VA’s reputation for health care takes a thrashing

[unhappycamper]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/vas-reputation-for-health-care-takes-a-thrashing/2013/09/12/dcff3180-1bbc-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html

VA’s reputation for health care takes a thrashing
By Joe Davidson, Published: September

~snip~

Joseph committed suicide in the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur, Ga., in November, “locked in a hospital bathroom dead in his wheelchair, a plastic trash bag tied over his head with a blue cord around his neck,” reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

His case calls to mind my colleague Steve Vogel’s story about Daniel Somers, once a Humvee turret gunner in Iraq. He became so frustrated with his attempts to get VA medical and mental health treatment that he felt the government had “turned around and abandoned me.”

He wrote those words not long before he shot himself in the head on a Phoenix street in July. The note to his family said he was “too trapped in a war to be at peace, too damaged to be at war.”

The VA failed him, as it has too many others.

[libdem4life]

1. We must consistently demand no more new veterans until we take care of the ones we've already made.

And also, fully and appropriately employ them when coming home. For Shame.

[madrchsod]

2. hundreds billions for a plane that does`t fly

and boats we don`t need...

[Victor_c3]

3. I get what they are talking about but I'm not really sure if there is much that anyone can do

for some veterans.

Getting veterans benefits and a nice check every month doesn't seem to be doing much for me. I have a nifty 70% rating (worth roughly $1,500 a month tax free) and I'm currently on a schedule to see 1 or 2 doctors a week at the VA for my PTSD issues and it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the financial help and the healthcare I receive and I truly believe that the people at the VA want to help me, but I just don't think any of it does much good. I've been feeling like I'm slipping further and further away over the last several years and I've gotten so that I don't feel compatible in a "normal" society.

My wife makes it perfectly clear to me that she wants nothing to do with me. My brother (a veteran himself) and my parents seem like they don't even want to acknowledge me much either. My kids are at that age that they still unconditionally love me and adore with affection, but it is probably only a matter of time before they start to slip away too. How exactly is the VA supposed to help with that? Some people and some things can't be fixed.

Someone mentioned this above already. If the American people really want to help veterans, they should just stop making them.