Government Executive: Senator demands more veteran access to VA’s military sex trauma resources 

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., expressed his ongoing concerns with the lack of coordination between the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments in making servicemembers aware of their eligibility for VA services like confidential counseling. 

The chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee is again voicing concerns that the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments are not doing enough to offer resources to servicemembers who’ve suffered military sex trauma.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., penned a letter last month to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and VA Secretary Denis McDonough, made public on Monday, that called for the pair to communicate the potential eligibility servicemembers may have for aid services offered at VA. 

“I was disappointed to see DOD’s Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military has no mention of efforts taken to inform servicemembers of their eligibility to receive confidential counseling at VA’s Vet Centers or their potential eligibility to receive MST-related services at VA medical centers and outpatient clinics,” the July 15 letter said. “Survivors have endured the unimaginable and deserve to know about all of their options for health care and services. That starts with DOD and VA taking immediate steps to make sure survivors are aware of the tools available to them to address their trauma.”

Tester said that after an August 2023 report from the Government Accountability Office found active-duty servicemembers who experienced unwanted sexual have limited confidential access to VA behavioral health care services and may not be consistently informed about their eligibility and access to care, he called for the departments to increase awareness of available aid for trauma survivors in an Aug. 15, 2023 letter. 

That GAO report noted that servicemembers who reported experiencing unwanted sexual behavior had significantly higher separation rates from the Armed Forces when compared to all Active-Duty servicemembers, but that “multiple factors impede DOD’s ability to determine” whether unwanted sexual behavior was a determining factor in the separation decision. 

“For example, certain processes related to medical examinations and higher-level reviews of involuntary separations are available only for victims of sexual assault, for specific time periods and for certain behavioral health diagnoses. Until DOD considers potential modifications to these processes service members may be unable to benefit from actions that may affect eligibility for VA benefits,” the GAO report said. 

GAO offered 15 recommendations, including two to the VA, to improve screening and provide treatment for servicemembers experiencing trauma from unwanted sexual behavior. Both departments concurred with the recommendations.

Tester said that after he was told that DOD and VA officials would reaffirm their efforts on communicating the resources available to servicemembers, he found little mention of them in the DOD’s report.

“In fact – the only mention of Vet Centers throughout the more than 800-page document is the finding that, of active component women who experienced unwanted sexual contact and reported the incident to military authorities, 33 percent received no information about the confidential counseling services available to them through Vet Centers,” he said. 

Tester further pressed the departments to improve their efforts to inform servicemembers of available services, most especially at the VA, where he said that survivors could find “a safe, confidential option for addressing their mental health needs outside of DOD.”