Soldiers' Mental Health Screenings: It's About Time - The American Journal of Psychiatry published a study called the Pre-Deployment Mental Health Screening/Care Coordination Program on Wednesday. The study shows that Army soldiers who were given extra mental health screening before deployments decreased the number of negative situations that happened while deployed.
The Army doctors who took part in this study were able to better assess whether a soldier could endure a deployment, and for those who were deployed and showed some signs of mental health issues, follow-up care was available for them. The Army's deputy surgeon general, Maj. Gen. Patricia Horoho, had voiced her excitement about the study and its results.
But isn't it common sense that screening someone for mental health problems before they go through a stressful event like a deployment would help determine who is and who isn't going to have problems over there?
Questions that ask soldiers about their mental health should have been asked a long time ago. While getting ready for a deployment, soldiers go through many different phases. They make sure that their physical health is up to date, with all of the necessary screenings and shots that are needed when going to a foreign country and fighting in a war. They even make sure that they have power of attorneys and any other legal documents ready, but mental health is never really screened, unless the soldier brings it up himself.
2009 was the worst year for military suicides since records were kept in 1980, with 334 service members committing suicide. Obviously when the number of suicides for a group that only makes up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population is that high, mental health screening should have been a mandatory part of pre-deployment screenings a long time ago.
Imagine having to endure the stress of being in a war zone, compounded with not seeing your wife or your children for a year, except for the mere two weeks of leave that you are allowed, and then coming home and trying to readjust to the civilian world, a world which is foreign to you at this point. These are just some of the things that the American soldier has to deal with, and in a society that has mental health specialists to help them deal with the stress of everyday life, why are our soldiers not getting the same or even better care for factors that would wreak havoc on even the most normal person's brain?
I'm glad that the military doctors have finally caught on to this obvious problem in the military, but I hope that the results of this study don't take years to be implemented into the health screenings of these brave men and women. By taking care of our soldiers mentally, just as much as we take care of them physically, we will wind up saving more lives in the future. ( news.yahoo.com )
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The Army doctors who took part in this study were able to better assess whether a soldier could endure a deployment, and for those who were deployed and showed some signs of mental health issues, follow-up care was available for them. The Army's deputy surgeon general, Maj. Gen. Patricia Horoho, had voiced her excitement about the study and its results.
But isn't it common sense that screening someone for mental health problems before they go through a stressful event like a deployment would help determine who is and who isn't going to have problems over there?
Questions that ask soldiers about their mental health should have been asked a long time ago. While getting ready for a deployment, soldiers go through many different phases. They make sure that their physical health is up to date, with all of the necessary screenings and shots that are needed when going to a foreign country and fighting in a war. They even make sure that they have power of attorneys and any other legal documents ready, but mental health is never really screened, unless the soldier brings it up himself.
2009 was the worst year for military suicides since records were kept in 1980, with 334 service members committing suicide. Obviously when the number of suicides for a group that only makes up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population is that high, mental health screening should have been a mandatory part of pre-deployment screenings a long time ago.
Imagine having to endure the stress of being in a war zone, compounded with not seeing your wife or your children for a year, except for the mere two weeks of leave that you are allowed, and then coming home and trying to readjust to the civilian world, a world which is foreign to you at this point. These are just some of the things that the American soldier has to deal with, and in a society that has mental health specialists to help them deal with the stress of everyday life, why are our soldiers not getting the same or even better care for factors that would wreak havoc on even the most normal person's brain?
I'm glad that the military doctors have finally caught on to this obvious problem in the military, but I hope that the results of this study don't take years to be implemented into the health screenings of these brave men and women. By taking care of our soldiers mentally, just as much as we take care of them physically, we will wind up saving more lives in the future. ( news.yahoo.com )
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