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The heads of two House committees have asked the GAO to study the adequacy of mental health services for federal employees stationed overseas, saying that such employees “often live and work in exceptionally challenging environments—including countries experiencing instability, terrorism, and conflict—that can place significant strain on their mental health.”
Those employees further “may experience additional stressors connected to their service, such as long separations from their families or burdensome constraints on their social lives,” said the letter from Reps. Carolyn Maloney of the Oversight and Reform Committee and Gregory Meeks of the Foreign Affairs Committee, both New York Democrats.
The letter said that State has about 9,000 foreign service and civil service employees stationed overseas out of a total of about 25,000 while USAID has about 6,400 out of a total of about 10,000.
“We are concerned that State Department and USAID employees experiencing mental health challenges may not be able to access mental health care services while serving abroad, or may refrain from seeking assistance if they are worried that disclosing personal mental health information will adversely affect their diplomatic careers or ability to hold a security clearance,” they wrote.
They asked the GAO to report on initiatives those agencies have in place to identify and monitor mental health risks; whether they take mental health conditions into consideration when assigning employees to overseas posts; what stress management and mental health services they provide; and any challenges employees experience in accessing those services.
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