I want to thank the Disabled American Veterans and the Wounded Warrior Project for their candid comments and specific recommendations for oversight.  I think it is important to highlight that if mental health professionals are “feeling overwhelmed due to increasing numbers and mental health needs,” it is a pretty clear indication that we don’t have enough mental health professionals.  I understand the VA not wanting to make conclusions about staffing needs, but if the mental health professionals are overwhelmed then we need to ask why and address that issue.  I’d hate to see our mental health professionals needing mental health counseling because of work stress.

I think the Disabled American Veterans hit the nail on the head when it comes to staffing needs.  We can’t report staffing needs based on the offers we’ve made and the responses received.  We must look at our manpower authorizations, vacancies of those positions, and then the workload that each of those professionals face to determine how many more mental health professional positions we still need beyond what is currently authorized.

The recommendation of an independent mental health advisory body with direct access to the Secretary is a great idea and we should explore that possibility.

The Wounded Warrior Project testimony touched on the fact that 60% of the returning troops who screened positive for PTSD never reached out for help.  Yet at the same time the need is for early, preventative intervention being critical to identification and recovery.  The dilemma is trying to identify the need for help in those that do not identify themselves as needing help.

The Army used to use a term (they may still use it):  PMCS–Preventative Maintenance, Checks, and Services.  We do PMCS on vehicles and equipment, but we need to do it on our people as well.  Early screening and proactive, preventative treatment for PTSD is needed.  It is simply post-operation PMCS on a returning troop.  And you don’t just check it once.  You do daily, weekly, monthly PMCS.  In this case it should be done by a team of individuals actively working together to include the therapists, chain of command (if they’re active, guard, or reserve), family members, and peers.  And the same must happen for the family members of returning troops.  For some, being left alone to handle all the rigors of life and events that occur in a single-parent household can be traumatic as well.  For family of veterans, trying to be there through many years of undiagnosed or untreated PTSD can affect them as well.  Many spouses and family members are overwhelmed and need PMCS.  We have to find a way to help the family members of all our troops, active and veteran, and provide them counseling as well.

Counseling should be mandatory at regular intervals for every returning troop and should continue for months or years after returning from deployment.  The family members should be actively involved in post-deployment counseling.  The family often knows more than the doctors and may often identify more than the member themselves.  The spouse knows if the service member is different.  They know if something is wrong.  Too often the family member may cry out for help to the military, normally the member’s chain of command, and be ignored, not taken seriously, or in some cases even belittled.  The spouses must be included and taken seriously when they identify a problem with the service member when indentifying possible PTSD symptoms or other work-related stressors.

I want to bring up a situation that occurred last Friday at Fort Bliss, Texas.  A soldier who returned 15 months ago from deployment, then immediately relocated to a new assignment, had PTSD.  I do not yet know how much help he’d been given.  What I do know is that the family – his mother lives in my district – has cried out for help for a long time.  They have repeatedly raised concerns that the soldier had PTSD and needed some immediate attention.  Again, I am not certain how much attention he received, but the family indicates that it was insufficient.  The last call for help was last Wednesday and Thursday to the unit.  Friday morning the soldier turned himself in to the military police after allegedly having shot and killed an 18-year old on his way to school and having shot and wounded another solider.

I want to make it clear that the ultimate victims here are the young man whose life was cut short and the soldier who was wounded.  I do not want to diminish their loss in any way. 

But I do want to point out that this is a situation where intervention was needed . . . early and continual . . . We can not take “I’m okay” for an answer, especially if someone screens positive for possible PTSD, but even if they have not initially screened positive.  It may harvest and grow over time, like when you put a frog in water and slowly raise the temperature.  He won’t jump out because he doesn’t realize anything’s wrong.  This soldier needed PMCS and he wasn’t getting it.

We, as a community, have to ensure our troops are being helped.  We have to take their family seriously when they give us clues that there is something wrong.  We have to pay attention.  In this case, one innocent life was lost and countless lives were impacted forever because we, as a community, didn’t pay attention.