MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Members of the newly formed Veterans Mental Health Steering Committee on Wednesday advocated for increasing the accessibility of traumatic brain injury screenings for veterans.
Brain injuries are a major contributor to veteran mental health issues, said Kim Boswell, commissioner for the Alabama Department of Mental Health.
“One of my big things is going to be we need to be screening for brain injury everywhere there’s a veteran,” Boswell, who leads the committee, said. “We need to be doing that for everybody in our mental health programs too.”
Committee members were given a presentation on TBIs by April Turner, state head injury coordinator for the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, who spoke to both the prevalence of TBIs among veterans, as well as its impacts on mental health.
According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1.5 million Americans acquire a TBI each year. Around 185,000 veterans in the U.S. Veterans Affairs system have been diagnosed with at least one TBI.
In Alabama, 58 veterans screened positive for a TBI at the Birmingham VA in 2023. That number increased to 145 in 2024.
Turned said that veterans with a history of TBI had a 31.9% increase in alcohol use disorders, and a 100% increase in substance use. Veteran suicide rates were also 56% higher for those with TBIs compared to veterans without.
A lot of the data Turner shared was new to some of the committee’s members, including Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville, who chairs the House Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs.
“Certainly we covered some areas I had not heard before, it was very educational for me, and the fact that traumatic brain injuries are so pervasive throughout our population – not just for veterans – and the significance in terms of mental health, it carries for the whole state of Alabama,” Oliver told Alabama Daily News.
When asked how he may incorporate some of the data on the prevalence of TBIs among veterans in the state into any legislative recommendations the committee may produce, Oliver suggested there to be a number of possibilities.
“I think we’re starting to wake up to realize what a significant impact traumatic brain injury has on us as a society,” he said.
Today, there are five full-time TBI care coordinators statewide, with the state’s Adult TBI Program showing a 230% increase from 2017 to 2023.
Shortcomings of the state’s existing TBI care, Turner explained, were that to be eligible for the Adult TBI Program, a TBI would have had to have occurred within the last two years, with individuals with a late onset of symptoms ineligible. Furthermore, post discharge TBI care, including mental health care, is limited, Turner said.
Boswell, speaking with ADN after the meeting, said a big takeaway from the presentation was how accommodations need to be a significant consideration when treating veterans with TBIs for mental health.
“When it comes to brain injury, there’s nothing you can do about that; the injuries happen, there is no treatment for the actual brain injury, and so being able to develop those accommodations,” Boswell said.
Established after the passage of House Bill 197, sponsored by Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollingers Island, the committee is expected to have completed a review of existing mental and behavioral health care services for veterans by Jan. 1, 2025, and develop a comprehensive plan to address shortages of those services by April 1, 2025.
The committee will then produce a final version of their comprehensive plan and submit it to the governor by June 30, 2025. Boswell previously said the end result could take the form of a piece of legislation, recommended procedural changes among state agencies or additional funding.