In the thread on the missionary who wants to come home and had it posted on FB by his mother, it was mentioned that someone (can't remember who) in the MTC hierarchy pretty much diagnosed him with an anxiety disorder.

This is something which is concerning to me.... my dad is a mission president and one of my mom's duties is to do medical interviews of missionaries, and from what I gather this goes fairly in depth. My mom is a great lady and very intelligent, and I know she is just following instructions, but I really feel concern with this setup.... especially as applies to mental health issues.

I am a physician. I practice in a field which refers a good number of people to psychiatry. There is a reason I generally don't try to handle psych issues myself. There are many medical causes of depression and anxiety and I often try to rule a handful of them out, but ultimately a board certified psychiatrist needs to be handling these cases.

So does anyone know if these missionaries have actual access to medical care if they think they need it, or does leadership "diagnose" first and then decide if they get to see a doctor? Maybe I should approach my mother with this question too.

mishies in many cases.

As you pointed out, the gatekeepers for care have no qualifications except that they've been parents and might know a little about whatever medical problems they've seen in life.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2013 12:09PM by Cheryl.

NO NEIN NYET

He'll no they don't. The cob makes it very difficult for them to get proper care. Nor did the SP care if my son had medical restrictions and caused more injury. And the only way to get them to pay for the injury they caused was to sue them. I was too much of a TBM then to do that.

This was my case when I asked for help because I was very depressed while on my mission. The president said no at first, then after having suicidal thoughts two weeks later I pressed the issue.

If they were, why did I see this at a church bookstore?

http://deseretbook.com/Missionary-Medicine-Guide-LDS-Health-Richard-Ingebretsen/i/5071466

Need2BAnon4This Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the thread on the missionary who wants to come
> home and had it posted on FB by his mother, it was
> mentioned that someone (can't remember who) in the
> MTC hierarchy pretty much diagnosed him with an
> anxiety disorder.
>
> This is something which is concerning to me.... my
> dad is a mission president and one of my mom's
> duties is to do medical interviews of
> missionaries, and from what I gather this goes
> fairly in depth. My mom is a great lady and very
> intelligent, and I know she is just following
> instructions, but I really feel concern with this
> setup.... especially as applies to mental health
> issues.
>
> I am a physician. I practice in a field which
> refers a good number of people to psychiatry.
> There is a reason I generally don't try to handle
> psych issues myself. There are many medical
> causes of depression and anxiety and I often try
> to rule a handful of them out, but ultimately a
> board certified psychiatrist needs to be handling
> these cases.
>
> So does anyone know if these missionaries have
> actual access to medical care if they think they
> need it, or does leadership "diagnose" first and
> then decide if they get to see a doctor? Maybe I
> should approach my mother with this question too.

Raptor Jesus was told repeatedly that if he was just righteous enough he would get better from his medical problems. It worsened mental health issues caused by the missionary program and he has PTSD now.

I don't know if there is any official protocol, but I do know that there is so much stigma around mental illness in mormonism that I very much doubt that there is sufficient training to deal with these problems. I worked in hospitals in the area for years and there was a persistent 'just snap out of it' attitude expressed by staff and patients about just about every issue- even stuff like autism. One of the biggest problems I have with the church is that the officials aren't really trained on much of anything important. Most religions require their leaders to study counseling, theology, etc. In mormonism its just some guy who decides based on whatever he 'discerns' to be correct, so who knows?

Sorry to go anon for this but I wanted to say that it depends on the mission president. The current president of the Mexico MTC is Carl Pratt. He was my mission president out in the field and he takes good care of his missionaries. He'd do his best to make sure they have proper medical care UNLESS Salt Lake is reigning him in somehow (financially, procedurally). He'd follow church instructions first because he's very committed but when it becomes his "stewardship," then he'd take the best care of the missionaries he could. I had a health problem on my mission and I really have no complaints about the care I got. I think he went the extra mile.

However, not all MPs are like that. There is a lot of room for interpretation in the church's rules and procedures and some missionaries get abysmal health care. And not just because they are in a third world country, but because they are under the control of a real jerk.

