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1.    Union College marks 150th anniversary of ‘Taps’.  It is the solemn 24-note military bugle call that launched a thousand handkerchiefs and became an American musical icon. “Taps,” a national song of remembrance that rarely fails to cause listeners to dab at moist eyes at the end of military funerals and memorial services, turns 150 this year.
 
2.    VA teams up with heart experts on women’s health.  The collaboration includes information for patients on programs to help with host of heart-related issues, and new training for physicians
 
3.    Budget amendment would pull all four BCTs out of Europe.  House lawmakers voted Friday to remove all brigade combat teams from Europe in coming years, a plan that would drastically reduce the United States’ footprint in the region and is opposed by military officials.
 
4.    House passes defense bill despite DOD, White House objections.  House lawmakers on Friday passed a $643 billion defense budget draft, setting the stage for a lengthy fiscal fight with the Senate and White House over the military’s future missions and funding.

5.    The Swarm: New survey focuses on needs of California’s female veterans.  Sacramento Bee  As part of a series of pieces on veterans’ issues, I wrote a year ago about government agencies and nonprofits, especially the US Department of Veterans Affairs health care system, trying to gear up to handle the surge of female veterans.

6.    VA health expansion, site plans on target.  The Advocate  The rollout of expanded health services for Acadiana-area veterans and the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ do-over of its site selection process for new clinics in Lafayette and Lake Charles are on schedule, according to an update from …

7.    Gov. Haslam proclaims May 19 Armed Forces Day.  Clarksville Leaf Chronicle  Bill Haslam and state Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Many-Bears Grinder today announced May 19 is Armed Forces Day. The single day celebration was created to signify the unification of the Armed Forces under one federal department; …

8.    Department of Veteran Affairs, 15 Tribal Health Programs Sign Agreement.  Alaska Native News  15 Alaska Native tribal health programs sign an agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that will allow Alaska veterans living in rural communities to seek health care closer to home.

9.    Tax records show charities spent millions on direct mail.  CNN  Beyond its finances, the other services that the National Veterans Foundation offers to veterans are also questionable. On its website, it says one of its principal benefits to veterans is a toll-free hotline, but the US Department of Veterans Affairs …

10.    Lansing Community College program gives boost to veterans.  Lansing State Journal  Ferrell and other students with military backgrounds are scheduled to meet with Shinseki, who now serves as head of the US Department of Veteran Affairs, before today’s ceremonies. Ferrell plans to tell Shinseki how initiatives such as the Military …

More Veteran News

• Veterans Listening Session Scheduled For Monday. Door County (WI) Daily News “Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary John Scocos and Department of Safety and Professional Services Secretary Dave Ross will host a town hall listening session for veterans on Monday, May 21 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the City of Sturgeon Bay Municipal Building.” The “‘State of Wisconsin is committed to providing the highest level of support, benefits and services to our nation’s heroes,’ Secretary Scocos said. ‘The best way we can make sure we are successful in this effort is to get out in the state and listen to what veterans have to say and then adjust according to their needs.’”

•   Use Of Last-Resort Antibiotics Rises In VA Hospitals, National Study Finds.  Pharmaceutical Processing Magazine  “To fight the rising number of drug-resistant infections, doctors in Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals are more frequently turning to last-resort antibiotics, known as polymyxins, which can cause serious kidney damage, according to a new study in the journal PLoS One. Their rising use also may increase bacterial resistance to these drugs, leaving doctors, in some cases, with no treatment options.” The authors of the study are “physicians and researchers with the University of Utah and the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System.” MedPage Today  Study researchers cautioned that “what has been happening in the VA system might not reflect what has occurred in the US hospital system as a whole.”

•   Paralyzed Woman Moves Robotic Arm Using Thought Alone.  CNET News “By implanting a 96-electrode sensor the size of a baby aspirin onto the surface of their brains, researchers have enabled two quadriplegic participants to use their thoughts alone to perform tasks with two types of robotic arms.” One of the participants was able to serve herself coffee, noted Dr. Leigh Hochberg, a “neuroengineer and critical care neurologist who holds appointments at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard.” Hochberg made this point in a news video about a study “that appears this week in Nature.” Hochberg was the lead author of the study.

