What is the importance of Mental Health Advisory Teams I and II?
A6. They’re groundbreaking really. These teams deployed to Iraq to assess how troops were doing on the ground and how well behavioral health services were working in theatre. Extensive reports were produced that led directly to changes in the way services are delivered in the combat zone. The importance of MHATs is that this is the first time we’ve sent researchers into a combat zone and that we used the findings to make changes in the way we deliver care to the theater. For example, MHAT I found patients found it difficult to get to practitioners. We further disbursed our practitioners to help Soldiers so that they would not have to travel as often or as far for care.
