Byline: Shankar Vedantam; 2007-05-09; The Washington Post; pages A3
Report: Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center 2003, 2007 - Salon, The Washington Post
Tags: Walter Reed
Article Links"The report identified problems with both arms of VA's evaluation and compensation procedures: A veteran currently undergoes an evaluation to determine if he or she has PTSD, and the results are used by other raters to determine the level of disability and the amount of compensation.The Institute of Medicine panel said the scale used to evaluate veterans is outdated and largely designed for people who suffer from other mental disorders. Andreasen and other members also said they had heard from veterans who had received wildly different kinds of evaluations -- some lasting 20 minutes while others took hours."
Description:A report by the Institute of Medicine for the Department of Veterans Affairs said that the method of determining compensation for PTSD patients is irregular and may even sometimes discourage rehabilitation.
Rights: Access to online material.