S.Amdt. 1941

SA 1941. Mr. BLUNT submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 1463 proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill H.R. 1735, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle C of title VII, add the following:

SEC. 738. REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ANNUAL MENTAL HEALTH
SCREENINGS FOR MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES.

(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the annual mental health assessment for members of the
Armed Forces provided under section 1074n of title 10, United
States Code, may be improved by providing members undergoing
such an assessment with a record of events, including non-
combat related events, to substantiate latent mental health
issues that appear months or years after the causal incident;
(2) some members may not know how to request help with
mental health concerns in connection with such assessment and
not all health care providers fully discuss mental health
concerns during such assessment;
(3) the majority of mild traumatic brain injury inducing
incidents are not diagnosed during combat deployment, so when
symptoms do appear, there may be no mechanism for health care
providers to link the injury back to the causal incident;
(4) the provision of such assessment may not recognize
incidents described in paragraph (3) unless the member
provides information regarding those incidents to a health
care provider;
(5) when latent mental health symptoms appear after a
member is discharged, the

[[Page S3961]]

member may not be eligible to receive treatment from the
Department of Veterans Affairs without a record of causal
justification;
(6) the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to identify
as quickly and efficiently as possible without disrupting
military readiness the mental health concerns that persist
among members of the Armed Forces unbeknownst to those
members and the health care providers of those members; and
(7) the Department of Defense and the Defense Health Agency
are currently developing a standardized periodic health
assessment tool that incorporates a screening for depression,
post-traumatic stress, substance use, and risk for suicide
through a person-to-person dialogue using the same question
set used for mental health assessments provided to members of
the Armed Forces undergoing deployment.
(b) Report.--Not later than one year after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit
to Congress a report on the implementation of mental health
assessments provided to members of the Armed Forces under
section 1074n of title 10, United States Code, that includes
a description of--
(1) the reliability of such assessments;
(2) any significant changes in mental health concerns among
members of the Armed Forces as a result of such assessments;
(3) any areas in which the provision of such assessments to
members of the Armed Forces needs to improve; and
(4) such additional information as the Secretary considers
necessary relating to mental health screening and treatment
of members of the Armed Forces.
______