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With missiles flying in the Middle East, US Navy focuses on mental health

Just a few days before a career Special Forces soldier detonated a rental truck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, the U.S. Department of Defense released a report on the mental health of its troops.

Psychological struggles among active-duty forces have risen roughly 40% over the past four years, it found, driven by anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Service members receiving care for such conditions occupied more hospital beds in 2023 than those being treated for any other malady, accounting for some 55% of these stays.

The Navy in particular outpaced the other services for depression diagnoses and last year reported the highest suicide rates since it began releasing this data six years ago. “We’re going to be focused on this for a long time in the future,” Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations, told the Senate Committee on Armed Services this past May.

Why We Wrote This

The U.S. military reports its troops are experiencing increased levels of mental health distress. In the Navy, one approach to meeting sailors’ needs involves offering more chaplain support.

Such ebbs and flows in troops’ mental health can be difficult to dissect. Matthew Livelsberger, the Green Beret involved in the Las Vegas incident, had complained of the effects of traumatic brain injury and combat stress from the violence he saw and inflicted during multiple deployments to Afghanistan. The Army says he didn’t show any concerning behavior up to that point.

While the explosion, in which Mr. Livelsberger was the sole fatality, underscores the need for more military mental health services, the risk of extreme violence is far lower than issues of stress, excessive anger, and substance abuse, analysts say.

In response, the Navy is working to provide more such services, including those that focus on the spiritual needs of sailors. Navy officials have expressed concern that their troops at sea now face an “unprecedented” pace of dangerous operations. Admiral Franchetti told lawmakers that the Navy must bring mental health help closer to these forces.

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