Wendy Smith lives in a house in Houston, Texas, with the Army written all over it. Sergeant is even the name of her dog.
During the Gulf War, Smith worked as a mechanic. She claims she was sexually raped between 1989 and 1991.
She turned to drugs and alcohol in the aftermath, which led to her being kicked out of the Army. After that, she was imprisoned for several months for possessing cocaine.
Smith remarked, “I just lost everything,”
She sought sobriety at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Houston. She is currently employed at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston as a patient escort.
With the intention of bringing its workforce back to 2019 levels, when it employed just under 400,000 people, the VA said earlier this month that it will lay off nearly 72,000 employees, or 15% of its workforce.
Through the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, it is a component of President Trump’s broader initiatives to cut the federal workforce.
“Mondays and Fridays are our busiest days,” Smith stated. “Man, now every day feels like Monday and Friday combined.”
Smith has witnessed longer wait times for appointments as coworkers have been let go and staffing levels have decreased. Veterans may now have to wait up to four months to get an appointment for any kind of care, from counseling and therapy to a physical examination.
“The help is there, and then the staff is not anymore,” Smith stated.
VA’s own statistics show that over nine million Veterans get physical or mental health care nationwide. According to the VA, Texas has more veterans than any other state, with at least 1.4 million.
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Overflow from the VA is handled by the charity organization Grace After Fire, which offers assistance to female veterans and their families, with a focus on directing women to other options.
Smith claims that she “wouldn’t be here” if it weren’t for Grace After Fire. I most likely would have OD’d or killed myself.
At the age of 19, Tana Plescher, the president of Grace After Fire, enlisted in the Navy. Plescher was deployed to the Iraq War after responding to 9/11 as a medical specialist.
Plescher continues to take medicine for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder decades later. She is concerned about other Veterans’ access to mental health care due to VA budget cuts.
She worries that the “veteran suicide rate is going to go up” if veterans are unable to schedule appointments and receive care in a timely manner.
The majority of Grace After Fire’s funding comes from the state of Texas.
Plescher said that although the financing has not been reduced, several state partnerships have withdrawn because the nonprofit is viewed by some as a DEI organization because it only works with women.
This Information has been sourced from CBS News.
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