Long waits at the VA for mental health care
Source: AP-Excite
By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA and DAVID B. CARUSO
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Nick D'Amico, a deeply troubled Army veteran, had been seeing a counselor every other week. But he found it next to impossible to get a follow-up appointment at the El Paso VA with a psychiatrist who could adjust his medication, according to his mother.
The best the system could offer, she says, was a half-year wait for a teleconference with a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
That appointment was still two months away when D'Amico, 45, left his wallet, phone, watch and Desert Storm hat at home and committed suicide by driving off a cliff outside El Paso last September.
"It's shameful. It's disgusting. It's got to stop," says his mother, Bonnie D'Amico.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140611/us--veterans-health_care-mental_health-00cbb38e5c.html
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