Registered nurses at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center in Decatur rallied Tuesday against staffing cuts they say will affect mental health services for homeless and high-risk veterans.
The rally was held on the same day as the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General released a report stating VA medical centers across the country are experiencing severe staffing shortages.
The report indicated that the Atlanta VA has 79 unfilled positions, including 53 clinical positions and 26 nonclinical positions.
Staffing shortages will be exacerbated by 30,000 job cuts as part of the Trump administration’s cuts to federal spending. The reduction was originally planned for 80,000 employees, but public and political pressure reduced the number to 30,000.
In a statement to Rough Draft, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz disputed that the administration’s cuts recommended by the Departement of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would have any repercussions at VA Medical Centers.
“The VA’s budget request for FY26 increases VA spending by about 10%, as does a funding bill moving through Congress,” Kasperowicz said.
The union that represents 1,200 Atlanta VA nurses, the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), said in a statement that the medical center management wants to cut 55 percent of the staff in the Mental Health Intensive Case Mangement (MHICM) team.
“We have veterans who have attempted suicide multiple times prior to receiving the intensive care and support we provide,” nurse Sharon Kuluwa said. “We feel very strongly that cutting services to these extremely vulnerable veterans will jeopardize their well-being and their lives. We need to be adding nurses and resources to support these veterans in any way physically possible. “
The Trump administration announced Aug. 6 that it would terminate most collective bargaining agreements with the VA, including the NNU’s contract covering 16,000 nurses.
“What we are seeing here in Atlanta is a prime example of robbing Peter to pay Paul,” nurse practitioner and NNU associate director Florence Uzuegbunam said in a statement. “Management is looking to take nurses from these vital positions in order to fill open positions. We know the answer is not to take from one team to add to another starving team, but to increase the total number of nurses and providers who work at the Atlanta VA. That is the only way we can fulfill our mission to provide high quality effective and therapeutic care to our veterans.”
Kasperowicz refuted the claim made by the union.
“Atlanta VA Medical Center is not reducing any staff. It is reassigning mental health care providers from low-demand specialties to those with higher demand, such as non-intensive mental health care and substance abuse treatment,’ Kasperowicz said in a statement to Rough Draft. ‘These moves will improve care for Veteran patients and have no negative impact on the Mental Health Intensive Case Management Program, which is seeing much lower caseloads than it previously has.”
This story was updated with comments from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz.
