Pentagon’s Efforts to Curb Mental-Health Woes Apparently Falling Short

Outside report says there is little evidence to show they make much difference

By Mark Thompson, TIME.com

 

The Pentagon didn’t actually win the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now a prestigious federal panel has concluded it’s also not winning its decade-long battle to shield troops’ brains and minds from mental-health woes stemming from those conflicts.

There is little evidence that the military’s so-called “resilience, prevention, and reintegration” programs, designed to beef up soldiers’ defenses against the mind-ravages of war, have had any beneficial effect, concluded the 291-page report released Thursday by an Institute of Medicine panel.

http://swampland.time.com/2014/02/21/pentagons-efforts-to-curb-mental-health-woes-apparently-falling-short/#ixzz2tzFdQhFg

Link to report and two-page “report at a glance”:

http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2014/Preventing-Psychological-Disorders-in-Service-Members-and-Their-Families.aspx