Pentagon to review PTSD policies

With military suicides at an all time high, Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta has agreed to a military-wide
review of how mental health and PTSD cases have been
treated going back to 2001.

The review will not only look at the Army, but at every
branch of the military. It’s being hailed by Washington
senator Patty Murray, who has made veteran’s care and PTSD
a priority as head of the Senate Veteran’s Affairs
Committee.

At a Senate hearing Wednesday, Murray told Secretary
Panetta this must be a top priority.

“This is complex.
It’s hard. It’s problematic, but it needs every single
effort from top to bottom,” she said.

Murray pushed for the review after hundreds of soldiers at
Joint Base Lewis-McChord had their PTSD cases overturned
without good reason. Many of those cases have been reinstated.

“We do a fantastic job of training our men and
women to go into the service,” she said. “We still today
have not gotten this right after this war in making sure
that they transition back home.”

The hearing came one week after the Pentagon reported 154
active-duty military suicides have occurred this year,
which is more than have died in combat.

“There are still huge gaps in terms of the differences in
terms of how they approach these cases and how they
diagnose the cases and how they deal with them, and
frankly, that’s a whole area we have to do much better
on,” Panetta said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report