During her testimony, Paige Marg talked about her husband’s personal experiences with the
VA and reminded Congress that long-term mental health care for veterans must be prioritized. Paige’s full testimony can be read here: Oversight Hearing: “Protecting Veteran Choice: Examining VA’s Community Care Program”
WASHINGTON, DC — The Republican focus on further expanding VA-funded community care has been fueled, in part, by reports from veterans and service organizations detailing the hurdles they have had to go through to obtain care for themselves or their clients. Many of those stories center on a failure to receive substance abuse and mental healthcare, the successful completion of which can be heavily dependent on timely access.
“I sought mental healthcare through the VA. While I was fortunate to see a psychiatrist relatively quickly, it took over a year to connect with a therapist,” testified Eric Olnick at a recent Senate VA Committee hearing. Olnick is a Navy veteran and co-founder of Forge VFR, a mental health and substance abuse treatment program for veterans and first responders. “The lack of therapy meant I was only addressing part of the problem. This came to a head over the holidays a few years ago, a particularly difficult time for veterans. Without the support of friends and fellow veterans, I may not be here today. For someone with a mental health or substance use disorder, the window to intervene is often just days. For veterans, timely access to this care is a matter of life and death.”
Paige Marg told a similar, even more harrowing story of the inability of her husband, Charlie, to get timely care from VA.
It was clear when he was medically retired from the Air Force in 2015 that his time serving at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had left him with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Marg said. However, it would be years before he was officially diagnosed. During his time seeking care at VA, he was regularly referred to a community care provider, but a lack of continuity of care resulted in him seeing nine different therapists over the years.
“He would wait six to eight weeks for the referral to be processed to see a community care provider,” Marg explained. “In each of the 9 times that he went through this process, he’s never been granted more than 12 visits with a counselor, even when he needed them. In each cycle, he saw a different provider and spent time telling his story and building rapport.”
In February 2023, Marg said her husband experienced a mental health crisis and requested immediate support from the VA. He was told to go outside VA and given a list of providers that accepted TRICARE. The following month, he attempted to overdose in the VA parking lot.
After being released from the hospital, he was referred again to VA’s community care system for another 12 visits, Marg said.
It was only when he reached out to the Wounded Warrior Project that he was able to secure a bed at a resident inpatient center in Tucson, AZ, for a six-week course of treatment. It was there that he was finally diagnosed with PTSD.
“After this, he’s avoided VA as much as possible,” Marg said.
According to John Eaton, vice president for complex care for the Wounded Warrior Project, Charlie Marg’s story is not unique; neither was his need to step outside the VA system to receive care at a mental health residential rehabilitation treatment program (RRTP). While the benefits of RRTP have been proven for a small, high-need, high-risk population of veterans, the current community care access does not extend, in practice, to mental or substance use disorder treatment in a residential setting.
“We’ve encountered VA providers who have stopped making referrals to RRTP care in the community, even when there’s no firm idea of when that care will be available in the VA direct care system,” Eaton said. “When this happens, we will pay for that faster connection to community-based, military competent care, paid for by donor dollars with almost no opportunity to secure reimbursement from VA.”
This gap means that VA is missing a brief window to provide effective care to those high-risk veterans, Eaton said. “Delays in finding appropriate care in a timely manner not only fail to capitalize on the veteran’s desire to change their life, but in some cases also cause further damage to their mental and physical health, declines in their family and social relationships and even involvement with the justice system.”
Recently introduced legislation would partially address this problem. The ACCESS Act of 2025 introduced in both the House and Senate last month would broaden access standards for community care across the board, as well as adding several mental health and substance use-specific provisions. The bill would require VA to create a standardized screening process for veterans to participate in mental health treatment programs, as well as launch a 3-year pilot program allowing veterans to access those programs in the community without a referral.
