Service member mental health is a top priority for Sen. Tim Kaine in the upcoming defense spending bill in the wake of Hampton Roads-based suicide clusters.
The Senate voted Thursday night to advance its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which supports $886.3 billion in funding. The House passed its version earlier this month. The chambers must reconcile the versions before the final bill goes to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Included in the Senate’s bill are several provisions Kaine advocated that would expand and improve service members’ access to mental health services and a housing allowance to give single junior sailors the opportunity to live in commercial housing, rather than aboard ships in a maintenance period.
According to Kaine, expanding access to mental health services is recruitment and retention-focused.
“I would say the biggest thing is just doing much, much more to recruit … And it doesn’t have to be just all licensed clinical social workers or certified psychologists,” Kaine said Friday to The Virginian-Pilot. “We are making very positive use of family medical life specialists who kind of are in folks’ work units that they might feel really comfortable talking to them.
“They may not be trained to provide mental health services, but they do have enough training to spot the signs of somebody who needs them and then navigate with that person so they are getting the help that they need.”
Additionally, language in the bill would provide career flexibility for service members in mental health-focused rates in an effort to increase retention.
“We are seeing in society and in the military an inadequate supply of mental health professionals, and that is going to be the key thing we are going to work on,” Kaine said.
For active duty families covered by TRICARE, cost sharing requirements would be waived for the first three outpatient mental health visits each year.
“We don’t want anybody not seeking treatment because of a cost sharing barrier,” Kaine said. “That is also a step that I think can increase access and encourage more people to seek care.”
The bill also includes language that would authorize sailors E-6 and below, who do not have dependents, the option of living off a ship that is in the yard. The provision is in response to a string of three sailor suicides in April 2022. The sailors were all connected to the USS George Washington, which was undergoing a lengthy mid-life refuel and complex overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding.
During an investigation into potential connections among the suicides, sailors reported constant noise and cold temperatures aboard a shell of a ship that was periodically without hot water and power. And one of the sailors who died reportedly slept in his car on several occasions.
“I think just giving people more options so that they are not locked into a bad living situation will have a mental health boost possibility all on its own,” Kaine said.
The Department of Defense also would be required to provide Congress with a report regarding the services’ limited duty processes. This provision is a direct response to the deaths of four sailors at Norfolk’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center in the span of 28 days last fall.
A Navy investigation into the suicides noted the medical separation process took far longer than intended for three of the four sailors. The process is intended to take 230 days from start to finish, but investigators found the process averages 360.
The defense spending bill is typically passed by both chambers and signed by the president in December, effective beginning in January. But even if the mental health provisions are signed into law, it could be years before they are implemented.
The Brandon Act, legislation allowing service members to seek mental health treatment confidentially, was signed into law as part of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. But enforcement and implementation requirements were not included in the bill, leaving it up to the Department of Defense to work the legislation into its policies at its leisure. It was May 2023 before the DoD released implementation guidelines, giving the services 45 days to establish policy in line with the act.
Kaine said he knows it is a frustrating process for family members.
“But I do have some kind of practical sense for the fact that when the military is trying to implement this DoD-wide at the same time that they are trying to implement a whole lot of other requirements that land on them every year in the defense bill — you have got to give them time to get it right,” Kaine said.
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Resources for service members and veterans struggling with mental health, including 24-hour crisis hotlines, can be found below:
The Military Crisis Line: call 1-800-273-8255, ext. 1; or text “273Talk” to 839863
Military OneSource: 1-800-342-9647
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 — call or text
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