went through the IDES process, the VA already had a full, clinical VA diagnosis of BH issues and a treatment program completion for PTSD on me in their records system, so this made it much easier for the VA to rate me.

Not saying to give up on the military, but cover your behind and go get your BH issues documented and get the treatment options that are available NOW by the VA.

Please keep us posted as to how this goes for you!

V/r,
nwlivewire
 
nwlivewire said:
I had a hard time getting the military to recognize I had ANY type of BH issue (deny, deny, deny). So I gave up on them for awhile and went to the VA. The VA diagnosed me PTSD, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). When I finally went through the IDES process, the VA already had a full, clinical VA diagnosis of BH issues and a treatment program completion for PTSD on me in their records system, so this made it much easier for the VA to rate me.

Not saying to give up on the military, but cover your behind and go get your BH issues documented and get the treatment options that are available NOW by the VA.

Please keep us posted as to how this goes for you!

V/r,
nwlivewire
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Are you saying that while you were still in you sought BH care from the VA? If so, how did you go about doing it?
 
nwlivewire said:
Read the last couple of postings in this thread and you'll see what a goat-rope mess I had to deal with and how I got approved for PTSD care from the VA.

I'm glad I did!

http://www.pebforum.com/site/threads/aw2-and-civilian-mental-health-care.5368/

PM if you need more help.

V/r,
nwlivewire
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Wow. My hat is off to you - that's an amazing amount of bs you had to crawl through to get your care. I'm glad to see that you were able to make it happen. At this point I don't think a program like you went through is for me - Plus my current MH provider would never sign off on it - he's stuck on "Adjustment Disorder/Anxiety Disorder NOS" and ignoring what my civilian provider (that I paid to see out of my own pocket) had to say on the subject. I'm probably going to have some followup visits with the Civilian provider and help build my case to appeal the NARSUM when it's written if the base MH folks don't list it as an issue like they are currently threatening.
 
afmatt said:
Wow. My hat is off to you - that's an amazing amount of bs you had to crawl through to get your care. I'm glad to see that you were able to make it happen. At this point I don't think a program like you went through is for me - Plus my current MH provider would never sign off on it - he's stuck on "Adjustment Disorder/Anxiety Disorder NOS" and ignoring what my civilian provider (that I paid to see out of my own pocket) had to say on the subject. I'm probably going to have some followup visits with the Civilian provider and help build my case to appeal the NARSUM when it's written if the base MH folks don't list it as an issue like they are currently threatening.
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My thought is that you can voluntarily go to th VA - take your MH records with you (whatever you have & RX's), - or call hem - and make an appt. with the VA people. No one can stop you from doing this as you are within 180 days of discharge.

I was years away from discharge - plus I had to get advance approval for my VA care from the Army as I was still on their payroll. You may not have to fight like I had to. All you can do is try to at least get a VA appt for a diagnosis - the treatment can always come later as it takes time to get a slot from the VA for it ayway.

The VA has several different types of treatment programs for PTSD and the treatment approach is different for each type. They have small groups for males only, females only, mixed, etc. Some are in-patient, some are once-a-week out-patient, some are designed where you talk about the triggering events, some are where you don't talk about the triggering events, etc. You and your VA MH care provider discuss these options for treatment after diagnosis is given and what would work best for your situation.

Having already had a VA diagnosis in my VA records was a real plus for me - though I didn't know it at the time I went in for help. I just knew I needed help! But later, when I went through the IDES process, my having sought diagnosis and treatment at the VA helped the VA to properly rate me as they didn't have to rely on an Army mental health "mis-diagnosis". I had already gone through the VA "Gold Standard" PTSD assessment, had a VA diagnosis for PTSD (eventually they added MDD and GAD, too), and had completed a VA weekly, out-patient PTSD treatment program for females only using the CPT treatment modality (Cognitive Processing Therapy). I found it to be somewhat effective and better than nothing - which was far better than what the Army was offering (which was NOTHING!).

So I would highly recommend you at least contact the VA and get a diagnosis from them now. It helps YOU and your IDES case. Plus, it's free - no cost to the Army, either.

V/r,
nwlivewire
 
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