VA debated PR plan on vets' suicides-Al Jazeera-Jason Leopold

[fed-up]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=111593

26/04/2008 03:15:00 PM GMT
VA debated PR plan on vets' suicides
(usmilitary.com) 20% of suicides in the U.S. are identified as war veterans.
From the total population of U.S. veterans from all wars, an average of 18 vets commit suicide each day.

By Jason Leopold

Senior officials at the Veterans Administration debated internally how to downplay evidence of a stunning number of suicides and suicide attempts among veterans who were treated or had sought help at VA hospitals around the country, according to newly disclosed internal VA e-mails.

On Feb. 13, 2008, Ira Katz, the VA’s mental health director, and Ev Chasen, the agency’s chief communications director, exchanged e-mails discussing P.R. strategy for handling this troubling news, according to evidence made public Monday in a federal court case in Northern California.

The exchange came in the context of how to handle inquiries from CBS News, which was reporting on the surge of suicides among U.S. veterans – reaching an average of 18 per day – with part of that rise attributed to soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In an e-mail headlined “Not for the CBS News Interview Request,” Katz notified Chasen that the VA had identified some 1,000 suicide attempts per month among war veterans treated by the VA.

“Shh!” Katz wrote to Chasen. “Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?”

Chasen responded to Katz with suggestions about how to avoid too much negative attention to the data.

“Is the fact that we’re stopping good news, or is the sheer number bad news? And is this more than we’ve ever seen before?” Chasen wrote to Katz, adding: “It might be something we drop into a general release about our suicide prevention efforts, which (as you know far better than I) prominently include training employees to recognize the warning signs of suicide.”

..snip

[mac2]

1. We have a right to know the truth.

We pay for it. How can we decide how to run this agency and the Vet facilities unless we know what they are doing and why?

[InkAddict]

2. No, the way things stand, we pay for the PR and spin and

support the products that sponsor its spewing to the sheep.