I do think my mission was unique though as we actually had a gynecologist helping missionaries with minor ailments . But he wasn't very up to date with his family practice medicine, the guy didn't know that unisom and benadryl were the same drug in over the counter versions.

Ever try to find a first aid kit in a ward building? One of our kids was bleeding from a small injury on his hand. It took someone 10-15 minutes to find one, in an out of the way, locked cabinet. Guess what, it didn't have one band-aid in it. I had to get one from a member who carried them.

Silly, the bandades in a Ward building are in the Library!

Just be a librarian..you'll get asked for one all the time. We had a box and filled it from our own pocketbook. Good thing too, because we were next to the Primary room!



My first husband was forbidden to go overseas because the church doctor looked at his health form and said "we'll be bringing him home in a pine box if he's sent outside the US".

So he served a "Lamanite" mission. He came home with health problems that lasted for over thirty years.

The health care of the TSCC on a mission is dependent on the MP and the missionaries own ability to drag themselves to a competent Dr without the TSCC's permission if they need care. It seems to be arbitrary from what RMs have told me.

My mission president and mission doctors actively obstructed the care I needed to receive the mental and physical diagnoses that I received years after the mission when going to REAL doctors.

I wonder if we can get a class action lawsuit started. That would be really bad press, and it might help the church take care of the poor kids out there. Once again I am conflicted, I feel for the kids, but it might force others to wake up anyways to experience the neglect firsthand.

I'm not sure, but I think the church self insures for healthcare too. Can anyone tell me if that's true or not?

If true, it would explain why they want to spend next to nothing on care.

When I was a missionary in 1981. I was forced to pay about $150 on my arrival at the mission home for medical insurance.

When I developed a tumor, my parents were told I was "resting in the mission home", when I was not.

I paid all my medical visits out of pocket with no reimbursement.

I came back and had the tumor removed at my families cost.

After the operation I was sent multiple requests to have additional test and to send the results to the church.

I ignored the requests as my doctor said they were not necessary.

After three months they sent a person to visit me and asked me to have the tests performed.

I asked if the church would pay for the tests since my insurance would not. I was told I had to pay for the tests myself.

I explained all the costs I had paid even though I had purchased the church medical insurance and I was not about to spend my money to appease the church.

I later found out that the church wanted the tests to protect them in case I sued for the cost of my operation.

I came home from my mission after serving a long time in a foreign country, we had recently switched mission presidents and the mission president was new. I had been sick for about 2 months and finally a sister in the ward I was living in who was a nurse told me that I should get to the emergency care hospital in the city and gave me a reference for a good doctor. The doctor was quite alarmed at my symptoms but was not sure what the diagnosis was, but when questioned about how I ate, slept and what work I was supposed to do, told me I should go home immediately and get bed rest, nutrition and constant medical care. This sent my mission president over the edge, he said he would "lose points" if he sent a missionary home sick, and not knowing the diagnosis would even be a bigger problem with his church overseers. There was much waiting and resting in the mission home and blessings and prayers until they decided my faith just was not strong enough and sent me home. As it ended up I had viral encephalitis and took a very long time to get well and back to full health. My doctor at home pointed out I was lucky they did not keep me in the mission home much longer as my CNS symptoms were getting worse and worse when I came home and I had difficulty trying to walk or figure out how to get on the plane.

Am I correct that today, most parents can extend insurance for their "kids" up to... 26 or something like that?

That ought to do a better job than the church insurance, for missions, which I am told is next to worthless.

Because of what I have seen in the mission field, I am opposed - dramatically oppose-- to sending females to foreign countries. I don't know if the returning missionaries report their problems later in life to the missionary dept but they ought to. They come home with all kinds of bad stuff!

I'd say it depends on the mission president, how outspoken are the parents of any missionaries in that particular mission, companions, missionaries just not reporting things and sometimes we don't realize just how sick we are.

I have some issues with my first MP, but nobody who needed it went without medical care. His wife was particularly outspoken on being healthy. The problem was that these things weren't always brought to his attention.

