Veteran PTSD: Lawmakers Want Audit Of Wait Times For Appointments

WASHINGTON -- Federal lawmakers are calling for an inspector general's investigation into how long it takes for veterans to get treatment for mental health disorders after they return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recent hearings before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee have featured witnesses who testified that veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder often have to wait longer than 14 days before getting an initial appointment, and that follow-up visits can take much longer.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has greatly increased the resources going into mental health care, but the large number of troops returning from the war continues to stress the system.

Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Richard Burr of North Carolina said Tuesday congressional hearings have shown that even veterans who attempted suicide had appointments postponed.

WATCH Related Video:

Comments

[hawaiianstile]

10:45 PM on 12/07/2011

they should wait like everyone else. unlike a lot of none military people dealing with PTSD, they didnt volunteer to be put in the situation that led to the PTSD. seems to me service people knew what they were signing up for, they shouldn't get favor over some kid that saw their parents get killed or something.

[Ronald Chase]

04:09 PM on 12/07/2011

"Aftermath A War Of Memories" by Ronald M. Chase, M.D. details why there was no psychological exit strategy from war. He experienced first hand the return of Vietnam combat veterans in 1968 and then again at the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1983. He writes about being a psychiatrist at Ft. Stewart with the Army Third Infantry Division in 2008 and addresses the facts.
His outrage in learning of the inordinate number of suicides prompted this brief return to the military to help veterans. He is a signatory to a pending Federal Tort Claim Action filed 4 months ago involving the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Labor.
There ought to be an "Occupy the Cabinet" movement to root out the corruption veterans and whistle-blowers have faced for many years. The cost in human sacrifice and suffering has been under the radar far too long! Learn about it from the source that dared to develop programs in mental health for our veterans.
See @ Youtube- DOCPTSD: "PTSD A War Of Memories" and behold the voices from 1984 telling the same stories of inadequate treatment of returning veterans today.

[hegunshop]

09:25 AM on 12/07/2011

The current admistration considers Vets to be disposable diapers, Throw away when done.

[lowrodiay65]

08:57 AM on 12/07/2011

Heck, more tax cuts for the wealthy will fix all these problems.

[hegunshop]

08:52 AM on 12/07/2011

If my tone sounds angered it is. I paid my price with 12 years of my blood, sweat, and tears and have the T-Shirt to prove it. I am so sick of phonys getting VA disability for the so called "claimed injuries" and it is amazing how they go through life sky diving, working, playing golf, I take over 30 pills a day just to stay alive. I don't ask for sympathy but do not tell me someone is more important than me or that I am more important than the next person. All Vets are equal in my book. Except for Marines and I will step aside any day and give my place to a Combat Marine. I watched them come back through the wire at Danang and PhanRang, and other places and they never spoke they didn't have to. Their faces told it all. So with that exception don't ask me to step aside for anyone else unless I chose to out of courtisy.

[lowrodiay65]

08:50 AM on 12/07/2011

Just think, if we took the $40 billion we spend on foreign aid and put into the V.A. would troops have to wait to see a doctor?

[lowrodiay65]

08:54 AM on 12/07/2011

$40 billion per year in foreign aid.

[hegunshop]

08:41 AM on 12/07/2011

Christine Reed1235
I have Agent Orange so bad that every nerve in my body is dying, I have ALS, a tumor on my Pituatary which is now dying and have already had cancer. I have a spine that is nothing but a bunch of peices held together with wire after a Helicopter crash in Viet Nam. I am only alive now as I refuse to die and let the VA off the hook. I have heard them say I wish he would go ahead and die. 4 years of Johns Hopkins to keep me half alive and yes I get 100% but I will die from all this. I know many Vets in the same boat.

[hegunshop]

08:37 AM on 12/07/2011

So many Vets are collecting PTSD payments it is not funny. There used to be a combat standard applied to it. Now all you do is go up and say you were tramatized. if that is the case then PTSD payments should be made to all Vets who served in a Combat zone as not even a clerk typest is immune from some sort of trama. I be the WW II vets are laughing their butts off at the joke the VA has become in handing out payments many times for events that cannot even be proved. We have a gal that is 100% because of a rape but never reported till 10 years later and only when prompted by a Counselor that she could get disability if she was. No proof, no ability to prosicute as it was supposeded locals that did it. Not one shread of evidence and she gets the same 2500.00 I get and I am dying because of my injuries. Sorry Woman you can yell at me all you want. I get ticked off when things like rape or minimized by people claiming it when in reality it may have never happened. If proof exist or a immediate report was made and investigated give her 100% I will fight for her to get it. But this repressed memory crap is just that.

