Montana VA Mental Health Center Shut Doors

By October of 2014, 46 veterans in Montana committed suicide. That was just in Montana and just the ones reported so the public could read about them. 9 months, 46 suicides

Within the report was the story of Brandon Slack. His story reflected what was going on all across this country, after all the speeches and bills being signed, after all the claims, and after all the elected officials got angry for the cameras.

Brandon Slack, 29, came from a long line of public service. Many of his family members served in the U.S. Marine Corps, including his mother Kate Slack. For Brandon, being a Marine was not just a career, it was in his blood.

"My son Brandon was one of those larger-than-life type personalities," said Slack. "Brandon did two tours in Iraq. He was every bit of what a Marine should be."

After his first deployment to Fallujah, Brandon began taking medication for PTSD when he came home.

"Something was desperately wrong, his temper was startling," said Slack. "I came into the house one day, he was on the phone with somebody and I didn't even recognize who this person was."

Despite the noticeable change in her son's behavior, Brandon would be deployed for a second tour, this time in Ramadi.

Brandon survived, but suffered the invisible wounds of PTSD from the two combat tours.

After trying for years to find her son help through the Veterans Affairs Hospital and through many other avenues including therapy, he ultimately lost his battle. Brandon committed suicide in October of 2013.

So here they go again, complaining in anger over something the got angry about a very long time ago.

VA Montana temporarily closing mental health center at Fort Harrison
Independent Record
ERIC KILLELEA
February 10, 2015

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VA Montana is temporarily closing its acute care mental health unit on the Fort Harrison campus because of “chronic workforce shortages,” said U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines in press releases on Tuesday.

Tester said he raised concerns about the closure during a phone call with VA Montana interim director John Ginnity last week.

Ginnity said on Tuesday that a “perfect storm” recently occurred when two mental health providers retired, and one provider resigned for a position elsewhere. He said the eight-bed, 24/7 acute care unit has been underused compared with the 16-bed residential rehabilitation unit for post-traumatic stress disorder or substance abuse.

“Only about 35 percent of the acute unit is utilized and 65 percent is unused,” Ginnity said. “Most veterans seek inpatient mental health treatment at the hospitals in their local communities.”
read more here

In 2007 2 Wisconsin clinics shut down.

Two recently opened Minneapolis VA clinics in western Wisconsin were abruptly shut down this week by the company under contract to run them. Kentucky-based Corporate Health and Wellness says it lost hundreds of thousands of dollars opening the clinics. It blames the closings on a lack of additional funding from the VA.

St. Paul, Minn. — The two clinics that sit idle now opened to much fanfare this summer and fall. The VA said, and local veterans agreed, the facilities in Hayward and in Rice Lake would make it much easier for area vets to get basic health care. No longer would they have to travel long distances to VA facilities in places like Duluth-Superior or the Twin Cities.

But without warning, the clinics closed this week.

VA spokesman Ralph Heussner says the locked doors are an unexpected disappointment.

"It's an inconvenience and we apologize for that," says Heussner. "The reason we set the clinics in those communities is to provide service so the veterans would not have to travel long distances."

Heussner says the VA is looking into several primary care options for more than 900 veterans who've been using the Hayward and Rice Lake clinics.

29 Patients at Marion VA died because of substandard and questionable care That happened in 2008 when the national news didn't care. But what the hell, they didn't care to remind anyone that back then the VA budget was $3 billions short.

VA was losing Care Coordinators

How we treat our veterans is how this nation is measured. If we do not care for the men and women retaining our freedom, that what have we become?

Now here's a flashback to 2012 and Montana VA

In Montana, where veterans wait an average of five weeks to begin counseling, an eight-bed wing of a mental health facility at Fort Harrison has been vacant for nine months because of a lack of psychiatrists, the VA says. The Rocky Mountain VA region needs to fill nearly one of four psychiatrist positions.

The vacancies occur at a time when the number of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is increasing by about 10,000 every three months, what experts say is the cumulative effect of a decade of war, VA data show.

The VA has about a 20% shortfall in psychiatrists at hospitals throughout the Northwest, Deep South and Southern California, according to department data.

ANYONE BOTHER TO ASK TESTER TO EXPLAIN ANY OF THIS?