HUFFINGTON
09.01-08.13
INVISIBLE CASUALTIES
Those who do try to get help often find that the nationwide shortage of mental health care professionals translates into long lines
and long waits for appointments.
“We’re still having trouble getting in to the VA,” said Jackie McMichael, whose husband, Mike, has
struggled with traumatic brain injury and suicidal thoughts since his
return from Iraq in 2005. “Everybody has trouble getting appointments for mental health counseling.” In a crisis, she takes Mike to
the emergency room. But for routine counseling, “you get them for
months down the road.”
Even as demand is rising, there
are not enough therapists trained
in both military culture and suicide
prevention to meet demand, said
Litts, a former Air Force colonel
who designed the military’s initial
suicide prevention programs and
now manages the National Action
Alliance for Suicide Prevention.
“It’s a safe bet that in most communities, there is a shortage of
[mental health care] providers that
have been trained as well as they
should be to assess and manage suicide risk,” he said.
The Department of Veterans Af-
fairs recently hired 1,600 additional
mental health care providers. But,
Litts said, “there are only so many
mental health professionals who
are good and who are ready to leave
their jobs and go to work for the
VA. And if they pull 1,600 qualified
professionals out of civilian communities, you’ve just taken 1,600
people who might have treated
veterans in the community, where
most veterans get their care. It’s a
zero-sum game.”
As Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.),
House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, put it recently, “[L]
ack of access to VA mental health
care services remains a deathly
serious problem for the department — one that past staffing and
budget increases as well as numerous mental health summits
have failed to solve.”
Providing mental health care
is “a huge challenge not only for
the VA, but health care systems
across the country — we are not
always there when people need
us,” Jan Kemp, director of suicide
prevention for the VA, said in a
recent VA webinar. “Sometimes
we are difficult to get to and there
are long waiting lines and delays
in getting services.”
Once veterans do get mental
health care from the VA, “we do