For a long time after serving within the US Air Force, Dennis suffered from sporadic again ache, which he believes stemmed from ceaselessly shifting heavy gear throughout abroad excursions.
But when the ache grew to become power about two years in the past, his mental well being additionally started to endure – particularly as he needed to restrict his actions, together with sports activities. His nervousness solely grew after it took him a number of months to schedule an appointment with a psychologist at his native Veterans Affairs facility.
“It was just really tough to get in,” mentioned Dennis, who requested NCS to not use his final title to guard his privateness. “With these wait times, it’s like, ‘Crap.’ Disappointing is the best word to describe it.”
Dennis’ expertise seems to be commonplace, in line with information the VA publicly posts on its Access to Care web site. The website offers in depth wait time data by specialty – together with mental well being – at VA amenities throughout the nation.
But simply how long veterans seeking mental healthcare for the primary time even have to attend to see a supplier is something however clear. The information posted on the Access to Care web site paints a really completely different image than the one VA Secretary Doug Collins has laid out publicly and for lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Improving veterans’ entry to mental well being providers has long been a priority for the VA by way of a number of administrations, particularly as many veterans endure from nervousness, despair and different situations as soon as they finish their army service. In the Trump administration, some veterans have continued to complain to their Congress members and a few advocacy teams about long waits to see a mental well being supplier.
So NCS delved into the info. We crunched the numbers for almost all of July and located that veterans throughout the nation ceaselessly have to attend weeks – and even months – for preliminary mental well being appointments at their native medical facilities.
Our evaluation reveals typical wait occasions at 541 VA amenities, or two-thirds of those who reported information throughout that interval, exceeded the company’s personal goal of 20 days to get an preliminary mental well being appointment. NCS tracked the every day common wait occasions at greater than 800 areas throughout the US.
At a handful of VA amenities, waits stretched almost 5 or extra months. Another 22 amenities reported wait occasions of greater than three months.
These findings echoed an identical evaluation by Common Defense, a progressive veterans’ advocacy group, that additionally discovered {that a} majority of VA amenities missed the company’s 20-day goal in May and June. The group and Vet Voice Foundation, one other group that’s been essential of President Donald Trump’s VA, have fielded complaints about wait occasions from veterans.
But the VA flat-out denies there’s an issue.
VA Secretary Collins says it solely takes 15 days, on common, to see a supplier for a first-time mental well being appointment.
Asked for extra data behind the 15-day determine, the company instructed NCS in a press release that it’s the wait time for brand spanking new sufferers in a “combined” mental well being class.
That contains not simply particular person remedy appointments posted on the VA’s Access to Care website but additionally dozens of different kinds of appointments akin to group periods and residential therapy. The VA wouldn’t present the underlying information or particulars about its methodology.
The VA contends that research analyzing its public information could be incorrect and incomplete for a number of causes, together with that a number of sufferers with long wait occasions skew the typical and that it doesn’t mirror when appointments are typically moved earlier.
The website tells customers that wait occasions can fluctuate vastly – even day-to-day – and that one of the simplest ways to know when the following appointment is obtainable is to name their native facility or use the web appointment instrument. The company additionally famous that new sufferers make up roughly 10% of complete mental well being appointments – and that wait occasions for established sufferers are typically shorter.
But for a lot of veterans and their advocates, one thing doesn’t add up. Critics say Collins is cherry-picking information and that the various figures and methodologies create confusion.
“This creates a significant gap between what the secretary tells Congress and the public and what veterans say they’re actually living through,” a House Democratic staffer who works on veterans’ points instructed NCS, on the situation that they stay nameless.
Moreover, critics say it’s arduous to sq. Collins’ rosy image with what the company’s watchdog deems is an ongoing “severe” scarcity of mental well being suppliers within the VA system – which may make it all of the tougher for veterans in must get timely care.
For Dennis, making an attempt to get an appointment was irritating, although he’s pleased along with his psychologist on the VA.
His preliminary screening scheduled for earlier this 12 months was canceled by the supplier on the final minute as he was on his approach to the appointment. Ultimately, he wasn’t screened till a number of months later. It then took about one other month for him to satisfy with a psychologist for the primary time.
“It takes quite a bit of reflection and courage to admit you need help,” Dennis mentioned. “By the appointment being delayed, I couldn’t be helped sooner. My mental state probably declined a little bit more.”
The demand for care is nice. Just over 2 million veterans acquired mental health services – both by way of particular person or group remedy from an expert – inside the VA in fiscal 12 months 2024, in line with an October report from the company.
And greater than 17 veterans a day died by suicide in 2023, on common.
“These folks go through some of the most dangerous and damaging experiences that anybody can be sent to,” mentioned Alex Rich, information director for Common Defense. “So when they finally come forward and ask for help, to have these kinds of wait times put in front of them is just incredibly depressing and difficult to explain.”
An essential caveat is that beneath the VA’s coverage, veterans having emergency mental well being crises might be seen the identical day at an company facility, an emergency room or a non-public supplier.
Also, if the wait time for a mental well being appointment at a veteran’s native facility is longer than 20 days, she or he is mechanically eligible to go to a non-public supplier. But several studies have discovered that veterans have higher experiences at VA amenities, and advocates of the system have raised red flags about privatizing veterans’ medical care.
The longstanding wait debate
Lengthy wait occasions for appointments are a function of the US healthcare system that many Americans have skilled, however the subject is a lightning rod for the VA.
