In May the Hartford Courant—a good paper, but no New York Times in terms of public perception—ran a series about the military's inadequate handling of soldiers with mental health issues. The initial info had been gleaned by United Press International, but the Courant's excellent reporting made it a national issue.

Today an article from Psychiatric Times picks up the thread (as many other news outlets have done) and gets comment from the higher ups, namely Col. Robert Ireland, the program director for mental health policy in the Department of Defense Health Affairs Organization. Regarding redeploying troops who aren't mentally ready, he says, "That's not our policy. If that's the case, I'd like to know about it."

He's not sure what the policy is? He'd like to know about it? He's the head of mental health policy; you'd think he'd have some idea of what's going on. How depressing. He adds, "Our role is to apply standards and make sure people abide by them because we want people who are competent to do what we ask of them."

Even if he sounds like a putz, it's good to get him talking—and acting. Beginning in August, says the Psychiatric Times, "all branches of the service will intensify their use of psychological screening questions." Ireland, again: "They're not designed for population-based screens, but we are using them anyway. There are always questions about substance abuse, family relationships, and personal conflicts associated with what used to be called the annual physical examination. Now we'll be looking more at things that are indicated based on the person's age, medical history, and so on."

We'll see how that goes, but the military has always responded well to bad PR. After all, they know a little something about propoganda themselves.

Adequacy of Mental Health Screening and Care in the Military Is Questioned