Bravo

Surviving the VA: A Veteran’s Story

My name is Bravo. I began working with Mike Coonan, LMSW, ACSW, BCD, because the VA turned me away. He brought my wife into the process.   This is my story. I am a Vietnam combat veteran. I was wounded in combat. I earned a Purple Heart. I came home alive, but I did not come home whole.

For decades after the war, I lived with things I could not explain and could not escape. Nightmares. Anxiety. Depression. Panic. Sleepless nights. Constant vigilance. I learned to scan rooms, watch exits, and stay guarded even when nothing was happening. I pulled away from people. Relationships fell apart. I became isolated without fully understanding why.

I went to the VA more than once. I asked for help. What I received was medication by my PCP, brief screenings, short appointments, but never a full explanation of what was happening to me, nor a referral to a psychiatrist. No one looked at my life. No one sat down and connected my combat, my injuries, and the way I had been living ever since. As the years passed, my condition got worse.

I had clear signs of severe trauma, but I was never fully evaluated and never timely referred to a psychiatrist. Instead, my care stayed fragmented. Medications changed, symptoms were managed in isolation, and the bigger picture was missed. I did not know how to explain what I was experiencing, and no one took the time to ask in a way that helped me tell the full story.

Still, it took decades for someone to finally put all of it together. That did not happen until I underwent a full Military History Psychosocial Assessment conducted by Mike Coonan, LMSW, ACSW, BCD.. For the first time, someone listened carefully, asked the right questions, and looked at my service, my injuries, and my life as one connected story. That evaluation did not invent anything new. It was finally named what had been there all along.

After that assessment, Mike referred me to a VA psychiatrist. When I tried to follow through with the psychiatry referral, I ran into a VA gatekeeper who diverted me to an appointment that was described as a psychiatrist, but it wasn’t. 

With Mike's help, I got past the gatekeeper. I am now being treated by the VA  psychiatrist, and I was awarded 100% disability for PTSD.

After 50 years, the VA recognized my total occupational and social impairment I had lived with without proper treatment. That decision did not change my past. It acknowledged it. No combat veteran should have to wait this long. I am a member of the group, We Are On Point 4 Veterans.

Mental Health/ Military History Psychosocial Assessment was written by Mike Coonan, LMSW, ACSW, BCD. 

His treating VA psychiatrist provided the Expert Medical Opinion. 

Both were prepared and completed at no cost to the veteran.

Both made a significant impact on his VA Disability Compensation Evaluation and Decision.