My son and Meds

[Jakesmom917]

My son is in the process of joining. The recruiter has his medical records but wanted a list of his precriptions to prove when the last time he was on ADD meds, which was 2011. (he was never on them muchand has kept a B average in college without it) The list included some prozac back when he was 16 (he is 21 now) that he tried but never stayed on. He was having issues with his stepmom. She isnt around anymore and he was never diagnosed with anything. Will this cause an issue? thanks. 

[Angie]

Odds are he will need a waiver.  anything can cause issues with joining the military.  Just wait and see, but always have a back up plan in case he doesn't get in.

[MonkeysMom]

MY APOLOGIES FOR THE LONG STORY

My son Dalton’s graduation from Navy Boot Camp was Friday May 24^th. You can only imagine how proud Tim and I are of what he has accomplished.  I had my doubts, he was a video game addict, and pretty scrawny. But he persevered and made it!! Well, almost.

Wednesday May 22nd I got a Facebook message from Dalton which was a surprise in itself.  As you know there is no contact with the outside until after bootcamp.  His message was that he is being separated from the Navy because he did not disclose that he had been on medication for ADD prior to joining. Which, by the way his recruiter said that he should keep his mouth shut about, even at “The Moment of Truth. The only way the Navy will know about the meds is if he told them.  Apparently she was wrong. We thought that if it would be discovered, it would be at MEPS, where they go over these kids with a fine tooth comb. At the end of April, Dalton went to the doctor for pink eye (they were checking everyone because a couple of the kids did have it). That is when they looked at his “entire” medical record – the one in DEERS (the system for medical that all sailors and their families enroll in for medical coverage) not from his civilian doctors through record requests like everyone else…..and there was the evidence that he had taken meds typically prescribed for ADD. His psych doctor’s notes may or may not have been in his DEERS record. But that is not the point.

NOW, here is the kicker for us. Dalton signed a HIPPA waiver for the Navy to look at his medical records per his contract.  ~~ If you request medical records on behalf of someone, you have to know what doctors to request them from. So if your child didn't mention a particular dr. then how would the Navy know to contact them about records.  It seems that when they were opening a DoD file on Dalton, they got access to his medical record because he is already in the system as a Navy Dependent, and it revealed that he had been taking meds that are typically used for ADHD. That is a huge disadvantage to Navy dependents, and it doesn’t seem fair.  We wrote our congressman with the same gripe, he endorsed our letter and sent it to Washington DC Wednesday afternoon.  

The Navy knew about this whole situation in late April, when they told him they wanted all of his records from all of his doctors.  We got a letter from his psych doctor verifying he stopped the medicine within the timeframe sent to them. Then we didn’t hear anything after that so we proceeded to make plans for graduation.

 Now to the afternoon of the 22^nd…2 days before graduation they pulled him from his company to go to Ship 5 where they hold the sailors about to get discharged for legal or administrative or medical discharge.

Why the hell did they wait until 2 days before graduation to yank him when they had this info in April. He goes through another 4 weeks of no sleep, crappy food, intense training and schooling. He makes it all the way thru til the night before Battle Stations. Then, they pluck him from the company, take all his uniforms, and humiliate him by making him rip his nametag off his uniform in front of the whole company.  Dalton really wants to stay in.  

 Now, he can appeal the decision, and he is going to, to try to stay in, but we don’t know where in his training they will put him. It would be total bull***t if he had to start over. Even if he doesn’t appeal, it would/will be 10-20 working days before he comes home. Obviously we didn’t get to see him on graduation day, and he is in Ship 5. He is only a 1 hour drive and we cannot see him. This is pure bull***t.

UPDATE, June 4:   If you recall we had contacted our congressman who sent a letter to the DoD. This triggered a congressional inquiry re: accessing his records via DEERS and the disadvantage it causes. Suddenly we got answers (They have 24 hours to respond to a congressional inquiry - my husband is a retired Senior Chief). RTC had no problem with Dalton. Said he did great. It is Medical who has the issue. He went before the board on Monday, June 3, and they are allowing him to file for a waiver while in Ship 5. We should know whether it is approved or not after he meets with the JAG officer assigned to his case, sometime next week.  SORRY FOR THE LONG STORY.

[Jcatherine1981]

I wish you and Dalton the best.  I hope he's able to get the waiver!!

[MonkeysMom]

Thanks so much. It is so frustrating. But we all know about that.

[Angie]

fyi..psych records are not keep with the normal medical records in DEERS. I know this from personnel experience. 

When did your hubby retire?

[MonkeysMom]

 Hubby retired in 2004.

[BunkerQB]

There is a huge difference between ADD and ADHD. I believe if you son had ADHD and was prescribed medication, it might be tough for him to get back in. There was another discussion about this last month. Unfortunately, the discussion was deleted and the information I had found was deleted along with it and I don't have time to find it again. I am not a psychologist, so I can not give you accurate information off the top of my head. Please contact this member Jcatherine1981. Her son just went thru the something similar but hadn't gone to BC yet - he did get a waiver subsequently. He is at BC now.  I personally believe that a group of young men (age currently 21 to 26) were prescribed medication because they were being treated by their primary physicians, the majority of whom got into a trend of over-prescribing to help parents deal with over active growing adolescents. We saw quite a bit of that in our community. We decided to engage our younger son (our former sailor's brother) in more strenuous exercise and other physical activities to keep him busy at all times. I apologize for not having the information.  Best of luck to you.

[lemonelephant]

ADD and ADHD are often treated with the same meds and if a candidate for the Navy has a diagnosis of either, with or without meds, it requires a waiver to join and, as MonkeysMom's story reveals, not getting that waiver can cause a mess and could lead to discharge if the diagnosis is discovered later.

[BunkerQB]

NO. They may be treated with the same meds but if the diagnosis is ADHD, waiver is not an option.

[lemonelephant]

I respectfully disagree with you. Waivers are granted or denied on an individual basis and there have been some with a past history of ADHD who were permitted to enlist. It depends on how long the candidate has been off meds (the longer it has been, the better the chance of getting a waiver) and how well the candidate has done during that time. Yes, it is true that the Navy is very particular and it is harder to get a waiver for some things, such as ADHD.

[Angie]

BunkerQB and Lemonelephant...

When you look in the recruiter manual, either of those can get a waiver, they are not automatic disqualifies...now that being written, we all know that people have not gotten waiver for those, and we all know of people who have been "told" by the recruiter not to report those things on their paper work.

[lemonelephant]

:o)