DOD To Defund Successful Suicide Prevention Program

Suicide Prevention Program

Benjamin KrauseDOD recently announced it will defund a successful, hands-on suicide prevention program and replace it with MilitaryOneSource which those deceivers claim will work just as well… And if you believe that I have ocean front property in Kansas you might want to buy.

Yesterday, Marine veteran Thor Wold spoke out a DOD move to defund a suicide program despite climbing suicide rates. Apparently PTSD suicides are no longer a problem? Instead of funding the hands-on program, DOD claims its website MilitaryOneSource will do an equally good job of aiding suicidal veterans. Should we believe them?

What a slap in the face.

Female veteran suicides are on the rise. All around veteran suicides have not decreased. Yet, DOD somehow believes a mere website will compensate for the gap created when it defunds real, hands-on help? Are we in Oz? How does our government keep getting us into underfunded wars while simultaneously cutting the programs that help fix the damage later?

As of August 15, 2015, DOD will no longer fund the hands-on, peer-to-peer service supported by Vets4Warriors. Apparently, DOD is satisfied with the current suicide numbers and no longer feels the need to seek helpful suicide prevention program.

DOWNLOAD: Vets4Warriors White Paper On Defunding

Now, I thought we were losing the fight against veteran suicides, so the choice to defund the program is a bit disappointing (not surprising) in light of our current run-up to the next Middle East war. Maybe we will underfund that one too.

Here is what Thor Wold had to say about the cancelation of the program:

** Thor Wold Email On Program Defunding **

Good afternoon,

I feel it is my duty to bring the following travesty to your attention and request your support.

As you are all aware, Veteran and active duty suicide is a monumental challenge we must overcome.  We are currently at a steady clip of 22 Veterans per day who take their own life, scores of others may be lost due to alcohol related incidents that are not deemed a suicide, but who’s trigger is the same.  Combating suicide in our community is a dynamic effort, and research has proven that the best way to combat suicide is to take a proactive and hands-on approach. Vets4Warriors does this with peer to peer service and support by fellow Veterans for Veterans.

That said, it pains me to report that DoD and VA have abruptly decided to de-fund this program past August 15, 2015, believing it can achieve the same success via the DoD MilitaryOneSource program.  DoD has also tied the hands of many of the principles involved with this program in an effort to minimize the public knowledge of what they are doing.

Senator Booker is submitting an amendment to NDAA to get things back on track, but as we all know, any sort of legislation takes time, and there is great concern that the lapse in critical services in the mean time will cost lives. IAVA and VFW are involved to see how they can help, having both submitted letters of support for the amendment.

Any support on the legislative front and any support with forwarding this white paper to any potential corporate sponsors that may be willing to help provide some emergency funding would be greatly appreciated. Donations can be provided via the Rutgers Foundation (upper right hand corner on this page – https://ubhc.rutgers.edu) and will be earmarked solely for Vets4Warriors.  The Rutgers Foundation is a long standing, legitimate organization, and Vets4Warriors is run through Rutgers University.

I’m cc’ing General Graham (Director, Vets4Warriors) in case you have any specific questions, as well as Lee Becker (Former Hospital Corpsman Chief) – a long time advocate for military and veteran healthcare, who is also helping on the advocacy side here in DC. Also being cc’d is Commander Larry Miller, who along with Lee built the Marine Corps’ Wounded Warrior Regiment and other critical programs for our wounded warriors and Veterans that we have today.

Some of the foundational work to support our wounded warriors is at risk due to budget cuts. Hopefully with your partnership we can get things back on track.  I am asking that you spread the word to your principles and members of whatever organizations you may belong to.  I am more than happy to appear at any event, or for any meeting, either official or unofficial, to speak more on this topic and to plumb greater depths with you all.

Thank you for your service, support, and consideration.

Semper Fi

V/R,

Thor Wold

Former Hospital Corpsman

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43 Comments

  1. Sadly, I fear that no veteran should be surprised. I could write a litany but me typing skills leave a lot to be desired. My very best to all veterans, combat and otherwise, who have put themselves in harms way when asked to do so.

