VA urged to give families mental health help

VA urged to give families mental health help

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 28, 2008 13:21:08 EST

A House subcommittee was urged Thursday to expand the Veterans Affairs Department’s authority to provide mental health counseling for the families of veterans, including National Guard and reserve members who have returned from combat.

Current law restricts VA to providing “limited services to immediate family members,” said Kristin Day, VA’s chief consultant for care management and social work service.

“The law provides, in general, that the immediate family members of a veteran being treated for a service-connected disability may receive counseling, education and training services,” Day told the House Veterans’ Affairs health subcommittee.

That leaves a lot of gaps for people who fall outside the military health care system, some critics say.

Todd Bowers, government affairs director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said that when he was wounded by a sniper’s bullet during his second tour in Iraq, his mother suffered.

“The incident that physically wounded me wounded my mother much worse,” said Bowers, a Marine Corps Reserve staff sergeant. “As she struggled to cope with the knowledge of my injury, my mother was more than alone. She was lost. She sought assistance through the only means she was aware of, the mental health counseling covered by her own health care.”
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/military_mentalhealth_veteransfamilies_02808w/