Mislabeling the military's mental health.

• Author: Puterbaugh, Dolores T.
• Position: Psychology

IT SEEMS AS IF DAILY we are told how shamefully the military handles the problem of psychological distress and emotional pain for our men and women in uniform. A couple of months back, one national publication even asserted that the "Pentagon [is] perpetuating stigmas that hang over treatment, study finds." The military is criticized because it takes mental health issues seriously enough to reconsider security clearances, thus unnecessarily "stigmatizing" those who have sought treatment.

This supposed stigmatization merits careful consideration. These include the depth and breadth of existing mental health services for active duty personnel and veterans; the conflicted American mindset on mental illness and emotional distress; and the logical outcome of this strange ambivalence.

A person not in the military or close to military personnel reasonably may be under the carefully groomed media misimpression that the emotional well-being of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines is some sort of vague afterthought. Perhaps the general public is unaware that military mental health officers--people who are qualified to be licensed solo practitioners in the civilian world--are found in forward operating bases, combat outposts, and other deployment settings, providing critical incident debriefings, assessments, counseling, and referrals for more comprehensive care.

When young men in harm's way are despondent over a wife's philandering, or are heartbroken over missing their child's birth, the mental health officer is there. When there are incoming mortars, the mental health officer is there. When someone's reaction to the weekly required malaria medication is extreme (malaria meds cause short-lived anxiety in about one in 10 people, and for some of that 10%, paranoia kicks in briefly as well), the mental health officer is the one who can figure out what is going on and have the physician provide an alternative medication for the soldier--saving a military career from dissolving due to what looks like psychosis but is a transient medication side effect. In short, when crises occur, the "doc" or "shrink" or "combat stress lady" (quotes from military personnel) is there.

It is understandable that most civilians are unaware of mental health clinics on military bases, where military personnel and their families can receive counseling. Besides basic counseling, mental health personnel provide services such as outreach before, during, and after deployment; support while preparing for new babies; parent training; marriage counseling; couples' retreat weekends; substance abuse education; and more. All of these are part of the routine in military mental health clinics.

Mental health officers also are able to veto a transfer if any member of the transferring family's health or mental health needs cannot be met adequately at the new location. So, if Mom is being transferred to Base "A" and that area does not have the specialized services that one child in the family needs, the...