http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/25/AR2008052500721.html?hpid=sec-healthPrivate psychiatrists offer free service to troops Clinical Psychologist Brenna Chirby poses for a photo in Bethesda, Md., Thursday, May 22, 2008. Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems - jumping in to help a military that doesn't have enough therapists. "It's only an hour of your time," said Chirby, who counsels the family member of a someone deployed multiple tines. "How can you not give that to these men and women that ... are going oversees and fighting for us." (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Clinical Psychologist Brenna Chirby poses for a photo in Bethesda, Md., Thursday, May 22, 2008. Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems - jumping in to help a military that doesn't have enough therapists. "It's only an hour of your time," said Chirby, who counsels the family member of a someone deployed multiple tines. "How can you not give that to these men and women that ... are going oversees and fighting for us." (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (Jose Luis Magana - AP)
Clinical Psychologist Brenna Chirby poses for a photo in Bethesda, Md., Thursday, May 22, 2008. Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems - jumping in to help a military that doesn't have enough therapists. "It's only an hour of your time," said Chirby, who counsels the family member of a someone deployed multiple tines. "How can you not give that to these men and women that ... are going oversees and fighting for us." (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Clinical Psychologist Brenna Chirby poses for a photo in Bethesda, Md., Thursday, May 22, 2008. Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems - jumping in to help a military that doesn't have enough therapists. "It's only an hour of your time," said Chirby, who counsels the family member of a someone deployed multiple tines. "How can you not give that to these men and women that ... are going oversees and fighting for us." (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (Jose Luis Magana - AP)
Graphic shows percentage of U.S. troops with a mental health condition or traumatic brain injury and barriers to seeking mental health care
By PAULINE JELINEK
The Associated Press
Sunday, May 25, 2008; 1:39 PM
WASHINGTON -- Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems, jumping in to help because the military is short on therapists.
On this Memorial Day, America's armed forces and its veterans are coping with depression, suicide, family, marital and job problems on a scale not seen since Vietnam. The government has been in beg-borrow-and-steal mode, trying to hire psychiatrists and other professionals, recruit them with incentives or borrow them from other agencies.
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