Soldiers face a number of obstacles upon returning home from the battlefield, and some of the most significant are behavioral health challenges. In an effort to help servicemembers overcomes these difficulties, the Army and Department of Veterans Affairs are teaming up, Army News Service reports.
Army officials have made sure that the branch's health centers place an added emphasis on behavioral well-being. This includes a number of different areas ranging from sleep and nutrition to brain health. As for the VA, officials are continuing to focus on transition assistance, especially as the war in Afghanistan draws to a close and thousands of troops separate from service. The VA has also been trying to facilitate cooperation between its operations and the Pentagon's.
"One of the areas we've been working very hard on is to make sure there is alignment between DOD programs and VA programs, so we can seamlessly move people across," John Medve, the executive director of the VA/DOD Collaboration Service, told the news source. "We have federal recovery coordinators who work to ensure families understand all the dynamics they need as they transition."
Veterans encounter a wide variety of mental health challenges, according to the VA. For instance, post-traumatic stress disorder affects an estimated 20 percent of post-9/11 veterans.