To express the sense of the Senate on the importance of addressing deficiencies in mental health counseling.

1. Adds SEC. 1088. MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING TRAINING FOR MILITARY CHAPLAINS at the end of subtitle H of title X

   Adds a section

   In S. 1867 · Placed on Calendar Senate

   Section 382 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by striking "biological or chemical" each place it appears in subsections (a) and (b).

   Inserted: SEC. 1088. MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING TRAINING FOR MILITARY CHAPLAINS.

   Inserted: (a) Findings.--The Senate makes the following findings:

   Inserted: (1) A decade of deployments for the United States Armed Forces has led to significant increases in traumatic stress for members of the Armed Forces and their families.

   Inserted: (2) Increases in the severity and frequency of stress for members of the Armed Forces and their families has driven up demand for mental health counseling services by specially trained counselors and military chaplains.

   Inserted: (3) The emotional needs, mental strain, and interpersonal issues that arise among soldiers and their families before, during, and after deployment are highly unique. It is critical that military counselors and chaplains have a specialized understanding of the total deployment experience.

   Inserted: (4) The military chaplain's corps for all military services has experienced significant shortfalls in personnel. The Army and Army National Guard have been especially affected by the inability to field needed personnel.

   Inserted: (5) A muted ability to field qualified military health counselors and chaplains has an adverse affect on the mental and emotional health of members of the Armed Forces and their families.

   Inserted: (6) The United States Army Chaplain Center and School, United States Navy Chaplaincy School and Center, and other military chaplaincy schools rely on accredited universities, seminaries, and religious schools to produce qualified counselors and chaplain candidates.

   Inserted: (7) It is important that accredited universities, seminaries, and religious schools producing chaplain candidates or providing post-graduate education and supplemental training adequately prepare students with the training required to address the needs of members of the Armed Forces and their families.

   Inserted: (8) There is both opportunity and need for the Chaplain Corps of the United States Armed Forces to work with accredited universities, seminaries, and religious schools to produce qualified counselors and chaplain candidates and provide post-graduate education and supplemental training, and to do so in a way that is cost effective.

   Inserted: (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that--

   Inserted: (1) the Secretary of Defense, in conjunction with the Chief of Chaplains for each military service, should produce a plan to ensure sustainable throughput of qualified chaplains in the military chaplain centers and schools; and

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   Inserted: (2) the plan should include integration of accredited universities, seminaries, and religious schools to include programmatic augmentation when efficient and fiscally advantageous.

   Original wording

   At the end of subtitle H of title X, add the following:

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As printed