Military Inconsistent' On Medical Records Reviews

Report: Military Inconsistent' On Medical Records Reviews
By LISA CHEDEKEL And MATTHEW KAUFFMAN Courant Staff Writers
June 5, 2008

The military is not routinely reviewing the medical records of troops being sent to war despite a policy that calls for such a check before service members are deemed mentally fit to deploy, congressional investigators said in a new report.

In the report, the Government Accountability Office said that although the Department of Defense, or DoD, had taken some "positive steps" to improve the mental-health screening of deploying and returning troops, "unfortunately, DoD's policies for reviewing medical records during the pre-deployment health assessment are inconsistent."

"Because of DoD's inconsistent policies," the investigators said, "providers determining if ... service members meet DoD's minimum mental health standards for deployment may not have complete medical information."

The accountability office reviewed changes approved 18 months ago in the way troops are screened for mental-health status before and after deploying to war.

The defense department in late 2006 adopted a policy, in response to congressional legislation, that tightened pre-deployment screening by setting limits on when troops with mental-health problems may be sent to war and retained in combat.

The legislation was prompted by a series of stories in The Courant that found troops' mental illnesses were being missed or ignored during pre-deployment screenings. Some of those troops committed suicide in Iraq.
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