    Regards,
    Dick Tracy

    First Air Cav 67-69

    1. Agree. Military One Source is a check in the box, and doesn’t address our warriors and families needs. I know first hand of the lack of support that Military One Source provides due to my Marine brother committing suicide while he was trying to get help with Military One Source. Perhaps I’m jaded, but this was my bad experience with Military One Source. So when I see this travesty with DOD shutting down Vets4Warriors it hurts. DOD has no right to take away key suicide prevention resources from us. Especially since they sent our brothers and sisters to war. It is DOD duty to make sure that warriors are cared for when they return. Military One Source is not the answer.

  2. Remember, you do not have to buy that soveirgn immunity crap, just sue them it is codified in the Declaration of “We the People” If you make your jurisdiction and venue statement tailored so that it clearly is not accepting its’ nonconsent based on the Declaration of Independence the 11th Amendment cannot control the Independence of its’ citizens. That is why you see many states have varying laws, “The People” have spoken.

  3. It is worrisome that DOD is looking to send more troops to Iraq and yet here DOD is cancelling this program? The whitepaper said they only needed 500K to keep going for a quarter. Four quarters per year = 2M. Only 2M annually for this program that is saving lives and DOD cancels it. This is a failure in leadership to let this program lapse and a slap in the face to every Veteran that served. Veterans lives should matter even after deployment. Calling my congressman and senators NOW!

    1. Looks to me like it’s high time that our very Senators/Representatives in D.C. to make a “personal sacrifice” and how about slashing some of the slush-funded benefits or even a pay-cut, to continue funding Veteran suicide programs?
      These same lame a@@es, are the ones that take the money from their ‘owners’ via Citizen’s United, and send military in these wars in first place. I see no sacrifices made by Congress in a time of ‘sequester of budget’, and these a$$es even made themselves *exempt* from ObamaCare.
      I will say it again…only until these a$$es in D.C. are forced to use the VA for all their medical, they will remain eyes wide shut.
      Shame on Senator McCain if he supported this along with Lindsay Graham!

      1. Namnibor, you are 100% correct. Can you imagine Congressmen/women or a senator having to, or being forced to use the VA for ALL their medical needs! That would be something I’d pay to see….

  4. Just now on wftv ch. 9 news, 11 june @ 4:45 pm, est Mission United is going to help veterans with a new “suicide prevention program”. I wonder what this new program is all about. There wasn’t much said. It, the “story”, was extremely brief.
    From my experience, talking to the news media, no one ever elaborates. It usually takes an attorney to get answers.
    The issue I have is; where did this group get their funding?
    Lastly, has anyone ever heard of this group?

    1. I saw the brevity of that mentioned and wondered the same. Every since “Citizen’s United” was approved by Supreme Court, I tread very lightly with anything with “United” in it’s name, and also, what *exactly* is the whole “MISSION” part of it’s name, “Mission United”?
      Since this is dealing with PTSD, mental health, and Veteran Suicide, I demand to have qualified for me exactly this is.
      Is this yet another sub-contracted job, or out-sourced to Disney, to handle making everyone having a “Mickey Mouse Smile” (very akin to the Joker’s Smile), permanently on one’s face after the ‘Clockwork Orange” treatments?!!

      How dare they kick the can around regarding any aspect of veteran health! Poking the sharp pointy stick with the issue of veteran Suicide is insanely insensitive.

      Two movies that remind me of the VA every time more and more are: “One Flew Over The Coo Coo’s Nest” and A Clockwork Orange”, with the latter spot-on.

      1. Now that was funny and reality about the VA you know the first letters in VAcation is VA they seem to be on a perpetual vacation yearly and mentally….

  5. When I worked in psych hospitals most staff loved it and conspired to make suicidal patients look non-suicidal then go “AMA” (check out “against medical advice”), and they could care less when patients killed themselves right in the hospital. They do it to make their job easier.

  6. How about if we all put the word out for Vets Groups and Orgs to come up with cash rewards leading to the arrest and conviction of those at the VA who are criminally negligent in the care of veterans?

    1. I second the motion, for reward money leading to the arrest and conviction at a military
      tribunal.

      1. Could you imagine the storm created, investigations taking place and veterans immediately prosecuted if 8×12 color wanted posters started appearing at VAs across the country?

