he had more personality than than a whole bunch of
people put together. I miss him terribly. I miss him
every day. The guilt felt by Conor McDaniel's father is
overwhelming. Last year, the 26 year old veteran sent
his last email to his loved ones. He felt like his
entire life had been a series of bad experiences. His
family tried to stop him. His father, David, calling
law enforcement for help. El paso County Sheriff's
deputies found Mcdaniel first where he provoked them to
shoot and kill him. The District Attorney's office
ruled the shooting was justified. David Mcdaniel is no
fulfilling a promise to his son that he would never be
just another number. My son made it very clear in his
note to us that he didn't want to be A gun violence
statistic, a veteran suicide statistic. McDaniel wan
to ensure every veteran receives access to mental
health care after they return home and data shows the
need is rising. The Department of Veterans Affairs
projects a 32 percent spike in outpatient mental heal
care over the next 10 years and one third of veterans
who received care from the V.A. Were diagnosed with at
least one mental health condition stigma and shame. Are
some of them according to bob Mclaughlin with the Mount
Carmel Veterans Service Center. It's about resiliency,
right And when when, when that breaks, when, when, when
people feel that they're weak, that's against the
culture. In a 2018 study from the peer reviewed BMC
Health Service journal research found a majority of
veterans were worried about what others would think if
they sought treatment. University of Memphis President
Michael also says troops on active duty can face
consequences for reaching out for help. Ultimately, the
concern is about the impact on career progression, t
impact on your deploy ability, the impact on all sorts
of things in terms of advancement, that's how stigma
maintained. Some veterans told the BMC that feared
lingers long into retirement in an effort to erase
stigma. The Via created a national campaign called the
Veterans know where former service members encourag
each other to take charge of their mental health really
is quite empowering to hear veterans talk about the
struggle, how they became aware of the struggle and
then all the different kinds of ways that they got help.
Even when veterans look for treatment. The BMC study
found that many had little confidence in the V.A.
Healthcare system. Veterans who were interviewed
pointed to appointment problems and staffing issues and
limited follow up from providers and staff. It's just
starting to build back up into another weightless
scandal before the problem drop to a crisis point like
the waitlist scandal. In 2014, Navy veteran Paula Deen
accused the V.A. In phoenix of lying to the federal
government about shorter appointment wait times an
audit from the via Inspector general found systemi
problems throughout the V.A. Discovering the average
weight was really 115 days and at least 40 veterans
died without the chance to see a doctor, There was 100
and 11 V.A. Facilities that were using the same
methodology in manipulating the wait time data to make
them. V.A. Secretary. Eric Shinseki stepped down in the
wake of the scandal and then President Barack Obama
signed 19 executive orders to improve V.A. Hospitals on
the website. The V.A. Says it implemented new methods
of calculating average wait times to be more accurate
so patients can check how long it will take to see a
provider. The wait times change daily. But when we last
checked within 50 miles of Chicago, the wait was any
anywhere from 9 to 13 days under the V.A. Mission Act
of 2018 which aims to provide broader health acces
Veterans should only wait a standard of 20 days after
requesting a mental health appointment. Rural areas
also face unique geographical hurdles like in Sioux
falls South Dakota. When we last checked, there is one
treatment facility in the area with a 15 day wait. The
center with the second earliest availability is 95
miles away. Veterans can't get the help they need. The
V.A. Mission act says the V.A. Is supposed to pay other
health care systems to take over like community care.
But an investigation from USA today last year found in
some cases, administrators overruled dr recommendations
to send vets outside the V.A. In order to retain
patients and once people are sent to community care,
the average wait time is about 42 days, the V.A. Told
Usa today it's following mission act requirements and
some doctors say expanded telehealth is easing
struggles the way that psychiatrists and psycholo
can work with. Someone in the rural area is really
effective by using these systems as well. Via data
shows the pandemic drove telehealth appointments t
unprecedented heights, jumping nearly 2000% between
january 2020 and 2021 officials told Congress last ye
about spending government funds to expand care and
improve for each. We distributed over 84,000 ipads,
20,000 cellular phones. It helped us to accelerate our
modernization of bandwidth. We were able to reach over
2100 locations with increased bandwidth on moderniz
platforms. Today the system is supporting over 100,000
remote users. Still some veterans expo trust distrust
over using online services, telling BMC researche
they think the system will share private information.
One Vietnam veteran confessed he was afraid that
sharing about his time overseas would land him in jail.
Other vets say they simply didn't know anything about V.A.
Benefits before leaving the military. They struggled to
understand how to find or use mental health services as
veterans instead of as active duty members built make
the connection dot net an online resource to link up
veterans with resources and solutions for their mental
health needs. There are also free online tools for
veterans to deal with sleep issues or anger managemen
plus a crisis line with 24 7 support for vets and their
families. But via Dr Brett Berger says it's importan
for veterans to take the difficult first step and seek
the support they need. Veterans are proud, they've
served their country, they don't want to admit that
they have a problem or admit to defeat in any way. So
admitting that they have a mental health problem is
really difficult if we can make the D disappear from P.T.S
And and it's not such a stigma and it's something
everybody who's been in combat goes for some mental
health. I think it will change things a lot. He just
wants to make sure troops know they aren't alone when
they come back from deployment while keeping his so
memory alive. Along the way, Alex Miller, Newsy