Emotional Health Deserves High Priority

Lt. Gen. James B. Peake, Army Surgeon General/MEDCOM Commander

by Lt. Gen. James B. Peake
Army Surgeon General/MEDCOM Commander

More than 12,000 soldiers have moved back to the continental United States through our evacuation system into our hospitals and into our care as outpatients. More than 100,000 troops who participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom 1 have returned home by now with medical screening, serum samples placed in our repository, and reminders of the health issues of things like leishmaniasis and the importance of seeking help from physical to emotional should it be needed. Many are on block leave as we go to press with this article.

All of them and their families have access through Army One Source to behavioral health support and up to six free counseling sessions that are not a part of the formal medical system. The senior leadership of the Army funded this program to encourage our people to seek assistance early and without any concern of stigma that is sometimes associated with access to mental health assets.

Further, the Army has funded 57 care managers to work across our system in primary care clinics—people attuned to the post-deployment needs and concerns of soldiers.

This is another proactive attempt to look after the well being of our soldiers returning from what we all know is a stressful environment. This is an overall good thing for our Army, but I especially want to bring it to you the Army Medical Department readers of the Mercury. Many of you have been deployed in this conflict. Many of you have experienced the stresses of combat, of seeing wounded soldiers, of experiencing personal risk. Many of you are reuniting with families after extended absences and are back in work environments that, in many ways, have gone on with little change in your period away.

Every study we do as an AMEDD points to issues of our military family not seeking assistance in such adjustments, perceiving "stigma" or barriers to such care. I want you all to know that I believe it is important to make such assistance accessible and acceptable, and that it is important to understand that being affected by these kinds of deployment stressors is an absolutely normal set of reactions that can be made easier with assistance.

The fact that our senior leaders in the Army have placed such emphasis on the Deployment Cycle Support Program just talks to their focus on the well-being of the soldier. Our whole AMEDD is engaged in this and from all perspectives, whether as returning deployers or as the receiving caregivers.

We all must be attuned to facilitating assistance for any who might need it. We are enabled by the Deployment Practice Guideline and we must remain cognizant of the fact that sometimes the somatic symptoms represent underlying concerns. We must be supportive as a system and individually, as it may well be our fellow medic who needs our support.

You have so much to be proud of. Thanks for what all of you do collectively, and to each of you as individuals for your great dedication, skills and compassion.

	April 2004 Mercury, an Army Medical Department publication: Emotional Health Deserves High Priority