Two West Point cadets have killed themselves in the last two months and two more recently attempted to. The Army's reaction is to put up posters and give training.
That's nice, but it probably is futile. Having a notation in your service record that you sought counseling for mental issues is a career-killer. There are no shortage of jobs, especially for officers, where if you go and talk to a military head-shrinker, you will be transferred out of that job before you can get back to your duty station from the counseling center. That will, of course, be in your service record forever as any selection board will see that you were abruptly removed from a job and it will count as a huge black mark.
Until the Army addresses that point, all of the posters and training will be useless.
In the past, I have known officers who had any number of personal psychological issues. Not a single one sought help through the Navy's support network. Most just self-medicated. Those who sought professional help did it on their own dime and often under an alias.
I don't imagine things have changed that much.
A blog by a "sucker" and a "loser" who served her country in the Navy.
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Friday, January 30, 2009
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The Department of Defense actually got together a Mental Health Task Force to take a look at the problems with military mental health. Their conclusions and recommendations were released in 2007. I can't get the link to work for their final report, but the link below hits the high points.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11015
Their were specific recommendations for the number of mental health providers needed: 1 full time psychiatrist and 3 full time therapists for every 5-8 thousand beneficiares. The emephasis was on active duty providers.
The military chose to completely disregard the important recommendations, including the number of providers needed. So the military mental health system continues to be overwhelmed the the tasks the DoD asks it to do.
The DoD is shelling out more money and wasting more time asking a contractor to go in and take a look at what's wrong (the DoD should have listened to its own people in '07).
Another big, big problem is the lowering of standards and the increase in waivers. They'll turn people away for fat, but not crazy, stupid or criminal. More often than not, the people helping to babysit the trouble makers until they can be kicked out? Mental Health.
This leaves less time and resources to deal with people who might otherwise be helped.