Psych Central will again be partnering with The Carter Center to bring you media coverage of the 26th Annual Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy. This year’s symposium focuses on the unique challenges for mental health care and community reintegration faced by National Guard and reserve veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The event will also be webcast live on The Carter Center’s website.
Recently, I had the pleasure to sit down with Thomas H. Bornemann, Ed.D., the Director of the Carter Center Mental Health Program to talk to him about this year’s symposium agenda.
John M. Grohol, Psy.D.:Â So talk to me a little bit about the theme of this year’s symposium. I understand it has to do with policy surrounding helping vets gets access to mental health care?
Thomas H. Bornemann, Ed.D.: Â That’s correct. This is our 26th Annual Symposium on Mental Health Policy, so we have been at it a while. Each year we try to focus on an issue that has come to our attention of major national importance from a public policy standpoint. And we certainly think the long conduct of these wars warrant that kind of attention. We are now into one of the longest conflicts in American history with around 1.7 million veterans who have gone over there.
We are certainly seeing a number of mental health consequences of the type of warfare that these people are exposed to, the frequency with which they are exposed, and such other risk factors. So we thought it was an opportune time to raise some attention to these issues.