Readers will recall the submission about “Changing Perception to Delusion” which started with a description of an Army wide behavioral health stand down in June 2012 in order for the Surgeon General to attempt persuasion of mental health professionals her medical command was doing a wonderful job with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We sort of dodged a second stand down on July 24 when the Surgeon General actually came to the hospital but did not have a face to face with mental health providers because she came as part of the entourage of the Vice Chief of Staff (that is 4 stars). The Vice Chief was on a sprint through medical treatment facilities across the country which was fatuously called the “Health of the Force” inspection. So, he spent about 3 hours at Fort Gordon and maybe 90 minutes at the Eisenhower Medical Center. He was also here for the pomp and circumstance of the change of the base commander. Of course his entourage of lesser generals and fawning colonels essentially paralyzed Fort Gordon and the hospital. You would have thought the President was here for a visit. Of course the Vice Chief was going to get a very clear picture of the health of the force in this fashion, so he could report to the Chief of Staff and Congress that he conducted a exhaustive inspection of medical facilities. Of course, the Surgeon General, her minions and hospital commanders across the country are not going to tell the Vice Chief the quality of care across the force is miserable and in particular the quality of mental health care is a blooming disaster; that the suicide rate in the military continues to climb. They have no clue. It should be noted the stand down scheduled for the Surgeon General’s face to face was cancelled but only a few days before and this created more chaos because all those cancelled appointments with mental health providers could not be reappointed despite the command orders to refill the cancelled appointments. Think of how this jerking around must be to the soldiers.
Now, there is another Behavioral Health Stand Down scheduled in order to mark Suicide Prevention month. this means for an entire day there will be no scheduled appointments in any clinic associated with mental health care. It is unclear if this is Army wide, or just at Fort Gordon. It is amazing, what insight; in order to demonstrate to the public and Congress that everything is being done to prevent suicides in the Army, all behavioral health care will be suspended for a day. The assumption is soldiers will come to the emergency room if they are in distress. New appointments and follow-up appointments will be cancelled. So, the command response to the suicide crisis in the Army is to express concern and demonstrate action by declaring a Suicide Prevention month and at the same time cancel hundreds, perhaps thousands, of hours of behavioral health care. Does that make sense?