Blaming PTSD was Walsh's undoing

John Walsh quits Senate race in Montana, cites plagiarism charges was the headline however, that wasn't the biggest thing he had to overcome. It was the nonsense about trying to blame PTSD for doing it.

"I don't want to blame my mistake on PTSD, but I do want to say it may have been a factor," the senator said. "My head was not in a place very conducive to a classroom and an academic environment."

Every state needed veterans in office to take care of veterans but what happened more often was a lot of talk and little being done. Montana has had more than their share of troubles.

In 2012 the Montana VA was pretty happy about getting more mental health workers. 2012? Yes, that's right despite what the Congress has been trying to ignore with the passage of the latest round of spending during an election year.

10,000 new patients with PTSD checking in at VA every three months
Montana poised to benefit from increase in VA mental health staff
Billings Gazette
By CINDY UKEN
April 26, 2012

At a time when the VA Montana Health Care System is struggling to recruit psychiatrists to treat veterans with mental health problems, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has announced an immediate, nearly 10 percent increase in mental health staffing across the country.

VA Montana has not yet been told how many new staff members it will receive or the specific type of mental health professionals it will receive, but VA officials are heralding the notification.

Some 1,600 mental health clinicians, including nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, as well as nearly 300 support staffers, will be added to the existing mental health workforce of 20,590. The expanded mental-health services will include professionals from two additional health care fields: marriage and family therapists and licensed professional mental health counselors.

The infusion of mental health professionals coincides with the scores of men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The VA currently treats 1.3 million veterans for mental health problems, including an estimated 400,000 who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since 2007, VA has seen a 35 percent increase in the number of veterans receiving mental health services. There are 10,000 new patients with PTSD checking in at hospitals every three months, according to the VA.

The investigation found that veterans on average must wait nearly two months — far longer than the VA has claimed.

At VA facilities in the Rocky Mountain Region, patients can wait up to four or five weeks to begin therapy.

Veterans Health Administration policy requires that all first-time patients requesting mental health services receive an initial evaluation within 24 hours, and a comprehensive diagnostic appointment within two weeks. VHA officials had said that 95 percent of its new patients were seen in that time frame.
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The suicide rate of veterans in Montana was double the civilian rate. That didn't seem to matter too much when VA didn't have a full time psychiatrist according to KXLH News.

While the VA awaits hiring a full time psychiatrist, they are not taking inpatients at this time. However, veterans can still be referred.

VA Montana Healthcare Director Robin Korogi explained, "And so once we do, then we will have our eight inpatient beds open so that we don't have to send veterans to Warm Springs or Boise, Idaho or Sheridan."

Four years ago the VA realized that veterans coming home from war are at such high risk that they hired suicide prevention coordinators in every VA facility throughout the U.S.

They didn't have a full time surgeon either.

At least 300 Montana veterans who need orthopedic surgery are on a waiting list while the Department of Veterans Affairs Montana Health Care System works to recruit a full-time surgeon to help ease the growing backlog of disabled — and often disgruntled — veterans.

To receive surgery, Montana veterans without private insurance must travel out of state for care or pay for it out of their pockets. To compound this problem, Montana veterans are being told that the VA facilities in Denver and Salt Lake City are too busy to accept Montana patients.

Subsequently, they are being placed on a waiting list that is approaching two years.

During a time when Montana veterans needed someone fighting for them, he decided to use PTSD as a way out of something he did wrong instead of doing all he could for them.