#5 They treat wife beaters better than the guys treated for severe PTSD

Got home from my week at [Fort] late Wednesday. I visited Soldier the one hour allowed per day (yes, one hour) and during the other hours handled his personal business (paid his bills for him, talked to his Sgt., secured his apartment, etc.) Soldier didn't call yesterday, but they have very limited times that they can use the phones. They have him on 4 different medications... he felt he still wasn't sleeping well even with the medication. Still having nightmares and anxiety attacks. They have been adjusting his meds to his complaints, so we'll see.

On Tuesday (one week into his stay) he seemed to be not so depressed or angry and we had a pleasant visit. He says he will be in the hospital at least another week, maybe two... no one can say for sure... and no one can tell him or us exactly what will happen after that. He could be medically discharged from the Army or he could be returned to duty in his unit or to another unit. It will all depend on how his treatment goes and what Soldier wishes to do and what the Army says. I guess only time will tell.

I wasn't impressed with either the psychiatrist or the Case Manager / Therapist, but Soldier says the group counselor is good and he seemed to like him. Don't know if the group counselor is a vet, but neither the MD nor the therapist has ever even been in the military let alone battle -- but they tell me they have "lots of training in PTSD" (and yes, the "lowest bidder" angle did cross my mind). There are 20 - 25 maybe more soldiers in this civilian facility -- which is a private facility off the base which the Army uses as "overflow" since the psychiatric floor (the whole floor!) of the Army hospital at [Fort] is filled to capacity and apparently is all the time.

About 1/2 of the soldiers at this facility are "washes" from Basic Training and the other 1/2 are OIF vets... 4 or 5 are from Soldier's company with 3 being from his platoon (that would be 3 of 20... 15%). Even if they decide to discharge Soldier from the Army, it will take a few months to process... and in the meantime he would "ride a desk" and be an outcast... Soldier says they treat wife beaters better than the guys treated for severe PTSD... I say it's a failure of the leadership in Soldier's platoon and company... "suck it up and drive through it".. I'd like to drive through that f** Sgt.

I'll keep you up to date when there's a change.