Colorado Senators Urge GAO to Broaden National Review of DOD Mental Health Practices

WASHINGTON, D.C. – According to the American Psychological Association, of the 1.5 million veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF), between 12 and 18 percent already report some form of mental health concern in the weeks after returning from deployment. Those mental health concerns include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, nightmares or an inability to concentrate. Recent Army data indicates that in the coming months and years, the number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan experiencing mental health issues related to their deployment could reach as high as 30 percent. In addition, a two-year study by Fort Carson showed that nearly one-in-five soldiers deployed to Iraq returns with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

In a letter today to David M. Walker, the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), United States Senators Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard urged the GAO to broaden its current review of Department of Defense (DOD) screenings, diagnoses, referrals and treatment of service members and provide recommendations for legislation or administrative action to improve DOD mental health care and to capitalize on existing ‘best-practices.’ A copy of their joint letter is available by clicking here.

In their joint letter, Senators Salazar and Allard also noted the progress made by Fort Carson in attempting to identify and treat PTSD in soldiers returning from combat operations, writing, “The command staff at Fort Carson, for example, has implemented several key policies which may serve as models for PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and mental health treatment in the Department of Defense. Fort Carson was among the first Army hospitals in the nation to screen 100 percent of returning soldiers for TBIs. As a result, medical professionals on the post have not only been able to provide improved assessment and treatment—they are completing an unprecedented study of the traumatic brain injuries that are affecting our men and women in uniform.”

Senators Salazar and Allard also urged the Department of Defense to closely monitor the progress of Fort Carson’s upcoming effort to begin testing a new scanning camera that uses gamma rays and radioisotopes to detect TBIs, and urged DOD to implement this technique should it prove successful.

Victims of PTSD frequently suffer from biological changes as well as psychological symptoms, often in conjunction with depression, substance abuse and other problems of physical and mental health, as well as social or family troubles, including occupational instability. However, these symptoms of PTSD are often easier to recognize than the disease itself. Meanwhile, as discharges due to personality disorders have risen substantially at some bases around the country, waiting times to see military mental healthcare providers are reported to be over a month long.

A Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI is a blow or jolt to the head or a penetrating head injury that disrupts proper functions of the brain, which can require lifelong treatment.

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