Pentagon Considers Sending Mental Health Specialists To Iraq

SAN DIEGO -- Pentagon officials are considering sending mental health workers to the front lines in Iraq.

That's just one of the new recommendations from the Department of Defense as an attempt to tackle the record numbers of troops with mental health problems.

Repeated deployments raise the risk of mental health problems in troops including a reported 1,000 suicides a year among veterans.

"Four years into this conflict I think all of us are overwhelmed by the numbers," says Dr. Jeffrey Matloff, a Veteran's Administration psychologist specializing in post-traumatic stress disorders.

Unexpected never before seen numbers of troops with mental health problems like Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, and substance abuse are returning from Iraq.

"Up to 30 and now sometimes up to 40 percent of people do have diagnosable disorders from the conflict," says Matloff.

The problem is so bad the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health has just asked the Pentagon to take immediate action.

They recommend yearly psychological tests for troops.

In addition they want mental health workers to be embedded for on the spot treatment, a $15,000 raise to help hire and improve retention of mental health providers, and five mental health workers, including a psychiatrist, for every 5,000 to 8,000 troops.

"With this kind of war, where people are going for multiple tours and there's no really front-lines as we know it, the rates of mental illness are going to be high," says Matloff.

Matloff says they've learned from former wars and now screen for mental problems during medical exams.

"They are given assessments not only for medical problems but also for any kind of mental health problems," says Matloff.

Currently the pentagon employs 9,000 mental health workers.