  7. The following is a ‘fly on the wall’ meeting between the DOD and the VA, at the most expensive restaurant in Washington, DC.

    DOD: “Any ideas from the VA on what to do about our suicide program now that someone made the mistake of instantly responding to Ben Krause’s veteran’s suicide story this week?”

    VA: “Well, my experience running Colgate and our marketing approach there tells me you need to do what we call a ‘take away’, just cancel the prevention program. Then everyone will be begging to get the same old marginally effective program back. But, never give it back.”

    The VA guy starts laughing for no particular reason as he answers, getting hysterical, as others at the table bust out in laughter to.

    DOD: “Excellent idea, let’s go with that.”

    VA: ” Sure, it’s how we roll at the VA. We use the same tactics whenever a vet complains about our abuse, or anyone gripes about us. It’s how we keep attorneys, vets, whistle-blowers, Congress, the media, Veterans Organizations, all of them, under control.”

    The DOD has the wine steward bring 2 more bottles of wine at $10,000 each as they get a few looks from the media executives at the next table.

    DOD: (In a low voice) “We need to get together next week in Rio where we can talk more freely. Let’s use private jets, the best hotels, money is no object. We will come back fresh and maybe we can parlay the trip into a new scandal to keep the media confused about what they should be pitching a fit about.”

    VA: “Now you got it. Remember, the best publicity, the best way to get endless funding for doing nothing but damage is to get caught screwing up time and time again.”

    The VA stops playing Angry Birds long enough to see a text message about the day’s suicide toll at the VA, as DOD plays Minecraft and checks messages.

    VA: “Wow, we might get a new record today, we’re already at 30 suicides and it’s only 2 in the afternoon. And, this is amazingly cool: one was that sultry MST chick that got turned down for Ranger School. Yes! Hey, I gotta’ get on the horn and see if we can pick up a few more tonight on the locked psych units.”

    DOD: “Hey, cool, we just got two more, both in the last 15 minutes. Wow, right when I ordered that extra tray of Oysters Rockefeller at $1,200 a pop. I am jazzed! I’m ordering a service-wide push to step up our murder-by-suicide program. Hey, VA, wanna’ make a little $1 million wager from the stash you swiped from the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act?”

    VA: “Hell, let’s make it $2 million; I can tap another $1 million from the $150 million I’ve skimmed from my little hospital construction disaster game.”

  8. I does seem that should a DOD,VA,or most Government officials find a veterans body with 27 fatal stab wounds,they would have it classified as suicide. I wonder if the military personnel deployed to another country for a medical emergency will incur a medical problem,at a later date,and the DOD and VA will turn their backs on them,as they have on us Vietnam Vets !!!

  9. F) “Someone has to pay for Obama’s “Golf Game,” wink, wink! U) “What! The bonus money is running low?
    B) “We Veterans are referred to as “Customer’s,” and that is funny because even at Bed Bath and Beyond you can get a refund year or two after you the “Customer,” purchases a item if it fails…
    A) “Hey everyone dies!” Quote from VA…
    R) “So, you fell off a curb, that must really hurt, go to the front of the line…next, you were shot in the stomach and you’ve been bleeding out your ear’s plus, you say we amputated the wrong appendage, make and appointment and we will see you in six months!”

  10. This does not surprise me at all. Having been involved in veterans medical research for a long time, I’ve noticed there has been a push for some time to try provide medical “care” remotely, either through telephone, telemedicine, etc. Those pushing it openly state part of the reason is to reduce cost. Cost is never an object when soldiers are being sent to battle. Its disgusting because some of the issues being suggested for this treatment includes PTSD or other serious issues. Its disgusting because some issues being treated this way are like suggesting your physical injury can be fixed with a phone call with some drone who doesn’t give a shit. Having experienced peer to peer counseling in the past, I can say it works very well, much better than talking with some shrink who stays quiet because they cannot relate to your experiences.
    I applaud their work to get an amendment in the NDAA, but believe this is partially wrong to have to do that. Congress needs to find their bag and tell DOD that it has already been funded, and they will keep it in operation until further funding is provided.
    I’m sure the last thing a suicidal vet thinks of is going to some busy government web site that either doesn’t provide help, or is full of smarmy condescension.
    …and doing this whole sending even more troops overseas.

