Tester: VA Mental Health hires a ‘much-needed step forward’

(U.S. SENATE) – Senator Jon Tester today released the following statement after the Department of Veterans’ Affairs announced that it will hire 1,600 mental health workers to improve veterans’ health care.  The VA will hire nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers as part of an ongoing review of its mental health operations:

“This is a much-needed step forward to make sure Montana’s and America’s veterans receive the mental health care they earned.  Too many Montana veterans suffer from injuries both seen and unseen, and I look forward to working with the VA to bring more professionals to Montana to live up to the promises made to the men and women who served us.”

Tester, Montana’s only member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has pushed the VA to hire more psychiatrists statewide, particularly at the new mental health wing at Fort Harrison in Helena.
 
He also recently called for veterans’ health care to be exempt from any reductions in the federal budget.

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