Veterans For America

Associated Press

Sen. Daniel Akaka says the military isn’t doing a good job of assessing the health problems of National Guard and Reserve troops suffering “invisible wounds” from their deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan.

He says the Veterans Affairs Committee he chairs hopes to work to ensure that returning troops with either physical or mental problems get the care they need.

Akaka, D-Hawai’i, was responding to a Government Accountability Office report on Pentagon post-deployment health assessments of National Guard and Reserve servicemembers.

“I hoped that this report would bear better news, but unfortunately it shows that serious gaps remain in how DOD is conducting post-deployment health reassessments … ,” Akaka said in a news release, adding that the committee would address shortcomings in the report to ensure returning troops receive the care they need.

He pointed to the report’s finding that fewer than half the returning troops examined for either physical or mental health concerns are referred to VA facilities.

The risk of shortchanging servicemembers with an insufficient examination is great “and the repercussions potentially devastating,” Akaka said.

Troops are supposed to receive health reassessments between three and six months after returning from a deployment.

“Today, servicemembers are only required to provide basic demographic information, and the health reassessment is frequently conducted by telephone,” Akaka said. “The effectiveness of a contractor call center is questionable. As the report found, there is no follow-up and the servicemember is often left with another number to call.”

He noted that many of the Guard and Reserve members live in rural areas with little access to healthcare, unlike active duty servicemembers who have the support of their units when they get home.