A SOLDIER'S PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB'S LEADING MILITARY BLOG SINCE 2004
Time Magazine wrote another article recently related to suicides in recruiting battalions. The Army as a whole is suffering from a disturbing rise in suicide across the board. However, no command has been hit the way Recruiting Command has been. I can’t say I’m not surprised.
A few years ago, I went on a temporary recruiting mission in New Mexico. I won’t give the specific office I went to since it’s been a few years anyway and I think that Recruiting Command is dealing with enough and working hard to change the work environment.
The purpose was for me to visit different recruiting offices and talk to the schools they supported about what I do in the Army (before I did what I do now). I was a Spanish linguist at the time, so I went to a lot of Spanish-speaking schools and gave my entire speech in Spanish. They were amazed that a gringo spoke such great Spanish. Hopefully, I motivated at least one or two to join the military based on my positive experience.
But, I’ll never forget one experience I had while I was there. At one of the recruiting offices, I went in to use their latrine. It was a fairly large latrine that was able to fit a small desk and chair and was hooked up with a telephone and desktop calendar. In my mind, I thought this was a dedicated group of recruiters. The reality was much different.
When I expressed my admiration about the desk and dedication I was told that it wasn’t for that reason. SSG XXXXX had “rolled a doughnut” (zero contracts signed) the previous month and that was his office until he signed up another recruit.
I was so angry I could hardly contain myself. I told the recruiter I was assigned to that I would NEVER work out of a latrine, regardless of what I was told. It was demeaning and demoralizing. I was told that the Station Commander made him do it. And SSG XXXXX wasn’t a bad Soldier. As a matter of fact, he had actually been the top recruiter for a few months before that. I don’t care what kind of UCMJ punishment followed; you would NOT catch me working out of a latrine EVER. No Soldier should be denegrated like that. There are NCOERs for the purposes of poor performance. There is corrective training and counseling.
This is the problem with the recruiting battalions from my experience. It was the main reason I never went into recruiting – my father was another major reason. He was in charge of recruiting in the southwest U.S. at the time. When I told him I wanted to go into recruiting he had of bunch of recruiters call me out of the blue to talk me out of it.
It’s a stressful, thankless job. Recruiters have to deal with liberal idiots who protest their offices, ban them from their schools, and prevent their kids from even considering their proposals, regardless of the fact that they were raised as losers with no future other than a minimum wage job. On top of that, these same recruiters have to deal with Station Commanders and Recruiting leadership that single minded towards making numbers and not the care of the troops in these stressful jobs.
I’m not going to paint with a broad brush here. There are some very good Station Commanders and recruiting leadership in the command. There are some very stress free offices where Soldies probably don’t feel as stressed as others. However, they are very few in MY LIMITED EXPERIENCE talking to recruiters.
Our nation’s recruiters are the tip of the spear in protecting this nation. They are responsible for ensuring that we have enough troops to fight the nation’s wars, protects the nation’s borders, and secure the freedoms of our citizens. Without these recruiters, the volunteer force would cease to exist as we know it. And as thanks for that, we work them to death – sometimes literally.
It’s sad to see that so many are turning to suicide. I would revert to my previous statements that nothing in this world is worth taking your life for. If you feel there is no other route but suicide, you MUST talk to someone. Get out of the command. So what if you don’t get promoted again because you couldn’t complete the mission. You won’t get promoted when you’re dead either. You need to take care of number 1!! That’s you!
It’s a tough job these guys have day in and day out. Many of these guys work literally seven days per week. Recruiters have told me in person that they work seven days per week because “there are troops in Iraq that don’t get a day off either”. Well, the problem here is that most of our recruiters are returning combat vets themselves and just returned from that atmosphere. Now we’re going to treat them the same way? Absurd!!
The entire Army needs to pull its collective head out of its ass if we’re going to combat this problem of suicide. Leaders, officers and enlisted, need to take long, hard, objective look in the mirror and make a self assessment about the kind of leader they are. You need to reevaluate how you’re treating your troops and whether we’re stressing them out of necessity or just to keep them busy. If it’s the latter, I truly hope you stop immediately.
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sharon
I appreciate your courage in speaking out, no matter the issue.
Miss Ladybug
A very good friend of mine when I lived in Arkansas, who was about my age, had been assigned recruiting duty for a while, instead of his “real” job in FA (out of Sill). He hated it. His wife & kids stayed at Sill (close enough to visit, but far enough that it wasn’t all the time). He was still having issues after service in Desert Shield/Desert Storm (not being able to sleep being the main issue). He was always under pressure to not only make the “box” each month, but to have a certain number of those new recruits be “grads” – e.g. – already out of high school. Not real easy to do, given the demorgaphics of the area. And, this was all before 9/11. I was sad to see him leave when that assignment was up, but I know it was good for his sanity. I’m still made at him that he didn’t bother to inform me that he got sent over to Iraq in 2003… He’s retired now, way up in the northwest, but we still keep in touch, at least with Christmas cards
S. Stuthers MS, LMHC
CJ,
As your Uncle, I certainly do appreciate your discussion of this issue. I do have a few things to say from a mental health practitioners point of view.
