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I’m thrown back to that 2018 elevator ride where I went from “wild in bed to uppity” btwn the 1st and 2nd floor.
I reported it. The (male) employee said “I honestly can’t imagine something like that happening here.”
I get anxious to the point of nausea each time I visit. https://twitter.com/abbierbennett/status/1337255469707096064
I reported it. The (male) employee said “I honestly can’t imagine something like that happening here.”
I get anxious to the point of nausea each time I visit. https://twitter.com/abbierbennett/status/1337255469707096064
Thanks, again, for continuing to cover the topic, @AbbieRBennett.
Imagine it’s not easy to sit w/ people’s traumas time and time again.
If we keep discussing it, things will change. Right, @JeannetteHaynie?
Imagine it’s not easy to sit w/ people’s traumas time and time again.
If we keep discussing it, things will change. Right, @JeannetteHaynie?
I wrote about it the day it happened. Jammed this out with my thumbs while I was still in the parking garage.
The comments people wrote on the blog devastated me.
It's not "just me." It happens to most of us. http://jenniehaskamp.com/most-days-i-have-ptsd/
The comments people wrote on the blog devastated me.
It's not "just me." It happens to most of us. http://jenniehaskamp.com/most-days-i-have-ptsd/
Someone at the VA—a woman with an audience— reached out on Twitter when she saw the blog. And she walked to the command deck and had leadership read it. April 2018.
Wilkie was acting SecVA at the time and sworn in a few months later in July.
Wilkie was acting SecVA at the time and sworn in a few months later in July.
The VA started a “see something say something” campaign of sorts and posters went up on the walls, there were screensavers in the clinics outlining how not to harass people.
In MAY 2018 the Washington DC VAMC knew there was a problem. https://twitter.com/dcvamc/status/1002252369332142081
In MAY 2018 the Washington DC VAMC knew there was a problem. https://twitter.com/dcvamc/status/1002252369332142081
Meanwhile my heart was breaking because of the comments left on my blog. It was at once overwhelming and affirming. It wasn't me. It. Was. Not. My. Fault.
It happens to women at VA medical centers nationwide.
It happens a LOT at "The Flagship", though.
It happens to women at VA medical centers nationwide.
It happens a LOT at "The Flagship", though.
Wilkie said: "We believe that VA is a safe place for all Veterans to enter and receive care and services, but the unsubstantiated claims raised by you and your staff could deter our Veterans from seeking the care they need and deserve.’”
Yet a woman vet is afraid to go to work.
Yet a woman vet is afraid to go to work.
This is so damn damning. "...“that involved the veteran’s purported history of filing complaints, whether specific to prior sexual assault allegations or similar issues during her military service,” ..." and terrifying. Leaders believe she lied "if" she filed a previous report?
That sentence gutted me when I read it. The idea they’d dig through her service AND MEDICAL records to discredit her is shit in of itself. Knowing they believe if she’d filed a harassment report before it would prove she lacked integrity?
“They” are in charge of our care? https://twitter.com/jennslenz/status/1226554956116828162
I believe these women actively tried to change the climate at the VA—at the same time leaders were denying there were problems at the VA. I saw the posters, but I switched to telehealth and stopped going to the VA unless I *absolutely* had to. https://twitter.com/dcvamc/status/1008850344464379904?s=21
I should pause here and say, as I often do, it's VETERANS harassing and accosting VETERANS at these facilities.
Same dudes whose friends swear "they'd never do something like that" are the dudes rubbing up on people in elevators and coffee lines. Catcalling, shaming, harassing.
Same dudes whose friends swear "they'd never do something like that" are the dudes rubbing up on people in elevators and coffee lines. Catcalling, shaming, harassing.
"Multiple witnesses testified to investigators that Wilkie told them Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tex.) had given him damaging information that Goldstein filed frivolous complaints when they served in the same Navy command."
Wait. Someone else’s word is more powerful than her own? Oh— https://twitter.com/jennslenz/status/1331316166028046338
Wait. Someone else’s word is more powerful than her own? Oh— https://twitter.com/jennslenz/status/1331316166028046338
OH god the perfection of this timing-- do you follow @TheBloggess? Jenny Lawson is a beautiful, creative being who shares insights into living with mental health and, not unlike me, she orders things online and forgets them.
YWFMS. https://thebloggess.com/2020/12/11/beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beast-holder/
YWFMS. https://thebloggess.com/2020/12/11/beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beast-holder/
When I first read the account of Lt Goldstein's assault at the VA last Fall I was crushed. What if I'd done more than written a blog? What if I'd screamed it from higher heights?
I went back and re read the comments today and I'm reminded I'm not the first vet to feel that way.
I went back and re read the comments today and I'm reminded I'm not the first vet to feel that way.
There are other "options." I opt for community care when possible. I had a medical appointment Walter Reed last week and the experience was SO different, so incredible I cried when I thanked the doctor and the nurse.
It shouldn't be that way--we shouldn't dread visiting the VA.
It shouldn't be that way--we shouldn't dread visiting the VA.
