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Senator: Focus on mental health costs of war

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is calling on President Bush to issue a directive making it clear that veterans’ mental health issues will be fully addressed.

“The buck stops at the president’s desk. The president needs to issue a directive that the costs of the war, particularly of mental health, is an issue we’re all going to deal with,” Murray said following a Wednesday press conference at which senators called on the Department of Veterans Affairs to be honest and forthcoming with their data, and to start an extensive outreach program to encourage veterans to get help.

Murray and Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, said they’re concerned that VA is withholding information about rates of suicide and attempted suicide among veterans, which they said hinders lawmakers’ efforts to give VA the funding needed to help those with mental health issues.

Murray called this one more sign of “a lot of downward pressure from the administration to downplay the costs of the war.”

At a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing April 23, where senators learned that 17 veterans a month commit suicide while under VA care, Murray and other senators demanded the removal of VA’s mental health chief, Dr. Ira Katz.

Earlier that week, a lawsuit against VA brought to light a series of e-mails from Katz about high suicide numbers.

Murray quoted one Katz e-mail in that hearing: “Shh! Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans in our medical facilities.”

VA officials declined to comment on Katz’s status, citing the ongoing court case and upcoming congressional hearings.

But spokesman Phil Budahn noted that the number of mental health care professionals in VA has risen to 9,000 in the past three years, a 50 percent increase.

Mental health services are provided at all 150 VA medical centers and at most of the 720 outpatient clinics, he said.

Murray said the news conference was part of her effort to urge the VA to deal with these issues. She said she has called VA Secretary James Peake directly to express her concern about the e-mails and the incorrect information provided to lawmakers.

“I’m waiting for him to show that the leadership of VA is changing its culture and is a different organization than it was two years ago,” she said.

But individual stories about what is happening to the troops also must be heard, Murray said. She read a letter from the mother of a Washington National Guard soldier who had committed suicide; the mother questioned the quality of care and a system that would allow her son to be called to deploy again, given his precarious mental state.

“He was on numerous drugs for anxiety and depression, and yet he was being told to gear up and train to return to war,” the mother wrote. “I can only imagine how conflicted and betrayed he must have felt.

“I’m aghast at the lack of regard for other men who trained with him, that their safety would be put at risk by not reporting my son’s PTSD and depression to the unit commander at the Washington National Guard,” the mother wrote.

In 2005, after two deployments to the war zone, her son had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Yet he was called up for deployment again, Murray said.

“I am devastated at the loss of my son,” the soldier’s mother said. “But my horror goes even further when I consider how he died — my son hanged himself in his apartment on March 5, 2008. He was not discovered for 20 days, and then only because he didn’t pay his rent for the month.

“He missed numerous scheduled medical appointments at the VA hospital. He missed his weekend duty with the National Guard unit. Yet no one came to check on him.”

Akaka said, “Congress is charged with providing VA the resources it needs to care for our veterans, both young and old. We must be given complete and accurate information, especially when the truth demands it, such as the high rate of suicide attempts among veterans in VA care.”

Akaka introduced a bill last fall that would require VA to improve mental health care, including ensuring a minimum level of treatment for substance abuse, and requiring VA to do a better job of treating veterans with multiple disorders.

Akaka also called on VA and the Defense Department to work together to address the lingering stigma in the military community that is associated with seeking mental health care, “so service members who need mental health care can get it both while in service and when they move on to the VA [health care system].

“We must engage in a national effort to identify and reach out to returning service members and veterans at risk for severe mental health problems,” Akaka said. “No expense can be spared to find and help those suffering from the invisible wounds of war.”