On Monday, February 12, 2013, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it has added more than 1,000 new mental health professionals and 200 support staff to the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). This hiring increase is in response to an increase in the number of veterans seeking mental health treatment from the VHA. Currently, there are more than 1.3 million veterans receiving such treatment. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki commented, “We still need to hire more mental health professionals to reach our goal, but each new hire means we can treat more veterans and provide greater access to our mental health services.”
The VHA is America’s largest integrated health care system which serves approximately 8.3 million Veterans each year. More information about the VHA and veteran eligibility can be found at Veterans Health Adminstration.