DOD Health Care: Mental Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Screening Efforts Implemented, but Consistent Pre-Deployment Medical Record Review Policies Needed

摘要

DOD has taken positive steps to implement mental health standards for deployment and pre-deployment mental health screening. However, DOD's policies for providers to review medical records are inconsistent. DOD issued minimum mental health standards that servicemembers must meet in order to be deployed to a combat theater and identified the pre-deployment health assessment as a mechanism for ensuring their use in making deployment decisions. DOD's November 2006 policy implementing these deployment standards requires a review of servicemember medical records during the pre-deployment health assessment. However, DOD's August 2006 Instruction on Deployment Health, which implements policy and prescribes procedures for conducting pre-deployment health assessments, is silent on whether such a review is required.