Armed Forces News

Each service except the Air Force does a less-than-thorough job of identifying how many members are separated because of non-disabling mental health issues, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). While guidelines call for the use of specific separation codes to identify such conditions, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps tend to use more vague identifiers that relate to “condition, not disability,” according to a Feb. 13 GAO report. The Army believes identifying mental-health issues on separation forms could create trouble for former members when they look for civilian jobs. Navy officials told GAO that they were “unaware” that policies had changed in 2008. GAO countered by stating that standardization is necessary, and there are ways to protect a separating service member’s privacy while complying with guidelines. “Without up-to-date and consistent policies and oversight processes, DoD [the Defense Department] and the military services cannot ensure that service members separated for non-disability mental conditions have been afforded the protections intended by … separation requirements and that service members have been appropriately separated for such conditions,” the report stated.