    1. Yea, 450 more troops to train the Iraqi forces. A friend of mine who was in both Gulf Wars said, “What a waste of time, money and materials!” I hope they get it right this time…….

      1. They won’t get it right until the White House and Congress get serious about what they want to do. They need to either get fully committed and deal with it, including taking care of those coming home, or stay the hell out of that mess. Trickling in a few hundred here and there because of political optics just results in slower deaths. I see today the WH is pointing fingers at Boehner for not debating use of force, and Boehner rightly saying the WH hasn’t provded any strategy.

  11. Since medical records are being changed, isn’t that the proof one needs to give to legislators to hold fraud hearings within the dod/va?.
    NOTE, patients in worker comp and regular patients are complaining of their medical records being altered and it because, it’s to deny payments of any kind. It’s been going in comp, since the latter 80’s., that I know of .Do family members receive any benefits if a vet commits suicide.The reason I ask, is because in the private sector, it’s about saving insurance companies like AIG money, in paying anything out in life insurance and any future medical care or other benefits.
    AND in the corporate world, many CEO’s have very large hidden peasant, dead man or keyman, life insurance policies on their own employees, that are cashed and put into the CEO’s retirement plan, once the worker dies, regardless of the manner of death. And of course a vet who commits suicide, is no longer a financial burden of the dod/va.
    The military is eating their own just as other employers do to their employees, on comp or not..
    All of you need to demand a congressional hearing on the idea that the dod/va is not doing anything for you, other than pushing disabled/sick vets into disparity and more heath harm or death.,You all have been discriminated against by the dod/va.
    Anyone who changes anyone’s medical records should be fired and in jail, just for keeping vets from getting the medical care they NEED. Isn’t taht malice of thought with intent to do harm, like felonies galore
    It’s all very sinister, indeed.

    1. Yes, Dina, you are absolutely right. The VA saves money and actually makes money, literally tons of it, by killing off vets, and doing everything wrong so they can get bigger and bigger by getting endlessly larger budgets from Congress that they just steal and put in their own pockets.

  12. I have seen two va administration employees going going through my records and they changed my rating of zero percent to non service connected. I related this to regional office, telling them about this and that my records showed service connected at zero percent, the letter i received back from the va states you are not to use the zero percent letter as you being service connected and all. So i hired an attorney and my lost records magically found and not only was that employee was wrong and after fourty years i went from zero percent to 100 percent permanent and total and unemployable. One of the employees messing with my records passed away and the other is now in a leader ship role, i can just imagine what that employee is doing to other veterans. These va employees loved going through records in an effort to make a disabled Veteran non service connected. I been calling my va clinic, trying to get an appointment with the psychological department for my six month appointment and never heard from anyone at the va. I called again today and was told that they made an appointment for June 6 and was considered as a no show. The va never contacted me about the appointment no phone call no letter they can use the no shows can be used against the veteran for not showing up, they can dismiss you from care if you do not show up. The va called me back today and made me an appointment in July. There maybe less suicides i think that may be true as many have all ready committed suicide.

  13. So, “This site may be hacked”. Good, maybe whoever is reading the “articles and comments” will get a better picture of what veterans truly think of the VA Nationwide! I, for one, am discusted with the whole thing!
    I do have questions, I wonder how the different “enthnic groups” are being treated at the many VA’s Nationwide?
    For example; if it is good or bad. Then why have we not heard from the “African American”, “Asian”, “Latino” and “Hispanic” culture? It seems these groups either do not care or ??????
    I sure would like to hear from them, men and women. And what their opinions are concerning the VA.
    I, being in multiple services, knew many persons of different ethnic backrounds. A great percentage thought highly of serving their country. But, I have heard nothing of what they think since being discharged!
    Can anyone contact their “buddies” and let them know about this site?
    Thanks to ALL, and Welcome Home!!!!!!!

