'Just crushed': Former Fayetteville VA employee testifies to Congress about son's death

USA Today

29-01-2025

'Just crushed': Former Fayetteville VA employee testifies to Congress about son's death
The Raeford mother of a Navy veteran who took his own life while waiting for mental health care from Veteran's Affairs testified before Congress last week about how she thinks the VA failed her son.
Logan F. Willis served in the United States Navy from August 2017 until December 2018, his mother, Lori Locklear, told the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday during an oversight hearing on veterans' community healthcare.
Locklear, a former 12-year employee of the VA, said her son's father was an Army veteran, and her son spent his summers volunteering at the VA.
After Willis graduated from high school in 2014 and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 2016, he enlisted in the Navy to further his education, his mother said.
Locklear said her son's first duty station was in Sasebo, Japan aboard the USS Wasp.
'It was during that time that Logan's mental health began to decline,' she told the committee.
Suicide
Willis attempted suicide several times while in Japan and later in San Diego until he received an honorable discharge on Dec. 31, 2018, Locklear said.
She said she didn't understand why the military didn't provide mental health assistance immediately after his discharge.
During the next few years, Locklear said, she saw her son struggle and distrust the VA.
In the fall of 2019, he worked through his depression and anxiety to attend a master's degree program at Wake Forest University, she said.
But he became more isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic when his classes shifted online, she said.
In May 2022, Willis earned his master's degree in divinity and moved back home but was unable to find a job.
'As his mother, I encouraged him to seek the services he was eligible for, but once again he was skeptical,' Locklear said.
Locklear, who worked in the Fayetteville VA's pharmacy, was concerned that her son's healthcare provider was overprescribing him medications, and in September 2022, she encouraged him to talk to the VA's pharmacist.
Locklear said that after Logan spoke to the pharmacist, she told him to check in with the VA and request a mental health provider.
But the soonest appointment was five months out. By then it would be too late. On Nov. 4, 2022, Willis killed himself in his family home. It had been 63 days since he'd scheduled the appointment with Veteran's Affairs. He was 27 years old.
Would community care access have made a difference?
During Wednesday's hearing, committee chairman, Rep. Mike Bost, R-Illinois, asked Locklear if she thought access to community care would have made a difference for her son. The VA provides care to veterans through community providers when it cannot provide the care needed.
Locklear said that after his death, she found bank statements that showed he paid more than $800 in two months for private mental health care. She said he also spent $288 for his mental health medications.
'My son was going into a hole trying to take care of his mental health,' she said.
Rep. Abraham Hamadeh, R-Arizona, an Army veteran, said that the bipartisan Mission Act signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018 puts veterans in charge of their healthcare decisions.
'Yet, today, we're seeing bureaucratic roadblocks that prevent veterans from accessing timely care … The VA system should work for the veteran not the other way around,' Hamadeh said.
He asked Locklear if veterans should have the right to immediately seek mental health care from any qualified provider and also asked if Willis' outcome might have been different if he had that same access.
Locklear agreed that veterans should have immediate access, but said that in her son's case, he attempted to find a private provider because he didn't trust the VA.
'Unfortunately for Logan, I think he got a provider that just continued to prescribe him medications and he was so desperate to get better, to honestly get better, and so I think she was over-medicating him,' she said.
Locklear said that by the time the VA approved Willis for community care, it was two days before his death, and no one called him in time to let him know he had that option.
Locklear said she didn't know why it took 60 days for someone to look at her son's medical charts to realize his prior suicide attempts and depression.
Mother blames VA in Fayetteville veteran's death: 'Look at what they've done to Logan'
Are waits continuing?
Congressman Mark Harris, Locklear's representative, was recognized to speak at Wednesday's hearing and said that he hopes Locklear's testimony prevents future veterans and their families from experiencing the same thing.
Harris said that while Logan was given a five-month wait between his initial request for a mental health appointment and a date, the law says the wait should be no longer than 20 days before a referral is made for community care.
Harris said that in his review Tuesday of the Fayetteville VA Medical Center's waitlist, he learned there is a 60-day wait time for new patients to get access to individual mental health care.
'I'm concerned about what you went through, and I just want you to have an opportunity to really help us understand how this experience has affected you mentally and what this had led to in your own life,' Harris told Locklear.
How mother's own mental health has suffered
Locklear said that she believed in the VA system and loves veterans, but to see her veteran son fall through the cracks has taken a toll on her.
She said that the week before Willis died, she thought he was doing better.
'Then that Friday when we found him, I was just crushed,' she said.
Locklear said she received support from the pharmacy department, but she knew she needed to report the suicide.
She said a VA official she first spoke to seemed interested in wanting to know what happened and how to fix things until they learned the veteran was her son.
She said she felt like she was treated like a whistleblower.
'I kept waiting for someone to call me and say, 'Can we talk to you? How can we fix this? What happened?' All the while, I was trying to work and still trying to figure out – I didn't understand what was going on,' Locklear said. 'I knew my child was gone.'
Locklear said that she finally contacted the Fayetteville VA director who told her she was unaware of Logan's death and told Locklear she would follow up.
Locklear said she didn't hear back, and her work performance continued to fail.
'I felt like the VA had caused my child's death, and it made me feel like I contributed because I was part of the VA,' she said.
Locklear said that after exhausting her paid time off, she had to take an early retirement.
'When my child died I went in and just said, 'Can you help me? Just explain to me what happened to him.' And they acted like they didn't see me,' she said. 'Now I feel like I'm disabled. I still don't function well.'
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at [e-mail] or 910-486-3528.