Nco Hangs Himself After Being Turned Away Temple Tx Vamc

[Oiler1995]

This is heart breaking.22 vets aday are taking there life due to PTSD.The VA needs to do more.Every veteran being discharged from service should have a mandatory PTSD screening.

[broncovet]

There has been some rather recent legislation that would prevent Veteran suicides. Here is the Clay Hunt Veteran Suicide Prevention Act:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/5059/text

I would be interested to see if Vets think this may help.

Edited March 20, 2015 by broncovet

[BlastDaddy]

broncovet,

This would be hard to implement. The VA MH and PTSD psychologist and psychiatrist are so overwhelmed by the influx of veterans they often get over booked and end up canceling too many appointments with the veterans. By the time between the initial visit with the veteran and the next follow up is too long. The doctor usually has to read notes that was inputted hastily and often incorrect. By that time it would be hard for the doctor to identify the veterans that really needs help with suicide prevention and refer him/her to an outside independent psychiatrist/psychologist for proper evaluation.

Sounds good on paper but would be hard to implement.

Edited March 20, 2015 by BlastDaddy

[broncovet]

Yea...implementing this would mean hiring more doctors, and the VA is opposed to that! I happen to have a good friend who is a well qualified psych doc, who applied for a job at the VA about 3 years ago. He is still waiting, and waiting...

There is a simple solution: Cut the number of VA execs and bonuses, make them work harder or get a new job, and hire more doctors. We need fewer VA execs whose main job is to lie to Veterans and make up more spin to make it look like they are doing a good job when they are not. Just look at all the resources (man hours) lost to the scheme of secret waiting lists for VAMC's, all of which had a goal of more VA exec bonuses predicated upon the fake numbers that Vets are getting seen by the doc within 30 days. If those execs spent half the time helping Vets as they do scheming up more bonuses, then we would have a smoothly oiled VA machine.

[DebbieSue212]

Last March, we had a Navy vet pour gasoline over his head and set himself on fire, on the lawn of the local VA clinic (Northfield, NJ).

He lived for a few hours afterward. Horrible.

[Carl the Engineer]

Undercover audio between VA doctor and nurse.  "I was given 500 patients on May 23"

Not sure, but that seems like a lot to me..

Just saying,

Hamslice