Serving Two Masters: The Military and Medicine
 What is a “medical board”? And an “admin sep”? No, a medical board is not a plank on which to walk to the medical clinic, but a formal review by physicians of a person’s fitness to be on active military duty. It may come with disability recommendations and so is very important to a service member.
And an “admin sep” is administrative separation and a way that one can be discharged without medical benefits. It can either lead to an honorable or other than honorable discharge. The type of discharge service members receive can have enormous implications for their future careers, as well as whether they can receive treatment at the VA, according to former psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general, Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, M.D., M.P.H., a retired Army colonel.
These were a few of the questions asked and answered at today’s annual meeting workshop titled “Serving Two Masters: Maintaining Military Readiness, Security Clearance, Military Medical Standards, Medical Retirement, and Administrative Processing.” The workshop was geared to clinicians who are either new to the military or may be working with active-duty patients. What they write, and how they write it, can determine whether a service member can stay in the military or is discharged, and often whether the service member will get benefits.
Kylee Stevens, M.D., a forensic psychiatrist from Saint Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., chaired the session. Betsy Henderson, M.D., a civilian psychiatrist who works at Fort Benning, discussed the complexities of medical boards. Ritchie answered a variety of administrative psychiatry questions, including this one: “What is the effect of seeking mental health treatment on a service member’s career?” As with many complexities, the answer was “it depends”: it depends on the diagnosis, how the person got into treatment, and prognosis. In many cases, admitting to having a mental health history on Question 21 leads to a delay in getting a security clearance, as investigators request further documentation.
|
|
|
|
|
