News-Record.com

By Craig M. Kabatchnick

North Carolina is expected soon to have the fifth-largest veteran population in the country. Many veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will have service-related disability claims, especially post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. It is anticipated that many reserve and National Guard personnel who have served bravely during multiple tours of duty will suffer from PTSD due to urban combat, which exposes military to close-in combat, civilian casualties and the devastating effects of road-side bombs.

Reserve and National Guard personnel are especially vulnerable because their training was initially less extensive than that provided to active-duty soldiers.

I handled veterans' appeals for five years as an associate special assistant and senior appellate attorney in the Veteran Affairs General Counsel's office, and have since spent 11 years representing veterans in claims against the VA.

The VA has hired few, if any, trained psychiatrists and psychologists during the past four years to handle veterans suffering from PTSD. Furthermore, no new mental health hospitals or clinics have been constructed in North Carolina; the three major VA medical hospitals, in Durham, Salisbury and Asheville are adding no beds, wards or trained mental health personnel.

Without the assistance from the VA to treat mental health disorders, especially PTSD, the burden will fall upon private and county health facilities. The cost for mental health care is often not covered by private health insurance, leaving returning veterans to bear the expense. Much of the cost will then fall to Medicare or Medicaid, passing the expense on to the public.

The VA must recognize that action needs to be taken now to deal with the inevitable mental health crisis.

The VA must not be allowed to simply stick its collective head in the sand and ignore this serious problem.

The writer lives in Greensboro and will be director of the Veterans Law Project, N.C. Central University School of Law, beginning in January 2007.