National PTSD Awareness Day

Floor Speech

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am honored to join my colleagues today in recognizing the Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, as their month-long PTSD awareness campaign comes to a close and in reflecting on our participation in the third annual National PTSD Awareness Day. I thank Senator Conrad for introducing the resolution to honor Army National Guard SSG Joe Biel who suffered from PTSD and tragically took his own life in April 2007 after returning from his second tour in Iraq.

All this month, we draw attention to PTSD which affects millions of Americans at some point in their lives. As chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, I am especially concerned with the impact that PTSD has had on our Nation's servicemembers and veterans. The number of veterans treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, VA, for PTSD or related symptoms has reached 475,000 and there are likely more cases that go unreported, undiagnosed, or untreated each year. In fact, as the drawdown of Afghanistan troops continues, we can only expect those numbers to follow the steady rise previously reported. VA and the Department of Defense, DoD, need to be ready now.

This unpreparedness is a tragedy. Whether the wounds they return home with are visible or invisible, no veteran should be left to face their injuries alone, and I am committed to seeing that they never have to.

Already, we have seen a change in how VA and the DoD treat PTSD. Earlier this year, we learned that hundreds of servicemembers and veterans had their PTSD diagnoses reversed over the course of 5 years at Madigan Army Medical Center in my home State of Washington. In the wake of this shocking discovery, Secretary of the Army John McHugh ordered a comprehensive, Army-wide review of medical files from the past decade to uncover any other problems with misdiagnoses. Two weeks ago, Secretary Panetta announced that he would be ordering a similar review across all of the armed services. I applaud these actions taken by Secretary Panetta and Secretary McHugh, but we are a long way from winning the battle on mental and behavioral health conditions.

That is why earlier this week I introduced the Mental Health ACCESS Act of 2012. This bill will require VA and DoD to offer a range of supplemental mental and behavioral health services to ensure that veterans, servicemembers, and their families are receiving the care that they need and deserve. The Mental Health ACCESS Act of 2012 provides for comprehensive standardized suicide prevention programs, expanded eligibility to families for support services, improved training for healthcare providers, new peer-to-peer counseling opportunities, and reliable measures for mental health services.

Finally, we must overcome the stigma that surrounds PTSD. As VA's National Center for PTSD has demonstrated, once diagnosed, PTSD and its symptoms can be treated and those who suffer from it can resume healthy and productive lives. Efforts like National PTSD Awareness Day and PTSD Awareness Month are critical to combating some of the most damaging misperceptions about PTSD.

In closing, as we look back on our efforts to raise awareness of PTSD throughout the month, we must also reaffirm our commitment to those veterans, servicemembers, and families affected by PTSD. Our veterans and servicemembers have made tremendous sacrifices for us and our country and we owe them the support and care that they deserve.

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