When to expect TDRL mental health examinations

jug2020

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Registered Member
Medically Retired (TDRL/Navy) for PTSD at the end of October 2020. What have annual TDRL mental health evaluation timelines been looking like recently in the year or so? Do they try and schedule as close to the 365 day mark?
 
I started TDRL at the end of March 2019 (PTSD). Only just got my first reevaluation for TDRL a week and a half ago. So, almost two years. IDK why it took so long. Maybe COVID had something to do with it.
 
Medically Retired (TDRL/Navy) for PTSD at the end of October 2020. What have annual TDRL mental health evaluation timelines been looking like recently in the year or so? Do they try and schedule as close to the 365 day mark?
The timing appears to be hodgepodge. I would not get worried if they don't contact you at the one year mark. Just keep your address and contact information correct in E-benefits. I
 
Medically Retired (TDRL/Navy) for PTSD at the end of October 2020. What have annual TDRL mental health evaluation timelines been looking like recently in the year or so? Do they try and schedule as close to the 365 day mark?
1. The Navy is most definitely catching up on the backlog, expect an exam within 9 months of being placed on the TDRL.
2. In addition to keeping PERS informed of your contact information, please make sure that Tonjau Howard- the TDRL Coordinator at the PEB- is informed of your contact info as well. Her e-mail address is [email protected]
3. The current PEB members adjudicating TDRL review cases upon initial review will expect you to be seeing a therapist at least twice a month and having quarterly medication management appointments with a psychiatrist. They will also expect to see evidence that you fill your meds on a regular basis. If not, then you can expect that they will either try to find you fit or lower your rating to 10% disability severance, irrespective of what the TDRL examiner writes.
 
1. The Navy is most definitely catching up on the backlog, expect an exam within 9 months of being placed on the TDRL.
2. In addition to keeping PERS informed of your contact information, please make sure that Tonjau Howard- the TDRL Coordinator at the PEB- is informed of your contact info as well. Her e-mail address is [email protected]
3. The current PEB members adjudicating TDRL review cases upon initial review will expect you to be seeing a therapist at least twice a month and having quarterly medication management appointments with a psychiatrist. They will also expect to see evidence that you fill your meds on a regular basis. If not, then you can expect that they will either try to find you fit or lower your rating to 10% disability severance, irrespective of what the TDRL examiner writes.
Where did you hear that therapy is a requirement for TDRL?
 
Opinion/Observation: Therapy has been incredibly difficult to obtain during Covid due to the increase in patient load and lack of response for acceptance of new patients. Here at Virginia Beach, locally, I have only been able to find ONE therapist that does office visitations.
 
I started TDRL at the end of March 2019 (PTSD). Only just got my first reevaluation for TDRL a week and a half ago. So, almost two years. IDK why it took so long. Maybe COVID had something to do with it.
Just to "close this out" I was informed via email of the findings today (so, one month). Although the reviewer recommended me (or so he said) for continued TDRL, I ended up getting PDRL from the IPEB at 50% (what I had previously from the Navy). Which is what I was hoping for, because I'm really tired of having to worry, in the back of my mind, if every step I take towards recovery is going to be counted against me. So there's that, at least.
 
Where did you hear that therapy is a requirement for TDRL?
A simple analysis based upon 30 years of representing service members in this setting- if you are not in therapy, the IPEB members of all of the armed forces (especially the Navy PEB) will make the assumption that your mental health disorders can be controlled by medication only- this equates to a 10% disability rating under the criteria established by 38 CFR 4.130.
 
A simple analysis based upon 30 years of representing service members in this setting- if you are not in therapy, the IPEB members of all of the armed forces (especially the Navy PEB) will make the assumption that your mental health disorders can be controlled by medication only- this equates to a 10% disability rating under the criteria established by 38 CFR 4.130.
I am not arguing that this happens, but the assumption made by the PEB does not match what MH professionals know. Many people with MH issues, choose for whatever reason to struggle alone. Why this happens would make a great research project. My guess is there are a plethora of reasons including bad experience with MH professionals, side effects of medication, stigma of seeking MH treatment, irrational behavior due to MH disease, and lack of progress in treatment due to chronic disease. Termination of treatment does not equal wellness. Patient autonomy ought to be respected, so long as the patient is not a danger to self or others. Hopefully legal counsel would challenge such poor reasoning by the PEB.
 
I am not arguing that this happens, but the assumption made by the PEB does not match what MH professionals know. Many people with MH issues, choose for whatever reason to struggle alone. Why this happens would make a great research project. My guess is there are a plethora of reasons including bad experience with MH professionals, side effects of medication, stigma of seeking MH treatment, irrational behavior due to MH disease, and lack of progress in treatment due to chronic disease. Termination of treatment does not equal wellness. Patient autonomy ought to be respected, so long as the patient is not a danger to self or others. Hopefully legal counsel would challenge such poor reasoning by the PEB.
Sadly, PEB members are not concerned with the autonomy of the patients or their desires when assessing degrees of impairment. This is a rigidly choreographed exercise in the application of the VASRD in which most members will indulge themselves in the assumption that, if you are not under treatment, then you are either fit or can be managed by medication alone. The agency typically upholds this decision as, even in the pre-pandemic days, telehealth visits were considered acceptable evidence for treatment.

Counsel do argue the points that you raised and can win with the right client (i.e. one who is actually triggered by therapy), but it is much easier if clients simply accept that, for a relatively short period of time, they have to show some evidence of therapeutic care- it si viewed as determining whether you are actually trying to become well/fit. Like it or not, that is the assumption. A few members may reach the PDRL without doing so, but they constitute a very small minority of such cases. Thus, it is best to play it safe.
 
I am not arguing that this happens, but the assumption made by the PEB does not match what MH professionals know. Many people with MH issues, choose for whatever reason to struggle alone. Why this happens would make a great research project. My guess is there are a plethora of reasons including bad experience with MH professionals, side effects of medication, stigma of seeking MH treatment, irrational behavior due to MH disease, and lack of progress in treatment due to chronic disease. Termination of treatment does not equal wellness. Patient autonomy ought to be respected, so long as the patient is not a danger to self or others. Hopefully legal counsel would challenge such poor reasoning by the PEB.
I appreciate this. MH/PTSD for many of us got so bad because we lost faith in therapists; Why would we seek yet more possible MH damage by therapists that are strangers in the civilian world that may exacerbate things?

Thanks, Chaps
 
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