Mailbag: Suicide-prevention act is crippled by VA snag

Much like a thoroughbred racehorse that comes out of the gate fast but stumbles in the first turn, the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act has hit a bureaucratic stumbling block.

The landmark piece of legislation, signed into law on Feb. 12, is designed to prevent or at least reduce suicides by veterans and increase access to quality mental health services within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

But a disturbing aspect of how the VA generally administers healthcare is crippling the act. It’s called the Patient Record Flags User Guide, and it allows administrators and staff members to “flag” veterans whose behavior and characteristics may pose a threat to their safety or the safety of other patients or compromise the delivery of quality healthcare.

This stigmatizes veterans who need help but are subjectively singled out as threats, and it creates an adversarial relationship between “flagged” veterans and those who should be working for the benefit of all veterans, not just those who are not flagged.

The user guide states that flagging is done to avoid compromising the delivery of healthcare. But if a veteran is flagged because he or she doesn’t fit a subjective model, isn’t the delivery of healthcare to that veteran compromised?

What exacerbates the problem is that once certain veterans are flagged by the VA, they are essentially marked for life. Thus, they are singled out within the VA system, leaving them no simple way to undo the damage.

As well-intentioned as the Clay Hunt act is, placing the scarlet letter “F” on the chest of certain veterans ostracizes them. Any act should always consider unintended consequences. If not, missteps such as the Patient Record Flags User Guide will always exclude a good percentage of those who need help.

I am not saying there is no place for a user guide, but not one that seems to subjectively and randomly flag some veterans and prevent them from receiving quality healthcare. An egregious example are patients with spinal cord injuries who have been flagged and lumped together with those who exhibit suicidal behavior or have a documented history of narcotic diversion or theft.

As long as the Patient Record Flags User Guide is in effect, laws such as the Clay Hunt act cannot reach their full potential. The Clay Hunt act is a good start, but it does not get to the heart of the issue: allowing all veterans to feel comfortable and safe about expressing their true feelings. Only then can veterans, to whom we owe so much, receive the care and concern they so richly deserve.

Natalia Milosevich

Huntington Beach

The writer is a graduate student in social work at USC’s Irvine campus.