TRICARE Increases Behavioral Health Care Options

By Gabrielle Kirk
Health.mil

January 26, 2010 - TRICARE has made Web-based behavioral health counseling available to service members, spouses and other beneficiaries who have a computer and a Webcam, a TRICARE representative said at the Jan. 25 at the 2010 Military Health System Conference. The counseling service is called the TRICARE Assistance Program, or TRIAP, and allows beneficiaries to speak privately with a licensed counselor over the Internet at any time.

“The use of TRIAP is unlimited so beneficiaries can access it as many times as they like to,” said Rear Adm. Elizabeth Niemyer, director of TRICARE Regional Office West. Niemyer spoke in a conference session to inform on TRICARE’s recently expanded behavioral health care services that further support service members and their families.

TRIAP is more like a civilian employee assistance program, Niemyer said. If TRIAP counseling suggests that more specialized care is required, the beneficiary will be referred to a behavioral health provider. Niemyer said that most users have sought counseling for relationship issues and stress.

Niemyer stressed the importance of reaching out to and increasing the number of mental health providers in the TRICARE network. More than three million troops have been deployed in the more than eight years the U.S. has been at war, and more than 800,000 service members having been deployed more than once. The constant stress on troops and families has made behavioral health care an issue of paramount concern to military health officials. Niemyer said Tri West has added 12,000 mental health providers since 2005.

To help meet the growing demand for behavioral health care, TRICARE launched its Telemental Health Program in August 2009 (at the same time as TRIAP). It provides behavioral health care, including psychotherapy and medication management, through medically supervised, secure video conferencing at TRICARE facilities with offsite TRICARE network behavioral health care providers.

Additional support has been provided to beneficiaries who are more isolated from the military community, including National Guard and Reserve troops. The Guard and Reserve portal was created to provide targeted information to those groups of service members.

Niemyer also discussed the impact of integrating and coordination behavioral health into primary care, wounded warrior care and individual units on eliminating the stigma of seeking behavioral health care. Describing a pilot project that embedded behavioral health providers in National Guard units in Montana, Minnesota, and California, Niemyer said, “One unit commander in California was quoted as saying ‘The embedded provider program has saved marriages and our soldiers’ mental health’.”

Next for TRICARE West Region, says Niemyer, is a behavioral health initiative to examine issues experienced by female active duty service members returning from deployment and wives of deployed service members, due to rising rates of depression, suicide, and divorce in that group.