Officials exploring how best to serve veterans' mental health care needs

HARLINGEN — Texas veterans returning from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to seek mental health care in record numbers, officials testified before a Texas House committee Tuesday.

And community mental health facilities need to be prepared, they said.

A bill under consideration in Congress could increase funding for veterans’ mental health care. If that happens, experts say the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should team up with community centers to provide that care.

“It would be a timely solution for (the VA) to contract with our local community centers,” said Bob Brown, board member of the Texas Council of Community of Mental Health and Mental Retardation Centers. “We’re already treating some veterans with mental health needs.”

Members of the state House Committee on Defense Affairs and State-Federal Relations invited local officials and veterans to testify on veterans’ mental health needs and the VA disability ranking system.

The committee is examining these issues and will prepare an in-depth report before the 2009 Texas legislative session, said committee Vice Chairman state Rep. Juan Escobar, D-Kingsville.

Although funding for veterans’ health care comes from the federal government, state lawmakers can help influence the Texas delegation’s decisions in Congress, committee members said.

According to a 2006 survey that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq in 2003 and 2004, and 11 percent returning from Afghanistan, reported mental health problems.

During the first year back at home from war, 35 percent of Iraq veterans sought mental health care, according to the JAMA report.

So far, the Rio Grande Valley’s public mental health center, Tropical Texas Behavioral Health, has only treated a small number of veterans, because only people with a diagnosis of severe depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia qualify, said Terry Crocker, the center’s chief executive officer.

In 2003, lawmakers made the criteria for state-funded mental health care stricter, meaning that many veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety disorders don’t qualify, officials said.

“There’s a significant amount of need outside those three diagnoses,” Crocker said.

The Valley’s two veterans clinics already offer mental health services that are specifically geared toward Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, said VA system spokeswoman Kathryn Petravage. Both clinics have psychologists and social workers on staff, as well as a psychiatrist, trained to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues.



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