Veteran Calls Out Biden VA, Urges 'Faith-Based' Care Services

Veterans are calling for Biden administration action to partner with faith-based veterans mental health organizations amid a scourge of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.

The movement gained sunlight as a House GOP hearing this week exposed the Biden administration for focusing on "scientifically based, evidence-based programs," after former President Barack Obama removed funding for "faith-based programs" in 2009.

"Living veterans: That's evidence of a program's functioning," Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., a retired Navy SEAL, told Dr. Tamara Campbell, executive director of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention at House VA Subcommittee on Health hearing this week.

Van Orden urged the Biden administration to stop turning away from faith-based help to curb veteran suicide and PTSD, "because they are faith-based, according to you guys are non-evidenced based," he said.

"What are your office's metrics for success?" Van Orden asked Campbell, adding "if your office ceased to exist, would more veterans be alive tomorrow?

"Is your office preventing veterans from committing suicide or not? Or are we just spending money and hiring people so that they can get together, come to these committee meetings, talk a bunch, submit reports — metrics that can't be defined: Are you moving the needle?"

Campbell pointed to "evidence-base approaches" in helping move the needle, an answer that did not sit well with Van Orden, who said he has personally had 21 veteran friends commit suicide.

"How many non-evidenced-based treatment modalities do you guys support, specifically religious and faith-based programs similar to the incredibly successful Might Oaks Foundation?" he asked. "How many faith-based, non-evidence programs are currently being administered by the Veterans Administration?"

"Within VA, we certainly value scientifically based, evidence-based programs," she said. "That does not mean, however, that we don't collaborate with our chaplain services."

Van Orden pointed to groups like Might Oaks faith-based program that can "actually quantify the amount of lives they are saving," but the Biden administration is not doing the same with its science-based approached.

Chad Robichaux, founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation, had urged former President Donald Trump to unwind Obama's executive order and Trump tried before President Joe Biden took office, calling for "equal treatment" between religious and non-religious organizations in the VA.

"Our Legacy Programs at Mighty Oaks Foundation teach our veterans how to fight through their challenges related to military life, combat deployments, and the symptoms of post-traumatic stress," the Might Oaks Foundation website reads. "We have had over 4,000 alumni who have graduated from our Legacy Programs who have successfully set a new trajectory for their relationship with God, themselves, their families, their faith, and their careers. I am so proud of every one of our veterans alumni. Mighty Oaks Foundation has one of the most successful veteran programs available today.

"An important part of our Legacy Programs is teaching the gospel because without the gospel, hope cannot exist. Faith in Jesus is not blind, faith is action based on our trust in Jesus. And it begins by knowing Him. It's one thing to believe, it's another thing to act on that belief by trusting Him. And we believe this is where true healing begins."

Van Orden was incensed the Biden administration has not recognized the mental-health success of faith-based treatment.

"I am sick and tired of this bureaucracy refusing to acknowledge that what they call 'non-evidence based' treatment programs have actually shown solid evidence of saving the lives of my fellow veterans, particularly faith-based programs," Van Orden said after the hearing, condemning the Campbell's office for having "no idea, if they closed tomorrow, if a single veteran's life would be saved."

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