Las Vegas mental health Crisis Response Team sees success with new strategy
KTNV
By: Joe Bartels
Dec 08, 2018
"We are outperforming expectations by some distance, and I think we are showing a good cost-savings to the state and we're going great care for patients," said Asst. Fire Chief Jon Stevenson with Las Vegas Fire and Rescue.
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — There is a small crisis response team that is making a big impact when it comes to the emerging mental health crisis across Las Vegas.
"It can be tense," said Amanda Jurden, a licensed clinical social worker.
"Usually, we just try and talk to the person, kind of gauge where they're at, find out, number 1, are they open to talking to you, are they going to be voluntary patient?" explained Jurden.
Jurden is now on the front lines of the Crisis Response Team and rides aboard an ambulance to make an on-scene patient assessment during a mental health crisis incident.
"They can be angry, they can be agitated, they can be under the influence, all of those things," said Jurden.
"But at the end of the day we just want to see if they are willing to engage with us, and cooperate in some form or fashion," said Jurden.
The Crisis Response Team was organized in April 2018 with the goal of connecting those in mental distress with available resources while reducing the burden on local emergency rooms.
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Nash County deputy honored for service
Rocky Mountain Telegram
BY LINDELL JOHN KAY
Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2018
“If it weren’t for Sgt. Bass, I probably would have killed myself,” the veteran said, according to reports
A Nash County deputy has been recognized for his life-saving compassionate community service.
Sgt. Scott Bass was recognized as Deputy of the Year earlier this week by the Nash County Board of Commissioners. Bass has convinced suicidal gunmen to surrender without violence and appeared on national television for helping a woman find a quicker way to work than walking, often in inclement weather.
Employed with the county since 2010, Bass has served primarily in the Patrol Division and was promoted to sergeant last year.
During the short ceremony to recognize Bass, Chief Deputy Brandon Medina described him as being kind and compassionate with a very generous heart.
Bass' heroism and care for the people he serves as a deputy has been repeatedly demonstrated by his actions.
In 2017, Bass and other deputies responded to the call of a missing and possibly suicidal person.
A high-ranking member of the military, the missing man was located down a secluded path. He was armed. Bass began to reason with the man and ordered the other deputies to fall back, putting himself between a suicidal man with a gun and his fellow law enforcement officers.
Another time in 2017, Bass, while in Raleigh attending specialized training, ate lunch with a friend.
After leaving the restaurant, Bass was about to pull away in his marked patrol car when a man ran up and said a business was being robbed.
"Without hesitation, Sgt. Bass responded to the business and apprehended the suspect, holding him until proper authorities arrived," Medina said.
In February, Bass responded to a call for service where he again spoke with a military veteran who was having a hard time coping with life.
"Being a veteran himself, Sgt. Bass was empathetic and provided the necessary assistance as soon as he recognized that he was dealing with someone suffering from severe mental distress," Medina said.
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Family of veteran shot and killed by Eugene Police seeks to take civil case to jury trial
KVAL 13 News
by Alex Hasenstab and KVAL.com Staff
December 3, 2018
EUGENE, Ore. - Eugene Police responded to the home of Brian Babb on March 30, 2015, after his counselor called dispatchers and said she was afraid the veteran - suffering from PTSD - was going to harm himself with a firearm.
Forty minutes after police arrived, an officer said Babb pointed a rifle at him.
Eugene Police responded to the home of Brian Babb on March 30, 2015, after his counselor called dispatchers and said she was afraid the veteran - suffering from PTSD - was going to harm himself with a firearm. An officer shot and killed Babb less than an hour later. (SBG/File)
EUGENE, Ore. - Eugene Police responded to the home of Brian Babb on March 30, 2015, after his counselor called dispatchers and said she was afraid the veteran - suffering from PTSD - was going to harm himself with a firearm.
Forty minutes after police arrived, an officer said Babb pointed a rifle at him.
After demanding Babb drop his weapon, the officer fired a fatal shot.
