Rep. Rudy Yakym to introduce bill addressing mental health of local veterans

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. - ABC57 spoke one-on-one with Indiana Congressman Rudy Yakym Friday, about his work to fix the mental health crisis facing local veterans.

Rep. Yakym plans to introduce a bill next week to address long wait times veterans are seeing, just to get help.

He says this comes after one veteran in our area reached out to the VA during a mental health crisis and was told he couldn't be seen for more than two months.

Rep. Yakym stated, "What we're going to do now is I'm going to introduce a bill next week in Sergeant Ted Grubbs' honor, that will require the VA to issue community care payments and allow mental health to be covered by community care, meaning they can go anywhere within the community to get that mental health coverage they need within five days."

Rep. Yakym says the bill will be called "The Ted Grubbs Mental Healthcare for Disabled Veterans Act".