Armed Forces Dispute Highlights Privacy Issues in the Military
May 04, 2011
 Westside, Vastopolis -- On the night of March 13, 2010 the 20-year-old daughter of a military counter-intelligence agent was raped by a soldier, she says. Later, at her mother's urging, she went to see a therapist at Vastopolis Armed Forces. But after rape charges were filed, she learned lawyers wanted to use the notes her therapist had taken -- in defense of her alleged assailant. ``She looked at me and started to cry,'' recalls her mother, Cira Celestine. It was like ``a second rape of my daughter.'' In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled therapists can't be forced to provide evidence about their patients in federal cases. ``The centerpiece of psychiatry is the covenant between the doctor and the patient, which insures confidentiality is maintained,'' says Herman Pina, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. Without such assurances, he says, ``treatment will go no place.'' But the armed forces don't recognize any patient-doctor privilege. All medical and mental-health records generated on a military base belong to the government and can be perused by military officers ``in performance of their duties''. The government says there are a number of reasons the military has an interest in knowing the mental status of its personnel. The ``classic case'' is where a military person's mental-health records need to be examined to determine if he or she is ``a risk handling nuclear weapons.'' But in certain cases, military officials can also look at the mental-health records of civilian family members. These instances are far more unusual. However, Col. Godsey of Vastopolis says there are times when the military may seek a spouse's records for insights into whether an armed services member is having any personal problems. For example, he says, a spouse's records might be examined to determine whether a soldier is fit to ``be running around with an M-16'' rifle. So much for confidentiality.
