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TALKING VETERANS DOWN FROM DESPAIR -- VA suicide
hotline has received more than 37,200 calls and
made
more than 720 rescues -- sending out emergency
responders all over the country to find someone
on a
bridge, with a gun in his hand, with a stomach
full of pills.
Malcolm Boyd, a veterans’ hotline
responder, talked with a caller at the V.A. Medical Center in
Canandaigua, N.Y. (photo by James Rajotte for The New York Times) |
It should be noted that this story was "PLANTED"
by the VA because they knew a CBS News report to be released today would
show that they have deliberately covered-up veteran suicide numbers.
That story here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfAPR08/nf042208-6.htm
For more about veterans and suicide, use the VA
Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=suicide&op=and
For more about the lawsuit mentioned in the
story, click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfAPR08/nf042108-1.htm
For more about the RAND report mention in the
story, click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfAPR08/nf041808-1.htm
Today's story here...
http://www.nytimes.com/20
08/04/22/us/22suicide.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=us
Story below:
-------------------------
Talking Veterans Down From Despair
By PATRICIA COHEN
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — Nancy Nosewicz was busy fielding calls at the new
national veterans hot line on a recent afternoon when someone in Topeka,
Kan., with the Department of Veterans Affairs phoned. He had a 55-year-old
Army veteran from the Northwest on the line who had called to complain
about his benefits but now, drunk and crying, was talking about not
wanting to live. Could Ms. Nosewicz pick up?
In a slurred voice, heavy from weeping, the veteran, named Robert, told
her that he was homeless and wanted to “just lay down in the river and
never get up.”
Ms. Nosewicz, a social worker, listened. And then in a voice firm and
comforting like a big sister, she said: “We don’t want you to either.
Today we’re not thinking about the alcohol or the housing, Robert. Today
it’s about keeping you safe.” She gave an assistant Robert’s phone number
to find his address and alert local police to stand by. The chain of care
resembled a relay race, with one runner trying not let go of the baton
until the next runner had it in hand.
The veterans hot line is part of a specialized
effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce suicide by enabling
counselors, for the first time, to instantly check a veteran’s medical
records and then combine emergency response with local follow-up services.
It comes after years of criticism that the department has neglected tens
of thousands of wounded service men and women who have returned from war
zones in Iraq.
On Monday, a class-action suit brought by veterans groups opened in San
Francisco charging a “systemwide breakdown,” citing long delays in
receiving disability benefits and flaws in the way discharged soldiers at
risk for suicide have been treated.
Kerri J. Childress, the spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs
in Palo Alto, said on Monday that there were an average of 18 suicides a
day among America’s 25 million veterans and that more than one-fifth are
committed by men and women being treated by the department.
Up and running since August 2007, the hot line attempts to respond to at
least some of those in crisis. Over eight months, it has received more
than 37,200 calls and made more than 720 rescues — sending out, from a
narrow office here in upstate New York, emergency responders all over the
country to find someone on a bridge, with a gun in his hand, with a
stomach full of pills.
Paul Sullivan, the director of Veterans for Common Sense, one of the
groups involved in the lawsuit, said of the department: “I’m pleased
they’re responding, however, much more needs to be done so vets aren’t
turned away from health care and don’t have to wait for benefits.”
He says suicidal patients have not been able to promptly get care, citing
the case of Jonathan Schulze, who was turned away twice from a V.A.
hospital before he killed himself in January 2007. Mr. Sullivan, who
worked at the department monitoring benefits, said, “More than 600,000
veterans are waiting, on average, more than six months for disability
benefits.”
Experts agree that veterans are more likely — perhaps twice as much — to
commit suicide as people who have never served in the military. Meanwhile,
a RAND study released last week estimated that roughly one in five
veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan has symptoms of post-traumatic stress
disorder, which heightens the risk of suicide.
Yet whatever larger failings may exist, the staff of social workers,
addiction specialists and nurses who keep the hot line running 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, can count at least some victories by the end of
each shift. What’s unique about this hot line, said Janet Kemp, the
Department of Veteran Affairs’ national suicide prevention coordinator, is
that now the counselors have medical information at their fingertips,
which they use to connect veterans with counseling near their homes.