The concentrate on the VA stems partially from the truth that, not like most non-public well being methods, the company repeatedly measures and publishes appointment wait occasions.
“Nobody else does this,” Collins famous throughout a Senate listening to in May.
Collins insisted on the listening to that wait occasions for preliminary mental well being appointments in the course of the second Trump administration have declined.
From January to April, the VA says wait occasions for brand spanking new sufferers seeking the broader array of mental well being appointments dropped agencywide by 2.8 days to a mean of about 15 days, which is inside the company’s goal window.
According to the info on the VA’s Access to Care web site, nonetheless, the standard wait time for simply particular person remedy appointments in July was greater than 27, in line with NCS’s evaluation. (Because NCS solely had entry to VA’s public information, we regarded on the median wait time nationwide, which implies half of the every day common wait occasions reported by amenities in the course of the interval have been longer and half have been shorter.)
Democrats say Collins and his aides haven’t offered the underlying information they used to reach at their numbers regardless of repeated requests. They have lambasted the secretary over the problem.
Sen. Patty Murray mentioned in the course of the May listening to that she heard from veterans in her dwelling state that wait occasions may very well be as much as 90 days for behavioral well being care, which incorporates therapy for mental sickness and substance abuse. The Washington state Democrat referred to as that “unacceptable.”
Congressional staffers instructed NCS that in the course of the Biden administration, lawmakers would typically get briefings on VA wait occasions, which might come within the type of spreadsheets and slide shows. That modified towards the top of the Biden period, they mentioned.
“We don’t get those anymore,” one staffer mentioned. “We’ve been begging them.”
Mounting frustration and nervousness
Ruth, a Marine veteran who has been handled for PTSD and despair at a VA facility within the jap US, had been seeing a psychiatrist she preferred each two months.
But at some point earlier this 12 months – shortly earlier than a scheduled appointment – she was instructed the physician had left the VA, and he or she must reschedule. She mentioned she couldn’t get on a brand new supplier’s calendar for one more two months, forcing her to go about 4 months with out care and leaving her on edge, anxious that nobody was monitoring her and that the brand new physician may not be a great match.
“If I’d had a mental health crisis, I’d have been in bad shape,” mentioned Ruth, who requested NCS to make use of a pseudonym to guard her privateness. “Who is getting these magical 15-day appointments?”
What’s extra, her new supplier is a person. She would favor to be seen by a feminine physician however was instructed the ability didn’t know when it might accommodate that request.
Martha Kinney additionally mentioned her expertise was irritating. A 28-year veteran of the Army and Army Reserve, Kinney mentioned she utilized for mental well being providers on the VA’s Central Western Massachusetts facility in Leeds in late July final 12 months, seeking assist to take care of nervousness points tied to her service. Several months glided by with no phrase from the VA, she mentioned.
Then in late May of this 12 months, Kinney reached out to the VA to comply with up. The one who did her preliminary screening referred to as her to apologize, telling her there was no file of her consumption and that the notes from her July 2025 analysis had not been entered into the system, in line with Kinney.
“It really irritates me,” Kinney instructed NCS. “It angers me that we don’t have a better system.”
She was lastly capable of set an appointment for mid-June. What bothers her is that there are different veterans “with far greater needs than me,” who may very well be going by way of the identical frustrations, she mentioned.
“That’s unconscionable,” Kinney mentioned.
Neither VA’s headquarters nor the Massachusetts facility responded to requests for touch upon Kinney’s story.
The VA has been contending with a scarcity of mental well being professionals for no less than the final a number of years. Psychology was the scientific occupation most ceaselessly reported to be in extreme scarcity, with 57% of amenities designating it as such in fiscal 12 months 2025, in line with the company’s Office of Inspector General report from August.
Psychiatry was second with extreme shortages reported at 55% of amenities. Both have been among the many high 5 areas with the very best scientific scarcity ranges since fiscal 12 months 2018, the report discovered.
At the identical time, demand for care is hovering. The variety of veterans who acquired mental well being care straight from the VA jumped 78% between fiscal years 2009 and 2024, in line with a separate company report from October. The VA expects inpatient and outpatient mental well being care to develop by one other 38% between fiscal years 2023 and 2033.
“The rapid growth over the past decade in the number of Veterans seeking mental health treatment in VHA has posed staffing challenges,” the report mentioned.
Meanwhile, the VA slashed greater than 2,300 unfilled mental health-related positions as a part of a larger downsizing between November and January. That included the elimination of 425 unfilled psychologist slots, in line with VA information shared with the House Veterans Affairs Committee earlier this 12 months.
And tens of 1000’s of VA staffers resigned, took buyouts or accepted early retirement and different incentives amid the Trump administration’s revamping of the federal authorities, which features a hiring freeze that limits the variety of replacements who might be introduced on.
The VA mentioned in a press release to NCS that VA healthcare amenities have continued to rent for any jobs they must fill.
“Over decades, the Veterans Health Administration created positions based on their needs at the time. Those needs have changed over the years,” the VA mentioned. “In 2025, we told VHA leaders to keep all of positions they need and eliminate any unfilled positions that they don’t need.”
But Rich, from Common Defense, mentioned he’s baffled that the VA would lower mental well being positions at such a time of understaffing and want.
“I can’t, for the life of me, understand why Secretary Collins, or anybody else, would try to nickel and dime those veterans’ care,” he mentioned.