Definition: In this task, you are given text for US Congressional and California state bills, your task is to generate a summary for this bill.
Input: SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ''Helping Those Who Serve Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:
(1) Increasing numbers of members of the Armed Forces
serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are suffering from the
significant injuries of the current conflict: post traumatic
stress disorder and traumatic brain injury (hereafter in this
Act referred to as ''PTSD'' and ''TBI'', respectively) .
(2) A recent report by the RAND Corporation estimated that
of the 1.64 million individuals who have been deployed to
Afghanistan and Iraq, approximately 300,000 individuals
currently suffer from PTSD or major depression and that 320,000
report having a probable TBI during deployment.
(3) The need for mental health services is likely to
increase because deployment lengths have increased in the last
year, the number of troops who have served in multiple
deployments is increasing, and the breaks between deployments
have been infrequent.
(4) Several experts have noted the difficulties faced by
members of the Armed Forces in getting screened, diagnosed, and
treated for PTSD and TBI. The RAND report found that, of those
who met diagnostic criteria for PTSD or major depression, only
53 percent had seen a physician or mental health provider to
seek help for a mental health problem in the past 12 months.
(5) Stigma remains a critical barrier to members of the
Armed Forces who may be in need of psychological care,
especially fears that seeking mental health care will lower the
confidence of others in their abilities, threaten career
advancement and security clearances, and possibly cause removal
from their unit.
(6) Stigma may be greatest among those individuals with the
greatest need for mental health services.
(7) To combat stigma, the Mental Health Task Force of the
Department of Defense and others have noted the need for the
Department to reexamine its policies, including those policies
related to command notification or self-disclosure of
psychological health issues that contribute to fears that
seeking mental health care will negatively affect career
opportunities or advancement.
(8) The Mental Health Task Force stated that this
''widespread perception that seeking psychological health
services is costly to an individual's career . . . must be
challenged through thoughtful refinements in command
notification policies, including redefining the balance between
the need to encourage those in need to seek help and the need
for commanders to know in order to maintain force readiness''.
(9) Congress recognizes that much change is under way to
implement numerous recommendations to address concerns that
soldiers in need of mental health services for PTSD and other
conditions are not receiving, including efforts led by the
Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
(10) However, without addressing stigma at all levels,
including structurally, these laudable efforts may not
accomplish their goals.
(11) In its July 2007 report, the Mental Health Task Force
called for ending overly conservative policies that have the
unintentional consequence of fueling erroneous beliefs that
seeking psychological health care invariably results in
permanent damage to one's military career. For example, the
Task Force called for allowing, in the case of alcohol use by a
member of the Armed Forces, for the member to receive
appropriate and non-prejudicial education and preventive
services, without a requirement for command notification, when,
in a clinician's judgment, the alcohol use does not warrant a
diagnosis of substance abuse or dependency or does not require
entry into a formal treatment program.
(12) In May, responding to some of these concerns,
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reportedly approved a change
in the Department's security clearance process to help remove
the stigma associated with seeking mental health care. Under
the change, members of the Armed Forces and employees of the
Department of Defense who have received mental health care will
no longer have to acknowledge that when they fill out standard
security clearance forms, unless the treatment was court-
ordered or involved violence.
(13) Congress encourages the Department to explore further
changes to notification and other policies to further reduce
stigma among members of the Armed Forces, especially as it
relates to career opportunities.

SEC. 3. MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ACCESS DEMONSTRATION PROJECT.

(a) Demonstration Project Required.--The Secretary of Defense shall
conduct a demonstration project designed to develop and test options
for the following:
(1) Increasing access of members of the Armed Forces
returning from deployment abroad, and family members of such
members, to accessible, safe, and confidential mental health
counseling.
(2) Reducing stigma and perceived career repercussions
associated with such members seeking such services.
(3) Making high quality mental health services more user
friendly and accessible for members of the Armed Forces and
their family members, including making services available
outside standard working hours.
(b) Purpose.--The purpose of the demonstration project is to
provide high-quality treatment, using (to the extent practicable)
evidence-based treatment, for a broad range of mental health
conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression,
with the goal of early intervention to promote effective coping and
resilience.
(c) Duration of Project.--The demonstration project authorized by
this section shall be implemented for a period of three years beginning
not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 4. SPECIAL WORKING GROUP ON CONFIDENTIALITY.

