§3530 Office of Wellness and Workforce Support

Summary

The Director must create an office inside the Agency to help eligible people with their physical health, mental health, and overall wellbeing. The office will be led by a Chief Wellbeing Officer who must give regular updates to the Director. The Director must assign enough staff who work only on the office’s duties while they are assigned. The office will give advice and help getting care and benefits, help people apply for and navigate government benefits (including benefits under section 3519b), and carry out any other duties the Director finds useful. The office will keep and share lists and information—such as doctors and mental health providers experienced with Agency workers, chaplains and religious counselors with links to the Chaplain Corps under section 3527, and guidance on hiring private attorneys and how to share information with them. Being on a list is not an endorsement, and the Director is not liable for harm from those people or services. Help is confidential to the extent allowed by law. The Director may write rules about confidentiality and must send any such rules to the congressional intelligence committees and to the Senate and House Defense Appropriations Subcommittees within 30 days after issuing them. Services are optional and available to current or former Agency officers or employees and to others the Director says are affiliated with the Agency.