Obama announces veterans mental health efforts, but most aren't new

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20140826/BENEFITS06/308260075/Obama-announces-veterans-mental-health-efforts-most-aren-t-new

Obama announces veterans mental health efforts, but most aren't new
Aug. 26, 2014 - 05:00PM |

By Patricia Kime
Staff writer

In his speech before the American Legion on Tuesday, President Obama touted new initiatives intended to improve mental health treatment and support for service members and veterans.

But many of the 19 “new executive actions” aren’t as novel as presented; just over a quarter represent fresh efforts while the remaining either have been in the works for months or were introduced by Congress and now have White House support.
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(The) executive actions being touted by the White House are designed to improve health and reduce suicide.

But some veterans advocates question whether the president’s speech was a repackaging of programs that seem to have had little effect to date on healing troubled service members.

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Coming under the “completely new” category are at least five fresh changes, including a new Defense Department policy that will enroll all service members who receive mental health treatment through DoD in the inTransition program, ensuring a “warm hand-off” to VA care.

VA also will revise its drug formulary policy to guarantee that troops who leave military service and move to VA can get the same medications they received from DoD. Currently, VA providers must obtain a waiver if the medication is not in the VA formulary — a policy that has caused gaps in care and led to veterans’ deaths.

VA and the Pentagon also will expand their peer support programs to other settings. For VA, this will mean having peer specialists working with patients in primary care and for DoD, new peer coordinators at 30 special operations locations.

The White House also announced a conference this fall focusing on brain research, PTSD and TBI and a partnership between VA and the Treasury Department to train volunteer tax preparers on mental health awareness.

A few of the announced initiatives focus solely on the Defense Department and capitalize on programs that have been in the works for years.
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Rieckhoff also said he remains skeptical.

“We want to see an executive order on suicide. We want to see care. Our members are sick and tired of the bureaucratic debate. If they could get high quality care in a timely manner, they’d be satisfied,” he said.