(a) Establishment.--The Secretary of Defense, acting through the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, shall establish a
Special Working Group, which shall be composed of mental health
professionals from each of the Armed Forces, officials from the Surgeon
General Offices at each Armed Force, members of the Armed Forces who
have been deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom or
Operation Iraqi Freedom, and other members as determined appropriated
by the Assistant Secretary.
(b) Appointment.--The Secretary shall make every effort to appoint
members of the working group not later than 60 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act.
(c) Purpose.--The Special Working Group shall develop guidelines
and make recommendations about regulations to ensure that
confidentiality is protected to the maximum extent possible for members
of the Armed Forces participating in the demonstration project.
(d) Specific Duties.--In addition to such other duties as the
Secretary may assign to the Working Group, the duties of the Working
Group shall include the following:
(1) Review of requirements for documentation of health care
visits.--The review of current policies, questionnaires, and
other relevant documents that require official documentation of
health care visits by a member of the Armed Forces seeking
mental health services, including when access to such services
must be documented in the personnel record of a member.
(2) Criteria for changes to command notification.--The
development of guidelines and criteria for the demonstration
project to address any needed changes to military command
notification requirements to ensure that a visit to an off-base
treatment site by a member of the Armed Forces for mental
health services is not recorded on any military medical or
other record of the member, except in accordance with
guidelines developed under paragraph (3).
(3) Guidelines for breach of confidentiality.--The
development of guidelines for the demonstration project to
address the circumstances under which the confidentiality
protections afforded to a member of the Armed Forces
participating in the demonstration project may be breached and
notification to military commanders and documentation in
personnel records may be made. Such guidelines shall provide,
in general, that confidentiality may be broken only if a mental
health professional determines that the member is a threat to
the member or to another person.
(4) Criteria to limit access to treatment records.--The
development of criteria for the demonstration project for
limiting access to the treatment records of members of the
Armed Forces treated at the demonstration locations, including
when to allow, if appropriate, appropriate access and
notification to military commanders consistent with guidelines
developed under paragraph (3).
(5) Criteria for fitness for duty.--The development of
criteria for determining fitness for duty and deployment for a
member of the Armed Forces that does not depend solely on the
number of visits to mental health providers by the member.
(6) Guidelines for payment.--The development of guidelines
for ensuring that demonstration sites under the demonstration
project receive payment from the Department of Defense for
treating members of the Armed Forces notwithstanding any
requirements of the Department that prohibit such payments
without certain commander notification or personnel
documentation requirements.
(7) Changes related to disclosure of services received
under project.--The provision of changes as necessary to ensure
that those receiving care at demonstration locations are not
required to reveal any services they receive at these locations
on any military form or questionnaire, except to comply with
any guidelines developed under paragraph (3).
(8) Standards to assess effectiveness of project.--The
development of evaluation standards and criteria to use to
assess the effectiveness of the demonstration project in
increasing access to care, decreasing stigma, and improving
high quality mental health care provided to members of the
Armed Forces. As appropriate, the evaluation should be
structured to include both pre- and post-demonstration
assessments of changes in--
(A) access and utilization of care;
(B) costs of care;
(C) outcomes of care;
(D) member satisfaction with access to and quality
of care; and
(E) impact on the ability of military commanders to
determine member fitness for duty and deployability.
(e) Submission of Plan and Deadline.--
(1) Plan.--The Special Working Group shall submit to the
Secretary of Defense a plan with details on the implementation
and evaluation of the demonstration project. After approval of
the plan by the Secretary, the Special Working Group shall
submit to Congress the plan.
(2) Deadline.--All duties of the Special Working group,
including submission of the plan under paragraph (1), shall be
completed before selection of any site of the demonstration
project under section 3 but in no case shall the date of
completion of such duties be later than one year after the date
of the enactment of this Act.
(f) Application of Guidelines and Recommendations.--The guidelines
and other recommendations, including changes and standards, developed
by the Special Working Group under this section shall be applicable
only to the demonstration project unless the Secretary of Defense
determines otherwise.

