Staffing Issues in Military Health Care: Mental Health Providers and VA Nursing

Mental health providers are essential to the Department of Defense's (DOD) delivery of health care to servicemembers and other beneficiaries. DOD's need for these providers has grown as increasing numbers of servicemembers experience life-threatening combat situations. This led to congressional attentionsuch as the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2010, which included provisions to help DOD increase the number of mental health providers it employs. This book examines how staffing levels changed in response to congressional direction; and how DOD and the military services assess current and future needs for mental health providers. Furthermore, this book reviews the extent to which Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers (VAMC) have implemented the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) nurse staffing methodology; and VHA oversees VAMCs' implementation and ongoing administration of the methodology.