USA : 18 veterans a day commit suicide, four or five of them among the 5.6 million veterans the Department of Veterans Affairs treats

Department of Veterans Affairs : an internal e-mail released Monday revealed that 18 veterans a day commit suicide, four or five of them among the 5.6 million veterans the department treats.


April 25, 2008
NATIONAL BRIEFING | WEST; California: Veterans Affairs On Trial
By NEIL MACFARQUHAR, The New York Times

Dr. Michael J. Kussman, the top official in the health care system for veterans, said in federal court in San Francisco that the Department of Veterans Affairs was not hiding the number of suicides by veterans. The testimony by Dr. Kussman, the under secretary for health at the department, came in the fourth day of a trial in a lawsuit that accuses the department of providing inadequate mental health care. ''We don't obfuscate,'' he said, arguing that 80 percent of the recommendations made in a 2004 plan to address treatment problems had been put into effect. ''It is a very large plan, and we are working hard to complete the last 20 percent.'' Arturo Gonzalez, the lawyer questioning Dr. Kussman, repeatedly suggested that the department was deficient in tracking suicide rates. Internal agency e-mail released Monday revealed that 18 veterans a day commit suicide, four or five of them among the 5.6 million veterans the department treats.

* Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company