(NOTE: Data errors in some cells are possible in cut and paste from original PDF document. Please check your individual data against that document. Link above).

One option, albeit a potentially expensive one: an online and phone survey with a sound methodology that will yield scientifically confident results.

That is what one congressman’s office in El Paso did, and the results released this week challenge in some cases the party line from the Veterans Administration. As USA Today recounted on Wednesday:

More than a third of veterans surveyed in the district of Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, said they were unable to get mental health care appointments at the VA. Forty-three percent said they put off therapy because of trouble seeing a counselor, and veterans said it took more than three months to be seen on average.

This differed sharply from what the VA reported for El Paso, O’Rourke said. The agency told him that 85% to 100% of veterans were provided mental health appointments within 14 days.

“The best way to determine how the VA is doing is to ask the veterans themselves,” O’Rourke said in a release about the survey his office undertook in May. That’s a light-bulb moment for journalists, as well.

The survey used as its base a list of 19,000 names of veterans within the district. (On the Beat is trying to track down whether those names were obtained as public records, and from whom, or were from a proprietary vendor database. Haven’t heard back from O’Rourke’s office yet). Those names were matched against a vendor’s phone and e-mail list.

The bulk of the surveys were completed online (503) after e-mail contact; a smaller number (189) were taken by telephone. The margin of error for all respondents is believed to be just under four percentage points in either direction.

Highlights of the findings, taken from O’Rourke’s summary report:

• Nearly 2 in 5 who attempted to schedule a mental healthcare appointment were unable to obtain one.
• An average of 71 days elapsed between a request for an appointment and seeing a mental health care provider.
• About 3 in 4 veterans requesting an appointment with a mental health care provider waited more than 14 days to see one.
• An average of 85 days elapsed between a veteran’s request for a routine care (non-mental health) appointment and seeing a health care provider.
• About 7 in 10 requesting a non-mental health care appointment waited more than 14 days to see a provider.
• About 1 in 3 were either very unsatisfied or unsatisfied with quality of non-mental health care at the El Paso VA.

Also worth a look: A VOX explainer “The VA scandal, explained.”

“Prescriptions for four opiates – hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone and morphine – have surged by 270 percent in the past 12 years, according to data CIR obtained through the Freedom of Information Act,” CIR reported last Fall. “CIR’s analysis for the first time exposes the full scope of that increase, which far outpaced the growth in VA patients and varied dramatically across the nation.”

Key  links:

• How to sign up for the data
•  A mini-guide on how to localize the data.
• Interactive map
• Audit: VA hasn’t followed rules on prescriptions  (Download the audit PDF)

Men with depression, manic disorder or alcohol abuse issues were at greater risk, the study of 83 suicide cases from 2001 to 2008 showed.

‘The findings from this study are not consistent with the assumption that specific deployment-related characteristics, such as length of deployment, number of deployments, or combat experiences, are directly associated with increased suicide risk,” the report says. “Instead, the risk factors associated with suicide in this military population are consistent with civilian populations, including male sex and mental disorders.”

The authors concede that because their analysis only includes data through 2008, “we did not capture suicides in the most recent time period when the rates were the highest. However, the study did include the 3 years with the sharpest statistically significant increases in suicides.”

“It is possible that the cumulative strain of multiple and lengthy deployments only began to be reflected in suicide rates toward the later stages of the conflicts, although the overall evidence points to the lack of any specific deployment-related effects.”

The study was funded by the Department of Defense.

The New York Times has a good summary of the study’s findings, as well as feedback. The full paper is embedded below.

The lowest percentage of the uninsured non-elderly veterans live in Massachusetts (4.3% state rate), Hawaii, Vermont,  North Dakota and Connecticut.

All told 1.3 million veterans — 10.5% — and 940,000 family member don’t have insurance, according to the report from the Urban Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (Download PDF).  That compares to about 18% for all U.S. residents.  Younger, single, less-educated veterans with fewer ties to the workplace tend to be more likely to not have insurance.

The report is based on 2010 data.

The federal Affordable Care Act could help increase coverage, the report suggests. “We estimate that nearly half of uninsured veterans would qualify for expanded Medicaid  coverage. Another 40 percent of uninsured veterans  could potentially qualify for subsidized coverage through  health insurance exchanges if they do not have access to affordable employer coverage.” The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to release its decision this week related to a key provision of the act.

Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center has a summary of the report’s findings. 

Why? “Military officers and some psychiatrists say dropping the word “disorder” in favor of “injury” will reduce the stigma that stops troops from seeking treatment. “No 19-year-old kid wants to be told he’s got a disorder,” said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who until his retirement in February led the Army’s effort to reduce its record suicide rate.”

Psychiatrists studying the potential name change are holding a public hearing today in Philadelphia.

Full Story

(Bloomberg) “U.S. Army suicides rose 80 percent during the five years after major troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, surpassing the rate for similar civilians, according to a study.

“About 40 percent of the suicides in 2008 may be associated with deployments to those countries, according to the report published today in the journal Injury Prevention. The U.S. began committing troops in 2003. In 2008, the estimate of the rate for active soldiers was higher than the rate for civilians of similar age and sex.

“The increase is “unprecedented in over 30 years of U.S. Army records,” according to a statement by the U.S. Army Public Health Command, which focuses on promoting the health of soldiers, military retirees and their families. The Army Medical organization conducted the research.”

Full research report on Injury Prevention site.