November 22, 2024

To Improve Recruiting, Make Medical Standards Match Retention Ones

By: Kareen Hart and Taren Sylvester

It’s harder to get into the military than stay there—at least by the different medical standards set by the Defense Department. By making them match, the Pentagon could widen its recruiting pool without undermining the force.

Here’s an example. In 2022, following advancements in medicine and treatment, defense leaders decided that current servicemembers would no longer be automatically discharged due to HIV status. Yet potential recruits living with asymptomatic HIV were disqualified from joining the military until August, when a U.S. District Court judge in Virginia ended that ban.

Standards exist for a reason, but excluding people who could thrive in the military unnecessarily impairs readiness.

That’s far from the only difference in the medical standards that govern who can join and who can stay. Moreover, some of these conditions are increasing in the general population, meaning that they are reducing the pool of candidates eligible to join the military.

Take depression and anxiety, which are reason to dismiss current servicemembers only if they become unable to complete their duties. But the conditions are disqualifying for potential recruits who have sought treatment in the past 36 months, have seen a counselor or therapist for more than a year, or have ever had a reoccurrence of symptoms. That covers a growing segment of the population. Diagnoses of depression and anxiety in children aged 6-17 have almost doubled since 2003, due in part to increased acceptance of and access to mental health treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this trend, especially among youth.

Read the full article on Defense One.

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