The district attorney determined officers were justified in using deadly force.
Babb's family had a different reaction.
"We knew right away that something was seriously amiss," said Stephanie Babb, Brian's sister.
The family filed a civil suit, seeking monetary damages against the officers involved and the city.
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Dothan VA clinic closing, merging
Montgomery Advertiser
Andrew J. Yawn and Melissa Brown
November 30, 2018
A staff member at the newly merged mental health clinic — now named the Dothan VA Clinic — said Thursday the two clinics were consolidated earlier in the week and that there is only one doctor on staff.
Health care for veterans in southeast Alabama is in transition after the Dothan Veterans Affairs Clinic closure was made official Friday.
The primary care services previously provided by the clinic will now be offered at the Dothan VA Mental Health Clinic, although it appears the Wiregrass VA Clinic in Ft. Rucker — more than a 30-minute drive away — will also be heavily relied on to handle the influx of patients from the now-closed clinic.
Despite the more than 4,300 VA patients who are assigned to the Dothan division, according to data provided by the Central Alabama Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHCS), the merged Dothan VA location is currently capable of accommodating 2,000 patients. There are plans to expand for at least 1,000 additional patients, CAVHCS spokesperson Kim Betton said via email.
"Capacity at Ft. Rucker has also increased to care for other of the (sic) Veterans," Betton said. "Additionally, care in the local community will be used to ensure care for the Veteran population currently using the clinic."
More than 3,100 VA patients are currently assigned to the Ft. Rucker Wiregrass clinic.
A request by the Montgomery Advertiser for the number of doctors at each facility went unanswered, and a request for an interview regarding the closure was not fulfilled.
Reid, who lives alone and whose close family lives in Alaska, receives four hours of in-home health aid five days a week to help with quality of life tasks. But within the past two years, paperwork and red tape at the Montgomery VA has caused her home health care to lapse, leaving her without in-home care for several weeks. Reid said her monthly pain medication is frequently delayed as well, a disruptive and painful occurrence.
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James Woods was traveling across country when he received a Tweet from a desperate veteran. By all accounts, Woods went above and beyond to try to save his life and find help for him.
Early this morning, I read this and shared it on Google+. Freaking out a bit, since this happened in the city I work in, it made me want to scream.
How is it that a veteran, right here, could not find the help he needed, right here? How is it that he did not know where to turn? THIS IS FLORIDA! There are events all over the place every week, groups around every block and stunts to "raise awareness." Much like the one I have been blasting that happened Saturday.
I heard he had been found safe from a friend in the building I work in. I could not find confirmation, so I called Maitland Police Department. They said he had not been found, but they were talking to him.
So, when it comes to all the "awareness" being raised, it seems that local veterans have been unaware of "how much fun" the event was on Saturday to talk about veterans killing themselves!
How many veterans have to commit suicide in public before the public catches onto the fact all these stunts do more harm than good? They not only drain financial resources from groups actually doing the work to save lives, they have taken over social media to the point where veterans cannot find those who are willing and able to help them!
So this local veteran, thank God, was found by an actor traveling across the country BECAUSE HE COULD NOT FIND THE HELP HE NEEDED RIGHT HERE!!!!!
Since posts do not go away, I removed the veteran's name. Update from local news WESH 2 had this, "Officials with the Maitland Police Department said a welfare check was performed. The suicidal man told officers he is OK and declined any help from law enforcement or a mental health agency."
*******
James Woods uses Twitter to help veteran contemplating suicide: 'You could save another'
USA Today
Cydney Henderson
Nov. 20, 2018
"So think about this. A lot of vets, I understand, have come to where you are tonight," Woods continued. "If you could just push this decision off tonight, at least, maybe you would also inspire another vet to seek help. You could save another man, too. By waiting to do this."
Actor James Woods used his Twitter account to call attention and help to a distressed veteran who was contemplating suicide.
The "Salvador" actor, 71, alerted the Orlando Police Department Monday night and asked authorities to perform a wellness check on former Marine XXXXXXXX.
