VA owes it to war veterans to provide licensed staff

VA owes it to war veterans to provide licensed staff
A Times Editorial
Published December 13, 2007

Service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are returning with injuries that our troops did not survive in previous wars. That's a credit to medical advances in combat cases. But survivors are at risk of developing posttraumatic stress and other mental problems that America's veterans health care system is not equipped to handle. The president needs to get the Department of Veterans Affairs up to speed.

Brian Nussbaum, a psychologist at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa, filed a complaint last month with the state Board of Psychology. He charged that about 12 of Haley's 34 psychologists are unlicensed and receiving little direct supervision. The VA quibbled with the figure, saying nine are unlicensed. That's still nearly a third of the staff at the nation's busiest VA facility. Nussbaum told the St. Petersburg Times he is the only licensed psychologist in Haley's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinic.

VA officials denied that patient care was diminished. They said unlicensed staff receive ample supervision and are on track to obtain their licenses. But none of the 22 psychologists at St. Petersburg's Bay Pines VA Medical Center, which also operates a posttraumatic stress clinic, are unlicensed. That's the way it should be. As a director of health policy for the Veterans of Foreign Wars said: "Experience counts." Advocates say trainees lack the specialized skills, work history and supervision needed to treat an especially vulnerable veterans population.
go here for the rest
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/12/13/Opinion/VA_owes_it_to_war_vet.shtml


As I said when this first came out, this is wrong. What's next? Asking the custodian to fill in at an empty desk so they can say they are fully staffed?