Friday, April 20, 2012

AMERICA - Veterans Administration Backlog Fix

"VA Adds 1,600 Workers to Fix Backlog, but 'Always More We Can Do'" PBS Newshour 4/19/2012

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): And to a response from the Veterans Administration to a growing backlog of mental health cases from current and past wars.

Today, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said the agency will add 1,600 professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, and another 300 clerical workers to speed up processing of claims.

A federal appeals court issued a blistering ruling last year demanding the VA offer better mental health care for veterans. Next week, Senate committee hearings on the issue are scheduled, as is the release of a report from the VA's inspector general.

To discuss all this, we're joined by Sonja Batten, a senior mental health official at the VA.

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