"A man named XXXXXXXX just said on @Twitter that he is sitting in a parking lot and is going to kill himself," Wood tweeted to his nearly 2 million followers. "He’s sitting with his dog, a black lab, possibly in a WalMart parking lot."
Woods' plea for help included a screenshot from MacMasters' Twitter account, which has since been deleted.
"I'm on Twitter every day, I retweet all the time but this is the first tweet I've ever written," user XXXXXXXX tweeted Thursday. "I'm (a) good guy, I'm a veteran, I love America. I'm gonna kill myself tonight. I've lost everything I have nobody, nobody cares."
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Collier Sheriff's Office lieutenant runs mental health bureau with heart and soul
Naples Daily News
Liz Freeman
Nov. 17, 2018
There are many people in crisis: in plain sight peddling bicycles on local roads, in and out of jail and the courts, and hidden behind closed doors in picturesque Collier County.
A former Collier County Sheriff's Office road patrol duty deputy, Lt. Leslie Weidenhammer, discusses how the mental health bureau helps people in crisis. Liz Freeman
Lt. Leslie Weidenhammer lifts up the mentally ill from their dark places.
Her memory runs deep. She knows the names of pets. Her internal radar as a law enforcement officer is ever-ready. Yet she also has a master’s degree in mental health counseling.
“It’s Leslie. I’m here to check on you,” she says gently, standing on a doorstep where she has stood countless times.
She gauges stress in the voice coming from the other side of the locked door, of a woman with schizophrenia.
Weidenhammer, 53, listens for the sound of furniture being pushed away from the door, whether paranoia has its grip today.
“Thankfully, she will call me when she is not doing well,” Weidenhammer said. “She has my cellphone.”
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Chicago police officer suicide rate 60-percent higher than other departments
FOX 32 News
October 1, 2018
In a FOX 32 special report: a hidden battle behind the badge.
The tragic trend of police suicides is hitting home in Chicago, with officers taking their own lives at alarming rates.
FOX 32’s Elizabeth Matthews explains why the numbers are higher here than anywhere else.
“He wanted to help everybody, he wanted to help the world, not only certain people. He started noticing, after high school, how bad the world is, and his mission in life was to fix it,” said Ark Maciaszek.
Ark describes his cousin Scott Tracz as loud and passionate, with a big heart. Scott served as a Chicago police officer, working in some of the city's toughest neighborhoods.
“Once he got on it, this guy was 100 percent devoted to it. He said this is it. This is what I want to do. This is how I'm going to fix this,” Ark said.
But at age 30, the job began to take its toll on Scott, and Ark began asking questions.
“I wanted more details so I started asking him, and he would never tell me. He said - this is not the right time, this is not the right time to talk,” Ark said.
Ark says his cousin became quiet and distant.
“He'd seen some bad things happening to good people. He couldn't understand why,” Ark said. “He would never mention the word suicide, or harming himself. That's not Scott.”
But on December 27th, 2016 - his family's worst fears were realized.
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I'm Listening
EXCLUSIVE: Michael Phelps’ Full #ImListening Interview
“It’s okay to not be okay…”
LAUREN HOFFMAN
SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
The world’s most decorated Olympian, Michael Phelps, opens up about his vulnerability, swimming as an escape, and how therapy changed his life - in this exclusive interview:
“While I had a lot of success in the swimming pool, I also struggled with anxiety and depression so I understand how difficult it can be for people to address mental health challenges,” says Phelps. “In sharing my own journey, I would like to help people understand that it’s okay to not be okay, and that asking for help isn’t a sign a weakness but rather a sign of strength and courage.”
Phelps recently announced a partnership with Talkspace, which helps connect anyone with therapists through a computer, tablet or smartphone. “I was scared to go in somewhere and be judged,” says Michael. Talkspace helps break the barriers – especially for those who are reluctant to seek-out help in person, or may not have the financial means. “Every day is not going to be perfect,” he explains, “but it gives me tools to help work through things.”
