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Can The Vet Center Refuse To Treat A Veteran?

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My old Shrink that I liked at the VA was don't take it personal they do it to everybody.

"If good men do nothng...

More info on my Vet center experience. The reason the therapist at the VA was told to not speak to me or anyone about me because she was considered a VA employee is because...Right after the unneeded surgery and remember I received a conference call from the hospital administrator, chief of ambulatory care, and the women's coordinator and they told me "that upon their investigation and speaking with the nurse involved, that she looked in the computer under lab results and she saw the name of the test she was looking for and she pulled up a result from February" and we were in the month of Novemeber.

I was working at the time. I applied for my FMLA leave and my therapist at the Vet center filled out my paperwork. She hand wrote it. She is a Liscensed Clinical Social Worker. The paperwork needed to be signed by an MD. She gave me a copy of it at the end of my session and then she was going to send it to the VA to the women's coordinator to take to have the chief of ambulatory care sign. A week or so later, the women's coordinator called and said that the paperwork was ready and I picked it up. I got home and noticed that it was changed. Someone, either at the Vet Center or at the VA changed what the paperwork said and the chief of ambulatory care signed it. She wrote things like ..under went an surgery that was done in error due to a lab misreading. It has retraumatized...PTSD and Depression. Now, that paperwork is considered part of my medical record. Who ever changed it didn't realize that I have a copy or 100, joke, of the original one that I was given at the end of my session. That is another reason Congresswoman Carson's office was so fired up about my story is that the only reason anyone would change the paper work, which took all of the truth in it out and tried to make it look right was to cover something up. You can tell it is with a different pen, even looking at copies of both, but I am not a hand writing expert. I can't say on that. There are fax numbers on the tops that authenticate them coming from the Vet center to the VA. That is why the therapist was told not to speak to me. Now that the tort claim has been settled, I know the VA knows I have the original and have they, the VA, not heard of HIPAA? :angry:

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Berta,

I seem to be caught in a perpetual "catch 22". I wasn't drinking before or during my sessions with the Vet Center. I would drink after hours and at home. The drinking became the centerpoint with the VA. They wanted me to quit. O.K., I said, help me quit. They sent me to the "Substance Abuse Councilor". After a few sessions with him, He pronounced that I was self-medicating with alcohol and stopped seeing me.

I would love to quit drinking, but I sure as heck can't do it with the milk toast meds they give me to treat my PTSD. I am treating my PTSD with alcohol. I drink a measured amount each day. Never get falling down drunk. Never drink and drive. Never been in trouble because of it. So, I am self-medicating.

Someone give me real, meaningful medication to treat my PTSD and I'll stop drinking in a heartbeat. Until then, I'll continue with the only medication that keeps my PTSD in check.

jaz

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jaz:

Yes, it is somewhat of a Catch 22 isn't it? I have "self medicated" on and off over the years since joining the military. In fact I have been hitting the sauce quite heavily lately. But like you, I wait until after hours, don't drink & drive & drink at home. Besides there is no one around to object to my drinking anyway.

Why is it OK for the VA to prescribe medication which can be highly addictive but it is such a terrible no-no to drink alcohol? The last time I checked, alcohol is still a legal substance & can be obtained without a prescription.

Liz

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Rodger that, Liz.

How is it that someone like Anna Nicole Smith can get methadone for nothing more than a broken fingernail and the VA can't treat us with drugs that work. I have been offered 10mg/day of librium as an incentive to quit. HA! I can get more relief from an Advil than that. I wish they would offer me something highly addictive, that works!

I would imagine that what ever they prescribed would have less deleterious than the affects of alcohol over the years.

Round and round we go!

jaz

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  • 5 months later...

I can answer that. The Vet Center is part of the Veterans Administration and everyone who works at one is a VA employee. They are just like the VA, but just in a different building. They are funded by the VA and if they do something wrong they are defended by the VARO counsel just like the VA, and if it goes to court, they are represented by the U.S. Attorney's office just like the VA. And yes, the Vet Center can refuse to see a Veteran, but it has guidelines of why a Veteran can be turned away. This usually only happens in cases where the Veteran has been abusive or intimidating to others whether it be staff or other Veterans. This Vet Center employee had been instructed not to speak with me or anyone about me because of the Federal Tort Claim that was ongoing and the fact that the VA changed medical records that she had hand written. Yes, they did change medical records and this therapist must not have known about it at the time because she gave me a copy of the original when I left her office. I've not spoken to her, but I do know the day I called her in crisis that she did nothing except what the VA told her to do which was to tell me she could talk to me. She could have referred me to another Vet Center Counselor or given me a number to a local crisis hotline, but she didn't and just sat on the phone in silence. Yes, I have filed a complaint against her, notified the State Liscensing board, and HIPAA.

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