U.S.: Veterans sue VA over poor care, soaring suicide rate
SAN FRANCISCO, (IPS/GIN) — Roughly 18 U.S. veterans commit suicide every week, advocates told a federal judge April 21 in San Francisco, blaming the United States government for doing a poor job of caring for wounded war veterans.
Dr. Ira Katz, head of the VA’s Mental Health division
“The suicide problem is out of control,” said Gordon Erspamer, an attorney representing the groups Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Our veterans deserve better.”
Erspamer’s comments came in opening arguments for what is expected to be a week-long trial, the first class action brought on behalf of 1.7 million Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.
Early arguments were punctuated by allegations that top government officials deliberately deceived the U.S. public about the number of veterans attempting suicide.
An e-mail made public during the trial revealed that the head of the VA’s Mental Health division, Dr. Ira Katz, advised a media representative not to tell reporters that 1,000 veterans receiving care at the VA try to kill themselves every month.
“Shh!” the e-mail begins.
“Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?” the e-mail concludes.
According to CBS News, Katz’s email was written shortly after the VA provided the network with data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all of 2007 — a fraction of Katz’s estimate.
“The system is in crisis, and unfortunately the VA is in denial,” Erspamer told the court, urging U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti to appoint a special master to oversee the troubled agency. The veterans groups are also seeking a judge’s order forbidding the VA from turning away any veteran who shows up at a facility seeking mental health care.
In a number of high-profile cases, Iraq war veterans have killed themselves after being turned away from the VA.
Lawyers for the government disagreed strongly with the veterans, claiming that the VA runs a “world-class health care system.” Multiple times during his opening statement, Justice Department lawyer Richard Lepley portrayed the veterans’ groups as “special interests” and argued the changes the groups seek in their lawsuit — better and faster mental health care, and more rights for veterans appealing denials of benefits — are beyond the judge’s authority.
“You have no standards to judge,” Lepley told Conti. “This court shouldn’t be trying to be a substitute for what the medical professionals at the VA decide.”
No veterans are set to testify at the trial, which focuses on the nature of the Byzantine bureaucratic system that veterans must navigate to receive health care and disability benefits. According the Department of Veterans Affairs, the average time a veteran must wait to learn if his or her disability claim has been approved is 185 days, or about six months.
Veterans’ groups have asserted that the real wait is much longer, noting that if a veteran appeals the disability ruling, the appeals process can drag on for years. According to internal VA documents provided by the plaintiffs, 526 veterans have died this year while their disability claims were being reviewed.
—Aaron Glantz
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