VA HOSPITALS PLAGUED BY LONG WAITS AND LOW
STAFFING -- One federal report after another points
to gaps, delays and problems.
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TREATING VETERANS
Hospitals plagued by long waits, low staffing
By Laura Ungar
lungar@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
One federal report after another points to gaps, delays and problems with
treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder -- even as military and veterans
hospitals bolster their programs for the mental illness.
The military's mental health efforts "fall significantly short," and lack enough
money and staff, according to a preliminary report released this month by a
Department of Defense task force.
Getting seen for PTSD can take weeks at Veterans Affairs facilities, said an
internal review by the VA inspector general's office released this month.
Only about a third of facilities examined said patients are seen by mental
health professionals the same day. The wait at other VA operations can be a week
to almost two months.
Some veterans wait up to 90 days for follow-up appointments for PTSD, said a
Government Accountability Office report, which also predicted the VA would have
trouble meeting the future demand for services.
Dr. James Bland, a psychiatrist from Lebanon, Ky., said he once called officials
at Fort Knox's Ireland Army Hospital about a recently returned soldier with
severe PTSD who needed to be hospitalized. Officials told Bland they don't offer
inpatient PTSD care, he said, then referred his patient to an area psychiatric
hospital that had no beds available.
Hospital officials said such occurrences are rare, since they have agreements
with numerous psychiatric centers. But Bland said even one instance could end in
suicide.
"This is a very serious illness," he said. "It kills people."
Military and VA officials said they are taking new steps to help.
Antonette Zeiss, deputy chief of mental health for the VA, said her department
has increased mental health spending from $2.4 billion last year to a projected
$2.8 billion this year. At the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Louisville,
the post-traumatic clinical team increased its staff from two in 2002 to 4.5
today.
Maj. Gen. Elder Granger, deputy director of the federal agency that administers
the health care plan for the military, said officials also are adding resources
to ensure returning soldiers get the mental health care they need. Ireland
hospital, for example, started a PTSD support group in January for soldiers who
have served in Iraq. The group meets several times a week and draws about six to
eight people at a time.
Col. Susan Rogers, Ireland's behavioral health chief, said she is passionate
about getting as many veterans as possible into treatment. "I want to stand on a
bridge and say, 'Guys, come on. Get help,' " she said.
Before being diagnosed with PTSD last spring, Bob Wolz of Rineyville, Ky., an
Army veteran who served in the Gulf and Iraq wars, found his memories made him
irritable, unable to concentrate and sleepless. "I couldn't fall asleep …
because I thought I would never wake up. And if I fell asleep, I would scare
myself awake," said Wolz, whose war experiences were compounded by the deaths of
his son and younger brother at home.
Wolz began getting treatment through the Louisville VA, where his therapist once
showed him a picture of a bus full of monsters and told him that his goal was to
get from the back of the bus to the driver's seat.
Slowly, he said, "I'm getting toward the front of the bus."
Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190.
Larry Scott --