{"id":8343,"date":"2022-09-14T06:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthwatchminute.com\/?p=8343"},"modified":"2022-09-14T06:01:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T06:01:00","slug":"can-a-military-service-member-get-confidential-mental-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthwatchminute.com\/?p=8343","title":{"rendered":"Can a Military Service Member Get Confidential Mental Health Care?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"U.S.<\/div>\n
Commanders make risk decisions daily about personnel in the military context.<\/div>\n
Source: U.S. Army photo by LtCol John Hall, in the public domain<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Service members at times wonder whether they can go and see a mental health provider without informing their command. The answer isn\u2019t a simple one. This is because the military has to take into consideration any service member\u2019s medical and mental health status and make decisions about what can be supported in the military environment and what realistically cannot. In order to do that, commanders must be able to take into account all variables that may impact mission and safety. They make these risk-based decisions in a military context, which includes weapons, heavy machinery, dangerous environments, operational risk, and remote locations which may have few or no medical and mental health resources. Because of these variables, the military understandably has medical and mental health standards that must be met and sustained in order to keep everyone safe and fully mission capable.<\/p>\n

Service members are aware of and understand this. There is a nonstop focus on medical readiness in order to maintain fitness and be ready to deploy at short notice such that preventative medical care is tracked administratively. Additionally, each year service members provide written acknowledgment that they know they must report medical issues, including mental health concerns, that may affect deployability or fitness for duty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Medical and mental health problems which increase the risk of decreased functioning or medical emergencies are especially concerning. The symptoms of serious mental health conditions, such as psychotic<\/a> disorders, Major Depressive Disorder, bipolar disorder<\/a>, and eating disorders may present great risk to individuals and their fellow service members, and require significant treatment and risk mitigation. Because of this, federal law allows for these disclosures by providers via the Military Command Exception<\/a> within the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. This law applies to all<\/em> mental health providers, not just military providers.<\/p>\n

However, what I\u2019ve just described are very serious conditions. For much of the military, the typical problems that someone might want to see a therapist for do not fall into these categories. To provide clarity on what needs to be disclosed, the military issued written regulations in the form of a Department of Defense Instruction, entitled Command Notification Requirements to Dispel Stigma in Providing Mental Health Care to Service Members<\/a>. Within this document, the military outlines when it is necessary to inform command about mental health care. These specific circumstances are:<\/p>\n