By the Numbers - March 18, 2013
60%
The percentage of the Army's medical community that is civilian, according to a March 14 DoD press release, Furloughs Could Affect Army's Behavioral Health Care. According to the DoD, "Upcoming furloughs for Army civilians, along with budget cuts, will affect the Army's ability to provide behavioral health care to soldiers."
Colonel Rebecca Porter, the Army's behavioral health care chief, told a group of writers that more than half of that service's 4,500 behavioral health care providers are civilians, subject to the sequester-driven furloughs. And this is likely to have far-reaching effects beyond the immediate availability of mental health care.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan created a greater need in the Army for behavioral health providers, Porter said, and the Army has worked to bring those medical professionals on board. With furloughs and sequestration, lack of stability as a behavioral health provider within the Army may drive some of those professionals back to the private sector, she added.
60%
The percentage of the Army's medical community that is civilian, according to a March 14 DoD press release, Furloughs Could Affect Army's Behavioral Health Care. According to the DoD, "Upcoming furloughs for Army civilians, along with budget cuts, will affect the Army's ability to provide behavioral health care to soldiers."
Colonel Rebecca Porter, the Army's behavioral health care chief, told a group of writers that more than half of that service's 4,500 behavioral health care providers are civilians, subject to the sequester-driven furloughs. And this is likely to have far-reaching effects beyond the immediate availability of mental health care.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan created a greater need in the Army for behavioral health providers, Porter said, and the Army has worked to bring those medical professionals on board. With furloughs and sequestration, lack of stability as a behavioral health provider within the Army may drive some of those professionals back to the private sector, she added.