With the increasing number of soldiers facing mental health problems after war-zone deployments, the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization is recognizing the need to recruit and retain mental health professionals on and off post.
The organization emphasized the topic Wednesday during its "Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Summit." Health professionals also addressed other issues, including off-post behavioral health care.
"If we open the doors and have more staff, they'll come," said Dr. Todd L. Benham, Fort Drum behavioral health chief. "Even though we have a major wait time, we always have had an open-door policy."
Soldiers and their families often have had to wait for services, he said, because the need outpaces staffing.
There were 926 visits for post- traumatic stress disorder on post in 2001 and 2,190 in 2007.
Dr. Benham said Fort Drum is taking a proactive approach by providing early detection of mental health issues when processing occurs. There also may be unit-specific interventions and the establishment of a traumatic brain injury program on post.
"As the number of combat exposures increase, so does the amount of psychiatric issues," he said.
Discussions at the summit came two months after a Veterans for America report entitled "Fort Drum: A Great Burden: Inadequate Assistance" said the post's behavioral health system has several shortcomings, including long waits for doctor visits.
Speakers at the summit discussed ways behavioral health care should change for Fort Drum and the surrounding rural area.
Dennis P. Whalen, state deputy secretary for Health and Human Services, said there are many solutions enacted in the state budget, such as the Doctors Across NY Program, that could help attract professionals to rural areas.
The program will repay up to $150,000 in medical school loans for new physicians who make a five-year commitment to practice in medically under-served communities, such as Fort Drum and the surrounding area.
While Paul A. Kraeger, Samaritan Medical Center's senior vice president for financial services, said this is a "tough area for recruits," Richard K. Merchant, chief executive officer of Northern Area Health Education Center, said students, the future professionals, already are in the community. A means to get them from point A, finding a proper medical school, to point B, the work force, is needed, he said.
Dr. David R. Smith, president of SUNY Upstate Medical University, said one solution the college is working on is having a regional campus in the north country. SUNY Upstate also is looking into a rural physicians assistant program, he said.
