Answering the Call: Examining VA’s Mental Health Policies
House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
2025-04-30
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Source: Congress.gov
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Transcript
Good morning, everyone. The subcommittee will come to order. I would like to welcome our witnesses, my fellow members, and the audience to this hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Today, we will dig deeper into VA's mental health policies to gain insight into the processes and quality of care decisions regarding veterans' mental health care. From speaking with veterans in my district, it's clear that we have a lot of ground to cover to fix the mental health crisis in the veteran community. Of the concerns I hear most from veterans is how long it takes to schedule their appointments for mental health treatments. Delayed mental health care in the age of telehealth is well within our ability to address. Veterans deserve timely care. Despite the VA investing billions into PTSD treatment, suicide prevention, and alternative approaches to mental health, We continue to lose too many veterans to suicide. One veteran's suicide is too many. In 2022, 6,407 veterans died by suicide. That is 17 veterans a day. Unfortunately, it does not stop there. An additional 20 veterans die by self-injury mortality, which generally means overdose. I've heard horror stories from constituents who have been prescribed pain medication and told to take more when they feel bad and less when they feel better. As a provider, I would not feel comfortable prescribing two medications that might interact with one another without first consulting a psychiatrist. This is unacceptable. It's impossible to cover every detail of every case, but we know that we are losing veterans. Despite a seemingly endless amount of resources spent, these numbers have failed to substantially decline. One veteran's suicide, again, is too many. These men and women volunteered to serve their country in a variety of roles throughout our armed services. They have answered the call to serve, and as a veteran and a nurse practitioner, it's alarming that we have allowed the VA to fail to move the needle for this long. We must do better. We've tried to throw more money at the problem. The VA's budget has risen 479% since 2001.
And yet, despite a shrinking veteran population, the veteran suicide rate has remained virtually stagnant. Unfortunately, the VA's own numbers have only shown that they are doing less with more. This is not a question of spending more taxpayer dollars, but getting veterans what they need when they need it. Making progress means that we must take a closer look into the VA's bureaucracy and improve our oversight of the processes and policies that determine the quality of veteran mental health care. Suicide prevention and veteran mental health are bipartisan issues. Losing these veterans impacts red states and blue states. I hope this hearing will yield results to important questions about VA mental health care. How are these policies developed? What steps has the VA taken to adjust its approach? How does the VA use science and data to improve veteran care? And most importantly, how can the VA better serve the veteran? The answers that we hear today will inform our next steps to address these urgent issues. Veterans should not have to wait for mental health care, and it is our bipartisan responsibility to ensure the VA has up-to-date policies and is enforcing these policies to ensure no veteran slips through the cracks. Again, this is a bipartisan issue, and we cannot let politics stand in the way of making progress. There was spirited conversation during our last full committee hearing on the VA's workforce reform efforts, the impact the VA's workforce reform efforts would have on delivering mental health care to veterans. The Secretary has addressed this misinformation, and let me reiterate, no mission-critical employees, including those at the Veterans Crisis Line, have been terminated from the VA. I am committed to ensuring that the VA works for veterans and their caregivers with a functioning, quality workforce. That being said, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, and I now recognize our ranking member, Ramirez, for her opening comments. Thank you, Chair Kiggins.
For many years, I worked at a homeless shelter where I saw a case of veterans confronting alone without anyone to turn to mental health challenges. After wearing the uniform and serving our nation, these veterans were dealing in silence with the pain of PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and the risk of self-harm. So I'm really glad that today we're having this hearing to truly discuss the necessity of adequate mental health and suicide prevention screening for veterans. The topic of today's hearing really gets to the crux of why VA and this committee specifically exist.
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