Depression Dev. In Service Is It S/c

[mountain tyme]

Question...I received a phone call last week and I have been searching for the right answer to give this young lady.

She asked if her Depression would be service connected if it develped while on active service while she was stationed in England.

She told me that in 1990's her bother had passed on while she was stationed in England and she was only able to go home for a week due to her job...shortly after that she deveolped depression and anxiety...which she said was caused by her bother's passing.

Now if the depression was due to the loss of her bother would it be concidered S/C?

I personally (my opion only) after talking to her in great detail that the depression was most likely was not due to her bother passing even though that would be a stressor...I think it had more to do with her job...her job entailed identification of deceased veterans of the desert storm campaign by dental records...her office would receive unidentifed individauls and she would match them up though the dental data base....she actually handled the remains and tagged them...so when her younger bother passed on...it brought reality closer to home...she told me that she has had alot of trouble over the years sleeping and she has other issue's as well.

I told her to contact a Service officer who could help her...but she needed to collect all her military s/c and medical records. Which she has she told me she made copies of everything prior to discharge..also I asked her when she was discharged did she go to a local va and fill out papers of any problems she had while in service she said no...even though in her medical records besides the mental heatlh appoints...she also had surgery on her ankle that she broke and her foot that also was broken during her time in service.

thank you in advance for any guildance in this matter

MT

[Berta]

Her MOS definitely is the main focus here- as this would more than likely be a stressor for anyone-at some point-

you are correct-

Does she have a current diagnosis and current treatment records?

Do they reveal that she discussed not only the family death but also her inservice MOS and how it has affected her?

Many veterans get news while inservice of deaths of loved ones-the VA could easily say this is an unfortunate inservice event but that bereavement is usually not chronic.

The death of a fellow serviceman or woman , an eye witness account , etc is different-and depends on the curcumstances.

Her med recs surely document the loss she had but I feel as you do too= that her MOS was the main cause of her depression compounded by the death of her brother.

[carlie]

I concur 100% with Berta on this. Perhaps she should see a psyc doc for an IMO

with her MOS as the Nexus to her Depression, the doc will know.

jmho,

carlie

[Pete53]

One has to be very careful when discussing Depression with VA Docs and VARO. Her Brothers death would depress anyone and is sometimes called a situational depression. For her to win a claim she needs to show that it developed into something more severe i.e. Major Depression or even Major Depression with anxiety. Being separated from family at a time like this can cause and anxiety disorder it happened to me when my son was born and I was stationed overseas with really not much access to home and family.

She will need a good HMO that links her depression and anxiety to service demonstrate that it caused problems after her service and that she would have a diagnosis right now.

Its a very makable claim in these days and times just will take a little time to develop properly and wait for VARO to act.