Family Matters Blog: TRICARE Continues Web-based Counseling

By Elaine Sanchez

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2011 – TRICARE officials are extending a state-of-the-art program that’s intended to ease the path to mental-health services.

The TRICARE Assistance Program will now run through March 20, 2012, to give officials more time to measure the program’s effectiveness, a TRICARE release said. Through the program, TRICARE health care beneficiaries use the Internet and a Web cam to speak “face-to-face” with mental-health counselors around the clock and from anywhere in the United States.

People can log on from home to receive short-term, nonmedical counseling for situations that may arise from life circumstances such as deployment stress, relationships, personal loss and parent-child communications.

These services are available in the United States to active-duty service members, active-duty family members who are at least 18 years old, beneficiaries using TRICARE Reserve Select and beneficiaries covered under the Transitional Assistance Management Program, the release said.

For some people, the online services aren’t an appropriate level of care or video services aren’t accessible. In that case, a licensed professional will refer the beneficiary to the right organization.

To find out more about this program, beneficiaries can go to TRICARE’s website

If you’ve used the program and would like to comment on your experience with it, don’t hesitate to write in.