VA shortchanging mental health programs, report says

WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs failed to fully spend a promised $300 million since 2005 to fill critical gaps in mental health services for returning troops and others, congressional investigators said.

The money was supposed to be used to improve awareness of the VA's mental health programs and provide better access to them for troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, women and other veterans suffering from serious mental illnesses.

But a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday found that the agency underspent the money and that not all of what it did spend went to those programs.

"Veterans expect that wounds suffered in service, be they to mind or body, will be cared for by the nation they served," Rep. Henry Brown Jr., R-S.C., said during a hearing he chaired Thursday on mental health issues. "We will exercise greater oversight on this issue now to determine what VA is spending and how it is being spent, to ensure that funds allocated by the American people are used as intended."

The VA didn't respond to requests for comment on the report.

Read the rest at the San Jose Mercury News

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