Texas Veterans Struggle To Get Help to Heal PTSD

Congress had a choice to make many years ago. Fix the VA problems for the sake of all veterans or feed the wolves at the door by privatizing it. Bit by bit, chunk by chunk, that is exactly what they have been doing. Imagine what could have been done for veterans if they actually put veterans first? This has been going on for decades but no session of congress took any of this seriously.

Texas veterans find mental health care difficult to access
Finding mental health care after war proves difficult, 'not working' in Texas
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
By Martin Kuz
September 20, 2015

The number of men and women receiving mental health treatment from the VA surged from 927,000 in 2006 to 1.5 million last year. Veterans living in rural areas accounted for almost a third of the total in 2014, including more than 33,000 in Texas.

Photo: JERRY LARA, Staff Iraq War veteran Sabastian Vasquez, pays his respect at a memorial for family friend and parish priest, Tim Kinast, on Aug. 6 by the Austwell Pier near Tivoli. Vasquez made three tours and was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Sabastian Vasquez survived three combat tours to Iraq in as many years. Then he entered another fight to subdue the predatory memories of war.

A decade after his honorable discharge from the Marines, Vasquez remains plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder and the residual effects of a traumatic brain injury. In dark moments, he feels as if his mind has turned against him and is holding him captive.

Earlier this year, he drove from his house in Tivoli to the nearest Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic, 35 miles away in Victoria. He inquired about counseling and discovered that one-on-one sessions were not offered. For individual therapy, he would need to travel to a VA facility in San Antonio, 150 miles from home and a five-hour round trip.

"It's no wonder we have so many veterans offing themselves," said Vasquez, 32, who grew up in Tivoli, an unincorporated town of fewer than 500 residents not far from Hynes Bay on the Gulf Coast. "You get kind of hopeless when you hit all these obstacles."
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