PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Veterans, and the people who care from them when they come home, are raising concerns about a lack of mental health resources, amid staff reductions at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
WATCH BELOW: 'I think just giving quality access to care,' Justin Lucci tells WPTV
The VA announced this month that by Oct. 1, its staff will have shrunk by about 30,000 employees this year. That’s roughly a 6 % reduction in force.
Veterans and mental health providers say their concerns about insufficient mental health care actually began with a change that happened during the Biden administration. Now, they’re worried the staffing reductions under Donald Trump's presidency could make the problem worse.
Senior Airman Justin Lucci joined the United States Air Force in 2002. He served overseas for four years at a base in England during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“Our mission was to refuel planes in the air. So my unit was a 16-aircraft unit, and we refueled everything that went in and out of Africa, Europe and the Middle East,” Lucci said. “I had joined, because I really wanted to change my life and save my life.”
Lucci called his service “one of the best experiences of (his) life,” but returning to civilian life in the U.S. was a big transition.
“You go from having like a big mother that takes care of your everyday, every-week needs, to now you're kind of figuring out your next life afterwards,” Lucci said. “And now that I was a civilian, I can do what I wanted, and I started making some bad choices.”
Lucci became addicted to drugs and alcohol.
“My mental health started declining over a few years of time, and I got to the point of waking up, going to bed every day having suicidal thoughts,” Lucci said.
That’s what brought him to the VA hospital in West Palm Beach.
Lucci said he’s grateful for the VA, which he credits for helping save his life. However, when he was there in 2012, his treatment options were limited.
“They offered me two different options,” Lucci said. “One was called 'Stand Down,’ which is a veteran program at the VA medical center, and then the other was the Salvation Army Center of Hope in West Palm Beach.”
Lucci chose the Salvation Army's program, where over the course of six months, he got sober, found work and moved into his own apartment.
While he credits the support he received along the way for helping him back on his feet, he says he wishes the services were better.
“I would have loved to have more of in-depth clinical services, therapeutic services,” Lucci said. "The services I did receive, I think were mediocre at best.”
Over the next few years, an access to care crisis within the VA shocked the public conscience. A 2015 Inspector General report found as many as 307,000 veterans may have died waiting for care (a claim the VA pushed back on at the time).
READ FULL REPORT BELOW:
The conversation sparked legislation, including the MISSION Act of 2018.
“Spawned out of that is the VACCN - Community Care Network - where private providers become an authorized provider for that network, and they can then have veterans referred to them through Community Care,” said Lyle Fried, the director of strategic partnerships for Beach House Center for Recovery in Juno Beach.
Beach House is a CCN provider, and has a treatment program specifically for veterans and first responders called “Freedom First.”
“Getting people who had shared experiences or understand each other's experiences in the same space is important,” Fried said.
The problem is, barely any veterans get referred to the program by VA hospitals through the CCN.
“Starting in January of ‘24, it's almost like there was a spigot flowing and they just turned the valve and it just stopped,” Fried said. “One hospital in particular that was sending four or five people a month went to zero. Another one that was sending, you know, 10 a month went to one.”
The drop in referrals came right before a VA panel known as the “Red Team” released a report that March, finding that community care referrals were ballooning.
The panel found that CCN spending was climbing 15-20% per year, reaching nearly $30 billion in fiscal 2023. The report said the spending “may now threaten funding needed to support the VA’s direct care system,” which is, “comparable to and often better than care provided by private sector providers.”
READ FULL REPORT BELOW:
“My concern is, are (veterans) getting the help they need?" Fried said. “We haven't really expanded the VA system. So, my guess is there's just less care being accessed.”
According to Fried, some veteran-specific programs in the private sector closed as the referrals dried up.
“So now that we've had the (workforce) cuts on top of that... assuming they do open up the referral network again and start to refer like they used to, there will be less choices to choose from,” he said.
The Senate Veterans Affairs committee is currently considering a bill that would expand and improve the Community Care program.
Last Thursday, WPTV asked the VA whether the Trump Administration plans to boost Community Care referrals in order to close any gaps created by workforce reductions. A spokeswoman said due to the workforce reductions, she was unable to provide that information by the time this story was published Monday evening.
For now, Fried says the Freedom First program is not in danger of closing. In fact, they’re opening a dedicated residential building for it this month, staffed with people who understand the needs of veterans.
That staff includes Lucci.
"It's that, that common bond. It's like escaping a shipwreck together, even if it wasn't the same shipwreck,” Lucci said.
Asked what a lifeboat from the VA would look like, Lucci replied, “I think just giving quality access to care.”
