US Army mental health care facilities are inadequate to meet the needs of returning war veterans at Fort Drum, NY, the home of the Army's 10th Mountain Division, according to a recently released study by Veterans for America, a non-partisan veterans advocacy group.
“The system is very much overburdened,” Jason W. Forrester, director of policy for Veterans for America (VFA), told the New York Times. The study, titled "Fort Drum: A Great Burden, Inadequate Assistance," was conducted after soldiers at Fort Drum contacted VFA asking for assistance with their mental health care concerns.
The combination of repeated overseas deployments, reduced "dwell times," extended individual combat tours, the stress of combat, and reduced access to mental health care are a dangerous combination that impacts the personal lives of service members and erodes readiness of military units, the VFA report concluded.
The VFA study focused on the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), stationed normally at Fort Drum. The 2nd BCT just finished its fourth overseas deployment since September 11th, making it the most deployed Army unit since then. Altogether 2nd BCT has been deployed for more than 40 months, said the report.
In addition to repeated deployment, 2nd BCT faces "inadequate dwell time," rest and retraining periods between deployments. Shrinking "dwell times" are an "Army-wide problem," read the report. The Army's traditional goal is to have a 2:1 ratio of dwell time to deployed time; 2nd BCT has not come close to meeting that goal.
Soldiers also face combat zone tour extensions. In April 2007, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the extension of Army tours in Iraq from 12 to 15 months in order to cover shrinking recruitment rates. The extensions of tours in Iraq have been a big burden for soldiers in 2nd BCT units, according to the report.
Combat stress and inadequate access to mental health care have severely affected 2nd BCT as a result of these combining factors. "On their most recent deployment," the report stated, "members of the 2nd BCT were more than five times as likely to be killed as others who have been deployed to OEF (Afghanistan) and OIF (Iraq) and more than four times likely to be wounded. This level of combat will bring with it considerably higher rates of mental health challenges for members of the 2nd BCT than other units."
Soldiers at Fort Drum told VFA that low morale, frequent DUI arrests, rising AWOL, spousal abuse, and high rates of attempted suicide were cause for alarm. And despite loud claims by the Bush administration calling for support for the troops, the VFA study found, "that these brave servicemembers who recently returned from Iraq must in fact wait for up to two months before a single appointment can be scheduled. In short, access to care for our returning warriors at Fort Drum is woefully inadequate." The Army's response to psychological needs of returning veterans has been "insufficient," the report noted.
The Army first created a mental health unit called the Mental Health Advisory Team (MHAT) after the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 2007, MHAT reported that "severe stress, emotional, alcohol or family problems" were rising to disturbing rates. Further, MHAT reported that 28 percent of combat veterans were exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – probably an extremely conservative estimate.
Later in 2007, a Pentagon Task Force on Mental Health reported "daunting and growing" psychological needs of returning veterans and their families. The task force tied high rates of PTSD to extended torus and multiple deployments, and concluded that the Army had too few specialists or facilities that could help.
VFA specifically found that at Fort Drum, 2nd BCT soldiers who sought mental health care typically waited more than two months for an appointment. In addition to this, VFA reported that Fort Drum commanders admitted they have had trouble recruiting additional mental health care specialist had not been successful, blaming northern New York's bad weather.
Related to these problems is that soldiers who do receive mental health treatment face inadequate and irregular care. On top of this, Fort Drum does not have its own hospital and relies on Samaritan Medical Center in nearby Watertown, New York for mental health care treatments, a relationship subject to the availability of federal funds and the undue influence of military commanders.
The Army's screening methods for mental health care issues may also be partly to blame. Returning soldiers are given an optional screening during which, many soldiers told VFA, personal problems are often concealed or understated in order to avoid the stigma of needed mental health care, to speed up going on leave or the termination of service, or to avoid having mental health being used to block future promotions. Some simply did not want to be accused of "faking" by their superiors, a recurring problem, the report stated. Others told VFA that discussions of mental health care within the Army foster an atmosphere of "secrecy and shame."
VFA recommended using increased federal dollars to create a "more proactive mental health care treatment regimen before, during, and after deployment." VFA called for better counseling programs, the use of brain scanning technology, more attention to family needs of returning soldiers, and required and repeated "face-to-face screening" of all soldiers before and after deployment. VFA also called on the Army to maintain better public records of the casualty rates of different military units as well as deployment rates in order to keep careful track of the likely mental health care needs of soldiers.
After more than four years of knowing that severe mental health care problems stemming from inadequate facilities in military units was a growing problem, Congress finally acted in the winter of 2007 to pass the Wounded Warriors Act (as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization of 2008), providing additional funding for mental health care. Similar bills were held up in the previous Republican-controlled Congress or slowed by veto threats from the Bush White House.
Since 2005, the Bush administration has fought expansion of veterans health care and other benefits. It imposed increased payments in the VA medical system and ordered transition and benefits personnel to avoid providing veterans complete knowledge of their full benefit rights. According to a Pentagon spokesperson, cutting back on the cost of benefits was needed because they were viewed as "hurtful" to "national security."
Senate Republicans also filibustered a measure put forward by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) last summer which would have brought the armed forces closer to achieving its own "dwell time" goal and would have limited tour extensions and deployments. President Bush likewise threatened to veto any bill presented to him with such a measure included.
