A former peer support specialist on the VA’s post-traumatic stress disorder clinical support team at the Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System in Denver since 2015, Brian Smothers said the department opened two investigations into his conduct and attempted to make him sign a statement saying he broke department rules, according to the article. Mr. Smothers also claims after learning of his actions, the department reassigned him to “an office with no computer access, no significant duties and no social contact.”
Mr. Smothers alleged that from 2012 to September 2015, the VA facilities in Denver and Golden, Colo., placed patients seeking mental health services on unauthorized wait lists. The lists, Mr. Smothers argued, hid the amount of time it took for veterans to receive treatment and made the demand for mental health facilities appear lower than it was, according to the article.
Mr. Smothers estimated the lists contained 3,500 names, but was unable to determine the exact number of individuals as some names appeared more than once. It is unclear how long the veterans on the list had to wait for care.
Mr. Smothers approached Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) about the lists. He said the department opened an investigation into Mr. Smothers’ claims at their request and that the investigation determined that he had not broken any rules, according to the article.
In an effort to document the list, Mr. Smothers said he emailed copies of the list to himself and used Amazon’s self-publishing book service to preserve them in a public format. After learning of the Amazon copies, the department conducted a second investigation into Mr. Smothers’ conduct. The investigation was still underway when he resigned Tuesday.
VA officials said the agency “does not tolerate retaliation” and that the agency “take[s] any allegation about unauthorized wait lists seriously” and that “[it was] cooperating with [the] inquiry,” according to the article.
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