The VA's Suicide Squad

While the government is trying mightily to deny it, it's become obvious that veterans returning from the Iraq War are facing a mental-health crisis of staggering proportions. A Rand Corporation study released last week estimated that:

• 300,000 veterans suffer from everything from depression to full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder
• A further 320,000 veterans suffer from varying degrees of traumatic brain injury
• Only half of veterans who need treatment seek it, with the rest fearing damage to their careers, denial of security clearances, or other consequences
  
• Only half of veterans who seek treatment get anything more than "suck it up" pep talks, or give up when confronted with a six-month wait time
  

And now CBS is reporting a cover-up within the Veterans Administration structure, deliberately hiding the true number of soldiers and veterans who commit suicide.

Earlier this year, the VA told CBS that there were only 790 attempted suicides in all of 2007. But only a few days later, the VA's head of mental health E-mailed his media adviser with some very different numbers.

"Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities," Dr. Ira Katz wrote. "Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?"

The VA's reaction to this horrible statistic was not "how can we help them?" or "how can we save them from themselves?" but "should we keep it quiet?"

Once again, we see how the Bush Administration's obsession with secrecy and "message control" infects every nook and cranny of government. With their negligence and incompetence, they are hurting the very same people they claim to be supporting, and no one likes it when veterans who have already given so much are hurt once again.