Quote du Jour: Sending Sick Soldiers Back into Combat

Stressed-out soldiers sent back to Kandahar:

The Canadian Forces' chief psychiatrist, Colonel Randy Boddam, currently serving a four-month stint in Afghanistan, told The Globe and Mail in a story published on Monday that deployment to a combat zone can benefit some depression and PTSD sufferers.

Sounds to me like a risky version of Russian roulette.

He then seemed to contradict himself:

However, he said: “We do not deploy knowingly anybody who is suffering from a mental illness that would impair their ability to function in this environment.”

Rather, the Forces “deploy people who are on maintenance phases of their treatment or who may have a minor illness that is not really impairing their function,” such as a phobia.

There's a big difference between having a "phobia" and dealing with depression or PTSD, which defnitely do impair a person's ability to function. I know. I've suffered from both of those illnesses for a long time.

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre, however, said he was alarmed at the response Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor received when he asked Forces medical authorities in November what psychological effects the Afghanistan mission was having on the troops. They told him they didn't know.

“If you don't know what the impact is ... why would you want to send them back?” said Mr. Coderre.

Exactly.

This isn't the first tim Colonel Boddam has used the troops in an experimental way. Back in 2001, he came up with a program to try to ease the stress soldiers experienced when they returned home by providing an intermediate reintegration step in the process. Nothing harmful about that and obviously he was trying to be helpful, but it shows that he's willing to institute policies that have no basis in scientific fact.

When a soldier experiences PTSD or depression, there's a good reason for it. Some are able to recover rather quickly with proper treatment depending on the severity of the trauma and the effect it's had on the brain. Others will have symptoms that last for a lifetime. I don't doubt that the evaluation process being used to decide whether soldiers should be sent back into combat is thorough. However, the idea that exposing those troops to combat again may somehow benefit them is only a theory - one that can have very damaging ramifications for the soldiers involved if it is proven wrong.

People who have PTSD often practice avoidance of situations that have traumatized them as a sort of natural defence against being re-traumatized. For some, getting back on the horse may be helpful. For others, it can create an even bigger nightmare. It appears that the Canadian military brass is willing to gamble with those outcomes at the expense of our soldiers' long-term mental health. That should not be acceptable.

PTSD and depression are complex and intense illnesses with many varied treatments and outcomes. Those who have to deal with them should not be treated like guinea pigs. What kind of society sends sick soldiers into combat?