DENVER - When the Denver VA's therapists leave their jobs, some of their patients can be forced to wait months without mental health care.
9Wants to Know learned of the lengthy breaks in care while investigating Casualties of Care in the Veterans Health Administration.
Dan Baldwin felt assured he'd soon be paired with a new therapist after his mental health counselor moved to a different job last fall.
"She said I'd be notified, and I haven't heard or spoke to anybody since October of last year," Baldwin said.
When 9Wants to Know interviewed Baldwin in March, he had waited six months without an appointment.
"It just felt as if I have been forgotten," Baldwin said.
Former Marine Paul Dwyer's therapy was also cut off when his provider quit in 2013.
Paul's medical records show he complained about the delays in reassignment to other VA providers. He even had to go to the VA's urgent care clinic when he ran out of medication.
"We know we were on a list, a wait list, because we were told that 'we have to get you reassigned. And there are a lot of vets who need to be reassigned, so you are on the wait list,'" Paul's wife Jeanne Dwyer said.
The couple became increasingly exasperated as Paul waited nine months.
"I know what good healthcare is, and this hasn't been it," Jeanne said.
Forensic Psychologist Max Wachtel says breaks in the continuum of care that last months are unacceptable.
"It also deteriorates the client's trust in the organization and therapists in general," Wachtel said. "[It] makes it harder for them to get back into therapy because they are so angry with the system."
VA officials have tried to downplay the mental health waiting lists.
"It was just to make sure we had all of our patients accounted for," Denver VA Assistant Director Rebecca Keough said when approached by 9Wants to Know on February 20.
"We have had an external review, and they have been satisfied with their findings," Former Denver VA Director Lynette Roff said just days before her sudden retirement February 28.
9Wants to Know requested the VA's findings through a Freedom of Information Act request. Two months later, the VA emailed us to say our request is still at the "Central Office" awaiting for approval for release.
Interim Denver VA Hospital Director Carolyn Adams wouldn't comment about the mental health list investigation. On the job less than a month, she puts a positive spin on the future.
"We do have new psychologists and psychiatrists and nurses and social workers on staff to try to bridge any of those providers that are leaving," Adams said.
Adams says the Denver VA hired 32 mental health providers in the last four months. The VA says just 37 mental health patients are on a list waiting to be reassigned to new providers. VA data indicates, on average, mental health patients can get an appointment within seven days of their desired date.
"We want to address the veterans' issues when they come forward, and we want them to be on regularly scheduled appointments as clinically appropriate," Adams said.
At the same time, the VA says they need to hire 72 more providers in mental health to be fully staffed. When 9Wants to Know asked how the VA could be providing timely therapy while so short-staffed, a spokesman responded that most of the mental health job openings were actually related to an expanding homeless veterans assistance program.
Something doesn't add up for Dan Baldwin.
"A lot of vets are sitting out there questioning: 'what's going on? Why haven't I heard?" Baldwin said. "Before somebody snaps, somebody needs to get on the ball there and get some counselors hired in there."
Baldwin did go to a VA mental health appointment Tuesday. He says it ended without a new counselor assignment. According to Baldwin, VA staff said they eliminated his old mental health program, and they could not offer one-on-one counseling. Baldwin says he was offered group counseling.
On Friday, 9Wants to Know will take veterans' health care concerns to officials at the Denver VA Hospital. Share your story on this form on 9News.com.
How can the VA improve services to veterans? Tweet using the #ChangeVA.
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