A few days ago I drew attention to Nicholas Kristof's story in the New York Times describing the number of suicides among American veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Veterans Administration has decided to increase its mental health staff by 10 percent. That may not be sufficient.
A report released two days ago by the VA's inspector general revealed that veterans "are waiting far longer for mental health care than the department has been willing to admit. A new applicant for mental health services is supposed to receive an evaluation within two weeks, a standard the department says it meets more than 95 percent of the time. But the inspector general said that fewer than half of veterans received evaluations within 14 days. The rest waited an average of 50 days."
That's a terribly long time to wait if one's suffering is acute.