Well... as senior enlisted, you tend to frown on people who run into problems back home when they could have resolved or at least helped if they had participated in one of those "seminars." But that's just from a loss of man hours and a distraught service member point of view. You can't really hold it against them... just use it as an object lesson as to why it would have helped to begin with.

Personally, I only did the power of attorney thing since I had no local infrastructure (freinds/family) in place should my wife had run into trouble. But you have to be very careful with those. Many a horror story about where the spouse (male or female) ganks the finances of a service member while they are deployed.

Originally posted by soldiermom
I pose to those of you who've posted here, this question. If you had a disability, how would you feel if someone handed you a questionnaire asking you if you felt you're life was still worth living?

Read my previous post. Been there, done that, am VERY VERY THANKFUL for that questionnaire. It helped save my life.

Harm None
Peace

It's important that a person not make a living will when they are very depressed, but when they are feeling well. I don't see anything that implies that vets should ACT on their depressed feelings, only that they should assess their mental state before they make end-of-life decisions.

The link to the booklet was broken so I couldn't read the exact wording.

Having been severely depressed in my life, I assure you that I had thought life was not worth living a hundred times before the psychiatrist asked me about it. I did not read his question as a suggestion to end my life. I think most people would not.

It's possible the wording in the booklet can be misconstrued and therefore should be revised.

But I don't see any evidence that the V.A. is secretly planning to kill veterans. They never have and until I get more than this vague wording I assume they never will.



[edit on 1-9-2009 by Sestias]