![]() Veterans sometimes must prove that their injuries are connected to their service, which can require a lot of paperwork and appeals. Sixty-two percent of veterans, or 9 million people, depend on VA’s vast hospital system, but accessing it can require navigating a frustrating bureaucracy. RIGHT: Justin Miller’s psychiatric pills were delivered to his parents’ home days after he was found dead. LEFT: Alissa Harrington holds the safety glasses recovered from the truck where her brother’s body was found. But relatives say Turner had told them that he was infuriated that he wasn’t able to get a mental-health appointment that he wanted. VA declined to comment on individual cases, citing privacy concerns. “I bet if you look at the 22 suicides a day you will see VA screwed up in 90%,” Turner wrote in a note investigators found near his body. Jim Turner, 55, dressed in his uniform blues and medals, sat on top of his military and VA records and killed himself with a rifle outside the Bay Pines Department of Veterans Affairs. The most recent parking lot suicide occurred weeks before Christmas in St. While studies show that every suicide is highly complex - influenced by genetics, financial uncertainty, relationship loss and other factors - mental-health experts worry that veterans taking their lives on VA property has become a desperate form of protest against a system that some veterans feel hasn’t helped them. His death is among 19 suicides that occurred on VA campuses from October 2017 to November 2018, seven of them in parking lots, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Several days after his death, Miller’s parents received a package from the Department of Veterans Affairs - bottles of antidepressants and sleep aids prescribed to Miller. (Jenn Ackerman for The Washington Post)Ī federal investigation into Miller’s death found that the Minneapolis VA made multiple errors: not scheduling a follow-up appointment, failing to communicate with his family about the treatment plan and inadequately assessing his access to firearms. I just can’t get my head around it.”Ī framed photo shows Justin Miller, a 33-year-old Marine who took his life in the parking lot of a Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis last year. ![]() “He did the right thing he went in for help. “The fact that my brother, Justin, never left the VA parking lot - it’s infuriating,” said Harrington, 37. After spending four days in the mental-health unit, Miller walked to his truck in VA’s parking lot and shot himself in the very place he went to find help. Miller was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal thoughts when he checked into the Minneapolis Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in February 2018. A phone filled with the last text messages from his father: “We love you. Blood-spattered safety glasses recovered from the snow-covered Nissan Frontier truck where his body was found. This is where she displays what’s too painful, too raw to keep out in the open.įramed photos of her younger brother, Justin Miller, a 33-year-old Marine Corps trumpet player and Iraq veteran. Alissa Harrington took an audible breath as she slid open a closet door deep in her home office.
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