More Army Networking Coming

The Army plans announce in May plans to create what sounds like a social networking site that will bring together soldiers' families and specific communities within the service with the hopes that they will discuss, seemingly, mental health issues that may be common among soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reason we say "sounds like" and "seemingly" is because that's the only details Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, the highest ranking psychiatrist in the Army, would give.

Speaking at a breakfast held by Government Executive on health information technology on Thursday, the director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury declined to describe what is in a broad agency announcement that is due to be release soon. But she said, "It will be amazing."

Sutton also discussed a push to bring about a cultural transformation in the Army so that soldiers and officers will seek help for post traumatic stress disorder and mental issues brought about by traumatic brain injuries, including concussions and shocks to the brain from explosions. "We're coming into the ninth year of this [Iraq] conflict, and it's clear we are in uncharted territory," she said. "We are at a cross-section of history. In the context of this, we are just now learning about the brain and we are moving away from the Cartesian view of it being separated here and our body and spiritual selves here. Now we know from young troops that it is all integrated. . . . We're doing things we've never done before."