San Diego VA Failed Camp Pendleton Marine

Report: VA botched Marine vet’s care
San Diego Union Tribune
By Jeanette Steele
Jan. 10, 2016

Also, Sears told VA screeners about being near two roadside bombs when they detonated — and once losing consciousness — but physicians never gave him a follow-up plan for treatment of traumatic brain injury, or TBI.

Sgt. Jeremy P. Sears in a live-fire training exercise at Camp Pendleton. Courtesy U.S. Marine Corps, by Lance Cpl. Derrick K. Irions

An internal investigation by the U.S. Veterans Affairs department has found that the San Diego VA system botched its care of former Camp Pendleton Marine Jeremy Sears, who killed himself at an Oceanside gun range in October 2014.

After Sears’ suicide at age 35, his family, friends and some veterans advocates have questioned how the VA handled his case. The combat veteran waited 16 months to hear that he would receive no disability pay after serving multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and being diagnosed with a brain injury.

Critics said the VA's medical and benefits divisions let Sears fall through the cracks and more could have been done to save his life.
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San Diego Naval Hospital Treats 15 for ‘Spice’

San Diego Naval Hospital Treats 15 for ‘Spice’

April 27, 2011
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego Naval Medical Center says it admitted 15 sailors over a five-month period last year for use of a synthetic drug that mimics marijuana.

Doctors say side effects of the drug often known as Spice include hallucinations, paranoia and confusion that can become debilitating. The symptoms can often last days.
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San Diego Naval Hospital Treats 15 for ‘Spice’

Disabled Vietnam War veteran worries about newer veterans

200 new VA patients put on wait list
By Gretel C. Kovach, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 12:02 a.m.

The San Diego VA Healthcare System has placed about 200 new patients on a wait list for appointments after being overwhelmed by an ongoing surge of veterans needing care and the administration’s difficulty hiring medical providers, the network’s staff said Friday.

The system is struggling with more patients because of the nation’s economic troubles and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It expects to resolve its scheduling backlog in about a week after adding three primary-care physicians and one nurse practitioner, said Dr. Robert M. Smith, chief of staff for the San Diego VA Healthcare System.

Although acute-care needs, including mental health and urgent-care visits, were not wait-listed when the staffing problem arose a few weeks ago, this is the worst scheduling bottleneck the San Diego VA system has had in years, he said.

“Our capacity to absorb new patients into some of our primary-care panels fell behind. But we are already hiring doctors to address the deficiency,” Smith said. “It was the perfect storm of the workload increasing and difficulty getting some of the primary-care people in place.”

VA officials also plan to temporarily assign 50 to 100 extra patients to some primary-care physicians, who normally handle about 1,200 patients each, Smith said.

Donn Dunlap, 63, of El Cajon, a partially disabled Vietnam War veteran and retired Marine first sergeant, had alerted the staff for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, to the problem. Dunlap was unable to schedule a new-patient appointment after moving back to San Diego County.
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200 new VA patients put on wait list

Veterans find peace working on San Diego-area farm

Veterans find peace working on San Diego-area farm
The Associated Press

Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009 9:51 p.m.

When Carlos Rivera returned from fighting in Iraq and found work as an electrician, he felt co-workers who knew about his military experience were gawking at him. He went home angry each day.

That's not a problem at his current job working alongside other combat veterans picking avocados, mixing organic fertilizers and gathering basil amid northern San Diego County's undulating ochre hills.

"I'm outdoors, not stuck inside somewhere feeling suffocated," said Rivera, 25, who returned from Iraq in 2007 after four years as a Marine. "There's always someone to talk to, someone there to understand."

Rivera works at Archi's Acres, a 3-acre high-tech organic farm owned by Colin Archipley, who served three tours in Iraq and is trying to help other combat vets shake the trauma of war by turning swords to plowshares.

Working the earth has long been recognized as good therapy for war veterans. About 20 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs centers have gardening programs, said Anthony Campinell, the VA's national director for work therapy programs. He said Archi's Acres is the only fully commercial enterprise of which he was aware.

Veterans have grown fruits, vegetables and flowers on a 12-acre parcel at the VA hospital in west Los Angeles since 1986. They sold their produce at farmers markets until April, when administrators had them take a break while they work out a deal for a nonprofit group to take over the commercial parts of that program.
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Veterans find peace working on San Diego area farm

San Diego VA PTSD program is a mess

VAOIG REPORT: SAN DIEGO VA'S PTSD PROGRAM IN DISARRAY

-- No full-time director...

Clinicians doing research while trainees handled clinical duties...

Staff didn't follow-up on appointment no-shows.



Executive Summary

The purpose of this inspection was to review allegations regarding the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Program at the VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS):
We substantiated that the designated Medical Director of the PTSD clinical team (PCT) and the PTSD Program does not function as a full-time director. At the time of our review, the Medical Director was only available for program management and clinical care 0.5 days per week and spent the remainder of his time on research studies. In light of the salient role of PTSD treatment in veteran mental health care and the increasing number of recently discharged veterans and Vietnam era veterans seeking VA mental health services, the substantial presence of a clinician-administrator appears to be reasonable and warranted.

In the absence of valid workload and productivity data, it appeared that generally, the PTSD Program is able to meet requests for group or individual evidence-based therapy. However, during times of higher volume, the demand exceeds the ability to provide individual therapy slots.

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http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfaug08c/nf083008-1.htm