aquascoot wrote on Jul 30
th, 2015 at 8:50am:
Oh i think veterans get very well looked after.
they certainly have gold cards which entitle them to unlimited care from psychiatrists and psychologists.
I am a bit ambivalent about PTSD.
Like whiplash, once you start attaching big compensation to something, the subconscious mind will tend to produce more symptoms. This isnt even been done at a fraudulent level.
If you are aware that night terrors and flashbacks are going to result in a payout, then the human mind can manufacture these.
If you are aware that neck pain will result in a payout, the human mind will make those muscles painful.
i dont think its ever helpful to pay money for a disability, not because i'm not compassionate but because this merely serves to "reward" disability and we need to reward "ability"
What i would introduce is a "no claims bonus".
Any soldier who serves so many days in the frontline and remains mentally strong, recieves so many 1000's , 10's of 1000's or even 100's of 1000's of dollars.
thus we are rewarding bravery and courage and we will get more bravery and courage.
i totally agree these blokes, especially on the front line deserve bigger pay.
a lot of military, however, would face less threat of violence then a suburban policeman.
so we need a way of working out who is in the frontline and who is cooking bacon back in the greenzone and eating baskin and robbins for morning tea.
Not everyone has a gold card - most have white cards for specific conditions.... and getting a gold card isn't a matter of walking in and asking for it... it takes a lot of effort and hoop jumping.... and I can assure you that when Howard was re-elected in 2000 or so - the move was on to curtail the number of TPI pensions, just to satisfy the number crunchers. I pointed out to the VVAA that there would be a decline in the number of TPIs granted, since the government had budgeted for only a certain number, and with the advent of PTSD that number was set to soar.
I knew a grunt from 7RAR who was on 150% disability and no TPI..... how do you work that out?
At that time I knew a counsellor who was a Vet, and he tried for it thinking he had all the ropes in hand - and found out it wasn't so easy.
Like rumours of people walking in off the street and getting a DSP - it is just that - rumours.
As for 'big dollars' TPI is about the value of double pension, and is only compensation for damage caused... often enough to allow a Digger to drink himself to death.
No Digger I know from Vietnam has remained married, and it costs a lot of money out of your life to go through that, and at one time it was a matter of the grunts seemed to be living in caravan parks and in garages somewhere....
The rate of suicide is double the ordinary population.
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