Battleland

The Army’s Continuing Dearth of Mental-Health Workers

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Army photo by Capt. Daniel Bustamante

A U.S. Army sniper just outside Kandahar, Afghanistan

The Afghan massacre, allegedly carried out by Staff Sergeant Robert Bales a week ago Sunday, is only going to highlight the chronic shortage of Army mental-health experts that we reported on in 2010. An Army social worker in Afghanistan tells Time’s John Wendle:

…besides himself, there is one psychiatrist, one psychologist, a second social worker and four technicians to look after the mental health of around 33,000 troops at 21 forward operating bases and combat outposts in one of Afghanistan’s most violent commands. “There are only a few of us for a big area.” By mid-October 2011, Cpt. [David] Weller had seen close to 200 people one-on-one and “a lot more off the cuff.” He had been deployed for two months at that point. “I spend all my time counseling soldiers. But they need it.”

…Cpt. Weller says he sees, “issues related to insomnia and nightmares, a lot of guys that tend to avoid crowds. They feel like they’ve always got to check their surroundings. They feel like they need to check places where an IED might be, or they might check places where a sniper might be. And this could all be going on while they’re sitting in a restaurant back home. Or sitting at a ballgame, if they go to a ballgame. You see a lot of avoidance. We see a lot of people turn to drugs and alcohol, just cause its so difficult to deal with. And, if it’s bad enough, we see paranoia, and different things like that.”