• House Approves 20 En Bloc Amendments To Defense Reauthorization, Including Satellite Language.  The Hill  “The House approved its first slate of amendments to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) early Thursday afternoon, including one that would allow the president to remove commercial satellites and components from the munitions list.” Another amendment from US Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) “states that Military Sexual Trauma (MST) continues to be a significant problem within the Department of Defense and many victims of MST suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The amendment would also state that the secretary of Veterans Affairs should review the disability claims process to ensure that victims of military sexual trauma who file claims for service connection do not face unnecessary or overly burdensome requirements in order to claim disability benefits with the Department.”

•   VA’s IT Budget Would Increase Under House And Senate Bills.  FierceGovernmentIT  ”Funding for information technology systems at the Veterans Affairs Department would increase relative to this year under House Appropriations Committee and Senate Appropriations subcommittee versions of the VA spending bill for the coming fiscal year.” Under the “House bill, the Integrated Electronic Health Record, better known as the iEHR, would receive $104 million, with up to $169 in additional fund available for development and $65 million for operations and maintenance. However, the House committee would prohibit VA’s iEHR budget from using more than 25 percent of the appropriated funds until the VA and Defense Department’s joint program office ‘submits a fiscal year 2013 execution and spending plan, as well as a long-term roadmap for the life of the project that includes elements such as annual and total spending for each Department and a quarterly schedule and milestones for each Department.’”

• VA Effort Fights Heart Disease In Women. Army Times  Veterans Affairs is “stepping up efforts to diagnose and treat heart disease in women as part of a cooperative effort with the American Heart Association. This is a timely effort, VA officials said Thursday, because the number of women using VA care has almost doubled in the last decade.” Dr. Robert Jesse, “VA’s principal deputy undersecretary for health, said the effort includes screening women earlier and more often for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and other heart-related issues.”

•   Mental Illness Is The Leading Cause Of Hospitalization For Active-Duty Troops.  NextGov  According to its own investigation, the “Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have spent almost $2 billion since 2001 to buy drugs to treat mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder despite growing evidence some of those drugs exacerbate PTSD symptoms.” NextGov adds, “Despite this vast expenditure on psychotropic drugs since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, mental illness ranks as the leading cause of hospitalization for active-duty troops, according to a report published by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center in the April issue of its Medical Surveillance Monthly Report, released May 14.”

•    Lessons In A Catalog Of Afghan War Wounds May Be Lost.  New York Times  US Army Col. Michael D. Wirt has put together a database on injuries suffered by US soldiers who have fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wirt’s database shows “the promise and obstacles related to studying more than a decade of American war.” According to the Times, “there are concerns that the potential lessons from such data could be lost, because no one has yet brought the information together and made it fully cohere.”

•  DOD, VA Agree On Joint EHR Architecture. Information Week  DOD said that it and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) had made ‘significant progress’ on their project to create an integrated electronic health record (iEHR).” Information Week added, “The DOD report to Congress is strong evidence that the departments finally have their ducks in a row, said Mary Lamb, COO of Suss Consulting in Jenkintown, Pa., in an interview.”

• 3M President Pleased To Hear About Data Dictionary Plan For Project.  Government Health IT  A “Sources Sought Notice that…VA” recently “put in Federal Business Opportunities” indicates that the joint iEHR project will use a “recently licensed open source Healthcare Data Dictionary (Open HDD) originally developed by the 3M Company that is now available to contractors through an HDD Content Download License.” Government Health IT discussed this with 3M President Jon Lindekugel, who said he is excited by the news.

Related Posts:

• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News May 15, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News May 09, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News May 04, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News May 01, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News April 23, 2012

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1.    In military-rich battlegrounds, Obama targets a new group: veterans.  Republicans have long defined themselves in part on their hawkish stance on national security issues and their popularity among the military and veterans. But the makeup of the nation’s armed forces is changing, and President Barack Obama hopes to win over veterans by appealing to the same subgroups that propelled him to victory in 2008: women, minorities and young people.
 
2.    Military research at record amounts as war winding down.  With the Afghanistan War winding down and the chance to study troops in combat running out, military scientists are conducting record amounts of research on everything from blast effects on the brain to stanching blood loss.
 
3.    Afghan forces will take control of some volatile areas.  More details about the third phase of Afghanistan’s security transition released Monday indicate that Afghan forces will take the lead in some areas still under persistent threat from insurgents.
 
