HAMPTON, Va. — New questions are being raised about the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and its ability to get vets the mental health care they need.
The National Library of Medicine reports that 14% to 16% of the U.S. service members deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq have been affected by PTSD or depression.
Providing vets with timely access to this care has been identified as a top priority for the VA.
But the department has struggled to meet this growing demand--according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The document says the VA's methodology for tracking its Community Care Network mental health appointments "may result in an incomplete, and potentially misleading, assessment of network adequacy. "
"It puts them in a better light than what is in the reality. So, they're probably missing instances where there are delays in care and those delays in care can result in real negative outcomes and consequences to veterans," said GAO Health Care team Director Alyssa Hundrup.
The report goes on to say: "This poses a risk to VA's ability to fully assess the extent to which its Community Care Networks are adequate to meet veterans' needs, including for mental health care."
Hundrup, in an interview Thursday with 13News Now, said opportunities for improvement exist that would help the VA better assess whether it has enough mental health care providers in the community to provide care to vets.
"The way they're assessing the performance, it needs to be reexamined," she said.