Inside the omnibus appropriations bill signed into law last week is legislation that—for the first time—provides mental health care for tens of thousands of combat veterans and sexual assault victims who’ve received other-than-honorable discharges.
Speaking Tuesday to reporters, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy says the idea for the Honor Our Commitment Act began after an investigative report by NPR and Colorado Public Radio.
“What we learned was that there were tens of thousands of veterans just over the last decade who had been injured in war, had PTSD and were discharged from the military in a way that made them ineligible to get treatment for their injury.”
Relatively small acts of misconduct, often caused by wartime injuries, led to thousands of veterans getting so-called “bad papers,” says Murphy, separating them from the VA services they needed to heal their wounds.
Garry Monk, executive director of the National Veteran’s Council for Legal Redress, says this began decades ago.
“No one understood. They couldn’t get it. What do you mean? You had bad papers. You did something wrong. These veterans had TBIs, PTSD and related injuries. So they received bad papers, acting out, doing what they done.”
Murphy says he hopes expanded mental health care for veterans will help to prevent more suicides. According to the VA, the suicide risk for veterans is 22 percent higher than that of civilians, with about 20 veterans taking their own lives each day.
“And so our hope is that this legislation, as it becomes implemented, will be part of what helps us reverse this really, really awful trend of veteran suicides. We hope that all of the light that we have shed on this problem will cause the military to change the way in which they discharge soldiers, and sailors, and marines, and airmen.”
Murphy says the bill also expands mental and behavioral health services to victims of sexual assault within the military.