In a heartfelt TikTok video, Joe Cantasano, a retired Army sergeant, courageously sheds light on his ongoing battle with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He opens up about the exasperating challenges he has faced in receiving consistent and reliable care, particularly in the realm of mental health services.

Cantasano expresses his deep disappointment with the VA, emphasizing his sole desire for continuity of care and the support of dedicated mental health providers. Through his candid account, he aims to bring attention to the critical need for improvement within the system that countless veterans like him rely upon.

“What the f—k? These doctors keep quitting. They keep switching,” he said.

Cantasano shares that a disheartening breakdown in communication occurred, leaving him informed that he could no longer see the doctor who had been instrumental in assisting him with his challenges.

“Now I get to go back to some new f—king doctor, and then they’re going to open f—king Pandora’s box again because they’re going to want to know everything, and then I’m going to have to live through working through that f—g muck. I just want some f—king continuity of care…,” he stated.

@averagefloridaman Reposting the original video.. i have posted and update, please be sure to watch that, i knew that by sharing my all to common story and allowing myself to be vulnerable in front of the world that i might light a fire of change. Now we have national attention on this epidemic. 🙌🏼 #Vet #veteran #mentalhealth #veteransoftiktok #veteransaffairs #vets ♬ original sound – AverageFloridaMan

During an interview on “Lawrence Jones Cross Country,” the veteran revealed the distressing reality that individuals often have to endure waiting periods spanning weeks, and sometimes even months, before they are able to secure an appointment with a mental health provider.

“If you want to see a mental health provider outside of the VA because you’re, you know, put yourself in my shoes where you go through five [or] six providers over the course of 15 months for a multitude of different reasons…and you decide you want to find somebody in your community, somebody stable…have a continuity of care that you generally have to go through your primary care provider… So you make an appointment [and] that can take upwards of 2 to 3 weeks, sometimes a month, depending on where you’re at and if your VA is busy,” he said.

“Then they will go ahead, go through and push you off to community care, and at which point community care can take up to two weeks to go ahead and contact you. Then they’re going to go ahead and push out the referral to your prospective clinic. Then you have to wait for that clinic to accept a referral, review your file, onboard you and then make an appointment, you know, potentially two, three or four weeks, depending on how busy they are.”

In a follow-up TikTok video, Cantasano provides an update, revealing that the individual accountable for the unfortunate miscommunication has since been terminated from their position.

“I believe that I fell through the cracks and it was due to [the] negligence of an employee that’s no longer with the physician that I want to go to,” he stated.

Expressing his heartfelt intention, he shares with host Lawrence Jones that his video aims to provide support and guidance to fellow veterans who find themselves facing comparable circumstances.

“What I do know is that at a very minimum, you know, putting this conversation on the table will hopefully get the ball rolling in the right direction. And I just feel like I know that my instance and my experience is not special,” he said. “It happens hundreds of times a day that, you know, veterans are told that they can’t see their primary mental health care provider any longer or [they are] no longer authorized to go back to that individual.”