    1. Hello i am of Hispanic decent and have been trying to get the va to hear my plea for an employee that told a lie about me being disruptive. Management don’t care if employees are hurting veterans and the employees not having to provide any type of proof that i had ever been disruptive, it doesn’t matter what race you are, some have heard the stories about the va and may not want to get involved as they may be afraid of the va attacking them. I have had people tell me the va can’t punish you with out proof and my reply, ,well they did it with the blessing of the oig and the fbi, now that may be because of my last name. I would not be surprised. I know they have violated my civil and constitutional rights and no one cares from Bob McDonald on down, they just want to pass the buck so they are not involved and the veterans are punished and the employees get away with it, why should they stop hurting veterans that seems to be the status quo. The va should have to provide any and all evidence they used to punish the veteran, no one seems to care enough to make them show the evidence and if they can’t then leave the veteran alone and punish the va employee whom made the allegation, veterans have no way to defend themselves when no one wants to investigate the matter Fully

      1. James, glad to hear from you. Not glad to hear what happened to you.
        I too have had MANY VA employees lie about me and to me. Sometimes I get so damn mad, I just have to get out of the place. I may be a senior citizen, but I still have a voice. And trust me, I ain’t afraid to voice my opinion.
        Most VA employees believe they can BS me, but after a few minutes of conversation, they know better. I refuse to allow anyone in any position, to try to ‘pull the wool over my eyes’. Don’t be discouraged, stand up tall for your “God Given Rights” under the Constitution and Bill of Rights you swore to protect!

      2. Thanks, i really would like to hear how many others this has or is happening too. The va can accuse you or any other veteran with out fear of reprisal from anyone. There are studies that shows the va has no definition as to what constitutes disruptive behavior, each facility can do as they wish and screw the veteran, what’s he going to do sue me and then laugh in your face. They refuse to provide the veteran with evidence they used to punish the veteran and allow hearsay ,which are flat out lies and they know it and still cover it up. How many of our fellow veterans committed suicide because of them being put on the disruptive list and threatened with banishment, Arrest and federal charges placed upon them and then no one cares enough to do a simple investigation and make the va provide any and all evidence they used to railroad that veteran, I know Bob McDonald does not care about this matter so the va will continue to hurt veterans with impunity.

  14. The VA conspires with just about every other Department to keep veterans from having a meaningful choice to seek care elsewhere. See the pattern? The vets who are service-connected, should just make an appointment with an outside healthcare provider then challenge the validity of the VA non payment of those services under the consumer protection laws. The VA is the primary payer, if they did not follow the law in making a concerted effort to accommodate the vet, by adding them on the waiting list it’s on them. The vets should send a certified letter regarding a request for an appointment.

  15. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that DOD is going to defund suicide prevention. The welfare of the troops always winds up dead last in DOD thinking. My guess is that the VA will start defunding suicide prevention also. I hate the VA for the way it treated me 40-45 years ago. It’s criminal when doctors and administrators force veterans into contemplating suicide! But that is just what goes on at VA. I still remember when Viet-Nam vets were committing suicide and still are to this day. When VHA and VBA keep on denying veterans, putting veterans at the end of their rope; veterans have little or no choice but to take their own lives. Luckily, I was able to pull my way out doing anything like that. With no help from VA mind you! VBA turned me down four times. The doctors and social workers at the VA weren’t what I describe as “veteran friendly” either. None of those people are going to go out of their way to help any vet. I volunteered to go serve my country and I placed myself in harms way in order to do the right thing. But unfortunately, I’ve learned a hard and bitter lesson about trying to do the right thing! I will always be bitter about that.

    1. The frustration of the claims process alone, is enough to make anyone suicidal. The lowest moment of my life was due to a VA denial,saying my husband (drug and alcohol free) died due to cocaine overdose.
      The bastards had his complete 6 page autopsy and drug profile ,yet tried to get out of FTCA and 1151 by stating that in a SOC.

      I fixed them.They are STILL paying for his wrongful death.But that moment reading that crap sure affected me and I felt hopeless ,but I got out of that feeling fast and went after them with renewed vigor.

      News Flash EBENEFITS is in the Crapper:

      “Online Appeal Status is being improved and the enhanced features will be available online in September 2015.

      We apologize for any inconvenience. The processing of your appeal will not be affected while the Appeal Status feature is offline. You may check the status of your appeal as follows:

      If you are working with a service organization or representative, contact the representative who is handling your appeal for assistance.
      If you do not have a representative, and you have filed a Notice of Disagreement concerning your claim, please call the Veterans Benefits Administration at 1-800-827-1000 (711 if you use TDD), Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 9:00 pm Eastern Time.

