Caring for our veterans

by Mike Fitzpatrick, Executive Director, NAMI

The news concerning the treatment injured combat veterans were receiving at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., was profoundly disturbing to me, my colleagues at NAMI, and the mental health community at large—indeed, to the whole country.

Soldiers who have lost limbs or suffered head injuries were forced to navigate layers of bureaucracy and live in substandard conditions in order to receive the care they were due. It’s challenging enough when one is healthy, but almost impossible when one is recovering from physical and mental injuries.

While the problems at Walter Reed are certainly severe, I worry that similar scenarios are playing out elsewhere in other U.S. military and VA hospitals across the country.

Access to quality mental health care for active duty personnel, veterans, and their dependents has always been problematic, but the challenge of getting care when needed has grown dramatically as more troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Conflicts a world away have led to significant increases in the number of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, other mental illness, and severe brain injuries.

We read of soldiers committing suicide, either on duty or after coming home. Many of the soldiers are young; some will need life-long care. What is to become of them?

NAMI has worked for many years on Capitol Hill to ensure that attention is paid to veterans’ mental health issues.

NAMI gave testimony on Capitol Hill this spring at the VA’s budget appropriations hearings, and the nomination hearings for Dr. Michael Kussman, the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health.

We have worked as part of a strong coalition to give recommendations for change to the Commission that was set up by President Bush to look into the care available to returning veterans.

NAMI’s Veterans Council was established a number of years ago, in part, to better focus our response and to ensure that the mental health care needs of veterans, active duty personnel, and their dependents are met. Members from the VA’s 21 VISNs (Veterans Integrated Service Network) that manage VA field facilities are represented on the Council.

The Council provides outreach to national veterans’ service organizations; educates Congress, the VA, and the Administration on the special challenges faced by veterans with severe mental illnesses; and works with NAMI state and affiliate offices on issues affecting veterans.

We want the VA to commit to reforming its mental health programs and to using all available resources to provide the quality care our veterans deserve. It is our goal to make sure that the problems faced by soldiers at Walter Reed are a bureaucratic anomaly.

The answer to my earlier question—what is to become of returning soldiers in need of care—is very simple: we must take care of the men and women who gave themselves, literally, to protect us.