Furloughs due to sequester threaten military's mental health ranks

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/03/14/furloughs-threaten-militarys-mental-health-ranks.html?comp=700001075741&rank=2

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“I do have concerns over the long-term capability to provide mental health care to the force” to counter the effects of PTSD, said Dr. Jonathan Woodson, the assistant secretary of defense for Health Affairs.

More than half of the mental health specialists serving the military are civilians, and “they have options to seek employment elsewhere. I worry about sustaining the workforce,” Woodson said at a hearing held by the House Military Personnel Subcommittee.

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Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army’s surgeon general, has lobbied to exempt the mental health specialists from furloughs to retain them for treating PTSD. The Pentagon has said that 20 percent of the civilian workforce will be exempt from furloughs. However, it did not look like the mental health specialists would receive that exemption, said Col. Rebecca Porter, the chief of Behavioral Health in Horoho’s office.

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Last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported that nearly 30 percent of more than 834,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans treated at VA hospitals and clinics have been diagnosed with PTSD.