Senator Patty Murray (above) is the Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Her office notes:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Contact: Murray Press Office
(202) 224-2834
Sen. Murray Calls on Secretary Panetta to Provide Timeline for Promised Military Review of PTSD and Behavioral Health Diagnoses
In
the aftermath of the misdiagnoses of servicemembers in Washington
state, Murray calls on the Pentagon to move forward with nationwide
review of mental health diagnoses since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
began
Letter
also calls for information on efforts to collect missing unit military
records that could prove critical if certain health care problems arise
from service in Iraq or Afghanistan
(Washington
D.C.) -- Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate
Veterans' Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta requesting next steps and a timeline for the execution of a
critical military-wide review of PTSD and behavioral health diagnoses
made since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. The review, which
Secretary Panetta promised following the misdiagnoses of severvicemembers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, has seemingly stalled since being announced on June 13th.
"The
Department must act with a sense of urgency in order to complete this
review and to act on its findings in coordinating with other ongoing
efforts to improve the disability evaluation system." Murray wrote to
Panetta. "Each of these efforts is vital in ensuring servicemembers
truly have a transparent, consistent, and expeditious disability
evaluation process."
"Senator
Murray's letter also addressed her concerns that records for military
units in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are often used to provide
information on potential health and exposure issues be carefully
identified, located, and collected.
The full text of Senator Murray's letter follows:
October 18, 2012
The Honorable Leon E. Panetta
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301
Dear Secretary Panetta:
I
am writing to express my concern about two distinct issues, which taken
together impact the disability evaluation process for servicemembers
and veterans.
At
the outset, I very much appreciate your ongoing efforts to address
behavioral health diagnoses and care both within the Integrated
Disability Evaluation System and throughout the Department at large. In
June, as part of this ongoing effort, you announced a comprehensive
Department-wide review of mental health diagnoses. Shortly after the
announcement, I had the opportunity to meet with Under Secretary Conaton
to discuss some of the initial steps the Department had taken in
preparation for this review. However, it appears that progress on this
effort may have stalled. I am writing today to request the Department's
next steps and timeline for execution of this review.
The
Department must act with a sense of urgency in order to complete this
review and to act on its findings in coordinating with other ongoing
efforts to improve the disability evaluation system. Each of these
efforts is vital in ensuring servicemembers truly have a transparent,
consistent, adn expeditious disability evaluation process.
My
second concern relates to the ability of the Department, and
specifically the Army, to identify and account for many records for
units that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The lack of access to
documentation of the locations and fucntions of specific military units
interferes with the ability of both servicemembers and veterans to
obtain evidence of military service that may result in adverse health
conditions now or in the future. As we have learned from prior
conflicts, this lack of documentation all too often leads to hardship
for veterans in establishing a relationship between miltiary service and
a specific medical condition.
The
lack of accessible documents may also impede future research efforts if
health care problems arise from service in Iraq or Afghanistan. For
these reasons, I would like to know the current status of efforts to
identify, locate and collect records for units that served in Iraq and
Afghanistan. I also urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure unit
records are properly archived and accessible.
I
appreciate your attention to these requests and look forward to our
continued work together to strengthen both the disability evaluation
system and behavioral health diagnoses and care and to ensure our
servicemembers and veterans have access to critical military documents.
Sincerely,
Patt Murray
Chairman
###