“Saving a life is much more important to me than winning a gold medal,” Michael concludes. “You are not alone.”
For more positive strokes, check out the Michael Phelps Foundation: https://michaelphelpsfoundation.org.
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Soldiers who attempt suicide often have no history of mental health issues
Reuters
Lisa Rapaport
September 5, 2018
Previous combat injuries were also associated with a 60 percent higher risk of suicide attempts among soldiers without a history of mental illness.
(Reuters Health) - More than one-third of U.S. Army soldiers who attempt suicide don’t have a history of mental health problems, a recent study suggests.
Attempted suicides have become more common among enlisted soldiers since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, researchers note in JAMA Psychiatry. While a history of mental illness has long been linked to an increased risk of suicide among military service members and civilians alike, less is known about the risk among soldiers who haven’t been diagnosed with psychiatric disorders.
For the current study, researchers examined data on 9,650 active-duty Army soldiers who attempted suicide between 2004 and 2009 as well as a control group of more than 153,000 soldiers who didn’t attempt suicide.
Overall, 3,507, or 36 percent, of the soldiers who attempted suicide had no previous diagnosis of mental illness, the study found.
“Soldiers without a mental health diagnosis may have had mental health problems but had not reported them to their medical care teams,” said lead author Dr. Robert Ursano, director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
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The delusion of awareness
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 5, 2018
I do not send veterans to the "awareness" folks for more help than I can give. I send them to professionals because they do in fact make a difference!
Are they therapists? Are they psychologists or psychiatrists?
Have they invested years of getting college degrees to help people living with mental health conditions? Are they members of the clergy, listening to people who have lost all hope?
What qualifies the "awareness" raisers to earn all the millions people donate to them all the time?
What is so important about the stunts they pull to attract reporters all over the country and being bestowed such publicity?
Why aren't we asking those questions?
Thirty six years ago I started to research PTSD and invested years training to do this work for one reason. It was personal to me. I did it for the veteran I loved, and fell in love with veterans. I do not make my living off this work. It is not my occupation. It is my obligation!
I know what it is like to feel all alone, lost and confused. Above all, what it is like to lose hope.
I can tell you right now, that after all the years of hearing the "awareness" folks, not once have I heard the one thing veterans need to hear the most. The one reason that will make them want to get up one more day.
Who thought that telling veterans they were committing suicide was a good thing to do? Hell, we did that way back over a decade ago, because no one was taking it seriously. Back then we thought it was eighteen a day. Then again, we thought that if we let people know what was going on, someone would do something to help.
I read the DOD Suicide report, see the numbers remain about 500 a year, and I grieve. Those men and women were willing to die to save others, but did not think they were worth saving too? What the hell did these groups do for them?
I read the news reports from across the country and see the veterans' families left behind, grieving and wondering what they did wrong. I wonder what the hell these groups did for them.
How does raising awareness of a number, that is not the whole truth, give anyone a reason to fight to stay alive?
This delusion of doing anything worthy of the lives we continue to lose must end!
The groups attempt to gain attention but so do the veterans who have committed suicide in public so that some knows they were here and suffered.
The veterans over the age of fifty, the majority of the known veterans committing suicide, are wondering why they no longer matter to the folks claiming to be raising awareness.
The one thing these veterans needed to hear was that there was HOPE for them to heal and live a better quality of life. That they really mattered and not were reduced to a slogan of a number when they all had names!
You may say that it is not hurting anyone to get the number wrong. Some have even had the audacity to say "It is just a number" when defending the use of the "20" or "22" a day.
They live their lives making a living off the fact that veterans continue to take their own lives. Professionals make their living off saving them, one at a time. That is the only number they need to know because they have a name to go with it!
Exclusive: Hollywood Man Killed In Standoff With Police Suffered From PTSD
CBS Miami
August 9, 2018
Hudson said he was taken to Memorial Hospital in Hollywood then transferred to the VA in West Palm Beach. “On the day that, that happened, he was only in there for a day and they released him. So now, I have to find out why did you guys release him and then six hours later he’s dead.”
