Vet’s call for help won’t land him in jail
We discussed Sean Duvall whose call to a veterans hotline had him facing charges for manufacturing a crude gun with which he’d planned to kill himself. It seems that he won’t be going to jail for the offense, according to the Washington Post;
Prosecutors initially argued they had every right to charge Duvall, who admitted to being armed with a gun when he called the hotline from the campus of Virginia Tech. But during a hearing Monday, the government changed course and recommended that Duvall be admitted to counseling overseen by a new Veterans Treatment Court. If completed, the charges, which carried a prison sentence of up to 40 years, would be dropped.
OK< the rest of the article celebrates the decision made by DVA Administrator Eric Shinseki's son-in-law, Timothy Heaphy, the prosecutor, but the fact remains that a supposedly private phone call to a helpline resulted in an arrest in the first place. Heaphy claimed that he didn't factor in the fact that Duvall was a veteran, even though Duvall spent a week in treatment before he was arrested by the Federal prosecutor while he was in a veterans' treatment facility. You'd think the son-in-law of the guy who is the number one veteran advocate would indeed take the man's veteran status into account. Well, that's the way I see it. I don't think there will be a flood of calls to the veterans' hotlines for immediate help if veterans have to clear the immediate area of anything that might get them arrested.
Category: Veteran Health Care
I’m very glad that Duvall won’t face charges and is getting the help he needs. My concern going forward is as you state, Jonn, that other Vets will be very wary of calling for help. They already have trust issues and this type of thing doesn’t help.
I have intentionally withheld some information from both my primary care physician, and the counselor I was seeing for awhile because of these sorts of issues. The federal government’s own laws and regulations leave the medical staff at the VA with no option but to follow specific procedures if a veteran mentions specific things, regardless of the context.
I have twice seen friends of mine whisked off for a mental health hold just for mentioning that they had or were contemplating suicide or otherwise harming themselves. Doesn’t matter the context. Doesn’t matter that they were NOT about to follow through, they were just answering honestly a question or questions posed to them by someone they thought would hold their answers in confidence. That whole doctor/patient thing, you know?
Now? I’m never going to even consider calling a help line if/when things get bad again. Not a frikkin’ chance in hell, and I am most CERTAINLY not going to say anything but “NO” to any such questions asked of me at the VA. I’ve seen how that plays out.
Agree, Old Trooper. While asking help is far better than the alternative, I too fear that some won’t make the call if it means the cops might show up.
Maybe there could be another hotline – perhaps of attorneys – so you could call them first to be advised of what NOT to say or what to move to someone else’s house before calling the hotline for emotional assistance?
A note from the other side of the fence: psychiatric services are tied, very tightly, to both law enforcement and the courts. They are also tied to the various Department of Family Services agencies. They mean well, and they will attempt to help you, but just be advised that YOUR idea of help vs. privacy, and THEIR idea of help vs. privacy, may be very different.
@#5,
That’s what I was referencing in my comment above. The gubbmint has decided that THEY can make lots of exceptions to the doctor/patient privilege so you might as well consider that anything you say to anyone in the medical field can and will be used against you as the gubbmint sees fit.
Thus, I plan on lying my ass off to anyone who asks me anything when I’m at the VA Hospital. I’ll tell them whatever it is they want to hear, whether it’s true or not, because I can’t trust a damned one of them anymore than the Stasi or Zampolits, which they’ve pretty much become.
I’m not blaming them for the laws. I am blaming them for not telling the government to GFY while you do your job.
Recently, I filled out a Post Deployment Health Assessment.
Lied my ass off.
1. Ever thought about hurting another individual?
What I wanted to say: Yep…anyone wearing a towel on their heads.
What I said: No ma’am.
2. Ever thought about hurting yourself?
What I wanted to say: Nope, unless it meant taking out a bunch of assholes who were wearing towels on their heads.
What I said: Nope.
Seriously, I will not be calling for help after this article, anytime in the future.