The VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System has filled 30 new positions and 14 existing ones under a White House order to improve mental health programs, officials said Wednesday.
President Obama signed an executive order on Aug. 31 directing the Department of Veterans Affairs to strengthen substance-abuse treatment, suicide prevention and other services nationwide. Demand for the help surged in the past decade with the deployment of more than 2 million military members to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many have endured long waits for mental health appointments through the VA, said Ron Conley, director of veterans affairs for Allegheny County.
“You want to try to treat them as fast and as accurately as possible so they don't develop larger, more serious problems,” Conley said. “With (the VA) hiring these people, that issue should be addressed easily now.”
By May 31, VA medical facilities nationwide had hired 1,607 mental health clinical providers to meet a goal of 1,600 new positions in Obama's order, according to the department. The VA hired 2,005 other workers to fill existing vacancies.
The VA employs about 20,200 mental health professionals nationwide. VA Pittsburgh employs 268 mental health professionals at facilities in Oakland, O'Hara and Green Tree, VA Pittsburgh spokesman David Cowgill said, including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses and assistants.
Together they treated more than 9,000 veterans in fiscal year 2012, Cowgill said. VA facilities nationwide supplied specialized mental health services to 1.3 million veterans that year, up from 927,052 in 2006.
VA Pittsburgh serves 25 percent more veterans than it did a decade ago, an increase of nearly 13,500 men and women, VA Pittsburgh CEO Terry Gerigk Wolf said.
Adam Smeltz is a Trib Total Media staff writer. He can be reached at 412-380-5676 or asmeltz@tribweb.com.
