U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) noted the start of September as National Suicide Prevention Month by expressing her “deepening concern” for the health and welfare of America’s military service members.
“There is a human cost to service that is not always evident by losses on the battlefield,” Sen. Blackburn wrote in a Sept. 1 letter sent to U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper. “Our nation has an obligation to deliver the best possible mental health support to our service members during their service — before they are discharged to communities or stand at the end of the long line of veterans who restart their quest for care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) “must take ownership to improve mental, spiritual and emotional wellbeing for the future of the military enterprise,” she added.
Sen. Blackburn urged the secretary to address barriers to mental health care for active duty service members and their families as a follow up to a recent report released by the DOD Inspector General (DODIG) that evaluates access to outpatient mental health care.
“The results are significant, detailing the extent to which our Armed Forces men, women and their families are underserved by the military health system,” Sen. Blackburn wrote, noting the DODIG report states that over half of the assessed military medical treatment facilities (MTFs) and the supporting TRICARE networks did not meet access-to-care standards prescribed by law and DOD policies.
The DODIG report also found that an average of 53 percent of all active duty and their families referred to civilian providers never received care, and that nine of 13 MTFs considered did not provide adequate evidence-based treatments and did not monitor prescribed treatments, according to the senator’s letter.
“Delays in access to mental health care threatens the safety of those at-risk,” Sen. Blackburn wrote. “Mental health, to include dependents’ mental health, is a critical element of service member readiness.”
Sen. Blackburn also welcomes “a long-term open dialogue with the Pentagon on prioritization of the health of U.S. service members and their families, according to her letter.
“In the near-term,” she wrote, “I look forward to a detailed response that addresses each of the unresolved DODIG recommendations.”