1.3 million veterans sought help for mental healthcare in 2012

What they are doing is not the same at every VA. Some actually think outside the "box" and use help available to them in the communities. Others, well, they just take orders and let that be the end of it. If you want to fix the problem with veterans needing "mental healthcare" first stop playing games with the words since almost all of them have some level of combat connected issues. Next, stop using medication as the answer to all. They are being numbed and not healed. Make sure families are included. So much is being done across the country but isn't happening in every part of the country.

VA questioned on mental health care progress despite hiring, funding
By LEO SHANE III
Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Despite more money and more staff to tackle the problem, veterans aren’t seeing enough progress toward getting mental health care, the chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee said Wednesday.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said the extra funding and effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs seems to be going toward more bureaucracy and not better care for veterans. That’s particularly concerning with the wave of Iraq and Afghanistan servicemembers expected to reach the department in coming years.

“The true measure of success with respect to mental health care is not how many people are hired but how many people are helped,” he told VA officials during a hearing Wednesday. “It has become painfully clear to me that the VA is focused more on its process and not its outcomes.”

The comments came during a hearing examining recent struggles of the department. Veterans Health Administration Undersecretary for Health Robert Petzel countered that the department is on the right path, but acknowledged they still have a daunting task ahead.

Veterans Affairs officials have seen a steady rise in the number of veterans seeking mental health care in recent years, from about 927,000 cases in fiscal 2006 to more than 1.3 million in fiscal 2012.
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