Military veterans say mental health services need to improve

Military veterans say mental health services need to improve
By DIONNE GLEATON
T and D Staff Writer

Zeke Felder wanted to serve his country by enlisting in the military, but the Army drafted him first. Now the Vietnam War veteran is not finding the government as quick when it comes to providing the treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It looks like it takes forever to get that done. I don’t think a veteran should wait that long. They make every veteran prove what they did, what happened and what caused the trauma, and that’s very hard to do. It took me quite some time to get the claims that I applied for, but I encourage any veteran to become a member of a group,” said Felder, who is a member of the South Carolina Veteran’s Group based in North.

“Sometimes a veteran, especially if he has PTSD, has problems with family matters. You got to really experience these things to really know what a veteran is going through. We talk to veterans about how to cope with problems and also try to put them on the right road for putting in claims and so forth,” he said.

Processing claims is not the only difficulty. Some veterans are unhappy with the telemental health services being offered by the Orangeburg County Outpatient VA Medical Clinic to provide veterans living in rural and underserved communities with improved access to specialty care.

Those veterans feel they are losing the person-to-person therapy they’re used to. Instead, they’re being referred to a phone-based service.
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