Mental health program for ‘vulnerable’ troops fails to reach 70% of enrollees
The program automatically enrolls troops with TBIs or have sought mental health care. But follow-up calls miss more than 2 of every 3 enrolled.
PATTY NIEBERG
POSTED ON JUL 18, 2024 2:16 PM EDT
A DOD PROGRAM DESIGNED TO COVER A “VULNERABLE” MENTAL HEALTH PERIOD FOR MILITARY MEMBERS FAILED TO REACH 70% OF ITS ENROLLEES, A FEDERAL WATCHDOG FOUND. (PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS ROADELL HICKMAN) MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2N
A Pentagon program designed to cover a “vulnerable” mental health period for military members failed to reach 70% of those enrolled, a federal watchdog found. The program, named inTransition, is charged with connecting service members with mental health services as who are in periods of “transition” like leaving the military or returning home from a deployment.
But the program often waits 2 or 3 months to initiate contact with members, and made contact with less than 1-in-3, the Government Accountability Office report found this week.
The DOD did not offer formal comments to the GAO on its findings.
The GAO found that the program didn’t connect with more than 70% of automatically enrolled service members in 2022 (roughly 65,500 out of 91,000) because of its limited outreach strategy using telephone calls. Program officials called cold calls “an outdated form of communication” but said that they are required to use telephone calls as a primary contact method and that email or text required a policy change.
https://taskandpurpose.com/military-life/mental-health-program-intransition-gao/
