A new documentary, Deadly Failure: A Sailor’s Struggle in a Fractured Mental Health System, aired last night on Veteran’s Day on NBC 7’s streaming platform. The documentary is based on reporting by Voice of San Diego from earlier this year.
The story follows Petty Officer 2nd Class Tiara Gray, who died aboard the USS Essex in 2018 off the shores of San Diego.
Gray had been an artistic, and in some ways angsty, teenager. But in the Navy, she began to experience stress and depression in ways that she had never experienced them before. Her mental instability was frequently triggered by trips to sea on the Essex.
Gray did receive mental health care from the Navy, but that care lacked coherence, as reporter Will Huntsberry explains in the documentary. Gray saw at least 25 different mental health care providers over a short period of time. Their diagnoses and evaluations of her varied greatly.
After being marked not fit for duty on multiple occasions, a therapist who saw her only once then changed her designation, marking her fit to serve.
Her commanders started sending her back out to sea aboard the Essex and her mental health began to deteriorate.
As Huntsberry reported in the original story: “Clinical psychologists who have reviewed [Gray]’s case believe she should never have been allowed to stay in the Navy — or, at the least, transferred to a low-stress, stateside job.”
On April 2, 2018, Gray took her own life, while at sea. Her friends and family members believe her death could have been fully prevented if the Navy had given her appropriate care.
You can watch the full documentary below.