SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Microsoft is being sued for allegedly not doing enough to help two of its employees who were suffering while on "porn detail":
Two former Microsoft employees who were responsible for monitoring child pornography and other criminal material have filed a lawsuit against the company, The Daily Beast reports, alleging that they were not provided with psychological support to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The employees, Henry Soto and Greg Blauert, were part of Microsoft's Online Safety Team, where they were charged with reviewing material that had been flagged as potentially illegal. According to the lawsuit, Soto's job involved viewing "horrible brutality, murder, indescribable sexual assaults," and other content "designed to entertain the most twisted and sick-minded people in the world." Blauert had to "review thousands of images of child pornography, adult pornography and bestiality that graphically depicted the violence and depravity of the perpetrators," according to the complaint.
Both men say they suffered "vicarious trauma" and symptoms associated with PTSD, including nightmares, anxiety, and hallucinations. When they complained about their health, Microsoft offered a "Wellness Program," but the suit alleges that the therapist involved with the program was not qualified to treat their symptoms. Program supervisors also advised them to take smoke breaks and walks to deal with their problems, while Blauert was advised to play more video games, according to the complaint.
Also at BBC, The Guardian, and Courthouse News. Courthouse News also has a copy of the lawsuit.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 14 2017, @08:13PM
If you are not one of Our Troops, you cannot claim PTSD. PTSD is for Our Troops. If you feel traumatized by civilian life, then you are a weakling, and you should fucking kill yourself.
All Glory to the Commander In Trump!!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday January 14 2017, @08:18PM
Do military drone armchair pilots get to claim PTSD in Trump's America?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Disagree) by bradley13 on Saturday January 14 2017, @08:31PM
Not sure how serious you are, but: PTSD is generally a possibility for any sort of severe personal trauma. Soldiers are frequently subject to it, but so are civilians. For example, the recently Swedish gang rape victims are likely to suffer PTSD.
For viewing pics, no matter how awful? Nope. If they hit you that hard, you walk out.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 14 2017, @09:25PM
This is more or less a case of them shoehorning people into a diagnosis because otherwise they can't get coverage from health insurance.
It's probably well past time that the APA added some sort of diagnosis for trauma due to viewing these sorts of images on a regular basis, but until that happens, I'd guess that psychologists will lump the patients in with the closest diagnostic category available that covers the relevant symptoms.
This is one of the side effects of insurance companies requiring a diagnosis in order to pay for psychological treatment. Another is that people wind up being stigmatized for life as one doctor can't remove the diagnosis of another, even if it's quite clear that the other doctor was a quack.