Tag:

Vets

Veterans Day 2013: Honoring Our Vets with Better Access to Mental Health Care

by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. 9/16/2024

This Veterans Day, we honor the sacrifices made by our veterans, fighting for freedom and liberty not only for Americans, but for people everywhere.

It’s not just the veterans themselves who face mental health issues — such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or crippling anxiety — but their families too. Families who have to cope not only with the great distances and not knowing if their soldier-husband or soldier-wife will ever return, but also with the possibly of having that person return broken. Lost. Something less-than.

And while the Veterans Administration has made great strides in providing better care for veterans in the past few years, it still has a long ways to go.

9/16/2024 0 comment

VA Lied About Wait Times

by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. 3/18/2024

By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

VA Lied About Wait Times 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.

3/18/2024 4 comments

Jumping Without a Chute: Honoring Our Veterans, 2011

by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. 1/27/2024

By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

Jumping Without a Chute: Honoring Our Veterans, 2011 Today is Veterans Day in the U.S., a day to give thanks and honor all who serve our country in the military. While the military has made some strides in recent years in acknowledging the mental health problems of both veterans and active military personnel, it remains an area where prejudice and misconceptions run rampant.

A soldier wouldn’t jump out of a plane without checking their parachute to make sure it was secured and in working order. Yet they are jumping out of active duty into a system that isn’t prepared for their needs, and remains underfunded and under-resourced.

For instance, last week we discussed these continuing challenges with mental health services and the rate of suicide in the military today, among vets and active duty soldiers.

Each year in the U.S. approximately 35,000 – 37,000 people die by suicide. It’s the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., ahead of things like hypertension, homicide and Parkinson’s disease (all things that get a lot more news and research attention than suicide).

About 100 people kill themselves each day. Nearly 20 percent of those who take their lives is a veteran — or about 18 vets a day. Let that sink in for a moment, because it’s a big number.

1/27/2024 1 comment

VA Mental Health Care is So Bad, It’s Unconstitutional

by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. 11/8/2023

By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

VA Mental Health Care is So Bad, Its Unconstitutional So says a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, after reviewing the evidence about the ability of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to offer an appropriately level of mental health care and treatment to returning soldiers.

In this way, the costs of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been grossly underestimated, because they don’t take into account the increased needs and costs of the vets’ ongoing and increasing mental health care. The longer we’re at war, the worse it’s going to get.

According to the article on TIME.com about the recent ruling, not only do some vets have to wait weeks to get in to see a mental health professional at many VA medical centers, but there’s often no significant triaging done. Actively suicidal vets may not get the care they need, before it’s too late.

The result? Nearly one-third of the vets who end up committing suicide do so while under VA care. But two-thirds aren’t even being seen by the VA for a mental health concern.

11/8/2023 24 comments

Thomas Bornemann, Ed.D. on the 26th Annual Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy

by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. 8/16/2023

By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

homas Bornemann, Ed.D. on the 26th Annual Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy Psych Central will again be partnering with The Carter Center to bring you media coverage of the 26th Annual Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy. This year’s symposium focuses on the unique challenges for mental health care and community reintegration faced by National Guard and reserve veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The event will also be webcast live on The Carter Center’s website.

Recently, I had the pleasure to sit down with Thomas H. Bornemann, Ed.D., the Director of the Carter Center Mental Health Program to talk to him about this year’s symposium agenda.

John M. Grohol, Psy.D.:Â So talk to me a little bit about the theme of this year’s symposium. I understand it has to do with policy surrounding helping vets gets access to mental health care?

Thomas H. Bornemann, Ed.D.: Â That’s correct. This is our 26th Annual Symposium on Mental Health Policy, so we have been at it a while. Each year we try to focus on an issue that has come to our attention of major national importance from a public policy standpoint. And we certainly think the long conduct of these wars warrant that kind of attention. We are now into one of the longest conflicts in American history with around 1.7 million veterans who have gone over there.

We are certainly seeing a number of mental health consequences of the type of warfare that these people are exposed to, the frequency with which they are exposed, and such other risk factors. So we thought it was an opportune time to raise some attention to these issues.

8/16/2023 0 comment