Up until Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) claimed that 95 percent of the vets are seen within 14 days after contacting them for mental health issues if not in crisis. We now know that’s a lie.
Federal investigators revealed yesterday that half the veterans who seek out mental health care in the VA system waited about 50 days — not 14 — before receiving a full evaluation. That’s not just a tiny lie. That’s a lie covering up a wait time that is 350 percent greater than the VA’s original claims. A wait time that clearly demonstrates that demand is outstripping supply of qualified mental health professionals.
But wait, it gets better. Because that’s not the only thing the VA has been fudging the numbers about.
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Sounds like the typical manipulations of mental health centers…they claim very short waiting periods but there is frequently a several month delay between an intake appointment and the first treatment session.
I have mixed feelings about the military at times. Not in terms of why people serve or even the fact they do, but more how the military as a whole treats the troops. Some of their methods are pretty twisted from a mental health standpoint (strong efforts to recruit youth in lower economic class areas, extremely high hazard pay to entice people to volunteer for some really horrible missions, for examples), and not picking up the pieces. Their bootstrap and stay silent culture is really extreme, and it doesn’t seem to do a lot to protect our country when you really think about it.
Don’t get me wrong. A lot of my family has served, and I’m happy we have a military. But they need to step up their act in terms of taking care of soldiers’ mental health.
GREAT POST! It is both disappointing and ominous what the military is doing regarding mental health services for vets. The “evolution” of outcomes following wars is giving some validity to the line by Bram Stoker: there are worse things than death.
The real legacy Bush and Cheney should burden by their Iraq Invasion. Scarring the lives of millions who survived, here and in the Middle East. And Obama ain’t doin’ any betta havin’ three years to repair and reconnect.
Healthy people do not want nor desire to kill others. Our species is more and more corrupted by narcicissm and antisocial traits. Think about that when you vote come November.