prepare and equip our military families and friends to better understand military life. and senator sinema and daniel s parents are with me now. senator, nice to meet you, welcome. thank you. thank you. thank you. howard, let me start with you, because it s been six years now since daniel took his own life. and the solutions in this bill seem to be born out of stemming from the frustration daniel encountered. can you remind people, some of the obstacles he faced and how this bill would mitigate them for others? thank you, brooke. daniel s obstacles started when he first came home and tried to approach the va and get help. he was in a situation where he was still deployable.
he had to go to va hospital. that was resolved and va is now taking people as they present at the door other issues were lack of psychological treatment at the phoenix va, senator cinema has called daniel the first whistle blower in phoenix, because with his experiences, with the letter, everything came out about phoenix va and the issues they were having at that time. so we did not know and i m sorry. no, no, go ahead. we did not know how to help daniel, how to approach daniel, he didn t know where to get help except at va, we didn t know where we could get help or send daniel for help, that is what s been our initiative has been our driving force with this legislation. for years, i mean, i ve been in touch with you two since that interview, and i am so grateful
being as one journalist put it, devastating in its eloquence. daniel s parents chose to express his words. the many times the va failed him and his attempts to seek help. his father shared the letter with me on this show back in 2014. the illness i have has caused me pain that not even the strongest medicines can dull and there is no cure. all day every day a screaming agony in every nerve ending in my body. it is nothing short of torture. my mind is a wasteland filled with visions of incredible horror, increasing depression, and crippling anxiety, even with all the medications the doctors dare give. simple things everyone else takes for granted are nearly impossible for me. i cannot laugh or cry, i can barely leave the house. i derive no pleasure from any
la. four years after the scandal rocked the va the president continues to pledge that care will improve for veterans. have already made tremendous strides in delivering for veterans including passage of long-awaited veterans accountability legislation. in fact, the va intermittent showing significant gains from many hospitals. but in phoenix, consider ground zero in the 2014 scandal after dozens of veterans died while waiting for care, the facility once again ranked as one of the worst in the country in 2017. the report gave units 1/5 stars for the second year in a row. we are worlds away when we were in 2014 i think we are regaining their trust even though it is one veteran at a time. they say the sevent director since the scandal broke to glover and 2016. 1/5 before so we talk about trust, we talk about the
veterans here in arizona, why are the improvements not happening faster? they need to happen, we all know that. we still have a lot of work to do. our work is incomplete. nelson tells a dramatic drop in patient work times, slashing the duration to get an appointment over the last year from an average of 30 days down to just 11 days. but in a statement arizona senator, jeff flake tells us he is truly disappointed in the continued poor performance at the phoenix va. wearily, greater oversight is necessary. and disappointed because we are not where we are. i mean we want to give ourselves a 10. we are not there yet we have a lot of work to do. would you feel comfortable getting your healthcare at the facility there? absolutely. i would absolutely bidding be comfortable getting my healthcare there. we are taking a proactive approach is that of a reactive approach. and that is a big change.