The Department of Veterans Affairs' suicide hotline scandal should be the final straw in a rotting haystack. Changing this “culture,” as Secretary Robert McDonald describes it, begins by firing its foot-dragging enablers.
“Use the authority you have to demonstrate that repeated failure at the VA is unacceptable by firing Dr. (Mary) Schohn (the VA's director of mental health operations),” writes Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., in a letter to Mr. McDonald.
Despite a 40 percent increase in calls to the VA crisis hotline in 2014, the agency did little, if anything, to meet the demand. Reportedly one in six calls during an “overload” were directed to backup centers, where some calls went to voicemail or were put on hold.
Mr. Kirk says the VA's health services office had known about “unacceptable examples of disregard” since April 2014, The Hill newspaper reports.
It's estimated that 22 veterans commit suicide daily. In response to one veteran's death, a Special Forces veteran with a friend launched an Instagram suicide-prevention page that today is saving lives and has more than 17,000 followers, CBS News reports. Meanwhile the VA is plodding along and will meet recommended changes — by Sept. 30.
This culture of delay, with deadly consequences, changes only when those who cling to it are removed.
