McNerney Pushes VA Mental Health Care in Livermore
Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) on Wednesday urged the Department of Veterans Affairs to use the Livermore VA campus to provide post-traumatic stress disorder services to Iraq war veterans, the Oakland Tribune reports.
McNerney sent the letter to Gordon Mansfield, acting secretary of the VA, in response to a report published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association that found Iraq veterans have significantly higher levels of mental distress and suicide several months after arriving home than when they first return to the U.S.
In September, VA announced that the rural Livermore campus will be closed and that a nursing home and expanded outpatient center will open in the Central Valley, the Tribune reports. The VA also will open a smaller clinic in the East Bay.
McNerney recommended the Livermore center because it can provide the mental health services highlighted in the study, he said (Oakland Tribune, 11/15).