Columbia VA hospital to treat military personnel via video

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital is using video-conferencing to provide members of the military at Fort Leonard Wood and Whiteman Air Force Base with mental health care.

The hospital announced last week that it has received a $217,000 grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs-Department of Defense Joint Incentive Fund to provide therapy and other behavioral health care to military personnel at Fort Leonard Wood and Whiteman. The hospital uses a video camera to connect a hospital employee with a patient at the bases.

"The advantage is that in these rural areas where you don't have access to specialists, we can provide the care that they need," said Michael Moore, a clinical psychologist at the hospital.

The remote service already is available at Fort Leonard Wood; Whiteman is awaiting the necessary equipment.

"We're able to dial into the remote site, and then you have the option of then seeing who's on that end; you can also see yourself to see what you're seeing," Moore said. "And then you just talk back and forth."

The service means military members don't have to travel to Columbia -- about 130 miles from Fort Leonard Wood and 80 miles from Whiteman -- to receive treatment that hospital spokesman Stephen Gaither said is similar to care the hospital gives at outpatient centers around the state.

Moore said the reaction has been positive so far.

"There's some concern initially how this was going to go, as it was something new for the patients," Moore said. "But we have very few patients that request to see face to face, that try it and don't like it. Most really enjoy it."

Gaither said active-duty personnel who needed mental health care sought it at their bases, only to find staff often unavailable or deployed overseas.

Since 2002, about 555,000 military members have been discharged after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. About 168,000 took advantage of Veterans Affairs health care services.

"If you look at the frequencies of diagnoses for that patient population, one of the largest numbers, 33 percent, are related to mental disorders," Gaither said.