4.    Troops leave Korea with a little piece of history.  If you’re looking for a souvenir, Mardi Gras has its beads, Florida has its Mickey Mouse ears, and South Korea has … barbed wire?
 
5.    Clinic in Afghanistan is first stop for US troops recovering from brain trauma.  The first room they go to is small and dark, with a single bed in the corner and a blanket hung over the window. The building is covered in a hardened foam that muffles the constant drone of the Apache helicopters, Warthog attack jets and massive cargo planes coming and going from the airfield at this base just north of Kabul.
 
6.    At Afghanistan hospital, troops treat the wounds of war.  Just after 9 a.m., the helicopter descends past jagged, snowcapped mountains, and the crew rushes a soldier with a gunshot wound to his leg into the trauma center. Nurses, doctors and medical technicians, clad in camouflage scrubs, flood into the room, unwrapping his bloody bandage, checking vital signs and inserting lines for intravenous fluids.

7.    “No Drama” In Bill For VA, Military Construction.  CQ Weekly  The House Military Construction-VA Subcommittee has “endorsed a $71.7 billion fiscal 2013 draft bill for military construction and veterans’ affairs.” Veterans Affairs “would receive $135.4 billion, including $60.7 billion in discretionary spending,” an increase of $2.3 billion from last year. The subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, Georgia’s Sanford Bishop, said, “We have…hopefully” drafted a “no-drama bill.” CQ Weekly says the full House Military Construction-VA Committee “may take the bill up this week.”
 
8.    VA Increases Research On Women’s Health Issues.  Boston Globe  “As more women veterans return home, the Department of Veterans Affairs has had to rethink and reshape” its healthcare, according to “Kristin Mattocks, the associate chief of staff for research for VA Central Western Massachusetts Health Care System.” The Globe adds, “Last month, the VA Central Western Massachusetts, VA Connecticut, and VA Boston Health Care Systems joined 34 other VA centers across the nation in the Women’s Health Research Network, a collaboration of researchers and clinicians studying women’s” healthcare issues. Mattocks says that while the main goal of the project is to improve VA care for female vets, the “hope is that what we learn translates into better care for women everywhere.”
 
9.    Helping Survivors Of Military Sexual Trauma.  Boston Globe  “The US Department of Veterans Affairs has called military sexual trauma,” or MST, an “epidemic.” The agency, which universally screens “its patients for MST,” offers a “variety of treatment options” for those with MST. One of those with MST who “praises the care she received from the VA in Maine as ‘phenomenal,’ and urges victims to seek VA treatment.”
 
10.   The Pain And The Power Of A Mother’s Love.  Canandaigua (NY) Messenger Post Deb Kluss is “campaigning to have her son,” Iraq veteran Jonathan Trottier, “released from prison, where he is serving a 4 1/2-year sentence for causing a serious crash while driving drunk. She is seeking his release from prison to instead have him admitted to a facility for treatment of his post-traumatic stress disorder,” or PTSD. Trottier praises efforts by Veterans Affairs to help vets like him. The messenger Post adds, “Kai Chitaphong, social worker and program manager for veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center, said the VA provides services for veterans in transition from prison to civilian life, putting them in touch with VA programs and services to access after prison, for PTSD, family and employment counseling and other needs.”

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• Helping Vets: “The System Is Broken.”  Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch Richmond attorney Matthew A. Kapinos, a veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and who says the US VA is “not efficient in meeting” veterans’ needs. Kapinos, who “has been working with the Virginia Bar Association’s Veterans Issues Task Force to assist Virginia veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with benefit hurdles,” said VA does the best it “can, but the system is broken.” The Times-Dispatch added, “Complaints about the hoops that veterans have to jump through to get benefits they are due from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs are widespread, though vets generally say they are pleased with the benefits themselves.” Diana Rubens, VA deputy under secretary for field operations dealing with veterans benefits, said VA is taking steps to reduce its claims backlog.