HOLLYWOOD (CBS4MIAMI —- The man shot and killed during a police standoff early Wednesday morning suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), his girlfriend said.
Andrea Hudson said she and her boyfriend Leu Freycinet, 52, a decorated military veteran, bought their home in Hollywood back in March.
She told CBS4 in an exclusive interview, that they were planning on getting married in Dubai in three months.
However, over the last few months, things took an unexpected turn. Hudson said Freycinet started having flashbacks from his time as a U.S. Marine.
She said, “He was just saying stuff like ‘the world is coming to an end… you guys don’t see what I see.’”
“He’s just gone,” she continued. He didn’t want to be called Leu anymore, he wanted to be called Jello.”
For Hudson, Freycinet’s constant and so-called fits took a toll on their relationship. She said he was taking a dozen pills, four times a day for depression and was seeing a therapist.
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Jacksonville veteran says mental health facility holding him for week with no hearing
Action News Jax
By: Jenna Bourne
Aug 3, 2018
A combat-disabled veteran told Action News Jax he’s being unnecessarily held against his will at a Jacksonville mental health facility without a hearing.
Robert Mayo, who said he’s already been locked inside River Point Behavioral Health for a week, was initially admitted under Florida’s Baker Act.
The Baker Act allows mental health facilities such as River Point to hold patients for 72 hours if they are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.
Mayo said he should not be a Baker Act patient and he has not gotten the hearing he is entitled to by law.
His wife, Elizabeth Mayo, denies her husband has threatened to harm himself or others.
She said her husband couldn’t get a mental health appointment at the Veterans Affairs facility until until the end of September, so he went to River Point for help.
A week later, she hired an attorney to help get her husband out.
She said their son can barely sleep at night.
“He just lays in there and cries for Daddy, cries for Daddy. Every time he hears a door or something, he’s asking for daddy,” said Elizabeth Mayo.
If a patient is involuntarily committed beyond the 72 hours allowed by the Baker Act, they’re entitled to a hearing within five days.
An Action News Jax Investigation last year revealed only about 2 percent of local Baker Act patients were getting those hearings.
“How are you supposed to feel safe asking for help when you know you can be held indefinitely against your will?” said Robert Mayo, who called Action News Jax from inside the facility, with the help of his attorney. “They can hold you without having to explain themselves to anybody for as long as they want. It’s like going to jail without ever having a set release date.”
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Veteran who considered taking his life thanks cop who saved him
By:KXAN
Posted: Jul 29, 2018
GRANITE SHOALS, TX (KXAN) - Granite Shoals Police Officer Tim Edwards received a challenge coin Friday for getting a veteran mental health treatment when he was about to end his life two weeks ago.
Air Force veteran Larry Guynes says he has struggled with depression and anxiety. The medication he was taking didn't sit well with him and he contemplated killing himself.
"I called the suicide hotline," he said. "I was on the phone with them and unknowingly they called Officer Edwards in."
Edwards was dispatched to Guynes' home.
"When I saw him, I instantly saw somebody who was looking for help," Edwards said.
Edwards says the lessons he learned from crisis intervention training kicked in.
"He was standing in his front yard on his phone when I walked up," Edwards said. "I just gave him the opportunity to speak, let him tell me what's on his mind."
Guynes didn't feel threatened by Edwards, saying he was quiet and calming.
"My focus immediately shifted," Guynes said. "I wasn't thinking about harming myself any longer. It was immediate. It was astounding."
"He had a plan," Edwards said. "I believe he would've went through with it if we would not have intervened that evening."
Guynes was the one who handed Officer Edwards his challenge coin. Etched on the back is the quote "Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid," by former President Ronald Reagan.
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How much louder do they have to scream? That was the question a couple of weeks ago when we posted about veterans committing suicides in very public ways.
Last year, veterans were facing off with law enforcement officers every week. Now there are three within 3 days.
