Providers needed for mental health care - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Providers needed for mental health care

A nationwide shortage of mental health professionals is hurting — but not preventing — the military’s expansion of counseling and treatment programs for service members and their families, officials say.

Army Col. Loree Sutton, director of the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, said Tricare has added more than 3,000 new mental health providers to its networks in the past few months and is also trying to find non-network providers willing to take on new patients — part of a move to expand treatment options for members of the National Guard and reserve.

Sutton said the Pentagon also is working with the U.S. Public Health Service to get the services up to 200 mental health providers who can augment military counselors and doctors.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who four years ago was one of the toughest critics of military mental health services, said March 5 that she is pleased the military seems to be taking the issue seriously.

But, she said, military medical people cannot rest on their laurels.

“We have a big problem ... that is only going to get worse if we don’t do something big now,” Boxer said as she and military medical officials testified before the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee.

“We need to ensure we have adequate numbers of uniformed mental health providers who can train and deploy with our troops and be there when they are needed,” she said, noting that treatment does no good if it is not available quickly.

“When we do this right, it is going to help our military in the long run,” Boxer said.

One issue the subcommittee is considering is an expansion of Tricare mental health benefits that would make it easier for reservists and the families of active-duty and reserve personnel to get outpatient mental health treatment. The subcommittee also is willing to increase recruiting and retention bonuses for mental health workers if the services come up with a specific plan.

Mental health needs in the military continue to expand. The newest Army Mental Health Advisory Team assessment finds the rate of mental health problems “rose significantly with each deployment, reaching nearly 30 percent among soldiers on their third deployment to Iraq,” Col. Charles Hoge said, the Army’s top researcher on mental health among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

The new study also shows that troops in Afghanistan have mental health rates similar to those in Iraq; they had been lower in previous studies, he said.

“We do have gaps at some locations in meeting behavioral health care demand, but we are diligently working on solutions,” said Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general.

Schoomaker said the Army has hired 138 providers, filling a need for 340.

“We are also pursuing the hire of an additional 40 substance-abuse counselors and over 50 marriage and family therapists, and have added about 90 social workers to our Warrior Transition Units,” he said.

Schoomaker said the increasing Army suicide rate and deaths resulting from accidental overdoses are getting extra attention, with improvements in suicide prevention and a plan under way to try to identify soldiers at high risk for abuse of drugs and alcohol.

Air Force Surgeon General Lt. Gen. James Roudebush said 32 more mental health professionals have been hired “for locations with the highest operational tempo” to help service members and their families.

He expects to hire another 97 in the next few months using supplemental funding provided by Congress.

Additionally, the Air Force is working on a pilot project to treat post-traumatic stress disorder with “desensitization therapy,” which uses sight, sound and smell to recreate and deal with the traumatic event at the root of the problem.

Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Adam Robinson said providing immediate care is important.

“Our experiences in previous conflicts ... suggest that delays in seeking mental health services increase the risks of developing mental illness,” he said. “These delays can have a negative effect on the health of the service member, jeopardize a member’s career and permanently alter their family situation.”