I am more then willing to admit that I cringe each time a politician opens his or her mouth about seeing to the needs of our countries veterans - regardless which side of the aisle it comes from. Needless to say, when Barack Obama spoke on Monday about our countries lack of mental health services for our returning military men and women, I once again became skeptical....
Obama: Improve mental health care
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer
Mon May 28, 7:23 PM ET
CONWAY, N.H. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) said Sunday the country is not providing enough mental health services for active duty troops and veterans. He proposed spending hundreds of million dollars more each year for better care.
Once again, we are seeing the kick-off of the campaign season. Once again we'll start seeing more candidates pandering to the veterans with promises of improved VA facilities, health care and mental health care. This is nothing new. Candidates will woo veterans groups and veterans themselves in order to get their endorsements and their votes, we've seen this before, election after election, after election. Question is, will we once again see those promises made, be forgotten?
For as long as we've had soldiers heading to war over the centuries, we've known of the mental toll that it took. It was called by several names, shell shock, ptsd, among others. The inadequecy of the VA mental health system is nothing new, either. The need to improve the availability of the mental health system came to light when our countries young men (and yes, women) came home from Vietnam. Decades later, you'd have thought we would have improved it. We hadn't. It took Walter Reed Hospital to once expose the insufficient VA Hospitals and services.
This country has continuously failed to provide enough mental health services for our veterans. The VA system has been overworked, understaffed and has been subject to budget cut with each stroke of the signing pen. As fewer and fewer of our lawmakers serve in the military, less attention is being paid to those who've served their country and returned changed. More and more cuts are being made to Veterans programs.
Yes, we need an increase in spending for our veterans returning, not only in mental health but also in other health related areas. Let's not fail those returning from Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of conflict. Let's not allow our lawmakers to forget their promises to our vets.