Finding their own remedy: Veterans navigate a lack of mental health resources
Whenever Army National Guard veteran Dean Murray steps into a restaurant, he immediately scans the room to profile people, looking for potential danger.
After making sure there isn’t an immediate threat, he attempts to locate a back door to the restaurant that could serve as an entry point for dangerous people or an escape route in the case of trouble. Murray always tries to get seated at a table facing the front door to continue observing everything in the room as he dines.
Murray spent 28 years in the Army National Guard before he became one of more than 78,000 veterans living in Montana. According to a biennial report from the Montana Veterans Affairs released in 2022, veterans make up nearly 9% of the state’s adult population.
Some veterans, like 44-year-old Murray, are accustomed to constantly being in danger, so staying one step ahead of any potential threat is how they’re wired and is something veterans continue to do after they get out of the military.
“The biggest thing I still deal with today is the anxiety, the stress and the hypervigilance,” Murray said.
Murray lives in Billings, giving him relatively easy access to a handful of mental health resources. However, veterans across Montana struggle to connect and don’t always take advantage of the care that’s offered.
Struggling with self-help
Rick Williamson, a 69-year-old Army veteran, said when he got out of the Army he didn’t realize he was struggling with his mental health. When he finally recognized he was struggling he didn’t know what to do. He said there’s a stigma that leads veterans to thinking asking for help is a weakness.
“Too many of us keep it to ourselves. We say it’s nothing, that there’s no problem and it’s all because of stigma,” Williamson said.
So, instead of reaching out to someone, veterans will often find their own outlets to help them cope. For Williamson, that outlet was alcohol. While he was in the service, Williamson said he drank “hard and heavy” to help him process his experience.
“During that time that I was drinking, I kept everything bottled up inside me. It was after I quit drinking that I realized that I had mental problems,” Williamson said.
He began having thoughts of suicide.
“It was those thoughts of suicide that scared the daylights out of me. And that’s when I decided, ‘OK, I need to do something about this,’” Williamson said.
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 53 Montana veterans died by suicide in 2019. The report stated this number was significantly higher than both the veteran and general population suicide rates nationwide.
Before they leave the military, veterans are encouraged to go through a screening to examine their physical and mental injuries, potentially allowing them to gain an understanding of the benefits available to them and recommended health care options.
Connecting through the Department of Veterans Affairs
The VA serves Montana veterans and connects them to health care. Erick Kahila, a case manager at the Missoula office, agreed there aren’t enough resources for veterans in Montana to get the mental health assistance they need. But he said the VA is doing what it can.
An app called “VA: Health and Benefits” allows veterans to securely access and manage their VA benefits and services. The department promotes community events like VetsGiving and encourages veterans to join organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Veterans.
However, the way veterans across Montana view the VA varies. For Murray, the office in Billings has been helpful and quick to get him care. However, he acknowledged that there are some problems with the system.
“They’re not getting the best qualified doctors. It’s been a year and I think I’ve changed doctors twice and I’ve never even met either one of them,” Murray said.
Kahila admits the VA is short-staffed, and there is sometimes a struggle to meet urgent needs.
“If there’s someone in an acute mental health crisis, things can get shuffled around and the VA is going to ensure that that person gets seen,” Kahila said.
That means veterans not in immediate crisis will have to wait longer before seeing a provider. In those cases the VA urges them to use other programs while they’re waiting to receive services.
One of these programs is the Community Care Network. This initiative allows veterans to access other providers near them when the VA can’t provide for care they need.
For veterans to qualify for this program, they need to meet specific eligibility requirements like having a need their local VA can’t meet or living a certain distance from VA services.
Williamson received help through the Community Care Network, but still struggled with his mental health. Then he stumbled across a program called Canine Companions. After going through the tedious process of adopting a trained service dog, he started to regain hope.
“A month before I met my dog, I had all but given up. I had thoughts of suicide and had already made plans on how I was going to do it,” Williamson said.
Williamson’s Labrador Retriever, Waimea, had her paws on his lap as he sat at a desk in his home. Williamson said that after he got her, his nightmares started decreasing and he started struggling less with anxiety and depression.
“I was averaging probably two to three nightmares a week. Now I might have one a month,” Williamson said.
Asking for help
Most Montana veterans agree there are not enough mental health resources despite the state’s best efforts.
Williamson said asking for help and then putting in the work was the most beneficial thing he did. Williamson urges other veterans to reach out to someone if they’re struggling, despite the lack of resources available to them across Montana.
“Swallow your pride, don’t worry about the stigma because it’s not a weakness to ask for help,” Williamson said. “In fact, it takes a lot of courage to realize you have a problem and admit that you have a problem. And it takes a lot of courage to recognize the fact that you can’t do it on your own.”