ISEPP Commends President’s Executive Order on Mental Health Services for Veterans

Sept. 18, 2012 - PRLog -- The International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry (ISEPP) commends President Obama for his August 31 Executive Order ordering improved mental health services for veterans, service members and their families and has called for increased use of non-drug approaches in treating soldiers experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

In its statement ISEPP applauded the creation of a National Research Action Plan and the Military and Veterans Mental Health Interagency Task Force and encouraged the Action Plan to include research which compares a group of soldiers who are treated with the use of psychotropic drugs to a group that is undergoing the standard treatment which uses drugs as the primary approach to treatment.

ISEPP Executive Director Al Galves said “Psychotropic drugs do not treat the causes of PTSD and do nothing more than chemically lobotomize patients.  We need to be using safe and effective non-drug approaches that help soldiers recover from PTSD without the damaging side-effects and high relapse rates that are associated with the drugs.”

Galves also called on the President to get behind Senator Patty Murray’s Mental Health ACCESS Act of 2012 which expands mental health services for veterans and service members and expands the use of peer counselors and services to the families of veterans and service members.

http://youtu.be/whFecU62SyE