LA JOLLA, Calif. — Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins visited the VA Medical Center in La Jolla on Tuesday, highlighting mental health initiatives while defending the department against concerns over staffing cuts.
Collins began his visit by honoring several employees with the VA Secretary Coin at the facility, which was recently recognized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as a five-star facility.
"This is one of our top five across our whole platform," Collins said.
Collins said the La Jolla facility serves as a model for other VA locations nationwide.
"We have 170 VAMCs across the country, and this is one in which we can point to and say, this is one that is doing it right," Collins said.
The secretary emphasized that the VA is tackling several key initiatives, including homelessness and suicide prevention.
"Suicide prevention is a huge... death by suicide is still way too high," Collins said.
According to Collins, the department spent nearly $600 billion on prevention efforts. However, statistics show that 60% of veterans who died by suicide had not received help through the VA.
"That's just still something that we're wanting to change," Collins said.
While discussing upcoming goals, Collins pushed back against concerns over staffing and budget cuts. He said the department has lost more than 30,000 employees in recent years because they took early retirement.
"Nobody's been laid off and nobody's been fired," Collins said.
"There's not anybody being fired unless they're doing bad work," Collins said.
Since taking office in February, Collins claims wait times are improving. He said the department has reduced disability backlog claims from 260,000 to under 150,000.
"We've done that through what has been a change in a culture of saying we're gonna put veterans first," Collins said.
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