My encounter with the VA made me 'feel so forgotten,' Army veteran says

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I stopped reaching out to the VA because I continuously felt let down: Joe Cantasano

Ret. Army Sgt. Joe Cantasano shares why he posted a viral TikTok video detailing his experience with receiving continuity of care from the Department of Veterans Affairs on 'Fox News Tonight.'

An Army veteran who went viral for detailing his experience with the Department of Veterans Affairs is speaking out about why he posted the emotional video to TikTok. 

Retired Sgt. Joe Cantasano said he wanted to share his struggle with receiving continuity of care with mental health providers because it’s an issue veterans face "on a daily basis." 

"I thought to myself that there was no way somebody was going to make me feel so forgotten and not hear about it. And I knew that I had a platform with digital technology and the ability to record anything and put it up online with the freedom of social media," he said Tuesday on "Fox News Tonight."

"I felt like I know that this is happening more often than it's being portrayed. And I felt it [was] my responsibility to show the world my vulnerability and the true disparity in which [I] and a number of veterans suffer on a daily basis." 

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Cantasano posted a May 17 video of himself crying in the car after he was informed he couldn’t see the doctor who had been helping him work through some problems.

"Now I get to go back to some new f-----g doctor, and then they're going to open f-----g 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-----g continuity of care…," he said.

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The veteran told host Joey Jones the VA changed his ability to see the outside provider he had been going to and received no follow-up from the government agency about its decision to cancel his referral. 

"Out of nowhere, the referral was canceled. And I was so disheartened that I chose to struggle the last three years and rely on my personal safety net that I built and stop reaching out to the VA for help and for answers because I just felt continuously let down," Cantasano said. 

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"About four months ago, I said to my wife, I said, 'Hey, I'd really like to change services again. I want to see if my doctor's back on the network...' and she's like, you know, 'way to be proactive in your mental health and trying to keep those demons at bay.' So, I felt like I did all the right things," he added. "I stood in all the right lines. I answered all the right phone calls. I went to all the right appointments only to be let down again."

 A metal plaque on the facade of the Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington, D.C., features a quotation by Abraham Lincoln. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images) ( Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

Cantasano has posted an updated TikTok video, saying the person responsible for the miscommunication had been fired. 

"I believe that I fell through the cracks and it was due to negligence of an employee that's no longer with the physician in which that I want to go to," he shared. The retired sergeant said he's had hundreds of veterans  reach out to him saying they are facing a similar situation.  

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"There are hundreds of vets in my DMs who are telling me the same exact thing that their physicians fell off their care network after...multiple, you know, years and years and years– non-renewals being told that they have to see somebody else or switching [from] doctor to doctor to doctor- no continuity of mental health care and it's a big problem."