Calls rise at Pentagon help hotline by 40% every year since 2004

[babylonsister]

Hello? Is anyone out there actually listening? :banghead:


Calls rise at Pentagon help hotline

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

The number of troops and their relatives seeking help from a Pentagon employee-assistance hotline — often linked to war deployments — has grown 40% every year since 2004, say Pentagon officials and hotline operators.

The program receives a thousand calls daily from military members and families and nearly 6,000 individual visits to its website, says Jane Burke, who supervises the program for the Pentagon's Office of Military Community and Family Policy.

"The multiple deployments with the families — they're worn. They need help. So they give us a call, and we find whatever resource we can for them," consultant Steve Schaffhouser says.

DIALING FOR DIRECTION: Hotline offers support for war-weary troops, families

The increase in help calls underscores concerns raised publicly by military leaders such as Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, that more and longer combat tours strain troops and their families.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-24-hotline_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip