A man holds a banner during veterans, family members and activists' protest against the Trump administration's cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, on the 81st anniversary of D-Day, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

CNN reporter Biran Todd reports the Trump administration is hanging U.S. veterans out to dry by denying long-term therapy to veterans, many of whom suffer from the threat of suicidal ideation.

“We have learned that some VA Hospitals have stepped up the enforcement of a policy which limits the number of long-term mental health sessions available to veterans. That is according to four VA mental health providers and two patients who we spoke with from VA facilities across the U.S.,"CNN reports.

While the policy did not start in the current Trump administration, sources tell CNN that the Trump administration began enforcing the policy in earnest and pressuring hospital administration to cut off one-on-one therapy in favor of less effective and more cost-friendly group therapy sessions.

“We spoke with one marine combat veteran, Michael — which is a pseudonym. Michael's one-on-one sessions with his VA mental health provider were suddenly terminated recently. He told me it felt like being abandoned,” said Todd.

“You're thrown away like yesterday's trash,” Michael said. “I'm not ready to address all my issues on my own yet. It feels like they took the training wheels off before I'm ready. “

“Michael said it took him a long time to find the right VA therapist and to build trust with that therapist, after he had struggled with addiction and was hospitalized following multiple suicide attempts,” Todd reports.

Todd said the VA has denied that veterans are not getting the care they need.

“But we have been told by VA mental health providers that they were told to stop seeing some patients for those longer, open ended periods,” reports Todd. “In some cases, they say they're offering veterans options like group therapy, which many veterans don't want to do, or they offer them the chance to reapply for one-on-one treatment. But if they reapply, they could wait months to get that treatment. And it's not guaranteed that they will get back with their trusted therapists.”

“These providers tell us that for some veterans with severe PTSD, suicidal ideations, and other conditions, it's just not clinically appropriate to do it this way, that some of them are going to need this treatment for the rest of their lives,” Todd added.