May 07 2008
VA Concealing Number of Suicide Attempts
To say that I am furious would be an understatement. It appears as if the Veterans Administration has covered up the attempted suicides of approximately 12,000 veterans every year/ The cause of these suicide attempts was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and as it turns out it wasn’t because of a lack of resources, it was because the VA, in its reluctance to get involved with the expenses associated with an expensive disorder like PTSD decided not to cover those expenses.
According to a recent Rand study approximately 1.7 million soldiers have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of that number approximately 320,000 have returned with various brain injuries, depression, and psychological disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Until recently the Veterans Administration has claimed that only 1,000 veterans have attempted suicide, but now, two Democratic Senators have called for the resignation of the top VA mental health official. Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Patty Murray of Murray of Washington State have called for the resignations of Ira Katz, the mental health director of the Veterans Administration and other top VA officials.
Information pertaining to the cover up and the actual number of suicide attempts came to light during a national trial in San Francisco when emails by Katz and other officials were disclosed. The trial is a direct result of two veterans groups, Veterans United For Truth and Veterans for Common sense. During the course of the trial, which does not seek monetary damage but rather oversight to guarantee the safety of our Veterans, the emails revealed some of the following attitudes on the part of Katz and his associates.
“Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?” Katz inquired. Another email stated that on the average 18 veterans kill themselves every day and that of that number, 18 per day are successful while, five are under VA supervision at the time. The results are even more tragic when you consider the possibility that only fifty percent of those veterans with depression or PTSD have sought treatment–a fact which may have something to do with the fact that governmental agencies drag their feet when it comes to providing services for those veterans who suffer from psychological disorders, preferring to approve claims for those with physical disorders. Why if you didn’t know better you’d think that the government was dragging its feet where psychological issues are concerned because it believes it can get away with it.
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yep- put a fork in me- i am done. i am giving in and just living and let live. i can’t fight it anymore- the elitist in me has decided that i will acquiesce to the 1/3 of the american people who really think that another clinton in the white house will be what this country needs after 8 years of neo cons; to the 1/3 of the american public who will vote for mccain for reasons i just can’t wrap my mind around. minorities in this country are not well received- apparently, not even by each other as evidenced by the nasty campaign that hillary clinton has waged against barack obama. the people who are clinton supporters think bowling and 
