Surge in Iraq did not include mental health workers

Bill Would Reward Mental Health Workers In Military
By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN Courant Staff Writer
March 15, 2008

Clinical psychologists could collect six-figure bonuses for enlisting — or staying — in the Armed Forces under legislation proposed to address high rates of suicide and a critical shortage of mental health workers in the military.

The legislation, proposed Friday by U.S. Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., would offer extra money to a variety of behavioral health professionals and extend "critical skills" bonuses to psychologists and social workers who join the military, and to psychiatrists, social workers and mental health nurses who agree to stay in uniform. The Armed Forces Mental Health Professionals Recruitment and Retention Enhancement Act of 2008 would also expand scholarships and other special-pay programs for mental health workers.

Professionals with a doctorate in psychology who agree to serve as military officers for four years would be eligible for bonuses of as much as $100,000 each year under the proposed law. The legislation would also authorize bonuses as high as $25,000 a year for high-ranking mental health workers in the military who agree to extend their duty two to four years beyond their required commitment.

Lieberman and Boxer also introduced legislation Friday that would establish an independent Defense Department board to investigate all suicides by service members, and would require the department to maintain a military-wide database of suicides and attempted suicides.

Suicides are typically investigated by the individual military branches, each of which keeps its own data and makes reports.

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While the bulk of this report was about the bonus for mental health workers, on thing stood out.

About 200 psychologists and other behavioral health providers are deployed in Iraq, a number that has remained constant despite last year's troop surge.

Why would they send in more men and women and not more mental health workers to take care of them? You would think there would have been such a huge surge in training that they would have had plenty to go around. After all, the reports coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan have been only increasing in incidences as the years go by. They have had plenty of time to address this vital component of the armed forces but they didn't.

Yesterday my husband and I went to the TITUSVILLE Warbird Airshow. There were a lot of vendors selling military stuff and food. At one booth, I was looking for something that had "Chaplain" on it. I asked the woman if she had anything besides the car magnet I had in my hand with "pray for the troops" on it. The man with her pulled out a license plate frame with "military chaplain" on it. I'm not a military chaplain so that was out. He said, "Why don't you go to some of the recruiting booths and sign up. They need you badly." Considering that working with the veterans has been what I feel called to do, that option was not for me. As we walked away, I began to think that this man knew how bad it was for the troops and the dire need for the troops yet the military itself seemed to have been the lasts ones to be clued in.

When you talk to regular people about PTSD, they look at you as if you have two heads. How is this still possible? Do they read newspapers or watch the news? Do they pay attention at all? If we, as citizens, fail to pay attention then the people in charge will not feel compelled to do the right thing. They will feel they can get away with ignoring the problem. Up until the last couple of years, that is exactly what has happened. It's time to stop taking baby steps and strap on the roller-blades. They are dying for our attention.