Senate Passes the Veterans Mental Health Improvement Act
SENATE PASSES VETERANS’ MENTAL HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENTS
June 3, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, praised the Senate’s passage of S. 2162, the Veterans Mental Health and Other Care Improvements Act of 2008, tonight by unanimous consent.
This bill includes provisions on mental health care, suicide prevention, care for substance use disorders, prevention of homelessness, pain and epilepsy care, and other health care matters. This comprehensive legislation addresses many critical issues facing our Nation’s veterans.
…the legislation would make sweeping changes to VA mental health treatment and research. Most notably, it would ensure a minimum level of substance use disorder care for veterans in need. It would also require VA to improve treatment of veterans with multiple disorders, such as PTSD and substance use disorder. To ascertain if VA’s residential mental health facilities are appropriately staffed, this bill would mandate a review of such facilities. It would also create a vital research program on PTSD and Substance Use Disorders, in cooperation with, and building on the work of, the National Center for PTSD.
Veterans with physical and mental wounds often turn to drugs and alcohol to ease their pain. Experts believe that stress is the primary cause of drug abuse, and of relapse to drug abuse. Research by Sinha, Fuse, Aubin and O’Malley in Psychopharmacology (2000), and by Brewer et al. in Addiction (1998) has found that patients with psychological trauma, including PTSD, are often susceptible to alcohol and drug abuse. Similarly, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, patients subjected to chronic stress, as experienced by those with PTSD, are prone to drug use. VA has long dealt with substance abuse issues, but there is much more than can be done. This legislation would provide a number of solutions to enhance substance use disorder treatment.
The inclusion of families in mental health treatment is vital. To this end, the bill would fully authorize VA to provide mental health services to families of veterans and would set up a program to help veterans and families transition to civilian life.
Beneficiary travel reimbursements are essential to improving access to VA health care for veterans in rural areas. This legislation would increase the beneficiary travel mileage reimbursement rate from 11 cents per mile to 28.5 cents per mile, and permanently set the deductible to the 2007 amount of $3 each way.
It is important that veterans who rely on VA for their health care have access to emergency care. This bill would make corrections to the procedure used by VA to reimburse community hospitals for emergency care provided to eligible veterans so as to ensure that both veterans and community hospitals are not inappropriately burdened by emergency care costs.
Too often, veterans suffer from lack of care merely because they are unaware of the services available to them. This legislation would enhance outreach and accessibility by creating a pilot program on the use of peers to help reach out to veterans. It would also encourage improved accessibility for mental health care in rural areas.
The legislation also addresses homelessness, which is far too prevalent in the veteran population. The bill would create targeted programs to provide assistance for low-income veteran families. It would also allow homeless service providers to receive VA funds without offsetting other sources of income and require that facilities which furnish services to homeless veterans are able to meet the needs of women veterans.
The Committee heard testimony that epilepsy is often associated with traumatic brain injury, the injury that many are calling the signature wound of the current conflicts. This suggests a strong need to improve VA’s effectiveness in dealing with epilepsy. The pending legislation would establish six VA epilepsy centers of excellence, which will focus on research, education, and clinical care activities in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. These centers would restore VA to the position of leadership it once held in epilepsy research and treatment.
The medical community has made impressive advances in pain care and management, but VA has lagged behind in implementing a standardized policy for dealing with pain. The bill includes a provision that would establish a pain care program at all inpatient facilities, to prevent long-term chronic pain disability. It also provides for education for VA’s health care workers on pain assessment and treatment, and would require VA to expand research on pain care.
I urge all of my colleagues to support S. 2162, as amended. It has the potential to bring relief and support to tens of thousands of veterans and their families across the country.
