A formal review into the effectiveness of the federal government’s mental health programs for America’s military veterans and transitioning service members would be launched under a new bill introduced on Feb. 26 by U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) to address long-standing accessibility issues.
“The transition to civilian life is one of the most vulnerable periods in a service member’s career,” Rep. Bacon said. “We must ensure our mental health screening tools are validated, effective, and connecting people to care.”
The congressman introduced the Improving Mental Health Support for Servicemembers and Veterans Act, H.R. 7735, alongside bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), to require the U.S. Department of Defense-Veterans Affairs Joint Executive Committee (JEC) to assess the effectiveness of their programs and processes in facilitating access to mental health services for veterans returning to civilian life.
“The [bill] strengthens oversight, improves coordination between the Department of Defense and the VA, and helps ensure no service member falls through the cracks,” said Rep. Bacon. “I’m pleased to co-lead this bipartisan legislation with Rep. Golden on this important effort to better support our service members and veterans.”
Included in JEC’s review would be a complete inventory of the government’s mental health programs, along with metrics, milestones, and plans of actions to identify inefficiencies and gaps in programming. There would be a 180-day deadline to present the report to the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees.
H.R. 7735 also would also require the JEC to update its existing Joint Separation Health Assessment (SHA) every two years. The SHA currently uses an outdated process to infrequently catalog veterans’ generalized health needs — an issue that forces policymakers to contend with data that isn’t specific nor timely enough, according to a bill summary provided by Rep. Bacon’s staff.
“When I came home from the Marines, I saw how important it is to have a strong support system in your corner. The VA is full of skilled public servants who do that work, but there’s only so much an individual employee can do about the fundamental gaps in service created by an imperfect system,” said Rep. Golden, adding that the measure is an “effort to show VA leaders just how lacking the agency’s outreach, rural logistics, and staffing efforts have been.”