Psychiatrists offer free service to troops

[unhappycamper]

Psychiatrists offer free service to troops
By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 27, 2008 6:31:02 EDT

WASHINGTON — Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems, jumping in to help because the military is short on therapists.

On this Memorial Day, America’s armed forces and its veterans are coping with depression, suicide, family, marital and job problems on a scale not seen since Vietnam. The government has been in beg-borrow-and-steal mode, trying to hire psychiatrists and other professionals, recruit them with incentives or borrow them from other agencies.

Among those volunteering an hour a week to help is Brenna Chirby, a psychologist with a private practice in McLean, Va.

“It’s only an hour of your time,” said Chirby, who counsels a family member of a man deployed multiple times. “How can you not give that to these men and women that ... are going oversees and fighting for us?”

There are only 1,431 mental health professionals among the nation’s 1.4 million active-duty military personnel, said Terry Jones, a Pentagon spokesman on health issues.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_free_psychiatrists_052308/

[DrDan]

1. wish they would extend that to the WH and congress and USSC

well - how about R's in general . . .