Evaluation and recommendation of the Veterans Administration (VA)
Charles Frederick Tolbert EdD retired Master Sergeant
Was a Candidate for United States Senator Florida 2016
Cfa@calltoduty.org
Www.calltoduty.org
561-398-9025
Ndidi Mojay
Office of Media Relations
Office of Public Affairs
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Direct: 202.461.0476 | Main: 202.461.7600
ndidi.mojay@va.gov;
osd.pentagon.pa.mbx.duty-officer-press-operations@mail.mil;
______________________________________________________________________________________
9480 Princeton Square Blvd. S.,
#815 Jacksonville, FL 32256
February 14, 2009
Ira Katz, MD, PhD
Deputy Chief Patient Care Services Officer
For Mental Health Veterans Health Administration
810 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20420
Dear Doctor Ira Katz,
Thank you in deepest gratitude for your most encouraging letter of February 6, 2009 in reply to my inquiries of Psychiatric Revue to the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doctor James B. Peake concerning the conduct of care and treatment for our returning home from combat American Veterans, present and past, as it relates to the harmful and damaging effects of Anti-Psychotic Medications, and for the easing of the prevailing Stigma associated to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Disorders; to its being legally clarified; particularly as to what constitutes a Legal Diagnosis and concerning a person’s Right To Refuse Treatment, and with appropriate protection of Legal Counsel to be provided for by The Veterans Administration, as to The Rights of our Veterans to be covered under the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments by Legal Due Process in the event of their being Psychiatrically Accused, and to their Safeguard of Beneficial Treatment.
I was personally, and expressing for the behalf of the entirety of the remaining Veterans of The Vietnam War Organization, (68,000 of whom have committed suicide, of the over 1,000,000 of whom who were made into psychiatrics, in their own eyes, and in the eyes of society,) and for all Veterans, as a body of men collectively, very impressed with your detailed and clarifying letter in heartfelt sincerity for the burden of your position relating to your duties of responsibility in care to the lives, and livelihoods, and families involved, of our Veterans at issue for the present status of care and treatment of; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Major Depression, types of Mental Disorders such as Schizophrenia and Bipolar Illness, Mood and Anxiety Disorders, and for other forms of Stress Related Conditions as they manifest in the Addictive Disorders of Substance Abuse; to thank you for your personal time and assistance in assurances to us that our Veterans will be receiving the very best Health Care possible throughout our Nation’s Veterans Administration Health Care Facilities, and as you stated for so nobly for in your own words in closing to us, to: “Be assured that VA health care providers share your concerns about the stigma that has been associated with mental disorders and the importance of eliminating that stigma. Also be assured that VA providers take every care to prescribe only those medications that are necessary for improvement of the patient and only for so long as those medications are needed.”
We do know the very difficult position you face with these issues, the hardest part being to try and change the current errors involving psychiatric stemming from the past which the government doesn’t want to admit to having errors with, (in face saving and involving litigation,) and so which continue on about themselves in that vein of being made excuses for remaining uncorrected. But it occurs to me that we are suffering here to our end from a misunderstanding of the terms in our purpose of objectives in not being able to get through to an appropriate response from The Veterans Administration about.
This is a very old case concerning the destructive treatment of our Veterans with Anti-Psychotic Drugs, and for the removal, or easing of, the tortured stigma associated with the idea of being Mental Ill. Everyone knows that the genuine issue of insanity does exist in the society, of those who portray irrational and oftentimes violent behavior to be severely dealt with; and of necessity, who are therefore deemed to be that way by the Courts and placed in the protective custody of the State confined to Mental Asylums. And which involves also of those as well who are mentally defective, mentally deficient, brain damaged, and retarded, to be cared for by the State, under the wording of Parens Patriae, or Wards of the State. As into what generalized setting, termed “Mental Health,” in the eyes of society, and in terms of their own Self-Esteem, are placed the precious lives of our Veterans who have survived mortal combat in the service of their country, in the supreme offering of their lives, to return here with Service Connected and Combat Stress Related Emotional Problems and Disorders to be treated for and assisted to recover from, and only to their being placed in with and alongside of these truly mentally ill, mentally defective persons, who then that the public presumes our Veterans to be, and to our Veterans then being treated as presumed to be insane, who are otherwise normal and only needing temporary assistance to recover, and to their being undifferentiated by treatment with the Neuroleptic, Anti-Psychotic, Strong Tranquillizers, and to their utter ruination.
And with that being said, the problem is and still remains; that there is more to this issue of Mental Health Psychiatric, (on the corrupt and dirty maniacal business side of the Medical/Pharmaceutical Psychiatric Industry, (that has a Captive Market in which a person perversely has NO Rights whatsoever over their Diagnosis, Commitment, and Treatment to occur under the heading of Mental Hygiene Law, and having also to do with social fears, biases, and ignorance,) some of it involving the VA to correct, and some of it lying beyond the scope of The VA in the civilian sector pertaining for the Courts, local Mental Health Centers, local Hospitals, and State Psychiatric Facilities, incumbent up to the already beleaguered and overworked staffing of the VA to oversight and contain.
That we specifically requested from Secretary Peake to elaborate on as to whether or not that he personally approved of the Anit-Psychotic, Neuropleptice, Psychotropic, Strong Tranquillizer type pharmacy chemicals being given for treatment to our Veterans, whether voluntarily to be taken under advisement of physician and regardless of their being administered with informed consent, or otherwise of the “Forced Treatment” issue, as to any of these prevailing drugs being declared to be Safe and Beneficial for our Veterans to take, or otherwise to be a harmful nature? As I previously named for Dr. Peake: such as; Thorazine, Prolixin, Navane, Trilifon, Lithuim, Loxitane, *Congentin, (which is used to control the Tremors, or Parkinson-like symptom, of the other AntiPsychotic drugs being listed,) and others of that Classification; for what you stated for in your letter in your response to us; “that no medication is without potential Side-Effects.”
But we are not talking here about “dry mouth,” or “constipation,” with being carefully weighed of their side effects over in “Informed Consent” by the patient to take, but for the catastrophic ruination of a person’s whole and complete physiognomy, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to the gloom of suicide. To what that there is no one naïve about this situation is there, in consultation with The Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR), and concerning the personal testimony of persons who have experienced these drugs, (which you term as “Clinical Trails,” which translates over to direct Experimentation with Human Subjects as Guinea Pigs, to where you derived your wordings of Effects, Side-Effects, Adverse Effects, and Contra-indications to be used in your Clinical Practice Guidelines.) Which besides of what, that these drugs, and all of them, are “excruciatingly painful to endure,” what the PDR refers to as “Uncomfortable States of Being,” and which also cause; many other torturous disabling Adverse Effects.
Which brings me to the other point in matter of Mis-Communication with you that you don’t really understand these drugs other than for there description in the PDR and Clinical Practice Guidelines and need to experience the actual effects yourself, as the Veterans have, to have a real and honest evaluation of what they are really experiencing, starting with 200 mg of Thorazine over an extended length in period of time for at least a month or two, as our Veterans are being “Treated With,” and have “Suffered,” in the past to be returned to society on to commit suicide from the effects of, to really evaluate and understand our denunciation of them. Which I know you are not going to do, because in your intelligent mind you know that these drugs, as you term to be “Medications,” would cause you severe harm and disable you. These are not “feel good” types of drugs. The primary purpose of these drugs; which are used in the treatment of so called Mental Disorders, is to “restrain and destroy people;” and which renders them unable and unfit to assume their normal functions in society. Which in a matter of concurrence to you and involving to the hopelessly insane, as you indicated for about in your letter, that these drugs would indeed prove to be of beneficial value to, if a person is screaming lunatic, but these drugs will destroy the normal person and that they are Not To Be Approved For our Veterans to take for temporary Stress and Emotional Disorders and for other mental disturbances associated with combat; which need to be taken care of with; Best Rest Convalescence, Counseling, Therapy, and Sound Nutrition, in a quite setting to be called “Seclusion/Recovery,” no longer the Psyche Ward. Mental Health as well, with its stigma of inferior irrationality presumed, needs to be renamed to, “Professional Services;” which would include for Guidance Counseling and Therapy in a Benign and Beneficial Setting.
Furthermore, it is not true and you cannot lawfully and ethically tell patients that they have to take Anti-Psychotic Drugs for the rest of their lives to replace missing enzymes secretions or a genetic deficiency, the lack of which is causing a person’s mental illness, in similarity as to how; Thyroidism, Diabetes, and Hypertension is perceived, as according to the PDR Manual there is no evidence to support this claim. Also you legally and ethically cannot “hold the threat” of indefinite commitment confinement over someone, allowed for under Mental Hygiene Law, unless they agree to voluntarily comply with their treatment plan to take the Anti-Psychotic Drugs prescribed for them by the medical industry. And unfortunately however that “Forced Treatment” is “at all times” the way of psychiatric warehousing; which you state in your letter only occurs; “in the rare instance in an emergency situation when a patient is presenting an active danger to themselves or others,” that is not true. To what matter of Forced Treatment with deadly drugs that our Veterans need Legal Clarification from the VA to protect themselves from.
Most Sincerely,
Gary L. Koniz
Veterans of the Vietnam War
Gary L. Koniz
Journalist Correspondent
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