{"id":75920,"date":"2017-11-13T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=75920"},"modified":"2017-11-12T19:07:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T00:07:48","slug":"army-accepts-recruits-with-mental-health-waivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=75920","title":{"rendered":"Army accepts recruits with mental health waivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to USAToday<\/a>, Army recruits with a history of \u201cself-mutilation,\u201d bipolar disorder, depression and drug and alcohol abuse can now apply for waivers to enlist. They cite an unannounced policy shift that took affect a few months ago in order to get the 80,000 new soldiers they’ll need this fiscal year.<\/p>\n

To meet last year’s goal of 69,000, the Army accepted more recruits who fared poorly on aptitude tests, increased the number of waivers granted for marijuana use and offered hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses.<\/p>\n

Expanding the waivers for mental health is possible in part because the Army now has access to more medical information about each potential recruit, Lt. Col. Randy Taylor, an Army spokesman, said in a statement. The Army issued the ban on waivers in 2009 amid an epidemic of suicides among troops. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision was primarily due to the increased availability of medical records and other data which is now more readily available,\u201d Taylor’s statement to USA TODAY said. \u201cThese records allow Army officials to better document applicant medical histories.\u201d<\/p>\n

But accepting recruits with those mental health conditions in their past carries risks, according to Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a psychiatrist who retired from the Army as a colonel in 2010 and is an expert on waivers for military service. People with a history of mental health problems are more likely to have those issues resurface than those who do not, she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, who could have seen this coming when the Army was booting everyone a few years back and then they decided to fill the ranks with deviants, which really isn’t the recruiting draw the Army pointy-headed bean counters thought. I’m guessing the gays didn’t flock to the recruiting stations like the folks in the Puzzle Palace had hoped. <\/p>\n

Also, taking on the cutters, dopers and the depressed also justifies letting the transgenders in the military with the other mental health problems. <\/p>\n

A few years from now, when the derelicts are back on the street, we can go back to our regular posts defending folks who legitimately suffer from PTSD as opposed to the media-manufactured cases that will spring from these initial entry failures. <\/p>\n

I guess our ships at sea ramming civilian vessels while the sailors are hiding in the engine room aren’t enough of a lesson for the Army.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Bobo for the link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to USAToday, Army recruits with a history of \u201cself-mutilation,\u201d bipolar disorder, depression and drug and … Army accepts recruits with mental health waivers<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}