Health Affairs, 28, no. 5 (2009): 1553 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.5.1553 © 2009 by Project HOPE	New Online   Senate Health Reform Bill   Rewarding Providers   Public Option Policy Brief   Health Reform & Abortion   Delivery System Reform

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Letters

Mental Health Conditions Among Returning Veterans

The paper by Audrey Burnam and colleagues (May/Jun 09) correctly emphasizes mental health conditions in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as a public health problem. It makes reference to Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) enhancement of its mental health services, but it underemphasizes the extent to which the VA has responded to the public health challenge of providing care to returning veterans.

Burnam and colleagues estimate that 18.5 percent of service members and veterans have a mental health problem (post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] or depression) but that fewer that one-fourth of them receive any treatment. Despite concerns about the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Ira R. Katz
Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C.

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