Closing Arguments in Suit on Veterans’ Mental Care

Asked on the stand whether he was playing down the traumatic stress issue, Dr. Kussman said, “It is unfair and inappropriate to stigmatize people with a mental health diagnosis when they are having what most people believe are normal reactions to an abnormal situation.”

Gordon P. Erspamer, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the answer indicated that the V.A. had failed to recognize the problem. “That is 19th-century thinking about PTSD and mental health issues,” he said, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder, a combat trauma.

Closing Arguments in Suit on Veterans’ Mental Care

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: May 1, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — The issue of whether veterans with mental health problems are neglected or whether their sheer numbers are overwhelming the system divided closing arguments on Wednesday in a class-action lawsuit in federal court here.

Arturo J. Gonzalez, the lawyer arguing on behalf of the Veterans for Common Sense and the Veterans United for Truth, the two groups who brought the lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs, said that the agency had failed to fully put into effect an action plan it developed four years ago.

The fact that it takes more than 180 days to process a veteran’s claim for benefits represents a “pattern of neglect,” Mr. Gonzalez said, adding that anyone who enters an appeal has to wait four and a half years for a resolution.

“I don’t know how any veteran can stand it and stick with it and get to the end of this process,” Mr. Gonzalez said.

He also emphasized the high rate of suicide attempts, 1,000 a month, among the 5.6 million veterans that the V.A. treats, as a sign that mental health issues need far greater attention.

Daniel Bensing, who made the closing arguments for the V.A., noted that 838,000 claims were filed last year, an increase of 25 percent, because of the jump in veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and a surge from aging Vietnam veterans. While acknowledging the delays were lengthy, he said that the increase in claims for help was one of four factors causing problems.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/us/01vets.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

There you have it. If PTSD is a normal reaction to an abnormal event,,,as posted here many, many, too many times, then why are they going to treat it for what it is? Why didn't they get ready for any of this instead of behaving so deplorably that it took a law suit to get some honest answers? What is it going to take to get the VA and the Bush Administration to stop torturing veterans and start to take care of all of them? Do they even come close to understanding what it's like to be wounded serving your country and then told you have to wait for the income to pay your bills for this long, or in most cases even longer? Do they know what stress like this does to a veteran or their families especially when they are dealing with a stress wound like PTSD? Unbelievable!!!