Man taken to hospital after barricading himself inside Byron hotel
The standoff began when police went to do a welfare check and found the man had barricaded himself inside the room
Author: WMAZ Staff
July 24, 2018
When police arrived, they found the door barricaded with all the furniture inside the room.
The SWAT team was called in after family members and police were not able to make contact.
The man inside was confirmed as a military veteran, and police are saying he is under intense mental and physical stress.
No weapon was found and police say he never threatened anyone or himself.
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Man charged with Domestic Battery after Cape Coral standoff
FOX 4 News
Jul 24, 2018
CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- A several-hour long standoff with deputies ended safely Monday with the suspect in jail for Domestic Battery.
Cape Coral Police responded to a welfare check in the 900 block of SW 47th Terrace after a wife called the VA clinic to report her husband was having combat flashbacks and threatened to harm himself.
Deputies responded and attempted to contact the resident, 48-year-old Michael DeArmas, who refused to come out or cooperate with deputies. He later walked out and was taken into custody without incident.
DeArmas' wife spoke to detectives and told them that DeArmas is a combat veteran who has flashbacks and becomes delusional, especially when drinking, as the couple had been doing last weekend.
She said he had access to guns and had threatened to kill himself and their dog.
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Deadly officer involved shooting after standoff in West Central Fresno
July 21, 2018
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- With Action News cameras recording from a distance and witnesses hiding out in neighboring hotel rooms, Fresno Police officers shot a man in the parking lot of the Parkway Inn.
"Officers fired two rounds. One of those rounds struck the suspect at which point he dove right in through a broken window into the hotel room," said Deputy Chief Pat Farmer.
Officers knew they'd hit him and paramedics rushed in, but they could not save the suspect and a standoff ended.
Action News talked to some of Maya's family members, including a woman who was with him at the motel.
They say he was a good man who once served in the army.
They called him a family man who had turned his life around over the last ten years and state records show he also owned his own business.
Both weapons turned out to be pellet guns, but police say they looked very realistic, especially from a distance.
read more here
How much louder do they have to scream?
Increasingly, Maine police on front lines for mental illness interventions
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
BY EDWARD D. MURPHY
July 15, 2018
Involuntary committals are up, as are related service calls, forcing a shift in how authorities train for and perform their jobs.
Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce poses for a portrait at the county jail on Thursday. Staff photo by Derek Davis
Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin J. Joyce said calls related to people in crisis are spiking.
Maine is seeing a surge in involuntary committals – cases where people are held for mental health issues against their will – that is changing how police do their jobs.
The number of those committals has risen steadily in the last decade, from 344 in 2009 to 401 last year, an increase of nearly 17 percent. In another measure of mental illness affecting law enforcement and the courts, the number of Mainers found not competent to stand trial has leapt from seven in 2008 to 136 last year.
As state-provided services for the mentally ill dwindle, more front-line intervention work is performed by Maine’s law enforcement community, significantly changing how police train for and perform their jobs.
The number of calls for service that were mental health-related for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office rose from 383 in 2013 to 486 last year, an increase of nearly 27 percent. This year, the pace is continuing to rise, with 278 calls for service through early July, according to figures from the sheriff’s office. And those numbers don’t include calls for other issues – such as domestic violence or a disturbance – that are rooted in mental illness but categorized differently.
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Carlton: A father killed, two boys hurt. Is Florida’s stingy mental health spending partly to blame?
Tampa Bay Times
Sue Carlton
June 28, 2018
On a Sunday morning, a father and his two young sons went for a bike ride in the New Tampa suburbs. The boys, 3 and 8, wore bike helmets to keep them safe.
The man driving the Dodge was just five days out of a mental health facility. This time he had been involuntarily committed after he walked into a police station, said some bizarre things and warned a cop he might hurt someone. Sometime that Sunday, he posted wild-eyed, ominous ravings on Instagram. His parents would later say they tried for years to get him the right help.
What happened next is the definition of madness.
