E-MAILS SUGGEST VA HID SUICIDE RISK OF VETERANS

In federal court Monday in San Francisco, attorneys for veterans' rights groups accused the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs of nothing less than a cover-up - deliberately concealing the real risk of suicide among veterans."The system is in crisis and unfortunately the VA is in denial," said veterans rights attorney Gordon Erspamer.

E-Mails Suggest VA Hid Suicide Risk
By Armen Keteyian,CBS News

http://news.aol.com/health/story/ar/_a/e-mails-suggest-va-hid-suicide-risk/20080422095809990001

Watch Video: Suicide Risk Among Veterans Questioned

The charges were backed by internal e-mails written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health.In the past, Katz has repeatedly insisted while the risk of suicide among veterans is serious, it's not outside the norm."There is no epidemic in suicide in VA," Katz told Keteyian in November.But in this e-mail to his top media adviser, written two months ago, Katz appears to be saying something very different, stating: "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities."Katz's e-mail was written shortly after the VA provided CBS News data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all 2007 - a fraction of Katz's estimate."This 12,000 attempted suicides per year shows clearly, without a doubt, that there is an epidemic of suicide among veterans," said Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense.

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