Tammy Duckworth Named as One to Shake Up Congress

Tammy Duckworth arriving for her speech at University of South Florida Oct 12, 2010.

An news article by US News names former assistant secretary at the VA and Iraq combat veteran Tammy Duckworth as one of seven new members expected to shake up Congress.

Illinois Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth - One of the first female Black Hawk helicopter pilots to fly combat missions, Duckworth survived a 2004 rocket-propelled grenade attack. She lost both legs and part of her right arm, but managed to safely land her helicopter before attending to her injuries.

Duckworth competed in one of the most bitter races in 2012, against Tea Party incumbent Republican Joe Walsh. Duckworth proved herself as a hefty fundraiser, outspending her opponent by more than $3 million.

PTSD Veteran to Veteran Program: About Face

Veterans talking to veterans about their post traumatic stress disorder and how treatment turned their lives around. That’s the focus of VA’s About Face program.

More than 40 veterans share their individual stories on video covering several topics:

• How they knew they had PTSD
• When they knew they needed help
• What treatment was like

And much more including how families are affected and reflections on why these veterans didn’t seek help right away.

Take time to see the faces of those who participated in About Face – they did it to help their fellow veterans who are struggling to handle their PTSD.

 

Unemployed Veterans Offered New Education Benefits

Photo courtesy of themilitarywallet.com

New benefits that cover education costs for up to one year are now available for unemployed Veterans between the ages of 35 and 60.

The joint program between the VA and Department of Labor aims to train 99,000 Veterans for work that is in high demand.

“This important tool will help those who served our country receive the education and training they need to find meaningful employment in a high-demand field,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki in a written news release. “Veterans are disciplined, hardworking, goal-oriented team members who can play a vital role in helping businesses and the economy grow.”

To qualify Veterans must:

• Be 35-60 years old, unemployed on the day of application, and not dishonorably discharged;
• Start education or training after July 1, 2012, in a VA-approved program of education offered by a community college or technical school leading to an associate degree, non-college degree or a certificate for a high-demand occupation as defined by the DOL;
• Not be eligible for any other VA education benefit program (e.g. Post-9/11 GI Bill, Montgomery GI Bill, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment);
• Not be enrolled in a federal or state job training program within the last 180 days;
• Not receive VA compensation at the 100% rate due to individual unemployability (IU).

The program is on a first-come basis.

Details are available through the VA Call Centers toll free at 1-800-827-1000.

Veterans go to the VRAP application online at https://www.ebenefits.va.gov.

And, Veterans are also encouraged to visit the nearly 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers in the country. To find the center closest to you at: www.servicelocator.org.

VA Skewed Wait Times for Veterans Seeking Care

U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Sean Stevenson takes a knee while on a security patrol in Sangin, Afghanistan, June 6, 2011. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Nathan McCord/Released)

Despite a 33 percent increase in veterans seeking mental health services over the last five years, the Department of Veterans Affairs maintains a majority got care in a timely manner.

However, an inspector general report finds the VA calculations were slanted according to Larry Abramson’s report on NPR.

Now, any vet asking for help is supposed to be evaluated within 24 hours and start treatment within two weeks. The VA has claimed that happens in the vast majority of cases, but a new investigation by the agency’s inspector general says the VA statistics are skewed to make wait times appear shorter.

… The inspector general’s report says, rather than starting the clock from the moment a vet asks for mental health care, the VA has been counting from whenever the first appointment became available. That could add weeks or months to the wait time.

Last week, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced the plan to hire an additional 1,900 mental health experts to help.

“History shows that the costs of war will continue to grow for a decade or more after the operational missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have ended. As more Veterans return home, we must ensure that all Veterans have access to quality mental health care,” Shinseki said.

Yet, retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli, former vice chief of staff of the Army, told NPR News there aren’t enough good clinicians and their numbers aren’t increasing.

“The issue isn’t whether the VA hires more behavioral health specialists or whether the military hires more behavioral health specialists,” Chiarelli says, “they’re hiring them from a set pool. The fact of the matter is we don’t have enough.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs declined to comment for NPR’s  story, instead the VA released a statement saying it endorses the inspector general’s findings. The Senate is set to hear more on the issue Wednesday.

