WASHINGTON – A Congressman representing Arkansas has presented an award to two federal agencies for their failures in providing mandated health care for veterans.
Rep. French Hill (AR-02) awarded the Golden Fleece to the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday. Hill said in a statement that the award, meant to bring an agency’s failings to light, was for “challenges in ensuring effective mental health screening for service members and veterans who are transitioning from military to civilian life.”
The announcement continued that as a result of a 2018 executive order, the VA and DOD developed a new joint Separation Health Assessment (SHA) for servicemembers transitioning back to civilian life. However, several of the mental health screens included in this new SHA have not been properly validated and cannot be relied upon for accurate results.
Hill continued to quote a letter he sent to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas Collins and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The letter cites Executive Order No. 13822, signed by President Trump in 2018, titled “Supporting Our Veterans During Their Transition From Uniformed Service to Civilian Life.” A component of the order requires mental health screenings by medical professionals of service members applying for disability as they leave the service.
The letter states that of the five mental health screens, for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol abuse, suicide and violence, only two are based on validated screening tools.
“The screens for PTSD and alcohol abuse are based on validated tools but were modified without the proper validation required, and the joint SHA’s screen for risk of violence was not based on any validated tool at all,” the letter states.
Hill continues to request the tests to receive the appropriate validation, allowing for the confident identification of service members in need of mental health support, and he is willing to work with the agencies to correct the issue.
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