Congress wants VA to expand mental health services

Rick Maze, Army Times Staff writer writes:

Congress is suggesting the Department of Veterans Affairs be creative in providing mental health services for returning veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Concerned in part because of a report earlier this year that showed some of VA’s Veterans Centers are beginning to feel the pinch of caring for previous patients plus new veterans and their families, Congress is ordering improvement and expansion of mental health services.

The orders are included in S 3421, the Veterans Benefits, Health Care and Information Technology Act of 2006 that passed Congress on Dec. 9 but has not yet been delivered to the White House because it is one of a flood of measures approved in the last days of the 109th Congress.

“We must do more to help veterans with mental health concerns and their families,” said Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., a veterans’ committee member. The bill, she said, requires outreach clinics to have the capacity to provide services, either in house or by alternative means.

Under terms of the bill, mental health services can be provided at outpatient clinics, by referrals to other VA facilities, under contract with private-sector mental health professionals or by “tele-mental” health services, the bill says.

It also orders more collaboration between VA and the Defense Department to improve clinical skills at diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems and to improve pre- and post-deployment counseling.

Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, said the bill “increases support of service members returning from the war on terror by improving VA’s outreach and increasing the number of clinicians treating post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Tele-medicine — providing care via computer or video link — is part of the expansion. The VA has been using tele-medicine since the late 1970s to provide mental health counseling, which Buyer said is “invaluable to rural veterans.” The bill recommends an expansion of that program.