-Give power to the Veteran to decide as a consumer where they want to access mental health services.
-Enforce violations of the VHA directives when Veteran requests for mental health care are delayed or ignored by VA staff and leadership.
- Request live Office of Inspector General audits in VA systems that receive multiple complaints of access to care directives through the Patient Advocate.
- Create a reporting system where patient complaints can be better monitored and Veterans do not feel ignored.
Currently many Veterans face challenges within the Department of Veteran Affairs Health Care System. The current policies (VHA Directive 1162.02 and others) are not enforced in spite of stating that a Veteran may not wait more than 30 days to receive residential care for VA services. The policy also states that if a Veteran should wait more than 30 days, they will be allowed to use a community care benefit where they can be treated by a non-VA provider more quickly.
After spending the last 12 years in the field advocating for Veterans as a Micro and Macro leader, many of the issues Veterans face is experienced at the decision-making and biasness (power) of VA providers to ignore their own policies and instead force Veterans to wait for VA in-house services. I know challenges such as this one create the climate in which Veterans feel ignored and ultimately die by suicide.
Power needs to return to the Veteran consumer to choose how they experience mental health services.
Patients who have medicaid and state benefits have the autonomy to select their own in network providers, and so should those who have served their country.
As the mental health services have grown and advanced, yet the VA healthcare system has not, there is a distinct gap in quality and accessibility but especially for key areas like gendered-care, posttraumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, faith based services, moral injury, and substance use. A responsive VA system is one that hears what the Veteran needs, not one that strips them of autonomy, or tells them to get in line to wait.
Please save our Veterans, save my brothers and sisters at arms, and reform mental health in the VA system.