Return to Article: VA, Defense officials grilled on allegations of 'epidemic' of soldier suicides
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49570
After 30 years of living a very dysfunctional life I went to the VA for help. I was diagnosed with chronic PTSD, combat related and given a prescription for Celexa and forgotten. A year later I went back to the VA and demanded to see a psychiatrist. I was fortunate enough to see a a good hard working dedicated employee who interviewed me and assigned me to a caseworker named Bill who is classified as a recovery therapist. He had spent his tour in Vietnam and I spent a little over three years seeing him on a weekly basis. I still have major issues; however, I am much better because of the help I received by the psychiatric staff. This is all good; however, this same VA office is not only hopelessly swamped with people needing help, but has a management that obviously doesn't give a rats a** about the veterans but rather shoots for big bonuses based on how many vets they can cram into anykind of program, i.e. counseling sessions are being reduced from 1 hr to 45 mins, not much time for therapy. The first Dr I saw obviously didn't care, he listed me as "dangerous to self and others" just wrote a script and called next. I was very fortunate to see the second Dr who really cared, she set VA normal procedures aside and got me the help I needed. Unfortunately she will probably never get a bonus because she puts the patients first, this is the sad part.
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49540
Anyone in the VA involved in this should be removed from their current positions. Do the figures surprise me...no. Let's look at the number of suicides in SWA and then tell me this is not a recurring problem. I remember one such service member committing suicide due to the high rate (90) of soldiers under his authority dying while outside the wire attributed to ambushes and IEDs. It's past time to take more precautionary measures when dealing with soldiers returning from duty in SWA...particularly if they exhibit any of the seven signs of suicide. Apparently, VAs health officials are not as savvy as they claim to be and it's past time to pull their heads out of the clouds.
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49506
The VA is already run by former GI's JIm Nicholson was a Westpoint Graduate and had served in Vietnam The current Secretaryy of Veterans Affairs is a ex General from the Army and was wounded in Vietnam then becam e a Doctor then was Surgeon General of the Army just retired a about three years ago and is now the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The head of the Mental Health division was a Admiral in the Navy the Head of Adjudication division was a ex-admiral and all these senior officers from the military are very conservative and want to look good for there terms of office on paperby saving the government money at the cost of the men that do all the dirty work when in the field as a soldier, sailor, airman or marine. They do all the dirty jobs when we are at war the only officers that are exposed are usually the grunts and the senior officers juswt give the orders expecting the grunt will not question him and do what ever he is told. Just look at those involved in the prison scandal in Iraq. Do ou really believe thast thos sgts, cpl, and privates did those things and totrtured those presioners without orders from the Generals on down? Or the CIA directing them to torture those prisoners on there won? I don't because I had 8 years in the Navy and was a 1st Class Petty Officer and everything I know goes through the chain of Command so unless one lives on an island without any communications to the outside world one does not m ake there own decisions in matters such as this. The same holds true on most branches of the Government No one I know just gives an order and expects it to be carried out if you are used to operating through a chain of command.
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49470
This is shameful and all are guilty fro Congress down to the taxpayer. We love all the GI's when the war is on, I am retired myself, but when it comes time to PAY for benefits, now that part is not so good. Even after earning these benefits, most veterans find they have to "subsidize", thatmeans pay for part of the cost themselves. Also, the American GI is the only class of U.S. Citizens that must pay for their own disability. Want proff, check a member's leave and earnig statement, yo uill see the VA offset from your retired pay; then a check comes fro the VA, the exact amount withoheld from your pay. The VA is overworked, understaffed and underfunded, hillary is going to change the healthcare system? barrack is not listening to any special interests groups< and what the heck is mcCain doing? the answer is nothing will change soon, it is not to the politicians benefit to make things right yet.
So sad.
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49401
These problems will never be cleared up until the VA is run by X GI's. The VA is run by typical bureaucrats that quote "the reg" rather than doing what's right by the patient. VA is a jobs program for the incompetent. They have zero understanding of what these guys/gals have gone thru and it needs to be fixed
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49397
Suicide rate for teenagers as a nation wide statistics should not be a topic of conversation. Our soldiers earned the right to better health care and if we fail to accurately identify the issues; how are we going to provide the proper amount of funds, support etc..... Our soldiers earned the right not to be compared with the civilian population as they were willing to die for our nation and face horrible act by mankind. We have a serious problem (OFFICIALS LYING) and our soldier pay the consequences. Our VA system is collapsing and all they want to do is compare statistics. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU.
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49374
This is in response to "Jimmy's" comment.
I don't know that any of us outside the system are in a position to know how many suicide attempts occurred. However, even it the number is only 1000 a year, that's still 1000 too many. And passing it off as "normal for the age group" is a total cop-out.
Our returning soldiers deserve better.
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49372
Why isn't the suicide rate for teenagers not mentioned in the article? Shouldn't there be some kind of comparison? I'd like to know if the number of suicide attempts is greater or less for soldiers returning from battle, the article and others commenting assume that it is, it may not be.
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49371
This number seems about as bogus as the alleged "300,000 traumatic brain injuries" figure. It's well documented that 15 to 24 year olds (the age group most of our troops fall into) are most likely to attempt suicide in the general population as well.
Sounds like this has as much to do with partisan politics as with helping our veterans.
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49367
"1,000 U.S. soldiers per month have attempted suicide after returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan" - BOLOGNA - That's 12,000 a year. If that were true, everybody and their brother would have been aware of this quite some time ago and now the buffoons in Congress are just now "seeing the light".
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49356
I find it abhorrent that a Government official such as Mr. Chu should find anything 'good' in the current suicide rate of our Soldiers and Veterans. The loss of even one life due to the hardships of war or its residual fallout is one to many! Instead of looking for 'excuses' the folks in Washington should be looking for ways to reach out to our Wounded Warriors to ensure they receive the support services they need to mitigate this terrible tragedy.
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49338
I watched In the Valley of Elah last night. It was pretty interesting. I kinda remember hearing something about what happened here (the movie was based on actual events) a couple years ago I think.
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49332
At this rate, we may not have to worry about the billions of $$$ mentioned in the other article needed for long term care for wounded soldiers.
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49327
If these kids do not get the help they need, once again many will become just another Veteran statistic on; Homelessness, jail, our court system, domestic dysfunction, urine drug testing, probation, suicide or/and many medical absences from employment and unlike erectile dysfunction the list keeps getting longer... just like it has been for decades now. . . And The Drug Cocktail combination the VA is handing these veterans is criminal.
What I can't understand is while the VA remains grossly under-funded for oblivious political reasons; how can the Department of labor pay for the defense contractor's insurance? Guess their personal working in Iraq is keeping the stock profits very high for the most corrupt of politicians' ( Senator Kerry made $2.8 million in less than two years on his stock investments with the contractors working in Iraq). And these are the same politicians' that keep the VA grossly under-funded.
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49326
Sounds like Mansfield is just as slick with words as Bill Clinton. Murray says to Mansfield "How do we trust what you are saying when every time we turn around we find out that what you're saying publicly is different than what you know privately?" Geee isn't that typical talk from management? I think we've grown to expect that both managers and politicians will lie to us so why act supprised. No one really wants to hear the truth anyway because then the public might expect some response. Can we handle the truth? Wait Mansfield says finally, it's notan epidemic only a ISSUE. I think the real ISSUE is appointing people to jobs with being qualified and they are never held responsible for their poor performance.
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49324
WHAT are 15 year olds even doing in this situation? Who is recruiting 15 year olds? Delayed entry programs never even use to bother with kids until they were at least 16 going on 17 OR real close to graduation from highschool.
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