• Bill Gives Conn. Vets Second Chance To Avoid Jail.  AP  ”As thousands of troops return from war to Connecticut, lawmakers have approved a measure that would give veterans a second chance to avoid prosecution or prison when they commit a minor crime.” The Connecticut “House and Senate voted unanimously in recent weeks to pass legislation allowing veterans to use the Accelerated Rehabilitation program twice, rather than just once.” The AP, which notes that Connecticut’s governor has not said if he will sign the bill, adds, “The bill would save the state up to $3.5 million over the next three years because treatment is cheaper than incarceration and because the federal Veterans Administration can provide much of the treatment, supporters said.”

• Actor Devotes Time To Helping Wounded Vets. CBS’ 60 Minutes  Gary Sinise, who “plays bass guitar in a band named after Lt. Dan,” the “gung-ho Army officer who loses both legs in Vietnam in the film classic ‘Forrest Gump.” The role was played by Sinise, who started the Lt. Dan Band, which “will give nearly 50 concerts this year to raise money” to modify homes for disabled Iraq veteran Juan Dominguez and “nine other wounded veterans.” Last year, a Lt. Dan Band concert helped raise funds to build a modified home for disabled Afghanistan veteran Todd Nicely.

•   A Hero’s Welcome For Rex, A Marine’s Best Friend.  New York Times  “Bats” blog notes that during a pregame ceremony held at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, 28-year-old veteran Megan Leavey and Rex, the bomb-sniffing dog she worked with during her service in Iraq, were honored. The Yankees, a Major League Baseball franchise, “recognized Leavey and Rex at home plate on Sunday and even surprised Leavey” with a Purple Heart to replace one that was recently stolen from her. The Times points out that Leavey adopted Rex with the help of Yankees president Randy Levine and his wife.

•  Financial Woes Weigh Heavily On Veterans. McClatchy

• A Monumental Moment For WWII Vets.  U-T San Diego

•      VA Guardianship Under Fire.  Lakeland (FL) Ledger

•  Charity Golf Tournament Will Aid Wounded Warriors.  Aiken (SC) Standard

•  Celebrities Make Pitch For Patient Safety Panel. American Medical News Actor Dennis Quaid, whose “12-day-old twins developed infections in 2007,” has “joined with patient safety and aviation experts to call for an agency akin to the politically insulated, independent National Transportation Safety Board to investigate cases of medical harm and report deidentified findings to physicians, hospitals and the public.” American Medical News adds, “The proposed NTSB for health care is promising, said James P. Bagian, MD, a former flight surgeon and astronaut with NASA who helped drive safety efforts at the Veterans Health Administration and now is professor of engineering practice at the University of Michigan College of Engineering.”

Related Posts:

• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News May 04, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News April 03, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – October 28, 2011
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – September 12, 2011
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – August 12, 2011

Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=207186

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1.    Odierno onboard with smaller, smarter Army.  President Barack Obama has called a halt to the decadelong rise in defense spending that began after Sept. 11, and has proposed shrinking the Army and Marine Corps by about 14 percent.
 
2.    Philippines to seek counsel from U.S. military in standoff over Chinese ships.  The Philippines plans to seek counsel from the United States military over its two-week standoff with Chinese ships operating in the Scarborough Shoal, a new step in the simmering dispute.
 
3.    Marines issue guidance on planned expansion of women’s roles.  The Marine Corps issued a service-wide message Monday night, charting the way forward as it prepares to open more combat roles to women.
 
4.    A suicidal veteran and a call for help, unanswered.  Jacob Manning waited until his wife and teenage son had left the house, then walked into his garage to kill himself. The former soldier had been distraught for weeks, frustrated by family problems, unemployment and his lingering service injuries. He was long ago diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, caused by a military training accident, and post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from the aftermath. He had battled depression before, but never an episode this bad.
 
5.    Veterans Crisis Line averting suicide via text.  Bruce Long’s job is to save lives, 160 characters at a time. Long and other staffers at the crisis line have been working with text services for only five months. It’s the latest outreach in the Veterans Affairs Department’s suicide prevention efforts, and Long said it has been a significant change from the traditional phone hotline services he has been involved with for years.
 
6.    For suicide hotline workers, pranks are an unfortunate reality.  Staffers with the VA’s suicide prevention efforts say that prank calls to their offices total hundreds each week
7.    Review: Care for PTSD sufferers same for active duty or those leaving service.
A review of access to behavioral health care for U.S. troops in Europe found that troops with post-traumatic stress disorder were offered equivalent services, whether they were being discharged or returning to duty, according to the Europe Regional Medical Command.