TRICARE is attempting to recruit civilian mental health clinicians to assist with treating military cases. Their current managed care watchdog is Value Options. I’ve treated many TRICARE cases over the years and have ALWAYS had trouble getting paid for approved, authorized services. My last case was two years ago of a woman with PTSD who served in Afganistan. I finished her treatment but was never paid a red penny. I sold my private practice and went back to work for the prison system because of problems getting paid in a timely manner, getting fewer dollars per clinical hour, higher unaffordable co-pays passed to the consumer, and increses in the cost of doing business. It is sad because I spent 15 years doing my best work as a private clinician. Droves of clinicians have abandoned their practices to return to normal 9 to 5 jobs with companies because it just didn’t pay. As far as VA is concerned, those jobs are PHD oriented and it takes over 6 to 8 months to land a job and get through the red tape credentialing process.
Now, TRICARE wants my help as a licensed private clinician? I don’t trust them or any other insurer or managed care firm to pay for the service I render under their one-sided independent 1099 contracts. Again, so sad as there is now a greater need than ever before for people to receive mental health services.
Here is their most recent email recruiting ad for those interested enough to see what they are doing to address the issues (and they do mention the issues of suicide):
3/30/2009
Dear Network Provider:
ValueOptions and TRICARE appreciate the great job you do treating the behavioral health needs of our military families. We continue to improve on our process of making it as effortless as possible to see TRICARE Beneficiaries. Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to provide you with information regarding several provider initiatives.
Online Authorizations and Referrals
For faster and more efficient service, providers may submit authorization and referral requests via the Humana Military web site (humana-military.com). To access the referral and authorization features, click on MyHMHS for Providers, formerly Online Provider Services. Web entry for new referral and authorization requests has been simplified to five steps. 1. Entering Patient and Service Information 2. Selecting Procedures to Perform 3. Reviewing Existing Authorizations 4. Selecting Providers 5. Entering Clinical Data. *For convenience you may use the attached template when entering clinical data for Outpatient Treatment Reports (OTR Template).
PTSD and TBI Continuing Education Opportunity
We are please to extend to our providers two opportunities for courtesy continuing medical education (CME). Your dedication and commitment in caring for our service men and women, particularly those service members returning from the Gulf Region, is appreciated and greatly needed.
* Humana Military Healthcare Services (HMHS), in partnership with the University of Louisville, offers 2 one hour online CME courses on PTSD and TBI
* Department of Defense (DoD) Military Health System offers online courses in PTSD and TBI to its civilian network provider partners. CME credits for these courses are awarded through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Please visit http://www.humana-military.com/south/provider/toolsandresources/online-learning.asp for more information.
ValueOptions and Humana Military Healthcare Services are very interested in your experience with this opportunity and welcome any feedback.
Bariatric Surgery
ValueOptions has received an increase in requests for psychological evaluations and testing related to bariatric surgery. In an effort to ensure providers have a clear understanding on this issue, ValueOptions offers several tips regarding testing related to bariatric surgery. Please review the attachment titled Bariatric Surgery Tips.
Medical Directors Corner
Our Medical Director has some helpful information regarding life management and suicide. Please review the ‘Medical Directors Corner’ attachment.
Suicide Awareness
As you are aware during this stressful time there has been a rise in the number of suicides among our military population. In addition to the information provided in the ‘Medical Directors Corner’ we have attached a suicide awareness tool for your use. This assessment form will assist you in assessing a patient’s potential to harm themselves.
Update
Beginning April 1, 2009, the following procedures will no longer require a separate unique prior authorization from ValueOptions:
* Crisis Intervention*
* Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
* Psychological and Neuropsychological Testing**
These changes will be addressed in the next version of the TRICARE Provider Handbook
*all visits beyond the first 8 visits each fiscal year, per beneficiary, require authorization
**testing beyond 6 hours in a fiscal year is subject to medical necessity review and a request for additional hours will be required
ValueOptions strives to provide you with the very best in customer service and our dedicated staff is here for you. Our Provider Relations Department is available at 800-700-8646 Monday though Friday 8:00am to 6:00pm (ET) to assist you. You may also contact us via email at: provhelptricare@jax.valueoptions.com.
On behalf of TRICARE, ValueOptions and our Provider Relations Department, thank you again for your dedication and support.
Sincerely,
Derrick Gore
Director, Provider Relations
S. Stuthers MS, LMHC
One final note…as I read back through their recruitment letter, I still don’t see them making some type of statement that they promise to put a high priority on paying clinicians for their services, or helping them with collections related concerns. If we can’t get paid for our chosen career field, we just can’t stay in business.
As a result, beneficiaries and patiets will continue to suffer. Many more will likely die by their own hand or by the complicatios of their injuries – both physical and psychological.