Many Veterans Face Long Wait for Mental Health Evaluations, Report Finds The inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs released a report on Monday confirming what many veterans have long suspected: it takes longer to get a mental health evaluation from V.A. clinicians than the department has been willing to acknowledge. Veterans Health Administration policy requires that first-time patients referred to or requesting mental health services receive a comprehensive evaluation within 14 days. The V.A. had asserted that it was meeting that goal 95 percent of the time. But in a review requested by Congress, the inspector general found that the V.A."s system for measuring waiting times for evaluations "had no real value" because it measured how long it took the department to conduct the evaluation, not how long the patient waited to receive it. As a result, the report said, even if a patient waited weeks for an appointment, the V.A. could say there was zero waiting time if it completed the evaluation on the same day it was conducted. Conducting an independent analysis of patient records, the inspector general calculated that in fact less than half, or 49 percent, of the more than 370,000 patients evaluated in fiscal year 2011 received their full evaluations within 14 days. For the remaining patients, the department took an average of about 50 days to provide the comprehensive evaluations, the report said. "This report confirms what we have long been hearing, that our veterans are waiting far too long to get the mental health care they so desperately need," Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, who is the chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement. "Getting our veterans timely mental health care can quite frankly often be the difference between life and death," Ms. Murray said. "It's the critical period, not unlike the "golden hour" immediately after a traumatic physical injury. Yet this report clearly shows that the V.A. is failing to meet their own mandates for timeliness. Clearly, the V.A. scheduling system needs a major overhaul. One reason for the longer waits was a lack of mental health clinicians, the department said. Although it expanded its staff of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and other mental health clinicians by nearly 50 percent from 2005 to 2010, the V.A has been unable to keep pace with increasing demand. Indeed, last week, it announced that it would be hiring an additional 1,600 mental health providers, as well as 300 support staff members, to help reduce wait times at its medical centers and clinics. The inspector general recommended, among other things, that the department revise its method of measuring waiting times and analyze its staffing levels to ensure that it is able to abide by its own policies. The department's under secretary for health, Dr. Robert A. Petzel, said in a letter to the inspector general that the V.A. generally agreed with the recommendations and that it would initiate a timeliness review of its entire medical system, not just the four regions analyzed by the inspector general. In a statement, the department said that in addition to hiring new clinicians, it had taken several other measures to improve mental health services, including creating a new office to oversee its mental health programs. "We have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to anticipate the needs of returning Veterans," the statement said. As more veterans return home, we must ensure that all Veterans have access to quality mental health care. We have made strong progress, but we need to do more.