Senator Patty Murray to make speech on veterans mental health care

From Paul Sullivan, Veterans for Common Sense
FYI – This should be a very interesting press conference given the recent incident in Washington State where VA appears to have improperly denied emergency medical care to a suicidal veteran, leading the reporter’s discovery of six recent suicides of veterans receiving care at the same VA facility, including recent Iraq War veterans: http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/10703.

Or go here for the article and read my comment.


http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/07/va-refused-medical-care-to-suicidal.html

Senator Patty Murray

FOR PLANNING PURPOSES CONTACT: Alex Glass

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 (202) 224-2834



Senator Murray to Deliver Speech on Veterans Mental Health and Suicides



(Washington D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) will deliver a speech to raise awareness of the continuing problem of veterans struggling to get the mental health care they need and the epidemic of veterans suicides.



Senator Murray will use the examples of recent veterans suicides in Spokane, Washington and the highly publicized tragic death of Joseph Dwyer – an Army medic made famous in a photo taken during the first week of the U.S. invasion of Iraq – to illustrate the need to take action.



Although, Senator Murray will acknowledge that the VA is taking some helpful steps to address suicides including running advertisements highlighting their 24-hour suicide prevention hotline, Murray will call for more to be done. In her speech, Senator Murray will call for an increase in resources to boost outreach, breakdown barriers to care, and ensure that veterans are not turned away when they seek mental health care at VA facilities.



WHO: U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)



WHAT: Floor Speech on Veterans Suicide



WHEN: Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Not before 5:00 PM ET/ 3:00 PM PT

*E-mail notification on timing will go out closer to speech time.



WHERE: Senate Floor

C-SPAN 2 in Washington State



AUDIO: Following speech a transcript and mp3 audio file will be released.