Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act (H.R. 1211) passed the House of Representatives on June 23, 2009, and now moves onto the Senate. There's a focus on improving professional mental healthcare access to women veterans. Will this bill just increase the number of mental healthcare professionals available at clinics in the U.S. side? How about giving resources to mental healthcare professionals in combat theater, too?
There's also a need to improve mental healthcare for women soldiers through their missions. Military psychologists, combat stress control units, and medics would treat and counsel soldiers with post-traumatic stress on the battlefield.
One barrier to women veterans receiving care for PTSD is when the VA asks, "how could a woman have PTSD if she never served in direct combat?" Without documentation from her commander or a combat action badge, it's hard for the soldier to prove that she's a combatant.
Just because women cannot join the U.S. infantry does not mean they don't work for infantry units. The moment his or her boots hit the ground, the soldier takes on any role. Women are pilots, medics, psychologists, supply clerks, commanders, mechanics, signal coders...and each role pushes the soldier into the role of a combatant.
Military culture has changed to allow women to fulfill new roles. Do women soldiers get equivalent training for combat roles as do men soldiers? Are woman's achievements recognized and honored fairly? Do women get combat action badges on equal terms as men? Are there electronic records to document the combat roles of both women and men soldiers? Do both women and men who protest the ethical violations of their commanders have equal opportunity for redress? Are the gravestones of both women and men who die in combat marked as such?
It's time for Americans to acknowledge their daughters, wives, and mothers do perform combat missions. They are right in the middle of it. Americans need to move past denial. With full, unwavering recognition that women fulfill these missions, their physical, mental, and emotional wounds from combat-related trauma cannot be shrugged off. Get these gals a combat action badge.