By the Numbers:18 December 2023

By the Numbers:18 December 2023

3/4

The proportion of mental health care visits by active duty military personnel that occur in military treatment facilities as opposed to civilian settings, according to a recent study published in JAMA Health Forum -- Propensity of US Military Personnel to Seek Mental Health Care When Community Psychiatric Capacity Changes.
In this cohort study of active duty US military members between 2016 and 2020, three-fourths of all mental health care visits occurred in military treatment facilities. When military treatment facility psychiatrist capacity within a 30-minute driving time changed from zero to high capacity, the probability of mental health care visits to military treatment facilities increased by 0.95 percentage points, and there was no change for visits to civilian psychiatrists; when civilian psychiatrist capacity changed from zero to high, the visit rate to military treatment facilities decreased by 2.58 percentage points, while the visit rate to civilian psychiatrists increased by 0.57 percentage points.