Gates: Mental Health Question Shouldn't Be On Applications
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Department’s security clearance applications should no longer ask whether applicants have ever sought treatment for mental health issues, according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
Gates told Pentagon reporters Thursday that he “will very aggressively pursue” removing the question about mental health treatment from DOD’s security clearance questionnaire.
Too many DOD employees do not seek mental health care specifically because they fear losing their security clearances, Gates said.
There are five levels of security clearances available. From lowest to highest, they are Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, Sensitive Compartmentalized Information and Single Scope Background Investigation.
Removing the question about mental health treatment from security applications is one of more than 300 recommendations offered by the DOD’s Task Force on Mental Health in a report released last week.
The report said the military is falling significantly short of providing servicemembers and families with adequate mental health care, lacking the personnel and financial resources to support the force in peace, much less war.
“This is something that we can, must and will get fixed," Gates said Thursday, calling for “a culture of support for psychological support.”
Gates said that while Congress has given DOD six months to come back with a plan to implement the 331 recommendations of the mental health task force, “I have no intention of waiting that long.”
Instead, he is asking for the recommendations “to be completed within 60 to 90 days,” he said.
“It is our moral obligation and duty to make sure [servicemembers] are taken care of in mind, body and spirit,” Gates said. “They have done their duty, we must do ours.”
Is it just me or does Gates make at least a half-assed effort to do the right thing? Unlike, say, Rumsfeld?
Incidently, getting mental help will not by itself disqualify you from a clearance, only if the pshrink you are seeing makes the evaluation that you are "unsafe" to hold said clearance. Of course, most people see that question on the SF86 and think "and this is why I am never going to see a Doctor." before they check "no".
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
Mental health knowledge is important, but blatantly asking people about whether they sought help with mental issues isn't the best way to figure that out IMHO.
Lì ci sono chiese, macerie, moschee e questure, lì frontiere, prezzi inaccessibile e freddure
Lì paludi, minacce, cecchini coi fucili, documenti, file notturne e clandestini
Qui incontri, lotte, passi sincronizzati, colori, capannelli non autorizzati,
Uccelli migratori, reti, informazioni, piazze di Tutti i like pazze di passioni...
...La tranquillità è importante ma la libertà è tutto!
Stas Bush wrote:Mental health knowledge is important, but blatantly asking people about whether they sought help with mental issues isn't the best way to figure that out IMHO.
Asking whether or not they have ever been prevented from holding x y or z licenses or privileges due to mental health reasons would be a more competent way of doing it you'd imagine.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
People see the question and think if they go to talk to a shrink about depression they will lose their clearance. I can see how that can be a counter productive
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;
Honestly this very question caused me great consternation before I spoke at length with my pschologist about it. I had simply excluded my prescription anti-depressants from a review of medicines I had taken on short form physicals over the years because i was afraid of a military review of my mental fitness. It was only after a lot of coaching that I willingly put down that I had sought and recieved treatment for psychological conditions. So from a personal perspective I am cheering this on.
SDNet World Nation: Wilkonia
Armourer of the WARWOLVES
ASVS Vet's Association (Class of 2000)
Former C.S. Strowbridge Gold Ego Award Winner MEMBER of the Anti-PETA Anti-Facist LEAGUE
"I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. I have seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. "
-Kingdom of Heaven
The fact that a mental health problem can cause you to lose your security clearance is just nonsense. I held a Top Secret clearance for my entire time in the Canadian Forces including my last three years in which I had PTSD and they never had a problem with it. In fact I went through my five year review and they never had a problem with me having a TS clearance and having severe PTSD. Sometimes I wonder if the American system isn't purposely designed to fuck you around as much as possible.
M1891/30: A bad day on the range is better then a good day at work.
Howedar wrote:I'm not clear on where in this article it says that by "mental health", they mean only PTSD.
I'm not saying that. I'm just using myself and the CF as an example of how having a particular mental health problem doesn't mean that you will lose your security clearance. Or that you shouldn't lose your clearance.
M1891/30: A bad day on the range is better then a good day at work.
Obviously. However, there are other mental health disorders that could well be good grounds for not getting clearance. A reasoned, rational decision on such issues can't be made without complete information.
yeah, I don't want someone dicked around for benefits because of PTSD, now I also don't want a sociopathic or sadist individual in the military at all.
The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
Cpl Kendall wrote:The fact that a mental health problem can cause you to lose your security clearance is just nonsense. I held a Top Secret clearance for my entire time in the Canadian Forces including my last three years in which I had PTSD and they never had a problem with it. In fact I went through my five year review and they never had a problem with me having a TS clearance and having severe PTSD. Sometimes I wonder if the American system isn't purposely designed to fuck you around as much as possible.
Well Lonestar said that seeing a psychologist won't bar you from a TS clearance, only if said Doc thinks you're unsafe for whatever reason. I think this has more to do with the perception that it might hurt you, rather than whether it actually will or not.
I suppose only DSS really knows what will and won't keep you from a TS clearance though. Well, them and whoever does it for the civvies.
"How can I wait unknowing?
This is the price of war,
We rise with noble intentions,
And we risk all that is pure..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, Forever (Rome: Total War)
"On and on, through the years,
The war continues on..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, We Are All One (Medieval 2: Total War)
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
Darth Wong wrote:Too bad they can't make presidential candidates pass mental-health exams too.
That reminds me. The military and civil servants who need to see all the TS stuff for their jobs go through these investigations. But do the Congressmen and Senators on the military/security/intelligence committies have to go through them? What of the President?
"How can I wait unknowing?
This is the price of war,
We rise with noble intentions,
And we risk all that is pure..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, Forever (Rome: Total War)
"On and on, through the years,
The war continues on..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, We Are All One (Medieval 2: Total War)
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
Darth Wong wrote:Too bad they can't make presidential candidates pass mental-health exams too.
That reminds me. The military and civil servants who need to see all the TS stuff for their jobs go through these investigations. But do the Congressmen and Senators on the military/security/intelligence committies have to go through them? What of the President?
Ghetto edit: on second thought, I'll just make a new post about this.
"How can I wait unknowing?
This is the price of war,
We rise with noble intentions,
And we risk all that is pure..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, Forever (Rome: Total War)
"On and on, through the years,
The war continues on..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, We Are All One (Medieval 2: Total War)
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
