Fort Hood soldiers suggest overhaul of mental health treatment to the President

More than 4 years ago Iraq Veterans Against the War in conjunction with out friends down at Under the Hood Cafe responded to the recent shooting by Major Hassan at Fort Hood by attempting to hand President Obama a letter outlining the way that he could live up to his commitment of giving service members the health care they needed. 

Under the Hood Cafe community member and an active duty soldier at the time, Mike Kern, was stationed in the Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) due to the PTSD and traumatic brain injury he struggled with after his deployment to Iraq. Hearing that the WTU, where recent victims of the shooting were also being treated, was about to receive a photo op with the president, Mike Kern reached out quickly to IVAW members to help draft a letter he intended to deliver to the president. 

After waiting in formation for hours Kern finally had his opportunity and as the president reached out to shake his hand he dipped into his pocket to deliver the letter. He was immediately grabbed by Secret Service and was sent directly to his command where he was told to take the next few days off.  Soon he found himself on calls with his immediate supervisors who were determining how they could discipline him but they were unable to determine what they could possibly charge him fo . As Mike puts it "As far I was concerned I was handing a letter to my boss". 

In the letter are a series of recommendations to improve the mental health care situation at Fort Hood and the Army in general that still hold as true to this day as they did when the letter was drafted. As the President speaks to the Fort Hood community today about yet another shooting we suggest that he read this letter (attached below) and start doing something about these important recommendations pulled from the letter:

"We ask that:

1. Each soldier about to be deployed and returning from deployment be assigned a mental health provider who will reach out to them, rather than requiring them to initiate the search for help.
2. Ensure that the stigma of seeking care for mental health issues is removed for soldiers at all levels-from junior enlisted to senior enlisted and officers alike.
3. Ensure that if mental health care is not available from military facilities, soldiers can seek mental health care with civilian providers of their choice
4. Ensure that soldiers are prevented from deploying with mental health problems and issues.
5. Stop multiple redeployments of the same troops.
6. Ensure full background checks for all mental health providers and periodic check ups for them to decompress from the stresses they shoulder from the soldiers they counsel to the workload they endure."

On Memorial Day we will release a report informed by outreach we did to more than a thousand soldiers at Fort Hood including 31 in depth testimonials. Stay tuned for more.