President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order last month to provide individuals leaving military service access to mental health care for the first year following their separation.
The order directs the secretaries of the departments of Defense (DOD), Veterans Affairs (VA), and Homeland Security to develop a plan within 60 days to provide veterans with access to mental health treatment and suicide-prevention resources for one year following discharge, separation, or retirement. A “totally unacceptable” 20 veterans a day die from suicide, said VA Secretary David Shulkin at the order’s signing ceremony.
About 250,000 individuals leave the military each year, but the VA said 60 percent of them do not qualify for federal health care services, primarily due to lack of verified service connection to the medical issue. Service members three to 12 months after discharge from the military are three times more likely to commit suicide than those on active duty, according to a study from the Naval Postgraduate School cited in a White House fact sheet.
To be eligible for the one year of mental health treatment under the executive order, veterans must have served on active duty and received an honorable discharge, a VA spokesperson told Psychiatric News. VA’s community-based counseling centers, known as Vet Centers and Veterans Health Administration facilities will coordinate to provide care, which will be “tailored to each individual’s needs,” the spokesperson added.
(Members of the military who served in combat will still be eligible for care for service-related disabilities for five years from date of honorable discharge.)
The plan also includes extending the Department of Defense’s “Be There Peer Support Call and Outreach Center” services for one year following separation from service, as well as extending access to 12 months to Military One Source, a 24/7 employee assistance‑type program. It provides an array of services including relocation assistance, tax preparation, financial, marital, and legal counseling as well as other short-term services to help deal with everyday life issues.
Also slated for expansion are the VA’s telehealth technology, which allow VA’s health care providers to remotely treat veterans, regardless of their geographic location. Shulkin also announced expanded access to “urgent mental health care” to former service members with other-than-honorable discharges. ■
The executive order can be accessed
here.
