I Want to Thank Our Veterans
Veterans Protest the Gutting of Wast L.A. PTSD Therapy Groups
Los Angeles Times
December 29, 2018
Dov Simens said he was "playing Rambo" in a homeless camp on Wilshire Boulevard 34 years ago when he stumbled on a therapy group for combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Through weekly sessions on the West Los Angeles veterans campus, Simens, 75, a member of the military's secretive Phoenix interrogation and assassination program in Vietnam, was able to marry, have children and buy a house in Sherman Oaks, he said.
"I have PTSD and I know that there is no cure," Simens said.
"There is no pill or opioid that will make what I did disappear."
Now he and other veterans say the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has soured on long-term therapy and has started dismantling the West LA PTSD Program, which has helped thousands of former service members heal the invisible wounds of war.
Before August, about 20 groups, each with 5 to 30 members, had been meeting on the medical campus for a total of 40 hours a week of therapy, said Leslie Martin, the former PTSD therapy program director
.
The combat veterans group shut down this fall after refusing the VA's order to move to cramped quarters with no privacy, she added.
Two other groups have stopped meeting or relocated since summer, others merged and participation is dropping, Martin said.
Martin filed a whistle-blower complaint over the service reductions before retiring last month.
The complaint accused the VA of reassigning her to work as a clerk as retaliation for her support of veterans protesting the changes.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said: "It's important that we maintain a host of treatment options for our veterans suffering from PTSD."
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"Veterans Protest the Gutting of West L.A. PTSD Therapy Groups"
Los Angeles Times
December 29, 2018
Dov Simens said he was "playing Rambo" in a homeless camp on Wilshire Boulevard 34 years ago when he stumbled on a therapy group for combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Through weekly sessions on the West Los Angeles veterans campus, Simens, 75, a member of the military's secretive Phoenix interrogation and assassination program in Vietnam, was able to marry, have children and buy a house in Sherman Oaks, he said.
"I have PTSD and I know that there is no cure," Simens said.
"There is no pill or opioid that will make what I did disappear."
Now he and other veterans say the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has soured on long-term therapy and has started dismantling the West LA PTSD Program, which has helped thousands of former service members heal the invisible wounds of war.
Before August, about 20 groups, each with 5 to 30 members, had been meeting on the medical campus for a total of 40 hours a week of therapy, said Leslie Martin, the former PTSD therapy program director
.
The combat veterans group shut down this fall after refusing the VA's order to move to cramped quarters with no privacy, she added.
Two other groups have stopped meeting or relocated since summer, others merged and participation is dropping, Martin said.
Martin filed a whistle-blower complaint over the service reductions before retiring last month.
The complaint accused the VA of reassigning her to work as a clerk as retaliation for her support of veterans protesting the changes.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said: "It's important that we maintain a host of treatment options for our veterans suffering from PTSD."
Read entire article,
Google:
"Veterans Protest the Gutting of West L.A. PTSD Therapy Groups"
