PROVIDENCE, RI – U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today joined with Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner and Rhode Island National Guard Major General Kevin R. McBride to unveil a new, bipartisan bill to help improve mental health services for members of the National Guard and Reserve.

Reed and fellow U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), both members of the Armed Services Committee, have introduced the Joining Forces for Military Mental Health Act to improve access to needed mental health services for members of the National Guard and Reserve and their families.

The bill would establish a competitive grant process for five new centers nationwide to better coordinate research, treatment, education and outreach of mental health and substance use disorders and traumatic brain injury (TBI) among members of the National Guard and Reserve.

According to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, over 2.2 million Americans have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and thousands have been deployed multiple times.

Nationally, approximately half of the combat troops deployed have been members of the National Guard.

The Rhode Island National Guard is the second-most mobilized force per capita in the country. Approximately 3,300 members of the National Guard live in Rhode Island, many have been deployed multiple times.

Safeguarding the mental health of these service members and veterans is an important part of ensuring the future readiness of our military force and compensating and honoring those who have served our nation.

“We need to help our troops and their families recover from both the visible and invisible wounds of war.  The Department of Defense and Veterans Administration continues to improve the care and treatment that service members and veterans get for these conditions, but members of the Guard can slip through the cracks.  This bill will help ensure that more soldiers and their families have access to the critical mental health services they need,” said Reed, a former Army Ranger.

The Red Sox Foundation – through Tom Werner’s vision – has developed a model program called the Red Sox Foundation and MGH Home Base Program to help bring service members and veterans into the health care system so that they receive the mental health care that they need. 

The Home Base Program is a partnership between the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital that provides clinical care and support services to New England area veterans returning home from service in Iraq and Afghanistan with combat stress and/or TBI—two injuries that may affect as many as 30 % of veterans of the current conflict.

The Home Base Program also provides counseling for families including spouses, parents, children, and siblings; education for clinicians, first responders and other community members; and research in the understanding and treatment of PTSD and TBI.

“I am pleased to join with Senator Reed and the Rhode Island National Guard in supporting the Joining Forces for Military Mental Health Act,” said Tom Werner.  “For the past two years, through the Home Base Program, the Red Sox Foundation has been working to extend state-of-the-art treatments to service members and veterans and their families affected by Traumatic Brain Injury or PTSD.  Our veterans and their families served us. We should all be willing to serve them.  The Red Sox Foundation and MGH Home Base Program is a public-private model that we hope can be replicated throughout the country and this bipartisan legislation would go a long way toward achieving that goal.”

Under the Joining Forces for Military Mental Health Act, the Secretary of Defense would launch a pilot program to community partners that coordinate mental health research, treatment, and outreach efforts specific to members of the National Guard and Reserve and their families. 

Every $1 of existing federal funding devoted to these grants would require a $3 investment from the community partners.