NORFOLK, Va. — Serving in the military, especially in combat, can take a psychological toll on active-duty service members.
But the Defense Department's health care system has a major shortage of behavioral health providers, so they send service members to seek care from the civilian sector.
However, the Government Accountability Office reports that referrals to civilian behavioral health care providers for service members with urgent specialty needs such as psychotherapy and substance abuse disorder treatments take 17 to 23 days to get an urgent appointment.
"And we all know that with mental health conditions, in some cases those conditions could be exacerbated while they're waiting for that care, so it is absolutely disconcerting," said Alyssa Hundrup, a Director on the GAO's Health Care team, and author of the report, during an interview Thursday with 13News Now.
The GAO says the Defense Health Agency doesn't track whether service members in crisis are receiving timely care in the civilian sector, making it impossible to ensure that troops are getting the help they need.
Hundrup says finding a way to get troops the care they need sooner could save lives.
"I would say absolutely that's a possibility, I don't think that's a stretch at all," she said.
The report recommends that the Defense Health Agency create and enforce a maximum wait time for troops seeking urgent behavioral health care from civilian providers.