Lack of mental health workers worries senator

Lack of mental health workers worries senator

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 15, 2008 18:10:41 EDT

One of the chief architects of last year’s Wounded Warrior Act will press the service surgeons general about why the Defense Department doesn’t have enough psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health counselors to deal with the flood of combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., will have the opportunity to question the surgeons general at a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.

Murray expressed concern that the Defense Department has not hired enough specialists to deal with mental health issues created by extended deployments, the stress of combat and other issues.

“The fact that we aren’t meeting the demand for our troops’ psychological health needs with qualified professionals is a great concern of mine,” she said in a telephone interview. “The Pentagon needs to tell us what they are doing to fill the gaps in the system, particularly when troops are being sent back into the field for their third and fourth tours.”

The answers are important, Murray said, because “all Americans need to know that the Pentagon is making this a top health priority and that innovative solutions are on the horizon.”
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/military_mentalhealth_surgeonsgeneral_041508w/

How long is this going to go on and when are they planing on getting any of this right? When will they do what they know works until they can hire enough people at the VA to treat them? What are all these veterans supposed to do while they "try to hire" more and make room for the wounded they keep adding to the system on a daily basis? This is disgusting, frustrating and reprehensible! There are long term fixes that have to be done because we are looking at probably 800,000 or more than likely more now that Vietnam Veterans and Korean Veterans as well as WWII veterans are finally understanding what has been wrong with them is a wound, but no one planned on any of them either. Do they plan for anything?