      Thank you for your patience while we make improvements to the Appeal Status feature on eBenefits.”

      Now we are forced to deal with Peggy (the 800#) again.Unless you are lucky enough to have a vet rep who can get a status for you from time to time.

      A Chief of Pension.comp in DC read something to me from the VA PC screen and told me last week I got paid 22 months at 100% plus SMC accrued.
      I got 6 month only 2 years and no reason and Bases for the lack of the rest of the accrued in the award letter.

      I contacted the IG right away..

      VA could easily award someone DIC under one of the three separate theories they awarded me DIC on ( but they only can send one DIC check to me ) and they did open a ‘new DIC claim for me last year, but took it off the PC when I contacted the IG….
      so now I wonder if VA has turned me into a fraud victim, or like many others (I have plenty of proof of this) even the top well paid honchos at VBA in DC
      cannot read.

  16. Sounds like they are playing with people’s lives by “defunding program”, which in “VA/DOD Talk”, simply means, “Diverting Funds Elsewhere”, and begs to wonder if this is to further underhandedly fund the MANY new VAMC’s being built that are GROSSLY OVER BUDGET, to include the Denver VAMC??!!
    Or…perhaps I am being too gratuitous in thinking they are simply being pragmatic in wrong areas as to continue projects about to be turned-off from $$ from Congress again due to these huge over-run projects?
    Cutting/changing/combining already obviously under-budgeted and under-staffed Suicide Prevention Programs for Veterans is just the same as calling a Suicide Hotline, only upon being answered by “Suicide Hotline, PLEASE HOLD…CLICK”!!!!

    I have lost two Veteran buddies in last few years to suicide, and these were two Veterans that not long before their suicides they had just finally won their Service Connected Claims (100%), and I used to hear how they complained about how idiotic the VA Psych Care was. One such startling true story was the VA trying to get Veterans that claim to have PTSD to believe that “What you went through could NOT have possibly been as bad as YOU IMAGINED IT”!!! That’s something I even heard in my foray in using the VAMC before I became Medicare Eligible and said GOODBYE to VAMC, and continued and continue to date, using my civilian medical team.

    The VA has also been VERY actively replacing PTSD wording to the non-compensable term, “Adjustment Disorder”…that’s a slap in the face to Veterans, both genders, yes, ALL Veterans.

    The Civilian Psych Dept. at a major Univ. I use, had me upset a little over a year ago when one of the Psych Residents “shadowing my Faculty Psych Dr.”, took it upon herself to CHANGE diagnosis in my records that went back to 1995 when I started Psych Medication Therapy and Cognitive Therapy, and my diagnosis had been upheld by several different Psych Dr.’s and Cognitive Therapists in last 20 years of PTSD and Severe Anxiety/Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), an GUESS WHAT??? That “Resident”, she was ALSO training/putting in Medical Resident Hours at my local VAMC…she tried to pull the “VA Method” and changed my time-tested DSM Diagnosis to…you got it…to ADJUSTMENT DISORDER.
    This week, when I just found out my major University Medical Center’s Psych Dept. is both letting go of MOST of their Faculty Psych Dr.’s, and this was at my 6 month medication management appointment earlier this week, being told that in some boardroom, a mix of Administrators and Attorneys came to decision that they are NOT receiving “enough payments from ObamaCare”, whether it be from Medicare or State Medicaid Patients, and in a time when this Country has a SERIOUS SHORTAGE of Psych Dr.’s, no matter the impact to patients, it came down to the bottom line/the almighty DOLLAR.
    My Dr. was a full Faculty Psych Dr. and I had been assigned to him little over a year ago as I no longer wished to be ever seen by Training Residents going forward, and especially ANY also training at the VAMC’s, as you could see how they would try this same VA Method of trying to get a person to somehow believe that whatever they may have THOUGHT THEY WENT THROUGH, was NOT AS BAD AS WE **IMAGINED IT**, then making the change to diagnosis to Adjustment Disorder.

