McCaskill listens to veterans' health care concerns

Associated Press Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Veterans who came to a health care forum on Wednesday complained about long waits for appointments, unfriendly staff and a lack of mental health workers to help those coping with post traumatic stress disorder.

The gathering at Kansas City's Liberty Memorial was part of a four-day, 15-stop tour of Missouri that Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., organized to gauge the quality of care at the state's military health facilities.

While many raved about their own doctors, they found fault with a system they described as underfunded and understaffed.

"As a Vietnam vet, I don't want to ever see what happened to us happen to the people that are coming back from across the pond right now," said John Luna, a disabled veterans' representative for the Division of Workforce Development. "So I'm going to get loud and boisterous from now on. I'm never going to take it again. I'm not going to allow those troops over there to taste what we tasted when we came back."

Officials from Veterans Affairs hospitals jotted notes during the event at the World War I memorial in Kansas City.

Inspired by revelations of poor outpatient care conditions at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, McCaskill wants to learn more about the experiences veterans have had at military health facilities in Missouri.

At each stop on the tour, McCaskill is inviting veterans and their families to describe any problems or obstacles they have faced in the Department of Veterans Affairs system and other military hospitals and clinics.

McCaskill's staff also completed a two-month study of 24 military health facilities in the state to see how they compare with a nationwide study of the VA's 1,400 hospitals and clinics conducted earlier this year. The study concluded that Missouri VA medical facilities are in good condition overall and deliver a high quality of care.

The Department of Veterans Affairs didn't immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

McCaskill started the tour Tuesday with stops at Fort Leonard Wood, Springfield, Joplin and Nevada. After the Kansas City stop, she was headed to St. Joseph, Cameron and Kirksville. She planned to visit Hannibal, Mexico and Columbia on Thursday and St. Louis, Poplar Bluff, Kennett and Cape Girardeau on Friday.

McCaskill said she learned during her Senate campaign about shortfalls in veterans care and has made it a priority since taking office.

"Since I arrived in Washington there has first and foremost been a change in the attitude in Congress about funding the VA," she said.

Earlier this year, she and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., proposed legislation that would provide $103 million for more caseworkers and mental health counselors for service members and their families, and slash red tape and paperwork for soldiers.

McCaskill and Obama also sponsored a measure that would commission a study of the physical and mental health needs of service members readjusting to life after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It was 10 years after Vietnam before we looked at the mental health needs of the Vietnam Vet, and another 10 years after that before we really started to even aggressively address those," she said. "Meanwhile, there were a lot of those military people who self-medicated for mental health issues, and we all know that many of them had trouble finding their way back from that place.

"This is about doing the kind of comprehensive study right now for the Iraq veterans so we can deal with this as they come home."

Both measures are expected to be wrapped into another bill now being considered in the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Thadeus Peyton, 64, of Grandview, retired from the Army with the rank of sergeant major after 30 years of service that included two tours in Vietnam and two trips to Honduras.

Peyton, who walked with a cane, partially the result of an ankle injured sustained while playing basketball on a battalion team in Germany, said he has waited two to three months for appointments and has been treated rudely at times.

"I don't think, unless a person is right there, they don't realize what a man or a woman is putting on the line for the people back in the United States," said Peyton, also a workforce development specialist for the state, specializing in disabled and homeless veterans.

"You don't know if you are going to rise the next morning. You don't know if you are going to end the day. You are always on constant guard. And then they come back and they are looking for services and they're not there."