Recent investigative reporting by Salon.com reporter Mark Benjamin and others has revealed that returning war veterans are experiencing alarmingly high rates mental health disorders, including post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), climbing rates of suicide, substance abuse and other serious social readjustment problems.

Some veterans groups have linked this growing problem, which may impact as many as 300,000 veterans, to military policies that fail to prioritize mental health and to federal funding policies that cannot guarantee annual appropriations for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

On an episode of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show this week, Paul Reickhoff, who heads Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told Maddow that his group advocates for re-shifting Pentagon policies and practices toward mandatory mental health screenings for returning veterans and to change federal law to provide advanced funding for the VA.

This last issue is particularly crucial Reickhoff said. 'Every year the VA budget is late, and VA's around the country have to ration care.' This fact alone has meant that even when veterans health facilities do prioritize mental health, they often aren't able to provide needed care because of budget policies that delay and limit funding.

Reickhoff further stated that his group recently held a massive lobbying effort on Capitol Hill, convincing a group in both houses of Congress to introduce a bill that would change budget policy to provide advanced funding to the VA in order to rationalize its health care system. He urged popular support for this legislative effort. 'We need the rest of the American people to ensure that every member of the House and Senate is on board with supporting our veterans in this very critical way,' Reickhoff said.

Veterans For Peace Executive Director Michael McPhearson attributed the devastating mental health problem to nearly eight years of war. In a recent press statement, he said, 'It is tragic. It is the culmination of years of continuous deployments and general stress the Armed Services have been put under because of an invasion and subsequent occupation that should have never happened.'