Sec. 8. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Outpatient Counseling Program.

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Sec. 8. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Outpatient Counseling Program. Subject to appropriations for that purpose, the Department, in consultation with the Department of Human Services, shall contract with professional counseling specialists to provide a range of confidential counseling and direct treatment services to war-affected Southwest Asia combat veterans and their family members, and to provide additional treatment services to Viet Nam War veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly those Viet Nam veterans whose post-traumatic stress disorder has intensified or initially emerged due to the war in the Middle East.

Any such contracts entered into by the Department must be with individuals and entities pre-approved by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and must be for the provision of services pre-approved by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In consultation with the Department of Human Services, the Department shall, to the extent funds are available:

(1)develop an educational program designed to inform and train primary health care

professionals, including mental health professionals, about the effects of war-related stress and trauma;

(2)provide informational and counseling services for the purpose of establishing and

fostering peer-support networks throughout the State for families of deployed members of the reserves and the Illinois National Guard; and

(3)provide for veterans' families a referral network of mental health providers who are

skilled in treating deployment stress, combat stress, and post-traumatic stress.

As used in this Section, "Southwest Asia combat veteran" means an Illinois resident who is, or who was honorably discharged as, a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, a member of the Illinois National Guard, or a member of any reserve component of the Armed Forces of the United States and who served on active duty in connection with Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, or Operation Iraqi Freedom.