It’s always disappointing when a media outlet refuses to let the facts get in the way of its preferred narrative.
That’s what happened with NBC on Nov. 3.
In a nationally broadcast story, NBC was so eager to create the appearance of a problem at the department that it aired the disproven complaints of a handful of employees. NBC focused on one person whose complaints have already been examined by independent investigative bodies and found to be baseless.
Judging by its headline, NBC would like viewers to believe that some 300 Department of Veterans Affairs-run community counseling centers, known as Vet Centers, are somehow “hurting” veterans because the department has performance standards in place aimed at ensuring counselors are actually meeting with the active duty service members, veterans, and families VA is charged with helping.
But here are the facts.
VA tells Vet Center counselors to aim for 30 visits with clients for every 40 hours worked and considers counselors fully successful if they meet 85% of that goal, or 25 visits.
Are these standards hard to meet? Not for the average counselor, who sees about 34.5 clients each week and delivers potentially life-saving advice to veterans and families on topics such as suicide, PTSD, substance abuse, and employment.
If counselors can’t meet VA’s performance standards, their only requirement is to work with their supervisor to come up with a plan to do so. Employees’ performance evaluations are only negatively affected if they fail to develop a plan.
Without evidence, NBC’s story warned that our system of making sure counselors are meeting with veterans is “another sign of a veterans’ healthcare system that has trouble coping with an increased demand for services for millions of veterans.”
But that unsupported assumption ignores all the evidence that shows more and more veterans are coming to VA because it is working again.
VA is seeing more patients than ever before, more quickly than ever before, and studies show VA compares favorably to the private sector for access and quality of care — and in many cases exceeds it.
In a recent Veterans of Foreign Wars survey, nearly three-quarters of respondents reported improvements at their local VA, and more than 90% said they would recommend VA care to other veterans.
In the latest Vet Center Customer Service Feedback survey, 95% of Vet Center clients said they would recommend their Vet Center to another active duty service member, veteran, or family, and an overwhelming amount remarked that the Vet Center saved their life.
Patients’ trust in VA care has climbed to nearly 88%, and in fiscal year 2019, VA completed more than 59.9 million internal appointments — a record high and 1.7 million more than the year before.
The claim in NBC’s headline, which asserted that VA is “hurting mental healthcare” for veterans, isn’t backed up anywhere in its story. The only “proof” it had was an outdated 2015 report that claimed counselors were at full capacity — something easily disproven given that they are now helping even more service members, veterans, and families than ever before.
President Trump has done more than any president to put veterans at the center of his administration. Part of that means making sure that resources of VA, the second-largest Cabinet agency, are fully deployed and used to help those who wore the uniform.
Within VA, leaders at every level are making sure all of our employees are focused on delivering the best possible care, customer service, and benefits to veterans.
NBC seems interested in delivering something less. But both veterans and taxpayers deserve more, and that’s what we’re delivering.
Robert Wilkie (@SecWilkie) is the 10th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
