Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Recent Developments Related to Veterans’ Health

Summaries of recent developments related to veterans' health care appear below.

• Mental health services: Thousands of private psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health care professionals are offering their services at no cost to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in an effort to offset therapist shortages at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the AP/Washington Post reports. According to Terry Jones, a Pentagon spokesperson on health issues, there are 1,431 mental health professionals in the VA system to treat 1.4 million active-duty military personnel. The AP/Post reports about 20,000 more offer their services to the VA. However, veterans' groups and health care experts say that "is not enough for a mental health crisis emerging among troops and their families," according to the AP/Post (Jelinek, AP/Washington Post, 5/25).
  
  
• Relationships: Mental health professionals on Wednesday participated in a daylong conference focused on the importance of intimate relationships for wounded soldiers in recovering mentally and physically from a war, CQ HealthBeat reports. Mitchell Tepper, assistant project director at the Center of Excellence for Sexual Health and founder and president of the Sexual Health Network, said, "A failed intimate relationship can be that straw that breaks the camel's back," adding that professionals need to promote mental healing through meaningful intimate relationships, rather than just survival tactics. Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, who directs the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities at Morehouse College, said, "Our sexuality affects who we are and how we relate to other people," adding, "We cannot take our mental health for granted" (Johnson, CQ HealthBeat, 5/23).
  
  
• Stress: The Baltimore Sun on Sunday examined combat stress among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Sun, despite increased attention given to mental health by the U.S. military, "it's clear that at the source of the tension borne by Americans in combat, they are pretty much on their own," which is a "burden [that] consumes strong men." According to the Sun, some soldiers use coping methods including humor, alcohol use and medication use, while others "stuff it down out of sight" and "hope it won't come back in all its dark and evil power." Rising stress has led to "significantly higher" incidences of depression, anxiety and acute stress, according to a 2005 Army survey. According to the Sun, many Marines say continued exposure to combat stress "doesn't get you used to it. It makes it worse" (Wood, Baltimore Sun, 5/25).