1.1 Ensure Thorough, Professional, and Confidential Mental Health Screening

• IAVA supports mandatory and confidential mental health and TBI screening by a mental health professional for all troops, both before and at least 90 days after a combat tour.

1.2 Combat the Shortage of Mental Health Professionals

• The VA must be authorized to bolster its mental health workforce with adequate psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers to meet the demands of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. • IAVA supports increased funding for Vet Centers to alleviate staffing shortfalls. • The Department of Defense must reverse current shortages of mental health professionals. IAVA recommends a study of reasons for attrition among military mental health professionals, and the creation of new recruitment and retention incentives for mental health care providers, such as scholarships or college loan forgiveness.

1.3 Increase Understanding of Psychological Injuries

• IAVA supports efforts already underway to reduce mental health stigma. The Air Force, for instance, has seen a 30% drop in suicide rates since the institution of a comprehensive suicide-prevention campaign. IAVA recommends creating a DOD-wide initiative to share “best practices” for mental health treatment, including education for military leaders in the service and leadership academies. • IAVA supports a more comprehensive approach to treating female servicemembers’ psychological injuries, including funding for an independent research study of the scope of sexual harassment and assault in the military, and an analysis of the effectiveness of the military’s response to the problem.

1.4 Increase Suicide Prevention Resources

• IAVA supports suicide prevention training certification as a part of first-aid and combat life-saver training. • IAVA recommends increasing the capacity of VA inpatient facilities for veterans at high risk for suicide.

1.5 Give Families Access to Mental Health Support

• Military families with TRICARE should have improved access to mental health services, and active-duty families should be given unlimited access to mental health care, including family and marital counseling, on military bases. • Families should also be given more effective training in the warning signs and effects of psychological injuries. • IAVA supports the creation of new VA programs to provide family and marital counseling for veterans receiving VA mental health treatment. • Congress should appropriate funding so that the military can formalize and coordinate the current volunteer family support services for the families of deployed servicemembers.

1.6 End Discrimination against Psychologically Wounded Troops

• To ensure that servicemembers suffering from service-connected mental health effects have not been improperly discharged, IAVA recommends imposing an immediate moratorium on military discharges for personality disorders until an audit of past personality discharges is completed. • Troops should be able to seek voluntary alcohol and substance-abuse counseling and treatment without the requirement of command notification. Such notification should be at the discretion of the treating mental health professional. • IAVA supports amending the UCMJ to establish a preference for mental health treatment over criminal prosecution for military suicide attempts. Congress should hold hearings on attempted suicide in the military, and the relative use of criminal, administrative, and medical responses.