Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks at the Civil Rights Division’s Virtual Program: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
12 min read
<div>Hello, everyone.
It is my pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of the Department of Justice and our Civil Rights Division, to this convening honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.</div>
Hello, everyone.
It is my pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of the Department of Justice and our Civil Rights Division, to this convening honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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While there is no cure for PTSD, experts believe early identification and treatment of PTSD symptoms may lessen their severity and improve the overall quality of life for individuals with this disorder. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a world leader in PTSD treatment and offers PTSD services to eligible veterans. To inform new veterans about the health care services it offers, VA has increased outreach efforts to servicemembers returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Outreach efforts, coupled with expanded access to VA health care for these new veterans, are likely to result in greater numbers of veterans with PTSD seeking VA services. Congress highlighted the importance of VA PTSD services more than 20 years ago when it required the establishment of the Special Committee on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Special Committee) within VA, primarily to aid Vietnam-era veterans diagnosed with PTSD. A key charge of the Special Committee is to make recommendations for improving VA's PTSD services. The Special Committee issued its first report on ways to improve VA's PTSD services in 1985 and its latest report, which includes 37 recommendations for VA, in 2004. The Special Committee reports also include evaluations of whether VA has met or not met the recommendations made by the Special Committee in prior reports. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a world leader in PTSD treatment and offers PTSD services to eligible veterans. To inform new veterans about the health care services it offers, VA has increased outreach efforts to servicemembers returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Outreach efforts, coupled with expanded access to VA health care for these new veterans, are likely to result in greater numbers of veterans with PTSD seeking VA services. Congress asked us to determine whether VA has addressed the Special Committee's recommendations to improve VA's PTSD services. We focused our review on 24 recommendations related to clinical care and education made by VA's Special Committee on PTSD in its 2004 report to determine (1) the extent to which VA has met each recommendation related to clinical care and education and (2) VA's time frame for implementing each of these recommendations.GAO determined that VA has not fully met any of 24 Special Committee recommendations in our review related to clinical care and education. Specifically, we determined that VA has not met 10 recommendations and has partially met 14 of these 24 recommendations. For example, the Special Committee recommended that VA develop, disseminate, and implement a best practice treatment guideline for PTSD. The Special Committee designated the recommendation as met because VA had developed and disseminated the guideline. 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