More than 60 policy advisors and Congressional staffers attended the Military Family Research Institute’s Science Roundtable, held Friday on Capitol Hill to help educate policymakers about existing and emerging research on health care for military members, veterans and their families.
Sen. Joe Donnelly invited MFRI to organize the morning session, while the afternoon session was co-sponsored by Rep. Jackie Walorski and Rep. Susan Davis. Both sessions featured a panel of national experts moderated by MFRI Director Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth. These experts’ presentations focused on:
- access to care;
- barriers to care;
- the behavioral health care workforce; and
- family-focused systems of care.
Following the presentations, panelists answered questions from the audience, which included representatives from more than 50 legislative offices, the National Guard Bureau, the National Military Family Association and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
"We hope this discussion helped educate those who are actively working to craft supportive policies for military and veteran families,” said MacDermid Wadsworth. “We are enormously grateful for the invitation to present this information, and for those who attended and asked such probing questions.”.
Panelists for the sessions had extensive experience with regard to clinical and behavioral health issues. Dr. Charles C. Engel, a senior health scientist for RAND Corporation, discussed access to treatments and care, while Dr. Charles Hoge, a retired Army Colonel who is a senior scientist and neuropsychiatry consultant for the Office of the Army Surgeon General at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, focused his presentation on barriers to care. Dr. Allen S. Daniels, an independent consultant and retired professor of clinical psychiatry and public health sciences at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine, presented about the latest research on broadening, strengthening and supporting current behavioral healthcare systems. Shirley M. Glynn, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and co-principal investigator at UCLA Welcome Back Veterans Family Resilience Center, concentrated her remarks on family-focused systems of care.
Donnelly said, “Purdue’s Military Family Research Institute is a national leader on issues impacting military families and an invaluable resource to Hoosiers and our country. We thank MFRI for holding a Congressional Science Roundtable in Washington, D.C. to share new and emerging research with U.S. Senate and House policy advisors and congressional staff. MFRI has important updates to share on some of the most serious challenges facing service members and their loved ones, including access and barriers to health care and mental health care. Through its groundbreaking research, MFRI helps shape programs and policies that improve the lives of service members, veterans, and their families. We look forward to continuing to partner with MFRI so we can best support our service members and military families.”
A previous Congressional Science Roundtable held in Washington, D.C., focused on military and veteran suicide and its prevention.