By the Numbers - Feb. 3, 2015
4,608
and
6,186
Respectively, the number of DoD mental health providers in FY 2009 and FY 2013, according to a Government Accountability Office report released on January 30th -- Defense Health Care: Additional Information Needed about Mental Health Provider Staffing Needs. According to the report, "Social workers and psychologists were the most frequently added types of mental health providers during this period."
However, the report indicates that DOD's "staffing estimation model" does not provide enough information about actual provider needs for the three military services -- Army, Navy, and Air Force.
In 2007, DOD created the Psychological Health Risk-Adjusted Model for Staffing (PHRAMS) to assess the MHS's current and future mental health provider staffing needs and DOD annually revises this model. Fiscal year 2014 marked the first time the model was used by the three military services responsible for providing health care—the Army, Air Force, and Navy—for a common purpose, which was the development of DOD's fiscal year 2016 budget request for mental health services. However, GAO found that the military services either were not using PHRAMS as the main basis of their mental health provider staffing needs estimates or were supplementing PHRAMS results with other service-specific methods. The services reported making these adjustments because PHRAMS does not account for factors that are crucial to assess mental health provider staffing needs, such as mental health providers needed for deployments. As a result, the military services' estimates of mental health provider staffing needs may not consistently reflect the beneficiary demand for mental health providers across the military services, and the current version of PHRAMS may not fully capture the military services' needs.
4,608
and
6,186
Respectively, the number of DoD mental health providers in FY 2009 and FY 2013, according to a Government Accountability Office report released on January 30th -- Defense Health Care: Additional Information Needed about Mental Health Provider Staffing Needs. According to the report, "Social workers and psychologists were the most frequently added types of mental health providers during this period."
However, the report indicates that DOD's "staffing estimation model" does not provide enough information about actual provider needs for the three military services -- Army, Navy, and Air Force.
In 2007, DOD created the Psychological Health Risk-Adjusted Model for Staffing (PHRAMS) to assess the MHS's current and future mental health provider staffing needs and DOD annually revises this model. Fiscal year 2014 marked the first time the model was used by the three military services responsible for providing health care—the Army, Air Force, and Navy—for a common purpose, which was the development of DOD's fiscal year 2016 budget request for mental health services. However, GAO found that the military services either were not using PHRAMS as the main basis of their mental health provider staffing needs estimates or were supplementing PHRAMS results with other service-specific methods. The services reported making these adjustments because PHRAMS does not account for factors that are crucial to assess mental health provider staffing needs, such as mental health providers needed for deployments. As a result, the military services' estimates of mental health provider staffing needs may not consistently reflect the beneficiary demand for mental health providers across the military services, and the current version of PHRAMS may not fully capture the military services' needs.