Twelve days before he was accused of killing a man and injuring two children, Mikese Morse visited a Tampa police substation and predicted he would hurt someone if he wasn't detained, records show. He was taken into protective custody under Florida's Baker Act. But he was set free a week later. [Tampa Police Department, Times file]
Police say 30-year-old Mikese Morse — once a college athlete and an Olympic hopeful — made a U-turn, crossed a lane of oncoming traffic, drove over the grass onto the bike path, stepped on the gas and hit the family. Pedro Aguerreberry, 42, died and his sons were injured. They will recover, but without their father.
Tampa police Chief Brian Dugan told reporters Morse did this deliberately, purposely, intentionally. The chief also said there was no evidence Morse knew the people he hit — no simmering conflict, no hint of the usual motives of money, anger, jealousy, hate, revenge. "Random," was the word the chief used. "For no apparent reason whatsoever," he said.
A question, then: Did a man die at least in part because of a lack of adequate mental health care for someone who clearly needed it, not only for himself but also to keep the world safe from him?
Did our state — ranked in recent years next to last in spending on mental health — play a part?
read more here
What does Gov. Rick Scott have to say about all this? What do members of our state legislature have to say?
President Trump loves to say that his administration is giving veterans a choice on their care. For some strange reason, veterans would rather have the VA to be there for them.
This was on the Huffington Post and it shows what veterans are expected to merge into! A system that cannot even take care of the civilians. The difference is that the Congress is responsible for the way veterans get, or are denied, their healthcare.
Remember, these veterans became disabled serving our country. This is the equivalent of turning their backs on our veterans!!
And now you may have a clue as to why this "Choice" thing is shafting veterans.
Rural areas have the highest suicide rate and the fewest mental health
There isn’t a single psychiatrist in 65 percent of nonmetropolitan counties, and there’s no psychologist in almost half of them.
Rural areas have the highest suicide rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as a high concentration of veterans, who experience higher rates of suicide than nonveterans. Rates of drug overdoses in rural areas have surpassed those in metropolitan areas. There are also more elderly people, who are often socially isolated and at risk for depression, said Ron Manderscheid, executive director of the National Association for Rural Mental Health.
Elderly veterans are the majority of veterans committing suicide! 65% are over the age of 50!
So, if you're a veteran and live in a rural area of the country, the government told you that the VA cannot help you, so you have to go to a private practice. Oops! Did they think of checking on that one first?
Bradenton Beach cop cleared in shooting suicidal veteran. But now the veteran is facing charges
Bradenton News
Jessica DeLeon
June 4, 2018
The veteran served 26 years as a U.S. Marine and completed five tours, McIntosh explained.
"It's sinful that we aren't doing a better way as a country to take care of these people who come back and are dealing with this," McIntosh said. "To add injury to insult to this Marine, he gets released after he finally gets stabilized physically and mentally, and they come arrest him. I don't get that."
A Bradenton Beach police officer was cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting of a man who was suicidal and charged at the officer with a knife and a hatchet in December — a tactic commonly called suicide by cop.
The Palmetto man is now charged with aggravated assault against that officer.
On the night of Dec. 30, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office received a call from Douglas Schofield's sister reporting that he appeared to be suicidal. The sheriff's office was able to trace the location of his cellphone to Anna Maria Island. Deputies and police officers from Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach saturated the island until they found Schofield's gray Honda Civic.
The Honda Civic, with Schofield sitting inside, was found at the intersection of Gulf Drive and Pine Avenue by Bradenton Beach police officer Eric Hill, Holmes Beach Chief of Police William Tokajer, officer Christine LeBranche and sheriff's deputy Amy Leach.
"But for the life of me, I cannot understand why we haven't come up with better techniques for handling a situation where someone tells us that they are trying to commit suicide," McIntosh said.
Schofield nearly died and spent weeks recovering at a hospital, according to his attorney. He was then transferred to the VA Hospital, where he was able to seek mental heath assistance he needed.