    My Dr. changed my diagnosis BACK to what had been established through MANY YEARS of cognitive therapy and MUCH playing darts with many Psych Meds to ensure I was not bipolar or anything else. He apologized and I told him how the VA has been using the term UNSPECIFIED ADJUSTMENT DISORDER (UAD) instead of acknowledging PTSD because (UAD) was non-compensable via VA Benefits and told him it has caused me much more anxiety what that woman resident had done to my records and only reinforced my knowledge that the VA is teaching new potential Dr.’s their own distorted methods of always doubting the Veteran and making SURE to replace words such as PTSD and others with non-compensable terms, to the VA’s benefit…screw the Veteran and whatever he or she truly has gone through. The Private Sector is trying to blame Obama Care, but it is simple greed, never mind the patients.

    I will be either assigned to one of the VERY FEW Faculty/Staff Psych Dr.’s for Med Management **or** he is going to talk to my Primary Dr., whom also teaches Pharmacology at same major University, and see if he would be willing to RX my Psych Meds since I continue in Cognitive Therapy each month and only need to be seen every 6 months to RX the same meds that have worked the best, not entirely, but the best for me, so it’s not like I would be a burden to a Faculty Dr.’s schedule.

    My point in writing this experience from this week is that this CRAP with Psych Care is happening all over the USA in the Civilian Sector as well because these Dr.’s are more driven by $$$ than actually helping the patients they serve so many are going into Private Practice for a CASH FOR CARE ONLY BASIS, or working for, you guessed it, the VA…because the VA pays better, excellent Banker’s Hours, all to the expense of LIVES of Veterans or otherwise. My Dr. admitted there’s a HUGE need for more Psych Dr.’s in all sectors, but since he was also low on the seniority list, he was just letting me know the battle I was going to have to fight yet again, to keep consistency of care. At least he is going to bat for me but I told him since I have Medicare, I was serious in re-stating I would choose a Witch Dr. from Haiti throwing chicken bones and zombie dust in my face before EVER letting the VAMC’s **quacks** touch me again in this life.
    Just thought it pertinent and germane to share my experience in what’s going on even with the Civilian Psych Care field and it’s a shame because even a recent “60 Minutes” and a “20/20” did Special Reports of how there’s serious shortage of Dr.’s in Psych Field, and even those reports mentioned it came down to low-balled payments since Obama Care has been implemented.
    This however would not make sense for what the VA and DOD are currently trying to do but both have the commonality of bottom line of $$$ and expecting Psych Dr.’s to be “Assembly Lines”, turning out a QUOATA rather than results-based system…all at the expense and welfare of patients.
    This is a National Problem happening right now and somehow the VA is reflecting this as well. Never mind the fact that the VA Psych Care is a good 50 years in thinking (at least) than Civilian Psych Care…and the VA relies HEAVILY on “Medical Residents” that are not experienced, and are being programmed by the VA in how to change diagnosis semantics to ensure they are non-compensable terms…and I bet they even get a special BONUS for doing so…and I must add that after my most recent veteran Buddy committed suicide and since I was his only emergency contact, I asked the local VA and the many calls from the County Coroner, HOW and WHY could the VA allow these people to fall through the cracks and commit suicide?
    The reply I got from the VA is, “Well, we view your veteran friend as a SUCCESS since we got his 100% Service Connected Disability approved!! WTF? How was this considered a success on ANY level when the Veteran commits suicide because of the very BAD SCIENCE and the VA trying to make Vets somehow believe “you are only imagining your PTSD issues to be worse than what ACTUALLY occurred”, AFTER already being given a diagnosis and 100% P&T Svc. Connected?
    The VA is seemingly pushing suicide rather than preventing it.
    Sorry so long, just a very hot topic for me as my latest Vet buddy to take his own life was only just end of July, 2014. The one prior to that was in Fall of 2010. The VA is systematically and underhandedly being the very catalyst for Veteran Suicides…how is this much different from the heinous acts Nazi Germany Era performed on their own fellow Human Beings?
    I believe the VA is again underhandedly diverting funds for their own greed at the expense of Vet lives. Totally unacceptable on every level to every man and woman Vet and surviving dependents.
    Obtain copies of all your records and after each visit to make sure your diagnosis has not been blatantly changed for the benefit of the VA…and chagrin to the Veteran.

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