VA Canceled Appointment for Mental Illness Awareness Week?

Update to the original story

Local veteran finds 'twisted humor' in VA's ironic decision -- but she's not laughing
Counseling session a victim of 'Mental Health Week'
By Kevin Leininger of The News-Sentinel
November 4, 2014

Leslie Haines figures it could have been worse.

"I'm just glad it wasn't "suicide prevention day," she said, remembering how her Oct. 9 counseling session for post-traumatic stress disorder had been canceled -- without warning, she says -- so 47 staff members at Fort Wayne's VA Medical Center could attend a Mental Health Awareness week training session.

But if the Army Reserve major and executive director of Lutheran Military Veterans and Families Ministry was able to appreciate the irony in her aggravation -- and she was -- Haines also believes the incident illustrates a potential danger for people already struggling with serious issues that may have been exacerbated by the very bureaucracy that is supposed to be helping them.

"I can generally find twisted humor in things," said Haines, who served as a military police officer at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and injured while serving in Iraq -- duty that also produced emotional scars she is reluctant to discuss but remain years later. "With PTSD you're already dealing with trust issues, and is somebody breaks that trust, it only erodes further. I'm glad (Lutheran Military Veterans) is a not-for-profit organization where we don't look at the clock, with no bureaucratic issues to deal with."
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Veteran's canceled appointment drips with irony
Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
October 27, 2014

In October, Army Reserve Maj. Leslie Haines walked into the Fort Wayne campus of the Northern Indiana VA Health Care System for her regularly scheduled appointment at the PTSD clinic.

The session had been on the books for months; Haines says she attends appointments like clockwork to treat her “high-level PTSD, that’s often exacerbated” by her civilian job — counseling troops and veterans.

But on Oct. 9, the clinic receptionist told Haines her appointment that day had been canceled.

The reason?

Mental Illness Awareness Week.

The staff, it seems, was attending a guest lecture on resiliency from an inspirational speaker.

“Do they see the irony in that?” Haines said. “I was thinking, I’m glad it wasn’t National Suicide Prevention Day.”
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