Sen. Schumer to push for more PTSD treatment

WASHINGTON — Sen. Charles E. Schumer said Wednesday he will push legislation to treat more combat veterans for mental illness tied to the rigors of warfare.

Mr. Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a bill that would free service members from having to prove that a specific incident led to their illness, called post traumatic stress disorder. Instead, the government would assume that a soldier who returns from combat with the affliction developed it because of his or her deployment.

Mental illnesses are "every bit as debilitating as the physical ones," Mr. Schumer said in a conference call with New York reporters.

The senator's office reported that the north country is home to 386,670 veterans, of which more than 26,000 served in Iraq or Afghanistan. That is more than in any part of the state outside of New York City and Long Island, attributable to Fort Drum.

Mr. Schumer said the legislation would fix a hole in the Department of Veterans Affairs' treatment of PTSD. He cited a Rand Corp. study that found that about half of service members who have post traumatic stress disorder seek treatment, and about half of those are approved for treatment.

Requirements to qualify for treatment are "much too stringent," Mr. Schumer said.

If the legislation were to become law, he said, three quarters or more of those who seek treatment may receive it, and more combat veterans may look for help.

The proposal will cost about $500 million annually during the next decade, Mr. Schumer said, because of the increased number of people being treated. But treatment ultimately saves the government money, he said, by preventing the more advanced illnesses that develop if the disease is not addressed.

Among other consequences, mental illness contributes to climbing numbers of suicides in the Army, officials say. Commanders are trying to overcome years of reluctance to openly talk about psychological challenges of warfare and of military service generally.

In addition, the Army is educating more primary care doctors about symptoms of PTSD and depression, citing soldiers' willingness to go to a physician rather than a mental health professional. The Army also has been hiring more mental health professionals during the past few years.

Even the Army's recruiting command is looking at suicide rates, although the commander of the U.S. Army Accessions Command, Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, said the Army has not found a direct connection between recruiting work and factors that lead to suicide, or anything "inherently problematic" with combat veterans in recruiting jobs after deployment.

Gen. Freakley, a former commander of Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division, told a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee Wednesday that he has asked for an independent investigation of the recruiting work environment, following four suicides at the Army Recruiting Battalion at Houston. None of those soldiers, however, was diagnosed with PTSD, he said.