DoD may have improperly booted thousands of troops with mental health conditions

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/gao-report-bad-paper-dod-discharges

Report: DoD may have improperly booted thousands of troops with mental health conditions

By: Leo Shane III, May 16, 2017

WASHINGTON — Nearly one in four troops booted ​for misconduct over a five-year period received other-than-honorable dismissals despite evidence of existing mental health conditions that may have warranted other considerations, according to a new Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday. The findings cover nearly 92,000 service members separated for misconduct from fiscal 2011 through fiscal 2015. Investigators found that of those, more than 57,000 (about 62 percent) suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or other mental health conditions. Despite that, almost one-quarter of that group was given other-than-honorable discharges, making them ineligible for certain health benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

GAO researchers said that existing screening and counseling policies do provide protections against improper dismissals, but also criticized Air Force and Navy offices for failing to follow those policies.

The report, mandated by Congress in the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, is the result of a two-year investigation and comes as VA officials work to expand health offerings to veterans ineligible for traditional services, in light of high suicide numbers among vulnerable veterans. It also reinforces complaints by veterans advocates that military officials haven’t been careful enough in pushing problem troops out of the ranks, ignoring underlying problems connected to their military service.
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The full GAO report is available on the agency’s web site.