The DoD’s Newest Weapon in their Reprisal Arsenal: Mental Healthcare

Did You Know: Department of Defense policy allows unscrupulous leaders within the Department of Defense to conduct institutionally-backed Whistleblower reprisal against their subordinates using the mental healthcare / behavioral healthcare apparatus, often with life-long negative effects experienced by the victim.

Through advising on several cases over the last year, the Walk the Talk Foundation has come across a disturbing trend emerging – commanders directing their targets of retaliation to “mental health assessments” in the hopes of using the results to gaslight the victim and discredit their allegations.

Given current Department of Defense policy that treats these directives as part of a commander’s open-ended administrative toolbox to maintain “good order and discipline,” the individual military member often has no recourse to refuse the directive, has even less ability to defend against the subsequent defamation wrought by the institution’s discrediting of their character, and many times has no military legal representation afforded to them to advocate on their behalf.

As egregiously, the military can legally withhold a member’s mental / behavioral health records from them in perpetuity for a variety of nebulous reasons – the omni-present “sensitive information” justification – and members have little ability to challenge that decision.

Unwittingly – or sometimes shockingly, wittingly – the military’s medical community is made complicit in the infringement of the rights of whistleblowers through the incredible amount of latitude the community holds to withhold records from service members, while at the same time, being compelled to perform commander-directed evaluations.

In several cases brought to the Walk the Talk Foundation, the same medical professionals who denied the service member their records, allowed officers conducting administrative investigations to review those same records to bolster the institution’s defamation campaign against their target of reprisal. These allowances are so difficult for an individual service member to fight because they are codified in DoD policies.

In short, the new tactic from the “Commander’s Revenge TTP Playbook” is:

1. Send the member to a mental health evaluation, which is considered a legal order.
2. Hope the evaluation comes up with something derogatory.
3. Use that information in the slander / defamation / gaslight campaign against the victim.
4. Rest easy knowing the victim will likely not be allowed access to those records and thus cannot refute the findings.
5. Repeat.

Below is applicable DoD policy that allows for these types of abuses.

DHA-PM 6025.02, Volume 1 : Safeguarding PII and PHI

• “Military Treatment Facilities will establish written procedures to ensure highly sensitive records and sensitive medical information are safeguarded…Drug and alcohol abuse, rape, child or adult abuse, and possible claims against the government are examples of highly sensitive records.? Information which may affect the patient’s morale, character, medical progress, or mental health is also considered sensitive.”

DoDM 6025.18 - Implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule in DoD Health Care Programs

• 4.4. Uses and Disclosures for which an Authorization of Opportunity to Agree or Object is Not Required:
• e. Standard: Uses and Disclosures for Judicial and Administrative Proceedings.
• (1) Permitted Disclosures. A DoD covered entity may disclose PHI in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding.

DoDI 7050.03 - Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense Access to Records and Information/

• ?3. POLICY. In accordance with References (a) and (b), it is DoD policy that:
• a. The OIG DoD must have expeditious and unrestricted access to all records as defined in DoD Instruction 5015.02 (Reference (d)), regardless of classification, medium (e.g., paper, electronic) or format (e.g., digitized images, data) and information available to or within any DoD Component, and be able to obtain copies of all records and information as required for its official use once appropriate security clearances and access are substantiated for the OIG DoD personnel involved.

DoDI 6490.04 - Mental Health Evaluations of Members of the Military Services

• 3. POLICY. It is DoD policy that:
• a. It is the responsibility of the DoD to ensure that policy and procedures are implemented in a manner that removes the stigma associated with Service members seeking and receiving mental health services.
• b. Commanders and supervisors who in good faith believe a subordinate Service member may require a mental health evaluation are authorized to direct an evaluation under this instruction or take other actions consistent with the procedures in Enclosure 3. In these circumstances, a command directed mental health evaluation (MHE) has the same status as any other military order.
• c. Referral for a command directed evaluation (CDE) of a Service member to a mental healthcare provider (MHP) for a non-emergency MHE may be initiated only by a commander or supervisor as defined in the Glossary. Such evaluations may be for a variety of concerns, including fitness for duty, occupational requirements, safety issues, significant changes in performance, or behavior changes that may be attributable to possible mental status changes.

If you feel that you have been a victim of these types of concerns, feel free to reach out privately at [email protected] , or share your story in the comments.

Also, SIGN THIS PETITION demanding that our leaders in Congress change this unjust system.????????????????????????????????????

To view this article online, please visit the Walk the Talk Foundation page here: The DoD’s Newest Weapon in their Reprisal Arsenal: Mental Healthcare – Walk the Talk Foundation

Lt Col (Ret) Ryan Sweazey (Retired, Air Force – United States Air Force Academy), President and Founder of the Walk the Talk Foundation, authored this article.