A four-year-old Pentagon effort to improve psychological health services across the military is spending tens of millions – some of it at Joint Base Lewis-McChord – without providing a clear picture of how the money is used, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
The report reflects the Pentagon’s rush to expand research on post-traumatic stress through the Defense Centers of Excellence, which oversees a program at Lewis-McChord that develops mental health applications and spent $21.9 million last year.
It is the second report this year to criticize the Defense Centers of Excellence; both were produced by the GAO, the non-partisan investigating arm of Congress.
The local subordinate center, known as the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, is on a growth swing. It recently moved into a new building at the base south of Tacoma and has designed several technology tools to educate service members about post-traumatic stress and other reactions to war.
One tool uses virtual reality to walk soldiers through a combat incident that could trigger post-traumatic stress. Others use cell phone applications to put anxiety-coping techniques in the pockets of war veterans.
The News Tribune last October ran a story about the center’s new T2 Mood Tracker, a smart-phone app that lets a soldier privately rate his emotions on 10 scales he can slide with his fingertip on his phone’s screen.
“We need to be building tools that are meeting the needs of our population, which is predominantly young and tech-savvy,” Robert Ciulla, a division chief at the center, told The News Tribune at the time.
A spokesman for Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, says the new GAO report – “Defense Centers of Excellence: Limited Budget and Performance Information” – isn’t a sign that purse strings will tighten for the project at Lewis-McChord.
Dicks was among the congressmen who requested the study after hearings were held last year on progress being made at the Defense Centers of Excellence.
“It seems the Defense Department did not give the GAO enough information,” Dicks spokesman George Behan said, citing the GAO’s inability to get spending information quickly.
The June 30 report reflects the Pentagon’s push to fund psychological health programs in the wake of critical stories showing poor care of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The report notes that 44,000 service members have been wounded in the wars.
“No limits were imposed on (psychological health) and (traumatic brain injury) budget requests, and no trade-off decisions were made,” a defense official told the GAO about the 2009 budgeting process for the Defense Centers of Excellence.
In 2009, the Defense Department spent $770 million on psychological health and traumatic brain injury programs. It spent another $638 million on those programs last year. The Army got the largest share in both years.
The Defense Centers of Excellence received $168 million in 2010, up from $119.2 million in 2009, according to GAO reports.
The study criticizes the budget documents the GAO obtained as lacking in standard information, such as prior-year spending levels and detailed descriptions of how additional money would be used to achieve Pentagon goals.
Some of that information was relatively thin because the program is so new. It’s gone through only two federal budget cycles since its creation in 2007.
“It’s not a blank check,” Behan said. “To some extent, it was just stood up two budget years ago so you don’t have a long track record.”
The GAO report encourages the Defense Centers of Excellence to:
n Provide more detailed budget requests.
n Develop a process to track funding at its six component centers, including the one at Lewis-McChord.
n Review the effectiveness of the six component centers.
It followed a February report from the GAO that criticized the program for writing vague goals and failing to prioritize its projects.
The Defense Department has declared that it will work toward improving transparency in its psychological health programs.
Kathleen Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Defense Centers of Excellence, said the program has created a committee to respond to the GAO critiques since the first report came out earlier this year. She said its budgets have been drafted with extensive Defense Department oversight, including reviews from the military’s surgeons general.
Adam Ashton: 253-597-8646
adam.ashton@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/military
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