dr. karlin, let's talk about utopia. people would have memorandums of understanding, they work together, but in reality, if that system wasn't yet perfected, do families need to know they need to be persistent? family members are so key to everything we're talking about because, oftentimes, it's the family member that is the first and sometimes the only individual to begin to identify that something's wrong. and so family members in so many cases, i think, are the unrecognized assets, if you will, in terms of getting the treatment that individuals may need to those individuals. so it is critical that professionals within the department of veterans affairs, within samhsa and other agencies, are engaging with family members to provide the education, to provide the information that those family members might need to first identify that there is a problem and then to know what to do. what do you do when you notice that your family member has a problem? and it's critical that these partnerships that kathryn talked about are a

dr. karlin, the president also has an initiative. you want to talk a little bit about the presidential initiative on issues related to military families? we've been very fortunate because congress has recently enacted legislation that has broadened va's authority to provide mental health and counseling services to family members. this has been a wonderful gift to the agency in so many ways, because now we're able to work directly with family members in a way we haven't been able to do before. so, within va now, we are disseminating and implementing a variety of family counseling and couples counseling services. we're now able to work with family members to help them on certain emotional issues that they might be struggling with because we know if we help the family members, that will then help the veteran, the individual as well. and so we're now able to provide couples counseling to couples, family counseling, and we're implementing throughout the veteran's health care system a variety of evidence-based, scientifically proven psycho

dr. bradley karlin, national mental health director for psychotherapy and psychogeriatrics, office of mental health services, department of veterans affairs headquarters, washington, dc. kathryn, more than 2 million troops deployed to afghanistan and iraq. what are some of the behavioral health issues related to the returning vets that are there, the vets that are there, and the returning vets? i think all of us are paying great attention to the behavioral health issues of anyone who has been in combat. and, first of all, when we use the term "behavioral health," we generally are talking about a broad range of mental and emotional and substance abuse disorders and/or problems. we know that anyone who has been in combat will probably suffer from trauma