Sixty-two House Democrats have given the Department of Veterans Affairs until Aug. 14 to produce detailed data on mental health vacancies, provider departures, and how long veterans are waiting for appointments. The letter to Secretary Doug Collins, led by Rep. Judy Chu of California, the only psychologist currently serving in Congress, poses 13 specific questions the agency has not previously answered publicly.
The request is unusually granular. It asks for authorized positions, onboarded employees, vacancies, and vacancy rates for psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, mental health counselors, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, peer support specialists, and other direct care behavioral health staff, broken out by regional network and individual facility, with equivalent figures as of Jan. 1, 2025. It also asks how many veterans are currently awaiting outpatient mental health services and how long they have been waiting.
