WASHINGTON — Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems, jumping in to help because the military is short on therapists.
“It’s only an hour of your time” each week, said Brenna Chirby, a psychologist in McLean, Va., who counsels a family member of a man deployed multiple times. “How can you not give that to these men and women that . . . are going oversees and fighting for us?”
There are 1,431 mental health professionals among the nation’s 1.4 million active-duty military personnel, said Terry Jones, a Pentagon spokesman on health issues. About 20,000 more full- and part-time professionals provide health care services for the Veterans Administration and the Pentagon.