Lawmakers Appeal on Camp LeJeune’s Drinking Water

Photo courtesy: The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten website.

Displeased with the VA’s response to requests for free health care for veterans exposed to Camp Lejeune’s contaminated drinking water between 1957 and 1987, lawmakers are appealing directly to President Obama reports The Army Times:

In February, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, proposed VA could at least provide health care for Camp Lejeune veterans by creating a special health care category that covered them. The cost of care could be paid, Miller suggested, by $5 billion in excess health care funds the VA discovered when preparing the 2013 budget.

Miller’s proposal, which would have applied only to veterans and not to family members who might have lived or visited Lejeune, was rejected by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who said in an April 9 response to Miller that it was premature to provide health care to everyone who served at Lejeune from 1957 until 1987.

Miller and other leading members of congress sent a letter to the president asking him to order the VA to provide free health care to veterans exposed to the contaminated water during the 30-year period.

“These are wounds that cannot wait,” Miller said in a press release Thursday, April 19, 2012.

VA Social Media Directory: An Online Single Source

All the major social media is there: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs and YouTube. The Department of Veterans Affairs has compiled a resource page of all of its VA Social Media.

Three VA Administrations

It’s clearly written broken down by the Department, the three separate administrations: Veterans Health, Veterans Benefits and National Cemetery Administration.

VA Medical Centers

There’s also a geographic listing of all VA Medical Centers. The directory is set up so you can check which location has an active Twitter account or blog. All appear to have their own Facebook page. You can click on the social media icon for that location and be taken directly the source.

Returning Service Members

And for OEF/OIF/OND Veterans (Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn) there’s a VA website to locate support for returning service members  including links for military families, National Guard and Reservists and active duty.

Veterans Courts: Making the Case for the Growing Trend

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and Judge Robert Russell discuss the veterans treatment court program. Photo courtesy of the Erie County Veterans Service Agency.

Veterans’ Courts appear to be a growing trend. Currently, Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that set up a system for state circuit courts. Although, some such as Brevard  County have already established a Veterans Treatment Court.

Local criminal courts elsewhere across the U.S. are developing similar, targeted justice systems that get services and support to veterans charged with minor offenses.

One of the first Veterans Court was established by Buffalo, NY Judge Robert Russell with cooperation from the Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies.

The Daily Record reports this week on a similar set-up in York County, PA:

The program is similar to Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, or ARD, a probationary program that can result in an expunged criminal record. If a veteran offender is approved by the district attorney’s office and the probation department, they’ll meet once a week in a courtroom with Judge Craig Trebilcock.

You can read the full Daily Record story HERE.

The Atlantic makes the case in its December issue, “Why Veterans Should Get Their Own Courts.”  It reports there at least 80 Veterans Courts currently operating.

PTSD Study: Drug for Recurring Nightmares Shows Promise

Scientists wanted to find out the reason why people with PTSD can’t sleep and dream normally. One theory comes from Matthew Walker, a psychology researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

National Public Radio report by Amy Standen said that  Walker began looking at rapid eye movement, or REM, which occurs when a person dreams.

Walker’s theory suggests that in people with PTSD, REM sleep is broken and the body’s adrenaline doesn’t go away like during normal dream patterns. So, the brain just cycles through the same dream, again and again.

So, the VA began trials looking at the drug, prazosin, which can take the adrenaline away. Pfizer Inc. introduced the drug under the brand name Minipress in the 1970s to treat high blood pressure. Dr. Murray Raskind, a VA psychiatrist in Seattle, said the drug, now generic, can cost anywhere between 5 and 15 cents and was less effective as a blood pressure medication.

This year, the VA is expected to finish up its trial for prazosin. It’s already prescribing the drug to about 15 percent of its PTSD patients.

You can listen to and read the NPR report HERE.

