Department Of Defense, HHS Announce Program To Send Mental Health Care Professionals To Help Soldiers With PTSD

Main Category: Mental Health
Also Included In: Anxiety / Stress;  Psychology / Psychiatry;  Public Health
Article Date: 06 Jun 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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Department of Defense and HHS officials on Wednesday announced a program under which the departments will send 200 psychiatrists, social workers and other mental health care professionals to military facilities to treat the increased number of soldiers who have post-traumatic stress disorder, the Washington Times reports.

Adm. Joxel Garcia, assistant secretary for health at HHS, said that the program will coordinate scientific research for the mental health care needs of soldiers and improve treatment and prevention efforts for PTSD. Garcia said, "We are very proud that this is an effort to essentially serve not only the veterans that are coming from war, but also their families."

S. Ward Casscells, assistant DOD secretary for health affairs, said, "The cavalry riding to the rescue is the public health service." He added that the departments might decrease the number of mental health care professionals sent under the program to 100, as the current number assumes "that there would be a surge of people asking for mental counseling and psychological counseling" because of efforts to "reduce the stigma of asking for help, to assure people that this won't adversely impact their career" (Hudson, Washington Times, 6/5).

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