[hegunshop]

08:29 AM on 12/07/2011

Hold on a Minute, as a 100% disabled Vet what gives any Woman or any other person the right to be seen out of turn. I will be on the steps of Congress if this moves forward to give Woman president in lines for treatment at the VA. Any Woman that is in Combat is there by choice not by order. Woman are not permitted in Direct Combat by law. I get tired of their moaning and groning when they could be at home if they wished. I was freakin drafted and had no choice and served 2 real live combat tours in Viet Nam and now you tell me some wimp Woman wants to get in front of me in line at the VA. Like *&^%$# they wil.

[Christine Reed1235]

07:26 AM on 12/07/2011

The VA is a mess. I personally know of a Viet Nam vet collecting 30% disability for flat feet WHILE another vet -who broke his neck during his service (then they shipped him off to war) and has skin cancer from Agent Orange is only getting 10% disability, For almost an entire year he has repeatedly called, written, his congresswoman has even written but he still cannot get an appointment for an examination. Are they waiting for him to die so they won't have to be bothered? This is not what the men who fought (and fight) for our country deserve - no matter what war they serve or served in!!!

[teeleecee]

10:38 PM on 12/06/2011

Vets should have to wait for nothing. They put their lives on the line for their country...take care of them when they return alive. Have some respect for those who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

[6531WilliamsG]

07:54 AM on 12/07/2011

When I was in the Corps, I'd oft hear, "Nothing is too good for our troops, so give them nothing" The V.A. sadly is a mess of red tape, A lot there do care, but a lot just like having a job there, hjeh. Myself I'm going back in as a mental health specialist in the Army to try and help out...provided the recruiters ever actually take the time to let me see them :/. Sad too my degree is in psych as well, heh.

[Atom Splitter]

06:35 PM on 12/06/2011

"the large number of troops returning from the war continues to stress the system." Should be a GOOD thing, right? The troops come home alive from a war they didn't start, to what? A broken system that has other priorities i.e. putting more money in the pockets of the wealthy. That phrase "stress the system" really boils my blood. The egregious lack of support for veterans is shameful.

[tiredofpc]

05:20 PM on 12/06/2011

There aren't enough mental health professionals in the military, not enough in the VA & it's due to repeated deployments over 10+ years. You can't deploy people over and over and, have them deal with 1+ years for each deployment, see awful things in combat and non-combat situations (medical care workers) & not expect them to have psychological problems. The country doesn't know or care about our military members & what they've done. The news agencies have failed to report the numbers & degree of injuries,illnesses induced by deployments, & DOD continued to keep their heads in the sand as the psychological injuries added up; multiple failed intervention programs, lack of accurate data keeping, computer systems for health care that don't talk between services or to the VA. And NOW it's all the VA's fault? The problems the VA is having is the result of gravity and stuff rolling down hill. While I was deployed to Landstuhl for 2 years in '05 through '06, we received 750 wounded, injured, ill service members per month and sent 680 per month back to the United States. That's a number you never heard on the news, because we were all supposed to be waving flags and spending money! Well, now you see how that's worked for our country and for our veterans in particular. The Administrations, Congress and DOD are all equally culpable. Don't blame the VA for all of this.

[invmartyc]

07:19 AM on 12/07/2011

Very well written! It is that way today and it was that way during and after Vietnam. People and the government did not want to address these issues. If the average citizen saw what goes on at a combat MASH unit they would go into shock. Let alone if they saw what soldiers see in battle. And to say that the government did not realize that so many soldiers would have mental issues is an out and out lie!

But as in Vietnam the government does not want to spend their money patching up vets. They got what they wanted out of them and they should kindly just go away and die. There is too much money to be made by the industrial military complex to cut their funding. Hence the big battle over money for them in the budget. And the GOP darn sure don't want to get rid of the subsidies to big businesses or tax cuts for the rich. But the men and women who volunteered to go fight "for our freedom" are yesterday's news. They cannot even get a job or even the job they left as a reservist!

It does not seem that it will ever change. Fanned!

[HMM261]

09:24 AM on 12/07/2011

I agree with what you state especially "The problems the VA is having is the result of gravity and stuff rolling down hill". The VA center I go to has now resorted to "Working The System" Due to the influx of returning vets from Iraq and Afganistan. Mental health professionals at my VA center have reduced the session time for each vet to 20 minutes. When you have PTSD and other psychologi­cal problems 20 minutes is ineffective,and a total waste of everyones time. The vet and the doctor get nothing from the visit except more frustration, but the VA center can claim they are more efficient and keeping up with the increased number of returning soldiers.

[tiredofpc]

08:42 PM on 12/07/2011

You need to write the Senate Veteran's committe. 20 minutes is a joke. My counselor still sees me for a 50 minute time frame, as usual. There have been multiple times in the past several years that seeing him has allowed me to go forward. It's finally getting better. Please hang in there; I'm rooting for you!