DoDMerb Question

J

Jcc123

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My son is applying for an AROTC scholarship, and has a question regarding properly filling out the DoDMerb physical form.

Brief background - when he was small, he was diagnosed ADHD and took medication through part of elementary school. He stopped taking it, with the OK of his physician, in the 5th grade.

Assuming DD2492 is the correct form, where precisely would information relating to an ADHD diagnosis be put on the form? There are no questions relating to it specifically, and I don't believe it falls under a learning disability or an illness.

He doesn't want to not put it on the form if it needs to be there, we're just not sure where it should go. Any suggestions?
 
Could go a few places: (remember these are have you EVER had questions)

Q7: Amphetamines - pretty much all ADD/ADHD meds are amphetamines
Q14: Taken any medication regularly
Q23: Any mental condition or illness
Q71: Learning disabilities or speech problems (if they were given any special considerations at school I think that would fit well)
Q77: other than minor illness
Q78: Had any injury or illness other than those already noted

You could in reality check all of those, or a few. The main thing is this definitely needs to be noted on the form somewhere. As long as it's noted they won't mind if you don't check exactly the "right" box. If you check more than one box the easy way to do it on the 2nd page is to write it like this:

#7,14,23(or whatever numbers you choose to select): 12/05-6/07 (mos/yr) Diagnosed with ADHD by Dr XYZ. Took XYZ drug for X months and then discontinued by physician. No difficulties since. (if true add in something along the lines that he did not have any special allowances for testing/classes/SAT's/ACT's, etc etc)

Then be prepared to answer a waiver request with any documentation you can obtain from your child's physician in regards to that diagnosis and treatment.
 
Thanks for the response. I get the Q7 Amphetamines response, and we certainly plan to indicate his brief Adderall usage there. I guess I have never seen ADHD described as a mental illness, disease or learning disability.

He's never had accommodations, a 504, or anything similar. Like I said, he stopped medication while still in elementary school with no issues at all. He's graduating with a 3.9 and a 34 ACT.

The ROO at his school literally said to me "if you don't see it as a problem, don't write it down". As a prior service parent, however, I know better. I was just trying to find out where best to explain - so thanks!
 
Yeah, definitely don't agree with the ROO. That can definitely cause problems down the road (eg Fradulent enlistment, never seen it done though).

Overall as long as you mark one of the boxes and explain on page 2 you are covered.
 
That ROO should have his ROO licence revoked...typically the DQ for ADD/ADHD is annotated as "academic skills defect". Not sure what the code is, but learning disability would be the most likely block to check IMHO. Sounds like this one is a shoo in for a waiver.
 
Thanks for the responses! We did address the ADHD on the form in two areas - Q7 and Q14. We did not address it again in the questions regarding mental illness or learning disability, figuring two explanations were already sufficient.

His only other "yes" responses were due to seasonal allergies/hay fever, stuttering that resolved by age 6, and a few ortho things - broken arm at 7 yrs old, etc. Hopefully there is nothing glaring and/or unwaiverable.

I am scared to death we've forgotten something big (in their minds' at least) that will come up later. Hopefully not....

I assume he will need a waiver for the ADHD at least. Can I also assume he'll get initially disqualified, then (hopefully) he'll get the waiver? I'm not 100% clear on the process..
 
I'm going to guess that he probably will not be DQ. Just make sure everything is fully explained when you take the physical and everything will probably work out just fine (note I said probably). There is a link to the DODMERB instructions in this blog post

http://goldenknightbattalion.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/dodmerb-part-1-open-up-and-say-ahhhh/

You might want to dig in there and find the exact wording, so you can explain to the examining Doc in the same exact wording.

Hope that makes sense.

good luck.
 
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