The model evolved from a new research program on suicide prevention funded
by the department. “For years people thought that asking questions about
suicide put the thought in people’s mind, but now we know that’s not
true,” said Dr. Kemp, who travels throughout the country training staff.
The department is spending about $3 million to start and operate the hot
line during its first year, said Daniel Ryan, one of its spokesmen, and
another $2.9 million on a mental-health research center at the sprawling
red-brick V.A. Medical Center in Canandaigua. Referring to the hot line’s
relay model, Kerry Knox, the director of the new center, said, “You don’t
want them to fall through the cracks.”
With Robert, for example — The New York Times agreed not to publish last
names or exact locations to protect callers’ confidentiality— Ms. Nosewicz
gradually nudged him to agree to be taken to a hospital and to give his
name and social security number so she could check his file and put him in
contact with the Veteran Affairs’ local suicide prevention coordinator
Denise Slocum, a health assistant, meanwhile, relayed questions from the
local police dispatcher. “The police are asking if you’re near an
elementary school,” Ms. Nosewicz asked and then nodded her head at Ms.
Slocum.
“No, no, no — no handcuffs,” Ms. Nosewicz reassured him. “You’re going to
go to the hospital.”
“Do you have a tissue to blow your nose? Then use your sleeve.”
“When they come in, you put them on the phone with me and I’ll tell them
to treat you with respect.”
Twenty minutes later, Ms. Slocum called the police again to confirm Robert
had been brought to a hospital, while Ms. Nosewicz alerted the local
suicide prevention coordinator, one of 156 in all at each V.A. health
center.
Robert’s name was added to a board near the doorway so that the staff
could follow-up to ensure a local counselor actually met with him.
Of course, sometimes a crack is unavoidable.
“He’s going to do it. He’s really going to do it,” said Terri Rose, a
counselor who was working the noon-to-midnight shift. She was wiping her
red-rimmed eyes. A caller from Texas, 65 and a helicopter gunner in
Vietnam, said he had a suicide pact with his friend, but the friend had
gone off and killed himself. He, too, was ready to die, saying he had even
found a coffin for $150, said Ms. Rose, who was in the Air Force before
being injured in an explosion. The veteran hung up and had stopped
answering her callbacks.
Sometimes veterans have a lot of trouble asking for help, said Jacalyn
O’Loughlin, a counselor. “They keep saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m
sorry.’ Especially marines, they feel they’re weak if they reach out.”
About half the calls to 1-800-273-TALK (8255) are from veterans, split
fairly evenly between Vietnam and Iraq, and the rest from their families,
Mr. Ryan said. About 30 percent of the veterans are women.
A couple of months ago, a distraught woman called from Oregon, Ms.
O’Loughlin recalled: She was driving to the woods and then threatened to
“walk and walk and walk and never come back.” Ms. O’Loughlin rang the tiny
silver bell on her desk to signal the health technician. The health tech
checked the area code and phoned the closest V.A. health center.
“And lo and behold, that suicide prevention coordinator knew her just by
her first name,” Ms. O’Loughlin said. The tech called the police and the
coordinator called the woman’s husband, getting the car’s make and model.
Ms. O’Loughlin kept her on the linefor hours, she said. “I could hear her
getting out of the car. I could hear the rustling from the leaves.”
Meanwhile, the police and her husband were driving up and down roads. They
spotted the car, dashed through the trees and found her. She had a bottle
of pills in her hand but had not yet swallowed them.
Sometimes, the victories are smaller, but no less satisfying. That morning
Ms. Nosewicz spoke to a veteran whose house was destroyed by Hurricane
Katrina; he had been relocated to a different state.
“He called crying because he can’t find a job, saying, ‘My teeth are so
rotten and my mouth stinks,’ ” Ms. Nosewisz said.
Dental referrals are not exactly part of the job description, but Ms.
Nosewisz tried dental schools in his area, until she found a school to do
the work. “He was crying on the phone and said, ‘Thanks so much, thanks so
much.’ ”
All in all not a bad day’s work, she said, as she got ready to leave.
“Three rescues, four consults, and one set of teeth.”
An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly
to the Department of Veterans Affairs, known as the V.A., by its former
name, the Veterans Administration.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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