U.S. State Attorneys General

Today, more than 1.4 million veterans receive mental health services from the VA.

It takes willing hearts to go there.

So, this is a directive from the Pentagon--

I think that we recognize, and particularly as both Congresswoman Hanabusa and I serve on the Armed Services Committee for our respective bodies, that we are dealing with a very unique environment with regard to the military.

And of course recognizing that the military families do go outside of the military provider community to access services in the private sector, so to the extent that you have this kind of awareness about the specific stressors and how to…

I do anticipate moving forward with a collaboration model that is more than you all should be talking together more.

I would say that this is why going forward, it does behoove us to at least use the same terminology and come to a common understanding.

We have to be very creative here.

So, did you say that you do not have the information as to how much your organizations have spent to return spouses?

It is not meant to be.

We have many dedicated service providers. We have a great need for legal services. And I want to thank you for your continued support.

So, I think for the military, thank both of you for raising that question of how do military victims, how safe do they feel in coming forward.

I definitely share your concerns. We definitely want to work together to make sure we are providing the best services for our families.

I understand that Senator Schatz has to leave, so thank you very much for joining us.

I would like to ask all of you, we have been talking about coordinated community response... would you all agree that we can do better with bringing all the parties together?

We do not necessarily know the full extent of this problem in either the military side or the civilian side, because just as sexual assault is underreported, probably this is also underreported.

So, as with sexual assault, we want to encourage reporting in the civilian community as well as in the military community.

It is very clear that this is a very complicated situation. It is very complicated, with no easy solutions.

It has been mentioned by all of us many times that the resources are scarce.

And, Nanci, you are right that the military does have an early release of dependents which is similar to return the dependents to a much safer situation.

The military is concerned about how to deal with it, and one of the responses has been to allow for restrictive reporting.

Do you think a more formal way of communicating with the military would help in Hawaii than what exists right now?

So, for clarification then, the Attorney General actually designates within the Molokai shelter who will get what amount?

Whatever the Attorney General funding decisions are, they do the decisions.