Once, I sprained my ankle--my jerk companion made me go tracting! Another time I got what I now believe was dengue fever. Again, the jerk didn't listen to me. At least this time he apologized days later when he got it.

Missionaries often don't report things for various reasons, least of which is that they are mostly teenagers with big egos, convinced of their own immortality. Happens in the military too. And at college.

Many here, myself included, have not felt good, but dismissed it, only to reluctantly go to the doctor and find out things are far worse that you thought. Jim Henson comes to mind.

Our son is serving a mission in South America and, according to him, was able to get medical attention. We *encouraged* him, because he can balk at commands, to go to the doctor for the recurring "Montezuma's Revenge" he had. I think he has a decent, understanding MP.

I am an internist (and never-Mo) in the OC. The one and only case I have ever seen in my career of anemia due to folate deficiency in an RM who spent two years in the Russian Far East. He stated that his diet consisted of beets and potatoes for two years. His mother tried to send him vitamin tablets, after hearing from him about his poor diet, but they were confiscated by Russian customs authorities. It took four months to get him back to normal here.

That said, the MP would have to know about their poor diets. I'm amazed that the church doesn't either:

1. warn mishies headed to that area to bring a two year vitamin supply with them (vs. trying to send via mail)

2. import a supply for the mishies to be distributed by the MP or someone else in charge.

I don't expect the poor mishie or his parents to have known in advance that vitamins were needed, but the people at the mission should have known better.

Are missionaries-to-be given any advice sheets pertinent to the mission where they will be serving??

Both of my MPs were really good at taking good care of all the missionaries. On the other hand, the mission doctor was a quack, at best.

My cousin has a back problem and had a note from his doctor that he can go on a mission but that he shouldn't ride a bicycle. His first MP made sure my cousin was either walking or driving. His second MP made my cousin ride a bike for the last 6 months of his mission.

No. Some missions might be better, but there is very little health care provided and unless you're in some sort of major accident, you have to pay it out of pocket. That was frustrating, what's the point of getting their insurance for just in case something happens if they won't actually pay for anything when it does happen.
As far as getting healthy food, my MP actually decreased our food money when we were already having to use our savings to pay for anything beyond top ramen like those ridiculous elders were doing. I don't know how they didn't just keel over from malnutrition.
I wasn't even in a particularly hard mission, but it seemed like they expected us to be superhuman physically to survive.

The church doesn't pay for their missions, why would they pay for their care? I keep hearing horror stories of missionaries getting horrible stomach flus or debilitating sicknesses and the church trying to extort money from the parents or just tell them to drink a 7-Up. The leaders have basically said "If you can walk and talk, pull yourself together!"

The Morg (a.k.a. LD$ Inc.) has a LONG history of not appropriately caring for its missionaries. For example, my nephew has been a mishie in northwestern CA for more than a year now, and according to him, some of the apartments provided by the LDS Church have been spider- and cockroach-infested.

I suggest you send the July 2012 Bloomberg Businessweek in-depth article/report about the Mormon Church and its business empire to your father. Here's what part of the piece said:

"According to U.S. law, religions have no obligation to open their books to the public, and the LDS Church officially stopped reporting any finances in the early 1960s. In 1997 an investigation by Time used cross-religious comparisons and internal information to estimate the church’s total value at $30 billion. The magazine also produced an estimate that $5 billion worth of tithing flows into the church annually, and that it owned at least $6 billion in stocks and bonds. The Mormon Church at the time said the estimates were grossly exaggerated, but a recent investigation by Reuters in collaboration with [Univ. of Tampa] sociology professor [Ryan] Cragun estimates that the LDS Church is likely worth $40 billion today and collects up to $8 billion in tithing each year." (Ref. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-10/how-the-mormons-make-money#p2)

And from p.5 of the report:

"According to an official church Welfare Services fact sheet, the church gave $1.3 billion in humanitarian aid in more than 178 countries and territories during the 25 years between 1985 and 2010. A fact sheet from the previous year indicates that less than one-third of the sum was monetary assistance, while the rest was in the form of 'material assistance.' All in all, if one were to evenly distribute that $1.3 billion over a quarter-century, it would mean that the church gave $52 million annually. A study co-written by Cragun and recently published in Free Inquiry estimates that the Mormon Church donates only about 0.7 percent of its annual income to charity; the United Methodist Church gives about 29 percent." (Ref. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-10/how-the-mormons-make-money#p5)

And from the related Businessweek online slideshow:

"Ensign Peak Advisors is an investment fund of the Mormon Church. According to profiles on LinkedIn, managers at Ensign Peak specialize in international equities, cash management, fixed income, quantitative investment, and emerging markets. One of Ensign Peak's vice presidents in 2006 told the Deseret News that 'billions of dollars change hands every day.'" (Ref. http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/2012-07-11/the-mormon-global-business-empire#slide11)

In my case, LD$ Inc. sent me in early 1984 to terrorism-plagued Peru, where I was immediately put in a filthy shantytown on the north side of Lima, the capital, and contracted spinal meningitis within 10 days. I nearly died. Instead of sending me back to Canada to properly recuperate, the mission president lied to me - he told me that I'd had a less serious illness - and after a week in a Peruvian "clinica", sent me back to the same shantytown.

After four months there, I was assigned to a sprawling ghetto in Lima, and in 1985, an even bleaker shantytown on the edge of the Peruvian desert hundreds of miles north of Lima. There, I not only suffered from malnutrition and parasites, I was attacked and nearly murdered. I was left there to "endure to the end."

Several months of living and working in deplorable conditions certainly took their toll (parasites, malnutrition, etc.) on me and other 'gringo' mishies. One guy from the U.S. contracted some dreadful disease shortly after arriving in Peru and lost 80 pounds in eight weeks. The fact that he came to the Third World country significantly overweight probably saved his life.

If we wanted our stools checked for parasites, we had to pay for it. Ditto if we wanted to see a doctor. I doubt that's changed much, if at all, during the past three or so decades.

Not surprisingly, after my one-week stint in the clinica, the mission president asked me if I had insurance - so that the LD$ Church could be reimbursed! Months later I found out that the Utah-based religious-corporate conglomerate was spending millions of $$$ on its luxurious temple in the wealthy Lima neighborhood of La Molina!

For generations, mishies have been a cost center for the increasingly rich LD$ Church - a drain on its coffers. That's why half a decade ago, it reduced the amount of monthly money that missionaries got for food from "$145...to $130 permanently", according to one angry mother. You can read her post at http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon477.htm

The "true" corporation of Je$u$ Chri$t has billions of $$$ to trade financial instruments as well as for its commercial real estate projects such as City Creek in SLC, and has socked away 100's of millions of $$$ (at least), per info. filed with the UK and New Zealand governments in order to retain its favorable tax status as a "charity" in those two countries, but it won't spend a penny more than it absolutely has to on its missionaries.

That's the disgraceful reality of the situation!

As far as I know this story has never made the news, but it is true.

A missionary, from Utah (being vague here), was serving in South America (Chile?), within the last 4 years or so. He had a cardiac event and was sent to a hospital. He apparently suffered severe brain damage and was stabilized and sent home. He is now a vegtable. He requires constant care and can not perform anything for himself. As it was told to me, the church refuses to help with the ongoing and mounting care costs, which are enormous. His condition, it could be argued is a result of poor care in the country, had he experienced this problem in the US his outcome would have been much better (the problem was manifesting itself in the field, but not attended to). The parents are TBM but are losing faith over the awfulness of his condition and the lack of support from the church.

It is a truly sad situation. It would be awful to have a child die on a mission, it would be far worse to have a child come back a vegtable and require lifetime care. All from being out in a foreign country spreading the gospel of the conman Joseph Smith.

I don't know what it's like now, but in my mission we sure didn't have access to health care, and definitely not psychiatric care. It's been nearly 30 years, and a lot of us still have long-term health problems from our mission.