[Vision2020] VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-Mails Show

[Tom Hansen]

 From an internal VA email from Dr. Ira Katz 
(Deputy Chief of Patient Care Services Office for 
Mental Health) to Ev Chasen (position unidentified):
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/VA_email_021308.pdf

"Shh!

Our suicide prevention coordinators are 
identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per 
month among the veterans we see in our medical 
facilities.  Is this something we should 
(carefully) address ourselves in some sort of 
release before someone stumbles on it?"

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 From CBS News at:

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VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-Mails Show
April 21, 2008

(CBS) TheDepartment of Veterans Affairs came 
under fire again Monday, this time in California 
federal court where it's facing a national 
lawsuit by veterans rights groups accusing the 
agency of not doing enough to stem a looming 
mental health crisis among veterans. As part of 
the lawsuit, internal e-mails raise questions as 
to whether top officials deliberately deceived 
the American public about the number of veterans 
attempting and committing suicide. CBS News chief 
investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

In San Francisco federal court Monday, attorneys 
for veterans' rights groups accused the U.S. 
Department of Veteran's Affairs of nothing less 
than a cover-up - deliberately concealing the 
real risk of suicide among veterans.

"The system is in crisis and unfortunately the VA 
is in denial," said veterans rights attorney Gordon Erspamer.

The charges were backed by internal e-mails 
written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health.

In the past, Katz has repeatedly insisted while 
the risk of suicide among veterans is serious, it's not outside the norm.

"There is no epidemic in suicide in VA," Katz told Keteyian in November.

But in 
<http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/VA_email_021308.pdf>this 
e-mail to his top media adviser, written two 
months ago, Katz appears to be saying something 
very different, stating: "Our suicide prevention 
coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide 
attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities."

Katz's e-mail was written shortly after the VA 
provided CBS News data showing there were only 
790 attempted suicides in all 2007 - a fraction of Katz's estimate.

"This 12,000 attempted suicides per year shows 
clearly, without a doubt, that there is an 
epidemic of suicide among veterans," said Paul 
Sullivan of <http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org>Veterans for Common Sense.

And it appears that Katz went out of his way to conceal these numbers.

First, he titled his e-mail: "Not for the CBS News Interview Request."

He opened it with "Shh!" - as in keep it quiet - before ending with
"Is this something we should (carefully) address 

 before someone stumbles on it?"

On Monday, CBS News showed the e-mail to Rep. Bob 
Filner, D-Calif., who chairs the 
<http://veterans.house.gov>House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

"This is disgraceful. This is a crime against our 
nation, our nation's veterans," Filner told CBS 
News. "They do not want to come to grips with the reality, with the truth."

And that's not all.

Last November when CBS News 
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml> 
exposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides 
in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report.

"Their number is not, in fact, an accurate 
reflection of the rate," he said last November.

But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in 
<http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/VA_email_121507.pdf>this 
e-mail, just three days later.

He wrote: there "are about 18 suicides per day 
among America's 25 million veterans."

That works out to about 6,570 per year, which 
Katz admits in the same e-mail, "is supported by the CBS numbers."

In an e-mail late Monday to CBS News, Katz wrote 
that the reason the numbers were not released was 
due to questions about the consistency and 
reliability of the findings - and that there was no public cover up involved.

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Seeya at the CommUNITY Walk, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the
tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."

-- Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.