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Sazha Alexandra Ramos of Bangor is vice president of military and veteran affairs at American Addiction Centers. She is a Navy veteran. Nov. 8 marked her 10th anniversary in recovery.
They’re often called invisible wounds: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, substance use and other severe mental health conditions. They are the scars that lie beneath the surface — the ones you can’t see or touch — and yet, somehow, they can still consume you.
Far too many of our nation’s veterans are suffering with these types of injuries and finding that there aren’t enough resources or treatment options to help them heal.
I know. Because it happened to me.
I battled an addiction to opioids after a severe car accident during my military service that left me with a traumatic brain injury and nearly blind in one eye. After years in active addiction, I sought help with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). But instead of admitting me to the ER, they directed me to a facility two hours away for Suboxone.
It felt like I was being abandoned at my lowest point. I left and sought help from a private facility that admitted me immediately. I stayed there for four months.
That was 10 years ago and I am still in recovery today. Treatment saved my life. But that life-saving care did not come from the VA.
My story is just one of countless others. According to data from 2022, an estimated 3.6 million veterans aged 18 or older had a substance use disorder. More than a third (39 percent) also have a co-occurring disorder like PTSD, depression or anxiety.
Studies also suggest that vets with substance use disorders have a significantly increased risk of suicide. Timely treatment is absolutely crucial, but it’s sadly not the norm.
In 2018, Congress took action to address this crisis, enacting the MISSION Act, which was designed to improve veteran access to care outside the VA (also known as the Veteran Community Care Program).
This was progress. For many veterans, the opportunity to see providers outside the VA is crucial, especially in situations when wait times are too long, VA hospitals are often too far away, and certain specialized treatments are not offered.
But recently, VA leaders have been taking steps to curb Community Care approvals and force patients back into the direct care of the VA.
For example, the MISSION Act’s original website has been taken down and is no longer available. In its place, users who come to the site are getting the message to “Choose VA.”
In a letter to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, the ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called the Community Care Program a “vital lifeline” for Veterans and said it would be “unconscionable” to consider leaving our most vulnerable and high-risk Vets “with fewer options to seek needed care.”
Per its new initiatives, the VA has started measuring its wait times and making them public. But each VA medical center is different, and the posted wait times do not always accurately convey how long it takes to get a substance use or other mental health consultation.
And the wait is still too long. It took me four months to get a therapist through the VA earlier this year. And while I’m happy with the quality of my care, veterans in crisis don’t have months to wait.
In 2022, less than 20 percent of veterans who met the criteria for a substance use disorder received professional treatment. That leaves nearly 3 million veterans with addiction who did not get care.
The VA offers great services, but they need to be available in those crucial moments. Community care improves treatment access when days, weeks, or months may mean the difference between a veteran living or dying. By partnering with the VA to give veterans more avenues to care, we can save lives.
Right now we’re losing 17 veterans a day to suicide. But how many more are we losing to a life of suffering and addiction because we’re not getting them the services they need? We can change this, and we will.
My hope is no veteran suffers needlessly. The resources are there. We must work together to improve access to them, even if it means going outside of the VA. This is a must, a mission we cannot fail.