Pentagon Said To Be Falling Short On Evaluation Of Mental Health Interventions.   Stars And Stripes (9/14, McCloskey) reports, "With an estimated 20 percent" of US "servicemembers returning from war zones suffering" from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), "a burgeoning suicide rate in the ranks and occasional murder or other extreme outbursts of violence, the Pentagon is scrambling to grapple with the mounting psychological fallout from America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Combat stress clinics have been set up near the front lines," troops "in training are learning how to gird themselves against mental troubles," and officers "are required to watch for signs of suicide risks among their subordinates. But in a vast military organization obsessed with metrics and measuring every aspect of its performance, experts say there is one glaring gap: The Pentagon has no system in place to evaluate whether its downrange crisis interventions are actually working." There "are no attempts being made to count the number of soldiers who visit the combat stress clinics or track their long-term mental health - an omission, mental health experts say, that means the military has no way of knowing about subsequent discipline problems, violent behavior or suicide attempts that might be traced back to battlefield stress."
Impact: DoD, Mental Health evaluations

With "Veterans Chat," VA Expands Its Suicide Prevention Campaign.   In continuing coverage, George W. Reilly noted in the lead item for his Providence (RI) Journal (9/14) "Veterans' Journal" column that the "Suicide Prevention campaign of the Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding its outreach to all veterans by piloting an online, one-to-one chat service for veterans who may or may not be enrolled" in the VA healthcare "system who prefer reaching out for assistance via the Internet. Called 'Veterans Chat,' the new service enables veterans, their families and friends to go online where they can anonymously chat with a trained VA counselor. If a participant is determined to be in a crisis situation, the counselor can take immediate steps to transfer the person to the VA Suicide Prevention Hotline, where further counseling and referral services are provided and crisis intervention steps can be taken."
Impact: Suicide prevention, social media