Veterans Affairs committee  I was sharing anecdotally with my wife the other day that this new contract feels a whole lot like when the bar down the road is closed by the health department and opens two weeks later under new management. I do not believe the status quo is going to be good enough for veterans, and if you took my testimony at face value, I think you can see why.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, sir.

Veterans Affairs committee  Which specific delay are you referring to?

Veterans Affairs committee  Are you referring to the appeal I filed with Veterans Affairs for the 12-week wait?

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I feel abandoned, more so because I explicitly told everybody in every step of the appeal process how my mental health had essentially collapsed. I was again suicidal. Their response was to say, not good enough. Yes, I absolutely feel abandoned.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say that for an outsider looking in, whose experience is as a client, this pattern of continual erosion of benefits is not the answer. Every time there's a new contract, one more thing is removed, and this is only going to end up with there being nothing left. This privatization scheme and this outsourcing scheme is just putting care in the hands of people who have a profit motive and not a care motive, and you can see the effects in real time.

Veterans Affairs committee  I guess it would depend on if you're asking me about the institution or the people who I work with, the practitioners. As far as the institution goes, yes, but for the practitioners, I've worked with a number of case managers I've been assigned over the years, and they're trying.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would like to thank the committee. I promise I'll be as quick as I can. I had asked my psychologist if she had any information about the new program provider, as she had a lot of experience with other veterans going through what I am going through. She told me she had already attempted to contact the PCVRS for another client, had left voice mails and emails, and had received no reply to her queries.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I want to start off by telling my story. I joined the army at 16 in 2003. I was deployed to Bosnia as a peacekeeper. In 2008, I deployed to Kandahar as part of the battle group. When I returned home, I knew something was wrong and I sought out help. Over the next 10 years, I battled PTSD until I became suicidal in 2018, which led to a medical release in 2019.