Article published Saturday, June 7, 2008
Some being shut out of aiding vets
In the past few days there have been several stories in The Blade about the U.S. military's high suicide rate, high occurrences of post-traumatic stress disorder, and lack of qualified mental health professionals within the Veterans Administration to help with the ever-increasing number of veterans needing mental- health care.
I find it quite ironic that, given these reports, licensed mental- health counselors such as myself are being virtually shut out of the VA health-care system. The majority of "counseling" positions within the VA are open only to social workers. Indeed, I am not even allowed to apply for "counseling" jobs because I am not a social worker. Recently I offered my services to the VA on a volunteer basis and I was denied the ability to even volunteer to help my fellow veterans.
While we hear that the VA is doing all it can for our veterans, it is in reality actively and purposely keeping well-qualified mental-health counselors from providing desperately needed services to our brave veterans. How, I ask, is this doing everything they can for our veterans?
This has to stop, and the VA needs to be forced to open up its recruiting and hiring practices equally to all qualified mental-health professionals. If you want to do something for our troops, call your congressman and senator and demand that our troops be given the best care possible by allowing all appropriately trained mental-health professionals equal access to VA employment. Our service members deserve the best mental-health care they can get and by all accounts they are not getting it.
Fred Lockard
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080607/OPINION03/806070327
I hope this is not yet another mindless practice the VA is doing. Please tell me it's not. Please tell me that all this time after reports began to surface they VA has finally learned their lesson and this is not being done. Why is it that I totally believe the person who wrote this as a comment in the Toledo Blade? What's next?
The letter I wrote is absolutely correct. The VA words most of its "mental health" positions in such a way that only social workers can even apply. This is despite the fact that most of these positions list some type of counseling or therapy as a primary duty. Check it out for yourself at www.va.gov
ReplyDeleteGo to the website and check out the jobs section. You will see over 100 open positions for social workers and only 4-5 for licensed counselors!
I am a veteran and a licensed counselor but the VA does not seem to think I am qualified for the vast majority of their "mental health" positions. If you want to help please contact your congressman/senator and let them know that this hold that social workers have on the VA is adversely affecting our troops by not allowing well-qualified licensed counselors the ability to treat our vets. I have nothing against social workers as they fill a needed and specific purpose. But to say that only social workers are qualified to conduct mental health counseling is ridiculous. This is lobbying and politics and its worst, and our brave veterans end up getting short changed – again. Please help get the word out. Thanks so much!
Fred Lockard MA., LPC
vetcounselors@yahoo.com
Thank you Fred for wanting to help as well as well as making this public. You are not the first one this happened to but I hoped you would be the last. I was not aware the VA was still doing this.
ReplyDeleteThis past weekend, I was at the NAMI convention. I attended mostly veterans sessions. During one of them a man stood up and reported this same thing had happened to him. The speaker said this was not the case and the VA does hire mental health professionals other than social workers. As during other sessions there was a lot of spin going on and people walked out of the session. I am glad people are speaking out and telling the truth.
You have a problem with them on the mental health end and I have one as a Chaplain. The VA won't hire someone like me because I am not their kind of Chaplain even though I have a
license, I'm certified, ordained, insured and have been doing this work for over 25 years. There are a lot of problems with the VA and even more will come unless they open the doors to people who are not only qualified, but experienced as well.
Chaplain,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply and your obvious concern about our vets health and safety. The VA seems to be playing some political game here with the social workers coming out on top. For some reason they just love SW's (they must have a powerful lobby). All we can do is keep fighting and trying to get our vets the best care possible despite the VA. Please feel free to e-mail me more about this.
Fred
Things are changing because people are willing to fight to change what is wrong. Don't give up!
ReplyDelete