Maine shooting exposes gaps in mental health treatment and communication practices, official says

PORTLAND, Maine — An Army health official told a panel investigating a mass shooting by a reservist who was experiencing a psychiatric breakdown that there are limitations in health care coverage for reservists compared with full-time soldiers. There are no Army hospitals in New England, and reservists generally don’t qualify for care through Veterans Administration hospitals, so they are likely to use private health care — but such providers are barred from sharing information with the Army command structure without a patient’s permission, said Col. Mark Ochoa, command surgeon from the U.S. Army Reserve Command, which oversees the Psychological Health Program. While there are extensive services available, the Psychological Health Program cannot mandate that a reservist get treatment — only a commander can do that — and Ochoa noted that there can be communication breakdowns. One reservist, Sean Hodgson, told superiors in September, a few weeks before the attacks: “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.” In the aftermath, the state Legislature passed new gun laws that bolstered Maine’s “yellow flag” law, which criminalized the transfer of guns to people prohibited from ownership and expanded funding for mental health crisis care.