Expert: Mental Health Care Flawed at Ft. Hood

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The recent shootings at Fort Hood, Texas army base have placed a focus on mental health care in the army.  In an article written by renowned psychopharmacology expert Stephen M. Stahl, M.D., Ph.D., there is a call for more mental health staffing at Fort Hood and other bases.

Stahl reports that findings from interviews, surveys and education programs at Ft. Hood show a low level of confidence in army mental health care.

The data also showed strong perceptions of excessive prescribing of opiates and other psychotropic drugs, lack of adequate participation in mental health by primary care providers and significant understaffing of mental health services.

“Mental health care at Ft. Hood is understaffed, leading to a current crisis in the delivery of care," Stahl was quoted as saying. Stahl suggests training primary care providers and nurse case managers, who already are stationed on base, so they can become members of a mental health care team.  

According to Stahl, this change would require extensive time and organization, but such steps could help prevent future tragedies.

Stahl is the director of the Neuroscience Education Institute, which was contracted to do an intensive mental health care training session at Ft. Hood just prior to the shootings.

SOURCE: CNS Spectrum, December 2009

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