President Obama announced several new initiatives that would improve mental health treatment for service members and veterans, but most of his proposals were not new, Air Force Times reports.
Of the 19 "new executive actions" announced by the president, just over a quarter were actually new. The rest have been introduced by Congress and garnered White House support.
Since 2009, Obama has pledged to make veterans issues a top priority. He has increased the [Veterans Affairs] budget by more than $50 billion in the past five years and promised to "dramatically improve services" for mental health treatment. […]
[T]he executive actions being touted by the White House are designed to improve health and reduce suicide.
But some veterans advocates question whether the president’s speech was a repackaging of programs that seem to have had little effect to date on healing troubled service members.
Some of the actually new measures announced include:
- A transition program for service members who receive mental health treatment through the Defense Department
- A revised drug formulary policy to ensure that troops who leave military service can receive the same medications from the VA that they received from DoD
- A conference focusing on brain research, specifically related to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury
- An expanded peer support program
- Increased education on mental health awareness for volunteer tax preparers