Apr 20 2010

Military Personnel Subcommittee: Implementation of the Requirement to Provide a Medical Examination Before Separating Members Diagnosed with PTSD or TBI

Opening Statement

 

Statement of Military Personnel Subcommittee Chairwoman Susan Davis

Implementation of the Requirement to Provide a Medical Examination Before

 Separating Members Diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and the Capacity of the

Department of Defense to Provide Care to PTSD Cases

 
April 20, 2010

 

“The hearing will come to order.  Today, the Subcommittee will hear testimony about the efforts of the Department of Defense to implement Section 512 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010.  The Section requires the secretaries of the military departments in certain cases to conduct a medical examination before administratively separating a member under less than honorable conditions if the member has been deployed overseas in support of a contingency operation.

 

“The purpose of the examination is to evaluate a medical diagnosis or assertion by the member that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) might have caused the behavior that resulted in the commander’s decision to pursue separation.

 

“The Subcommittee considered this legislation at the request of the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Jones, and I want to commend Mr. Jones for bringing this issue to the attention of the Subcommittee.  I agree with the Gentleman that it is unacceptable that the military departments were separating service members because of misconduct that was caused by a PTSD or TBI injury that occurred during his or her combat tour.  Now that we know so much more about the extent of those injuries in the force, we owe every returning service member the assurance that we will not punish them for an injury that resulted from combat service.

 

“The unfortunate truth is that we have very likely already separated a number of service members where the commanders did not consider that the member was experiencing the consequences of PTSD or TBI.  That is why the provision we adopted last year also requires the Discharge Review Boards in the military departments to provide expedited review of cases that involve a diagnosis or assertion of the influence of PTSD or TBI.

 

“We intend to learn about the status of DOD efforts to implement this law and improve the general access to mental health care.  As always, if the Congress needs to do more, we would like to know what further action is needed.

 

“I want to welcome our witnesses: Mr. Bill Carr, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Military Personnel Policy, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and Charles Rice, M.D., Performing the Duties of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, President, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. 

 

“Mr. Wilson, do you have any comments that you wish to make?”

 

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