More than 1.7 million veterans live with PTSD, and veterans continue to face a suicide risk disproportionately higher than the civilian population. Yet veterans often wait weeks, if not months, to receive treatment.

Despite the Department of Veterans Affairs’s 20- to 28-day access standard for primary, specialist, and mental healthcare, wait times are much longer, with neurology appointments averaging 76.3 days and veterans at some facilities waiting upwards of five months for mental health treatment. 

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