During Trump’s administration, Veterans Affairs had layoffs due to the president wanting to minimize the federal workforce.

This affected U.S. Veterans who are suffering anxiety and panic attacks, and are seeking mental health services. Most of them are experiencing stress and fear that they will lose their jobs.

Many things are changing, and lots of individuals have been impacted by these changes, especially the troops who rely on the Veteran mental health services.

What’s Changing with the Mental Health Services?

The recent changes in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, including the hiring freeze and policy changes, which have disrupted the services that the VA provides to Veterans, negatively affecting them.

With this, Veteran mental health services are not properly being provided, as this is part of Trump’s initiative, given that he wants to reduce the federal workforce. This resulted in thousands losing their jobs, which created a shortage of staff.

While the VA provides health care to 9.31 million U.S. Veterans at hundreds of medical centers, clinics, and nursing homes across the country, it also has problems.

"The VA is bloated. There are redundancies. There are places where we have questioned the administration of care and asked if it needs to be the way it is." Pat Murray, the legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which represents Americans who have fought overseas, said in an interview.

While Trump’s administration is planning to make additional cuts to the VA, about 80,000 personnel could be affected. With these changes, some mental health services will be affected, and more Veterans are getting anxious about who’s going to provide this for them.

How Veterans’ Mental Health Services Are Affected

Some Veterans have waited for a long time to see a mental health specialist from the Department of Veterans Affairs – Joey Cortez, who served 24 years in the U.S. Air Force, is one of them.

He was fired last month in Trump’s first wave of minimizing the federal workforce. He was one of the 2,400 employees who lost their jobs at Veterans Affairs.

"Once the firings happened and I was terminated, I started having panic attacks to the point where I blacked out." Cortez suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the layoff is making it hard for him to maintain his sobriety as a recovering alcoholic.

"Not a day has gone by since I was fired that I haven’t thought about picking up a bottle," said Cortez.

After Cortez lost his job, he continuously asked the VA about the process, but he was told that there was no record of his request. After a while, he got an appointment for this month after a patient canceled.

VA Layoffs are Impacting the Availability of VA Appointments

Thousands of employees have lost their jobs because of the mass layoffs. Now, this has led to cancellations of some in-person and telehealth appointments, which are affecting Veterans.

According to VA's Kasperowicz, as new policies have been created, mental health specialists or providers are now required to be back in their assigned VA office to set up face-to-face appointments with Veterans seeking help.

However, many don’t have access to the VA facility, which results in many appointments being canceled or passed on to another worker. Like a mental health supervisor in California who’s struggling to cover the caseload of a remote worker.

This could potentially result in stress for VA employees who are still working and have been fired and for those who want to receive Veteran mental health services.

What Can Veterans Do?

In the meantime, what Veterans can do is seek help from other organizations for free mental health services.

There are many volunteers in organizations, especially for Veterans, and they can ask for help from them too. The Wounded Warrior Project: Mental Health Services for wounded Veterans was formed in 2003 with the mission to help wounded servicemen and women physically or emotionally across the states.

These kinds of Veteran mental health resources can help a little bit while waiting for the government to take action on the issues. Veteran mental health services are especially important, as our Veterans deserve the best care possible.

Read next:

• The Silent Struggle: Caring for Vets & Their Mental Health on Veterans Day
• Exercise as Medicine Can Help Veterans More Than You Might Think
• Suicide Safety Plan for Veterans — How to Make One and Stick to It

Sources:

• VA Shake-Up Hits Mental Health Services for US Veterans