JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- A significant change was made to the Department of Defense-mandated Periodic Health Assessment directly affecting most non-flying personnel military members beginning August 1, 2017.
An additional step is now required after the completion of the annual PHA questionnaire screening tool titled; Mental Health Assessment (MHA).
“The MHA gives authorized providers the ability to have person-to-person contact with the patient and must now be completed for the annual PHA to be met,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Adam Branham, Preventative Health Cell noncommissioned officer in charge, 673d Aerospace Medicine Squadron. “Once the PHA questionnaire portion is completed online, the individual must call 580-2778 to schedule the MHA with their family health provider.”
The appointment is done over the phone and generally lasts about 5 to10 minutes.
It is important the military member includes a working phone number at the time of completing the PHAQ and when they schedule their appointment, ensuing the MHA can be facilitated, Branham said.
Although each military branch is implementing the DoD PHA online, the MHA is being executed differently from base to base.
“At Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the PHA Cell monitors and tracks those who have completed the PHAQ and is notified when the MHA is scheduled and/or completed,” Branham said. “Currently there are high numbers of individuals following through with the pre-established PHAQ process but not scheduling and/or completing the MHA.”
The high numbers are likely due to a lack of knowledge. For this reason the PHA cell is reaching out to make individual contact with those past-due.
In addition to the individual contact, all unit deployment managers are scheduled to be briefed about the requirement on Dec. 8, to provide an additional way of getting this information out to military members.
“Although the change was notated in the PHAQ instructions, we realize people are creatures of habit,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Becca Hardy, flight commander of Aerospace Flight Medicine. “Military members who have completed their PHAQ’s are probably following the steps from prior years and may not know. With any new process there is always a learning curve.”
The PHA is a screening tool used to evaluate individual medical readiness of service members. Therefore, the annual requirement directly effects deployment status.
“The squadron’s unit deployment manager will notify the military members first and if steps are not taken to complete the MHA, appropriate leadership will then be notified according to each unit’s policies and procedures,” Hardy said.
For more information, contact the PHA Cell at 551-4026 or follow the link to check your “My Individual Medical Readiness Status” by visiting https://imr.afms.mil/imr/myIMR.aspx.