Sponsors (8)
The bill improves service members' ability to seek and receive timely, standardized mental health support through clear self-referral, training, certification, and outreach, but it requires funding, administrative effort, and risks creating demand that outstrips current care capacity or collides with existing service policies.
Active-duty service members will have clearer, uniform access to a self-initiated mental health referral process, making it easier for them to seek care without waiting for command-directed referral.
Commanders, senior leaders, and medical staff across the services will receive standardized training and a certification process, improving early identification and response to mental health crises and increasing accountability for completing required training.
Proactive workplace outreach (posters, flyers, ads) will raise awareness of mental health resources for service members and reduce information barriers that discourage help-seeking.
Service members may face unmet demand for mental health care if outreach increases help-seeking but DoD clinical capacity isn’t expanded, risking delayed or insufficient treatment.
Implementing the standardized referral process, training, and outreach will impose administrative and training costs on the Department of Defense, potentially requiring additional funding or reallocation of resources that affects taxpayers and internal priorities.
Certification and compliance documentation will create additional administrative burden for commanders and medical personnel, diverting time from operational duties or direct patient care.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs DoD to create a strategic plan requiring uniform self‑referral protocols and standardized mental health training and certification for service members and leaders.
Requires the Secretary of Defense, working with military department secretaries and the Defense Health Agency, to develop a strategic plan to address suicide among service members and improve military mental health services. The plan must create uniform, enforceable protocols for the self‑initiated referral process in 10 U.S.C. §1090b(e) and ensure service members are informed about how to use that process. It must also establish standardized mental health training for service members, commanders, senior enlisted leaders, and medical personnel, with certification and guidance for responding when a member initiates the referral. The bill is limited in scope (two sections) and does not appropriate new funding; it focuses on standardizing protocols, outreach materials, training content, and certification to improve recognition of mental health distress and the response to self‑referrals within the Armed Forces.
Official title: To direct the Secretary of Defense to develop a strategic plan to address mental health of members of the Armed Forces.
Introduced December 3, 2025 by Gilbert Ray Cisneros · Last progress December 3, 2025