VA secretary denies cover-up of suicide rates
Veterans groups sue to improve department's procedures

By Jill Coley (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, April 29, 2008



The Department of Veterans Affairs is facing accusations that it covered up veteran suicide rates. Two veterans groups are suing the VA claiming that veteran suicides are rising at alarming rates, in large part because of VA failures.

The groups — which the Los Angeles Times reported are Washington-based Veterans for Common Sense and Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Veterans United for Truth — want the VA ordered to improve application processing speed and delivery of mental health care.


The Post and Courier

Secretary of Veterans Affairs James B. Peake
Dr. James Peake, secretary of Veterans Affairs, visited Charleston on Monday to meet with officials from Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center and the Medical University of South Carolina.

"The notion we're not trying to get the truth out there is erroneous," Peake said.

The secretary told Congress in a Feb. 5 letter that 144 combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed suicide between October 2001 and December 2005.

But a lawyer representing the veterans' groups produced internal VA e-mails that contended 18 veterans a day were committing suicide. The e-mails were written by Dr. Ira Katz, the agency's mental health director.

Ronald Maris, a University of South Carolina sociology professor, testified last week in the trial, being held in San Francisco.

"Every time you do a study, you have different samples," Maris said in a phone interview. "Each study looks at different populations. Samples are often not complete."

"We make sure we're working off the same set of numbers," Peake said Monday. Maris and Peake are scheduled to testify May 6 before the U.S. House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Those numbers say veterans commit suicide at a rate that varies from 2 times that of the general population up to 7.5 times, Maris said. The bottom line, he said, is "Everybody agrees the veterans' rate is higher. What are we going to do about it?"

Maris takes issue with the VA's mental health screening. Veterans are asked two questions: whether they've felt hopeless or depressed in the last two weeks and whether they've thought of hurting themselves in the same time period.

If a person says no, the questions stop, Maris said. "That's a serious problem in my judgment," he said. Maris would prefer to see standardized paper and pencil tests with 15 to 20 questions. "We need to be concerned about the whole panorama of self-destructive behaviors."

Peake also met with Tom Mikolajcik, a retired Air Force general and former commander of Charleston Air Force Base. Mikolajcik was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease about five years ago.

Mikolajcik urged Peake to grant all veterans with the disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a service-connected disability. Currently only Gulf War veterans are covered, Mikolajcik said. "My comrades in arms don't get the same benefits, and it's not fair," he said.

For unknown reasons, veterans have a 60 percent higher chance of developing ALS.

The retired general described the meeting as "very personable." "Now we just wait and pray," he said.


The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Jill Coley at jcoley@postandcourier.com or 937-5719.



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