WASHINGTON – After a new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that a staggering number of service members dismissed from the U.S. military had diagnosed mental health disorders related to their service and that various branches of the military failed to comply with U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) separation policies, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called for immediate passage of his Honor Our Commitment Act of 2017. Murphy’s bill will expand existing law to ensure that combat veterans with Other-Than-Honorable (OTH) or Bad Paper discharges maintain access to mental health and behavioral health services from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The GAO report exposed that 62 percent of the veterans dismissed from the U.S. military between 2011 and 2015 had been diagnosed within two years prior to their separation with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a traumatic brain injury (TBI), or other condition that could be associated with misconduct. Of those, 23 percent (or 13,283 service members) received an OTH discharge, making them ineligible to receive critical VA mental and behavioral health care. The wrongful discharge of service members with mental health disorders ultimately bars those members from receiving much-needed retirement, health care, housing, and employment benefits. It may also discourage other service members from seeking the medical treatment they need.
“This report is horrifying. It’s absolutely unacceptable that the men and women who’ve risked their lives for our country and suffered the wounds of war are being shut out of the VA system and denied the care they need when they come home,” said Murphy. “They’ve been denied the decency and respect they deserve. Congress needs to hold DoD and the VA accountable. I urge my colleagues to make good on their commitments to care for our veterans, and pass my Honor Our Commitment Act immediately.”
The GAO report also revealed that the U.S. military’s policies to address the impact of PTSD and TBI on separations for misconduct are not always consistent with DOD policy. The Navy, for instance, does not require that service members separated for misconduct receive a medical examination to determine whether a PTSD or TBI diagnosis was a factor in their misconduct. Interviews revealed that some Army officers do not have proper training to identify TBI or PTSD symptoms, and that the Marine Corps does not maintain adequate documentation showing whether or not veterans with OTH discharges have been screened for PTSD or TBIs.
As co-author of the recently passed Mental Health Reform Act, Murphy has led Senate efforts to push the VA to change their policies and ensure that discharged veterans with mental illness continue to receive the critical benefits and mental health care they need. For over a year, Murphy has made the case to the VA that they could already provide mental health benefits to service members with OTH discharges. In 2015, he led 11 other senators in calling on the Pentagon to conduct a full U.S. Army Inspector General investigation into the thousands of less than honorable discharges, and successfully convinced the Army to commit to reforming its policies. Last month, Murphy joined Tester and a group of other senators in calling on the VA to more clearly define the steps they will take to begin providing mental health services and other VA benefits to OTH discharged veterans.
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