By Brittany R. Ballenstedt
The State Department should make debriefings mandatory for civilian employees returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, in an effort to head off potential post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems, members of a House subcommittee said Tuesday.
At a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, representatives from State indicated that while the department provides adequate mental health services for civilian employees deploying to and returning from Iraq, there is room for improvement, especially as civilians more often are embedded in dangerous war zones.
"Usually, when we talk about post-traumatic stress disorder, the conversation is about members of the military … whom we would unfortunately expect to have experienced the horrors of war," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., chairman of the subcommittee. "But increasingly, the United States is sending civilian employees, not just to hardship posts, but to actual combat zones and then expecting them to do their usual jobs under extraordinary and perilous conditions."
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