Task force to look at mental health services

  • Published
A special Defense Department task force will visit Sheppard Jan. 5 during a DoD-wide fact finding mission regarding mental health services.

The Task Force on Mental Health will host a town hall meeting with individuals who have deployed in the recent years as well as family members to gauge the various effects of deployments of military members and dependents. The closed meeting is to foster open and candid discussions between servicemembers, their family and members of the task force.

According to a press release from the Army, the task force wants "to hear from beneficiaries about all aspects of mental health care, including access, quality - even the stigma associated with seeking this care."

The group is also interested in information regarding how deployments affect children and spouse as well as care received from civilian practitioners.

Those who choose not to participate in the open discussion but would like to offer their experiences or thoughts can submit their testimony to http://www.ha.osd.mil/DHB/mhtf/testimony.cfm.

The Task Force was established at the direction of Congress and will submit a report to Secretary of Defense in May 2007 that will include an assessment of and recommendations for improving the effectiveness of mental health services provided to service members. The Task Force consists of seven DoD members and seven non-DoD members. It is co-chaired by Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, Army Surgeon General, and Dr. Shelley M. MacDermid, an associate professor in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue University and the Co-Director for the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue.

For a list of members of the DoD Mental Health Task Force, click on the following URL: http://www.ha.osd.mil/DHB/mhtf/default.cfm.

Point of contact for public or media inquiries is Cynthia Vaughan, (703) 681-0519, Cynthia.Vaughan@us.army.mil.

(Courtesy of the 82nd Medical Group)