It’s Time To Help Veterans with Other-Than-Honorable Discharges Access Mental Health Treatment
By Kristofer Goldsmith
As a member of the U.S. military, I was exposed to some of the worst of what humanity has to offer. Deployed to Iraq at 19-years old, it was my job to photograph the faces of the bodies of victims of torture in Iraq. Seventeen months after coming home from a year-long deployment, I woke up handcuffed to a gurney. My life had just been saved by a friend who recognized the signs of suicidal behavior, and called the police when he noticed I hadn’t packed for what was supposed to be my second deployment the following day. At that point, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) wasn’t yet part of the American lexicon, and when I had sought help from Army psychiatrists, my complaints of suicidal ideation went largely ignored. After an otherwise stellar military career, my survival was treated like an act of criminality.
After my suicide attempt, the Army quickly removed me from service by issuing a “general discharge,” stripping me of the GI Bill benefits that I earned and the title of “honorably discharged veteran.” As a result of the brief administrative process that has no judicial oversight, I was forced to become an outcast from the community that I went to war with and the society I went to war for. In the subsequent years that followed, I faced periods where my PTSD was so bad that I was completely unemployable.
It wasn’t until months after I was discharged for “misconduct” for attempting to commit suicide that I was formally diagnosed with PTSD. Thanks to hundreds of hours of therapy, and the talented Department of Veteran Affairs doctors and staff who were able to pick me up when I was at my worst, I’ve learned to recognize and control my symptoms. But it was only because I was able to access vital medical care that I have been able to build healthy relationships for the first time since my military service; I was able to find a partner and I married her last year and I am now a semester away from my degree from Columbia University.
But the black mark of a “bad paper” is hard to scrub off. Upgrading and correcting a military discharge is an extremely difficult process and, in doing research for my own case, I came to realize that I’m not alone. Over 505,000 veterans who are alive today have been issued “other-than-honorable” discharges, and that means the government could deny access to benefits like physical and mental healthcare for most of them — until recently.
The Honor Our Commitment Act, which I worked to pass in 2017, now entitles many of these same veterans with bad paper the ability to access VA mental health diagnosis services and treatments. But since this bill was passed into law, unfortunately the VA has failed to notify these veterans of this change. Many of the notification letters have been sent to last-known addresses from Pentagon records dating back to the 1960s and 70s, and the department has not engaged in any marketing campaigns to inform these veterans and their families of the new eligibility standards. For many, it’s as if nothing has changed. This is ground zero for getting care to veterans who have been denied it for too long.
Twelve years after my general discharge, I was recently notified that my appeal for an honorable discharge was finally approved, restoring my access to the GI Bill and status as “honorably discharged veteran.” But I’m one of the lucky ones. Because I’ve had the benefit of full access to the VA, I’ve been able to heal and fight on my own behalf. It’s others — those who went to war on our behalf, only to come home and be denied the services they earned due to other-than-honorable discharges — we need to focus on now.
Because of their social isolation and lack of access to benefits, veterans with bad paper are far more likely than their peers to be homeless, jobless, and suicidal.
As we approach Veterans Day, consider the hundreds of thousands of veterans that our government has abandoned, and demand that elected officials do more to support them. Many of these veterans are removed from service for conduct stemming from service-related conditions like PTSD, which still often go undiagnosed and ignored. LGBTQ Americans who were kicked out of the service under now-repealed policies such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” still have bad paper discharges, as our government hasn’t taken a proactive approach in correcting their records to erase discriminatory information. Studies have shown that minorities, as well as women who report instances of sexual assault, are more likely to be issued punitive discharges than others.
Correcting this problem wouldn’t take an act of congress. This president, or the next one, could help hundreds of thousands of affected veterans by instructing the VA to make enrolling these veterans for healthcare a top priority, right now, today, through executive action alone. It’s on us to demand that they do so. Veterans Day is a time to celebrate and thank those who have served in uniform. That means all veterans; it’s time we bring veterans with bad paper in from the cold.
Kristofer Goldsmith a member of the Truman National Security Project’s Defense Council and Chief Investigator and Associate Director for Policy and Government Affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America.
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