I am proud to let you know that I have joined forces with Senator Joe Lieberman in introducing legislation aimed at improving mental health care for members of the U.S. military.  Together, we have introduced legislation requiring the Department of Defense to establish a comprehensive database on suicides to help better understand and address the problems faced by members of our military.  We have also introduced two additional bills – the Armed Forces Suicide Prevention Act and the Armed Forces Mental Health Professionals Recruitment and Retention Enhancement Act. These three bills will help our brave service members at a time when they are facing exceptional challenges as a result of the prolonged conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year, 121 soldiers committed suicide and another 2,100 attempted suicide.  Our legislation would require the Department of Defense to establish a comprehensive and detailed database on suicides and suicide attempts across all branches of the Armed Forces, including the National Guard and reserve, and would also require the Department of Defense to provide Congress with regular updates on this information.  The database would not include personal identifying information.  Our aim is to ensure that the Department of Defense and Congress have an adequate picture of the state of mental health within our Armed Forces.  We need to do a better job of tracking these trends so that we can help shape better policies and prevent further tragedy. 

Our Armed Forces Mental Health Professionals Recruitment and Retention Enhancement Act would help increase the number of uniformed mental health providers serving members of the Armed Forces and their families.  It would authorize the use of certain bonuses and other incentives to increase the number of mental health professionals to treat members of the military.

Finally, our Armed Forces Suicide Prevention Act would require individual investigation of all suicides across the Armed Forces in a manner modeled after the Air Force’s highly successful aircraft accident prevention program.  Specifically, this Act would require an independent and impartial panel of experts to investigate suicides and make recommendations as to how immediate or long-term improvements in programs or policies would help to prevent future incidents.

We have heard first-hand that our service members prefer receiving care from mental health professionals who are also serving in or have served in our military. These measures will provide incentives to attract and retain mental health providers who are uniformed members of our Armed Forces and improve our understanding of the psychological strains service members face.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator