I wasn't aware the VA could legally force treatment on an unwilling vet based on his parents' request. Or does it provide treatment/therapy for the parents? I apologize; I'm not understanding your meaning. Could you clarify this what you mean by his parents having access to the VA?
Also, they reported to the police that he stole $15 from them, resulting in his being charged with burglary and receiving a conviction that included mandated treatment. It seems unlikely they were in denial.
Rehab, substance abuse treatment or dual diagnosis treatment are costly. But VA has all such facilities. Having been honorably discharged, Tom Sanford had access to such VA services. His parents should have been aware of it.
Indeed, it is impossible to make an adult grown up man sign himself into treatment, but his parents had a certain leverage there IMHO. First, when he stole items from them, them not pressing charges could have been made contingent on TS agreeing to seek treatment via VA rehab (as opposed to faith-based counseling). Second, if indeed TS was recently working for the family business, that provided additional leverage to make him seek help in a VA facility.
Why do I think that places like VA rehabs are potentially better than faith-based ones? Simply, the therapists and ministers in faith-based facilities are compassionate, earnest but many have been clean - or if abused, did not slide that deep down. The best drug and alcohol counselors come from the people who were serious ex-alcohol or ex-substance users. They ...understand and know. Nothing matches this personal experience. They may be very spiritual too, they highly rely on AA, for example, but mostly, if they managed to drag themselves out of own serious mess, they are of incredible help to others.
But, of course, the parents are behaving stoically and honestly and one can only empathize with their situation. Maybe it is more of a conclusion for the future. It seems that whatever pushed TS over the edge this time, worked very quickly.
"In recent weeks, locals said, Sanford began behaving oddly – nearly running over a longtime friend with his truck in a seeming joke, asking a local political candidate questions about his positions on guns and then openly declaring his hatred for the LDS church."
So if you think of it, if the friend's reaction time were worse, Sanford's odyssey could have ended sooner, and he'd be jailed for vehicular homicide. The friend must be horribly shocked now.
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