On Veterans Day, we celebrate the service and sacrifice of America’s 21,386,156 living veterans. As the nation reacts to the election of Donald Trump, it is all the more poignant that today we recognize the people without whom a free and fair election would not have been possible.
Over 2 million of these veterans are under the age of 35. Many of them served in the War on Terror of the continuing military activity in the Middle East. This age group is particularly affected by PTSD and dependent on the VA for resources to help them manage the condition.
If president-elect Trump is to “drain the swamp,” tackling widespread failures at the VA must be part of the plan.
American taxpayers were forced to pay $23 million in paid leave to VA employees in 2014, the last year for which data is available. Many of those employees were on paid leave for misconduct: They can’t do the job, but we have to keep paying them. It is nearly impossible to fire a VA employee, even when that employee has been found guilty of a heinous crime. Between 1 and 7 employees were fired as a result of the scandal that erupted in 2014. Fixing this will be a long-term project.
There is one part of the quagmire, however, that shows signs of being fixable: The mental health crisis hotline, where trained counselors take calls from distressed veterans. It was designed to be a 24/7 resource for those living with PTSD and other mental disabilities.
However, the VA hotline consistently fails to answer the calls it receives. Many callers are redirected to another call center, where staff members are not trained. Others had their cry for help go to voicemail.
This is not an occasional occurrence: One-third of calls went unanswered by the VA call center, and nearly an equal percentage of text messages never received a response. VA employees sometimes take only a few calls each day, and many leave their shifts early – leaving veterans without help in their time of greatest need.
Rep. David Young (R-IA) and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) have introduced a bill to require the hotline to answer all of the calls that it receives, and over 12,000 people have signed a petition to get the bill through Congress and on the president’s desk as soon as possible.
When the crisis calls get answered, the results are astounding. Over 53,000 veterans have received an emergency intervention as a result of calls they made to the hotline. If the hotline is managed properly, more veterans will live – making this a tremendously worthwhile project.
