Written By: Rashetta Fairnot, Public Health Advisor, Consumer Affairs, CSAT

As Independence Day approaches, our nation reflects on its freedom and we look to honor the military service members and veterans who keep us safe. Since September 11, 2001, more than 2.3 million American military personnel have been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, or both.  Although the vast majority of returning service members successfully transition back home, 18.5 percent of returning service members do meet criteria for either post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression. Unless treated, these types of behavioral health issues have far-reaching and damaging consequences. Already this year, there have been 154 military suicides; compared with 10 years ago this number has doubled. While the behavioral health system has made strides to meet the needs of these military service members and their families, there is more work to be done.

On July 9 at 1:00 p.m., Recovery Month will host a Twitter chat titled, “Access to Behavioral Health Care for Military Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families.” The dialogue will focus on SAMHSA’s Military Families Strategic Initiative as well as topics discussed in the May 2011 Road to Recovery episode, “Military Families: Access to Care for Active Duty, National Guard, Reserve Veterans, Their Families, and Those Close to Them.”

We hope the chat will spark conversation about military families and especially those service members recently returning home and their navigation of the behavioral health system and any current efforts to improve the system to better meet the needs of military service members, veterans, and their families. Our co-hosts Kathryn Power, SAMHSA’s Strategic Initiative Lead for Military Families and Regional Administrator for Region 1, and Stephanie Weaver, MSG, National Guard Liaison to SAMHSA, will share how SAMHSA is leading change through the Military Families Strategic Initiative.

You can follow and participate by using the hashtag #RecoveryChat. We encourage you to share your insights or experiences relating to access to care for military families dealing with mental and/or substance use disorders to help guide the behavioral health system. Feel free to express your thoughts ahead of the chat on the Recovery Month Facebook Page or email any questions to recoverymonthfan@samhsa.hhs.gov.

If you are new to Twitter chats, you can use the following steps to sign up and participate.

• Create a Twitter account at Twitter.com.
• Search for the @RecoveryMonth Twitter page and click follow.
• Sign in to your Twitter account on July 9 at 1:00 p.m. EDT and search #RecoveryChat in Twitter’s search bar.
• Save the #RecoveryChat search term to follow the ongoing dialogue.
• To signify your participation in the Twitter chat, tweet your comment or question and include the hashtag #RecoveryChat. Then click refresh to view your tweet.

Visit the Recovery Month website for more information. We look forward to hearing from you!