A trial in U.S. District Court is now underway as a group of veterans challenge the Department of Veterans Affairs over the lack of care afforded to returning troops. The case, Veterans for Common Sense v. Peake, is said by the plaintiffs' attorney to be the first of its kind. Yesterday a suicide expert testified on behalf of the plaintiffs that veterans are killing themselves at three to seven times the rate of the general population. The American Lawyer has a good summary of what the case is all about:
The suit claims that many disabled combat veterans are in dire need of
counseling and other services they are not currently receiving from the
U.S. government. Erspamer [the plaintiff's counsel] estimates that 120 veterans who served in
Iraq or Afghanistan commit suicide each week. The veterans' groups are
not seeking monetary damages but want reform of a health care system in
which they allege a huge backlog of cases prevents veterans from
receiving timely care.
The San Francisco Chronicle outlined what suicide expert Ronald Maris sees as a complete lack of readiness within the VA to deal with the great number of veterans suicides:
A majority of the VA's
counselors, doctors, social workers and psychologists "don't have the
tools and the information that they need to intervene effectively with
suicidal vets," said Maris, a former president of the American
Association of Suicidology who has been a consultant to the Army on
suicide prevention.
He was particularly critical of the VA's top health care
administrator, William Feeley, who said in a pretrial deposition April
9 that the agency has no systematic national plan for suicide
prevention. Feeley also said he was unaware of any methods of tracking
veterans at risk of suicide and that suicide rates "are not a metric we
are measuring."
The impact of the trial is being felt in Washington, D.C. where two U.S. senators are now calling for the resignation of the VA's chief mental health official, Dr. Ira Katz. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is citing evidence learned in the trial showing that the VA withheld information on the rising number of veterans suicides. As her statement reads:
"Doctor Katz's irresponsible actions have been a disservice to our
veterans and it is time for him to go. The number one priority of the
VA should be caring for our veterans, not covering up the truth...I
have spoken with Secretary Peake and I have asked him to take immediate
action to restore the faith of our veterans in the mental health care
provided by the VA."
The Associated Press details the contents VA emails disclosed at the trial:
An e-mail message from Katz disclosed this week as part of a lawsuit
that went to trial in San Francisco starts with "Shh!" and claims
12,000 veterans a year attempt suicide while under department treatment."Is
this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of
release before someone stumbles on it?" the e-mail asks.
A VA spokesman declined to comment Tuesday.
Another
e-mail said an average of 18 war veterans kill themselves each day —
and five of them are under VA care when they commit suicide.
For more on why the plaintiffs brought this case against the Department of Veterans Affairs, you can visit their website here.
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