Bay Pines to Fill Veterans’ Mental Health and Housing Needs

An artist's rendering of the new mental health care facility being built at Bay Pines VA in St. Petersburg.

Veteran visits for mental health care at Bay Pines VA in St. Petersburg jumped 18 percent last year. That means there were about 150,000 veteran visits in 2010.

And the need for mental health care visits is expected to increase as much as 42 percent in the next two decades.

“We have more and more veterans coming back from the Middle East seeking treatment for mental health conditions including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” said Faith Belcher, spokeswoman for Bay Pines VA.

To accommodate the increased demand, this week officials signed a $92 million deal to build a new, mental health facility linked to the main hospital at Bay Pines. The 156,000 square-foot building will allow the VA to expand its inpatient mental health care programs for PTSD, military sexual trauma, substance abuse and acute mental health conditions.

“We currently provide treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but this will allow us to serve more veterans and provide additional types of care including inpatient treatment programs for that diagnosis,” Belcher said.

It will take two and a half years to build. The current facilities will then be renovated and used for outpatient care.

Housing for homeless veterans is the other big news out of the Department of Veteran Affairs. It  is expanding its housing for homeless and at-risk Veterans to 34 VA locations across the country.

That will mean an additional 5,000 beds available for homeless veterans. There are currently 15,000 transitional beds available.

A recent strategic study, the Building Utilization Review and Repurposing (BURR) initiative, identified unused and underused buildings at existing VA property with the potential to develop new housing opportunities for homeless or at-risk Veterans and their families through public-private partnerships.  Additional opportunities identified through BURR will include housing for returning Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans and their families, assisted living for elderly Veterans and continuum of living residential communities.

To expedite the project, contractors will be asked to develop multiple sites in a region. VA will hold a one-day national Industry Forum in Chicago for interested organizations on July 13, 2011.  For information regarding the forum mail to:  VA_BURR@va.gov.

Supportive housing projects are planned for homeless Veterans and their families at 23 VA sites: Tuskegee, Ala.; Long Beach and Menlo Park, Calif.; Bay Pines, Fla.; Dublin, Ga.; Hines and North Chicago, Ill.; Danville and Fort Wayne, Ind.; Leavenworth, Kan.; Perry Point, Md.; Bedford, Brockton and Northampton, Mass.; Battle Creek, Mich.; Minneapolis and St. Cloud, Minn.; Fort Harrison, Mont.; Castle Point, N.Y.; Chillicothe and Dayton, Ohio; and Spokane and Vancouver, Wash.

Under the enhanced-use lease agreements, Veterans will receive senior and non-senior independent living and assisted living at eleven VA sites: Newington, Conn.; Augusta, Ga.; Marion, Ill.; Topeka, Kan.; Togus, Maine; Grand Island, Neb.; Big Springs and Kerrville, Texas; Salem, Va.; Martinsburg, W.Va.; and Cheyenne, Wyo.

The VA Family Caregivers Program Now Taking Applications

Family caregivers for wounded warrior, Kevin Kammerdiener of the 173rd Airborne, could be among those who qualify for the new caregiver benefits. Photo from Kammerdiener's welcome home in October after a hospital stay in Texas.

Congress expected the Department of Veterans Affairs to have the Family Caregivers program up and running by the end of January.

The VA just concluded its first week for open applications. More than 625 Veterans,  Service-members and their Family Caregivers have applied for new services under the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act 2010, according to a press release from the VA.

The services for primary Family Caregivers of eligible post-9/11 Veterans and include a stipend, mental health services, and access to health care insurance. Comprehensive Caregiver training and medical support are other key components of this program.

If the Family Caregivers or veterans don’t qualify for this program, the VA provides more than two dozen other Caregiver benefits.

HOW TO APPLY:

- OVER THE PHONE: Call the Caregiver Support Line at (855) 260-3274

- IN PERSON: at a VA medical Center with a Caregiver Support Coordinator

- ONLINE: at  www.caregiver.va.gov with the new Caregiver Application (VA Form 1010-CG).  The website application also features a chat option that provides the Family Caregiver with a live representative to assist in completing the application form.