Peake: Guard, Reserve vets need more outreach

[unhappycamper]

Peake: Guard, Reserve vets need more outreach
By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 18:48:34 EST

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake conceded Wednesday that the agency must do more to reach out to Guard and Reserve troops who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan about the mental health help available to them.

Peake made the comment during a Capitol Hill hearing in response to a question from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who expressed concern about VA research that found more than half of all veterans who committed suicide after returning from the recent wars were members of the National Guard or Reserves.

Findings of the research, which examined suicides among those who had been discharged from the military, was first reported Tuesday by the Associated Press.

“I know members of our Guard and Reserves oftentimes don’t think of themselves as veterans. They see themselves as going back to their same jobs; they sort of disassociate themselves with the VA system,” said Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs committee.

Peake said the VA has been working with the military to educate Guard and Reserve troops about VA services when they are brought in for a reassessment for mental or physical problems about three months after they return from war. He said the VA also sends them a letter, but he acknowledged that it “sometimes winds up in File 13.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_suicidepeake_080213/