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Airman intervenes after Reddit post, saves life of suicidal Air Force member
STARS AND STRIPES
By CHAD GARLAND
Published: May 1, 2018
In Georgia, the airman’s spouse and command thanked Woomer and Collins for intervening. Had they not stepped in, officials said, the airman could have left behind a spouse and two children under the age of 10.
Telephone number of the Veteran's Crisis Line is shown on this tag. The intervention of a rookie Office of Special Investigations officer on Reddit last week may have saved an airman's life.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ZACHARY HADA/U.S. AIR FORCE
Online commenters worried about privacy might not like the idea of special agents among readers in online forums, but last week an Office of Special Investigations rookie on Reddit may have saved a fellow airman’s life after noticing signs of distress in a message board frequented by airmen.
On the social media site’s section for the Air Force, Senior Airman Charles Woomer noticed a subtle cry for help among posts complaining about LeaveWeb and inquiring about making the transition to the Guard and Reserve. Others did, too, according to an OSI statement issued Friday, but Woomer took action.
A poster asked how his group life insurance policy would pay out if “something” happened before he separated from the military. The person — he would turn out to be a suicidal husband and father — wanted to make sure his family would be comfortable.
Woomer, a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations Detachment 322 at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., was one of several “Redditors” who noticed a worrisome tone in the post. He notified his leadership, and with guidance from Senior Airman Justin Collins, he contacted officials with Reddit and Google to identify the original poster.
“These people literally saved my life this week,” wrote the user, who goes by the handle psychopete. “Today I scheduled myself for therapy and I’m active in an online support group at least until my first session. I won the battle and I’m prepped for war. I’m gonna make it.”
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First, weapons are not allowed on VA property. Do not try to take them with you. The veteran in the following report pulled out a knife and a security guard shot him.
The biggest thing to take away from this report is for all the "help" out there, it is mostly too little, too late, because no one cared enough to make sure veterans did not find coming home, harder than combat.
None of this is new and that is the most depressing part of all. Anyone in Congress have an answer for what they failed to do, or are they still too busy talking about sending our veterans into the same mess everyone else has to settle for?
This is what mental health is like for civilians in crisis.
A viral video from Baltimore is drawing attention to a crisis that's unfolding in emergency rooms across the country: Surging numbers of patients with psychiatric conditions aren't receiving the care they need.
On a cold night in January, a man walking by a downtown Baltimore hospital saw something that shocked him. He started recording the incident on his phone.
Imamu Baraka's video, which has been viewed more than 3 million times, shows security guards walking away from a bus stop next to the emergency room of University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus.
And now what happened to the veteran who sits in jail.
Father of Army vet shot at Oregon VA clinic feels betrayed
ASSOCIATED PRESS SALEM, Ore.
By ANDREW SELSKY
Apr 30, 2018
Brent Brooks, who served with Negrete in the 10th Mountain Division, said he was a "really driven, goal-oriented" soldier. Their unit maintained Kiowa helicopters and sometimes came under mortar fire. In Afghanistan, their second deployment, a mortar round tore apart a wooden shack 20 yards (meters) from their own, wounding all the soldiers inside, Brooks said.
In this undated photo provided by Alyss Negrete, she poses with her with husband, Gilbert "Matt" Negrete and their children, from left, Aubree, Mya and Camren. Negrete, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is in jail awaiting trial for attempted assault and other crimes after he allegedly pulled a knife during an altercation with veteran clinic staffers in January 2018, in White City, Ore. (Courtesy of Alyss Negrete via AP)
The father of a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who was shot at a government clinic in Oregon blames Veterans Affairs for letting down his son.
Gilbert "Matt" Negrete, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is in jail in the former timber town of Medford, charged with attempted assault and other crimes after he allegedly displayed a knife during a confrontation at the VA clinic in nearby White City on Jan. 25. A VA guard shot him in the chest.
"First they shoot him, now they're gonna try to put him away," his father, Gilbert Negrete, told The Associated Press in a Facebook message. "You would think they would have some concern about us. My son needs help not prison."
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