Breaking News: Active shooter at VA hospital

[psych844]

Active shooter at El Paso Texas VA.

Hopefully nobody from here is impacted.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[G Costanza]

We just ran an active shooter drill today. What a tragedy.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

A week into my internship yr. (at a VA) we had a struggling vet bring in a gun into the ED, though thankfully the staff handled it w/o any harm to the vet or staff.

 

[Jaded Psychologist]

I am on a VA psychologist listserv and one of the members posted that his supervisory psychologist was shot.

 

[psychRA]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...umed-shooter-found-dead-at-el-paso-va-clinic/

Latest news confirms that the victim was a psychologst.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

That article didn't hold anything back in regard to some of the (known) problems with many VA hospitals. Access to care/evaluation, funding of MH positions, safety (in the ED and general hospital areas), etc.

It is amazing that there are BILLIONS of dollars available for a fighter jet/bomb/drone, but funding for the VA is always a fight. Getting psychologist (particularly neuropsychologists) positions funded seems to take just short of an act of Congress to get approved.

I'm not at all surprised a shooting happened at a VA, I'm actually surprised it isn't a more common occurrence. VAs serve a very vulnerable population, and telling someone they need to wait 3-6+ months to see a psychiatrist/psychologist is ridiculous. As for the C&P evals…(which were referenced in the article), good luck. During internship I saw Veterans that had 1+ yr delays for their evals…that's just not acceptable. A lot can change in 5 yrs, but it doesn't seem like funding & wait times have improved much since my last go around.

*edit*

Edited down to the most applicable stuff.

 

[WisNeuro]

They get the evals done pretty timely, the wait times are mostly on the VBA making the decision FYI.

 

[cara susanna]

I wonder if this was related to C&P. I know a lot of times staff psychologists get blamed for C&P decisions even though they were uninvolved.

 

[psychRA]

Our facility does C&P evals through fee basis if they can't be scheduled in house within a certain number of days. I've had patients who did theirs with a provider in the community (not sure exactly where) when it couldn't be scheduled soon enough at our facility.

 

[PsyDr]

It looks like this absolute bastard shot the psychologist because his ptsd disability claim was denied.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...umed-shooter-found-dead-at-el-paso-va-clinic/

 

[WisNeuro]

Well, when you're dealing with thousands of dollars a month...people kill for less every day.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

It looks like this absolute bastard shot the psychologist because his ptsd disability claim was denied.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...umed-shooter-found-dead-at-el-paso-va-clinic/

Unfortunately, I'm not surprised that a C&P evaluation/denial was seemingly involved.

 

[WisNeuro]

Yeah, they really need to separate the whole claims process from the VHA. I very occasionally get asked to do a C&P for TBI, and would rather not at all.

 

[smalltownpsych]

This does raise serious questions about our role in determining disabilities. I deal with SSDI rather than VA stuff, but some of the concerns that are being raised are applicable in both settings. This news story scares me a bit, not just the threat of violence but also what our role should be.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

This does raise serious questions about our role in determining disabilities. I deal with SSDI rather than VA stuff, but some of the concerns that are being raised are applicable in both settings. This news story scares me a bit, not just the threat of violence but also what our role should be.

Agreed. It'd be similiar to if the Social Security Administration also offered treatment for folks who applied for/were receiving disability, and at times had its disability determination folks also providing the treatments (and vice-versa).

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

It can also get dicey when there isn't a clear delineation between roles (forensic evaluator v. treating provider). In all of my evals I include a paragraph about the parameters of the assessment, as I don't want there to be any misunderstanding of my role, the reason for the eval, etc. I also document everything in my intake notes, as the pt. is often confused about who does what…this was particularly noticeable in the VA.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Agreed. It'd be similiar to if the Social Security Administration also offered treatment for folks who applied for/were receiving disability, and at times had its disability determination folks also providing the treatments (and vice-versa).

It gets dicey outside the VA, as well, especially in a smaller community where I will end up evaluating somebody and then later providing treatment. I am very clear with patients that Social Security makes the determination, not myself, which is very true. I don't know what metrics they use to determine who is disabled and who isn't. Also, some treatment benefits require disability to qualify. So a person may be able to work but if they do they have to pay for their own treatment or expensive medications so being "disabled" is also a means to access treatment. Unfortunately, being "disabled" and not working is counter-therapeutic.