{"id":149827,"date":"2023-11-17T06:36:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T11:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=149827"},"modified":"2023-11-17T06:36:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T11:36:12","slug":"va-crisis-hotline-please-hold-for-the-next-available-counselor-click","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=149827","title":{"rendered":"VA Crisis Hotline: “Please hold for the next available counselor. “*click*"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n“Your call is important to us.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Vets calling crisis line get lost in system, whistleblowers warn<\/h3>\n

By Leo Shane III<\/strong><\/p>\n

A key Senate Republican is demanding a full investigation into whistleblowers\u2019 accusations that Veterans Crisis Line staffers are ignoring calls from some hostile or problematic veterans rather than providing prompt emergency mental health care.<\/p>\n

In a letter to Department of Veterans Affairs leadership sent Tuesday, Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said the allegations represent \u201cgross mismanagement creating a danger to the health and safety of veterans nationwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican committee staffers said officials from the Government Accountability Office have already committed to investigating the claims, filed by multiple current and former staffers of the suicide prevention hotline to Moran\u2019s office in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Veterans Affairs officials did not respond to requests for comment on the whistleblower complaints.<\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n

Whistleblowers told Senate staff that extra workload has prompted leadership at the Veterans Crisis Line to establish a special unit designed to handle \u201ccallers with complex needs.\u201d Individuals who present erratic or hostile behavior towards VA staff can be sent to those specialists instead of going to the next available worker.<\/p>\n

But whistleblowers said the special unit is understaffed, and many of those rerouted calls are simply dropped or lost.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Military Times<\/a><\/p>\n

Vets in a crisis mode call a VA crisis hot line to be shunted off to specialists who are qualified to handle a crisis. If one happens to be available of course. If there is a need for a poster child of Government Health Care in action look no farther.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Your call is important to us.” Vets calling crisis line get lost in system, whistleblowers warn … VA Crisis Hotline: “Please hold for the next available counselor. “*click*<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":149828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-incompetence","category-veteran-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/149828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}