Barriers to Providing Veterans Mental Health Services in Western NC: More Have Served From Here Than Any Other Part of the State

I have been trying to sign on as a provider for veterans in western NC for almost a year now. The veterans outpatient mental health care provider services are managed by a company, MHN https://www.mhn.com/ that is slower than molasses.

Two issues present themselves here for me:

1. If NAMI wants to make an impact on the mental health services available in rural, western NC, they can try and figure out why that company has such a difficult time putting providers onto their rosters so that veterans have someone to contact.

2. Not only are there veterans, but there are family members of veterans whom are left out in the cold in terms of benefits from deceased veterans whom were so paranoid and mentally ill that they were afraid of signing up for benefits-----leaving their family members indigent and without recourse to any funds decades later.

As a salute to Veteran's Day, November 11:

From the NAMI website:

http://www.nami.org/

"Reality in Number:

Almost one in five veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq will experience mental illness.

Approximately 30 percent of veterans treated in the veterans health system have depressive symptoms, two to three times the rate of the general population.

More Vietnam veterans have now died from suicide than were killed directly during the war.

Approximately 40 percent of homeless veterans live with mental illnesses."