SEC. 5. ADVISORY GROUP FOR OVERSIGHT OF DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM.

(a) Establishment.--The Secretary of Defense shall establish an
advisory group of qualified individuals to oversee implementation of
the demonstration project.
(b) Duties.--The advisory group shall--
(1) ensure that the demonstration project adheres to the
guidelines developed by the Special Working Group under section
4;
(2) ensure that plans for implementing the demonstration at
selected sites are developed and include--
(A) outreach strategies to ensure that participants
in the project are informed about the availability of
the programs being provided under the project; and
(B) a plan for training and certifying mental
health providers as well as the development of
strategies and settings, including settings that are
not located at military treatment facilities, where
care can be offered;
(3) ensure that the demonstration project has detailed
evaluation plans, using the criteria and standards developed by
the Special Working Group; and
(4) ensure that independent evaluations of the
demonstration project are conducted in accordance with the
guidelines developed by the Special Working Group, and that the
results of those evaluations are provided to the Secretary of
Defense.

SEC. 6. REPORTS ON DEMONSTRATION PROJECT.

(a) Reports Required.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Defense shall submit to
the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of
Representatives two reports on the demonstration project.
(2) First report.--The first report shall examine and
assess the plan developed by the Special Working Group under
section 4(e)(1) for implementation and evaluation of the
demonstration project.
(3) Second report.--The second report shall include the
following:
(A) The results of the demonstration project,
evaluated in accordance with the guidelines and other
criteria, changes, and standards developed by the
Special Working Group.
(B) Recommendations on whether any of the policy
changes tested in the demonstration project should be
adopted throughout the Department of Defense.
(C) A plan to ensure that each member of the Armed
Forces participating in the demonstration project
continues to have access to mental health services and
providers after the conclusion of the demonstration
project.
(b) Deadlines.--The first report under this section shall be
submitted not later than one year after the date the demonstration
project begins to be implemented. The second report shall be submitted
at the completion of the demonstration project.

SEC. 7. STUDY AND REPORT ON RETENTION OF MILITARY MENTAL HEALTH
PROFESSIONALS.

(a) Study.--The Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the
Surgeon General of each branch of the Armed Forces, shall conduct a
study to determine the reasons for attrition among military mental
health professionals and to make recommendations to increase
recruitment and retention of military mental health professionals, such
as through scholarships, loan forgiveness, or updates in current
recruiting bonuses.
(b) Report.--Not later than six months after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to
Congress a report on the study conducted and recommendations made under
subsection (a), including--
(1) the estimated cost of implementing each such
recommendation;
(2) with respect to each branch of the Armed Forces, an
estimate of the existing number of military mental health
professionals and the estimated number of such professionals
required to meet demand, including for future years, for mental
health services; and
(3) any recommendations for legislative changes necessary
to implement the recommendations made under such study.
(c) Military Mental Health Professional Defined.--For purposes of
this section, the term ''military mental health professional'' means a
mental health professional who provides mental health services to
members of the Armed Forces, whether such professional is a member of
the Armed Forces, an employee of the Department of Defense, or a
contractor of the Department of Defense.
Output:
Helping Those Who Serve Act - Directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct a demonstration project (project) designed to: (1) increase access of members of the Armed Forces (members) returning from deployment abroad, and their families, to accessible, safe, and confidential mental health counseling; (2) reduce the stigma and career repercussions associated with seeking such services; and (3) make high-quality mental health services more user-friendly to such members and their families.

Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish a Special Working Group to develop guidelines and recommendations to ensure the protection of confidentiality for members participating in the project; (2) establish an advisory group to oversee project implementation; (3) submit project reports to the congressional defense committees; and (4) conduct a study of reasons for attrition among military mental health professionals, and make recommendations to increase the recruitment and retention of such individuals.