Later this week, President Obama will sign into law the Clay Hunt SAV Act, legislation to improve mental health care coverage for veterans.
John Delaney is a proud supporter of this legislation and authored an op-ed in the Frederick News-Post on the importance of this bill.
You can read the op-ed online here.
Improving veteran’s access to mental health care
By Rep. John Delaney
Frederick News-Post, 1/30/15
Imagine a room full of 22 American veterans — the collective sacrifices they made, the good they did while in uniform, the commitment they made to serve the country and the value they bring to the home front each day with their wisdom, dedication and values. With 22 veterans, you could accomplish almost anything.
Tragically, we lose that room full of veterans each day to suicide. That’s how many veterans take their own life every day according to a study done by the Department of Veterans Affairs . Research done by the RAND Corp. found that an estimated 31 percent of men and women who served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. Veterans’ mental health care is a significant national issue.
This is an area where the American people are united in purpose. Speaking to Republicans, Democrats and independents, I’ve seen first hand that this is a bipartisan issue. In the face of this crisis, Congress has a responsibility to act. The good news is that members of the House have worked together to pass important legislation to try to bring needed reforms and improvements to VA mental health care.
Earlier this month, the House passed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act, legislation I was proud to vote for. The House also passed the SAV Act late last year, but the bill did not make it through the Senate before the legislative session ended. Last week, however, the bill passed out of committee in the Senate. Thankfully, leaders in both parties have made this bill a priority as the new Congress has taken office.
The legislation is named for an extraordinary young man whose story deserves to be told, Clay Hunt. In 2005, when his country needed him, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Clay earned a Purple Heart in Iraq and after he recuperated, he graduated from Marine Corps Scout Sniper School and was deployed to Afghanistan. After leaving the military in 2009, he became an advocate for veterans and a leading public voice for helping those in need.
However, throughout his transition, Clay struggled with PTSD, depression and survivor’s guilt. Clay witnessed the horror of war up close and lost friends in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Clay received a low PTSD disability rating (30 percent) from the VA and struggled to receive adequate counseling and care. He had to wait months to see a psychiatrist and the bulk of his counseling was related to medications he was prescribed. Clay felt his medications weren’t effective and Clay attempted to appeal his PTSD rating, but the VA misplaced his paperwork and delays continued. In 2011, Clay took his own life.
Weeks later, the VA approved his appeal and rated his PTSD disability at 100 percent, a tragic irony.
We have to demand better to prevent this from happening to more veterans like Clay. He relied on the VA but he didn’t receive the help he needed in time.
Introduced by a group of Republicans and Democrats, the Clay Hunt SAV Act expands access to mental health services at the VA, increases care capacity to meet a growing need, and brings more oversight and accountability to the VA. To combat the shortage of mental health care professionals at the VA, this bipartisan legislation authorizes a student loan repayment program to recruit and hire more psychiatrists, establishes a outreach program to help veterans connect with health care services, requires the VA to create a comprehensive website on mental health services and mandates that a third party evaluate the VA each year so that veterans and the public can know what programs are working and what programs need to be scrapped or improved.
Clay’s mother testified before Congress, stating that “had the VA been doing these things all along, it very well may have saved Clay’s life.”
Maryland is home to over 400,000 veterans, including over 18,000 here in Frederick County. Veterans are our neighbors, co-workers, sons and daughters, they are not only national heroes, they are a tremendous resource to our country’s future. In the past year, there’s been a nationwide effort to improve VA care, reduce claim response time and expand the options available to veterans. More work remains to be done. The Clay Hunt SAV Act should become law quickly and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should remain focused on making sure that America’s veterans receive the care they’ve earned.