8.    Veteran Affairs Apartment Complex to Expand.  ABC6OnYourSide.com  Within a year, all 50 apartments at the Commons at Livingston were filled, according to Adam Ruege, coordinator for community outreach at the US Department of Veterans Affairs in Columbus. “Most of [the veterans] came out of a shelter or came out of …

9.    Health Highlights: April 24, 2012.  Doctors Lounge  The US Department of Veterans Affairs does not provide mental health care to veterans as quickly as it claims, according to an inspector general’s report. While the VA says that 95 percent of first-time patients seeking mental health care in 2011 …

10.    Veterans benefits fair set for April 30.  Corpus Christi Caller Times  Several tables will be set up to address a variety of veterans services, such as Department of Veterans Affairs claims and appeals, pensions, education and employment. The Texas Veterans Land Board also will be on hand to discuss state land and housing …

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•     Siblings of veterans not eligible for education benefits from VA.  Washington Times  Requirements for survivors’ and dependents’ educational assistance are as follows, according to the VA: 1. The spouse or child of a service member or veteran who either died of a service-connected disability, or who has permanent and total …

•     VA Exempt From Automatic Cuts, White House Says.  Washington Post   ”The Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget is exempt from the threat of automatic cuts to federal spending scheduled to be made next year, the White House said Monday afternoon.” Veterans groups “had feared that medical care or other programs for veterans could be cut because last year’s failure to reach a deal on reducing the federal deficit is supposed to trigger automatic cuts under a sequestration mechanism. Uncertainty over the VA’s status had sparked criticism on Capitol Hill, where the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), accused the White House of leaving veterans ‘twisting in the wind’ by refusing to declare the department exempt from the cuts.”

• Veterans Groups Support Proposed Burn-Pit Register.  Army Times  ”Veterans of advocates favor proposed legislation that would require the Veterans Affairs Department to record the names of troops and veterans who served near open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The Times adds, “VA opposes the bill because current law already permits the department to create a registry, according to Robert Jesse, VA principal deputy undersecretary for health.” According to the Times, VA is “monitoring Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in tow long-term epidemiological studies, the Millennium Cohort and New Generation studies.”

•   DoD, VA Panel Would Review Colleges Under Lawmaker’s Plan.  Army Times  “The GI Bill Consumer Awareness Act of 2012, introduced recently” by US Se. Patty Murray (D-WA), “would require the disclosure of information about dropout rates, degree completion and post-graduation employment for schools receiving GI Bill payments.” The act would “also create a consumer working group to survey student veterans about the quality of education they think they are getting and to review marketing and recruiting practices for schools.” The working group “would be made up of Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Department staff, who would coordinate with veterans organizations.”

•  Report Says That Wait Time For Mental Health Care Often Exceeds VA’s Goals And Projections.  AP  ”Federal investigators reported Monday that nearly half of the veterans who seek mental health care for the first time waited about 50 days before receiving a full evaluation, a much longer lag-time than cited by the Department of Veterans Affairs.” The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is scheduled to discuss the inspector general’s report at a hearing on Wednesday. On Monday, the panel’s chair, US Sen. Patty Murray, said the report is “deeply disturbing and demands action from” VA. The AP notes that Monday’s report recommends that VA “undertake a comprehensive staffing analysis to determine just how much vacancies are hurting its ability to meet its standards for timely” mental healthcare. But VA “says that analysis has been underway since last year, leading” to VA’s recent decision to increase its mental health workforce by approximately 1,900 employees.  USA Today  The report, which says that VA’s “mental health performance data is not accurate or reliable” and that VA has “overstated its success” in providing mental health services to vets. The agency “said it concurred with the investigation results and would move ‘rapidly’ to revamp its process for measuring delays.” USA Today adds, “The VA announced Thursday it would immediately begin expanding its 20,000-member mental health staff by 1,900 to reduce delays in care.”  New York Times  VA’s inspector general “released a report on Monday confirming what many veterans have long suspected: it takes longer to get a mental health evaluation from VA clinicians than the department has been willing to acknowledge.” Murray said,

• “Clearly, the VA scheduling system needs a major overhaul.” Meanwhile, VA’s “under secretary for health, Dr. Robert A. Petzel, said in a letter to the inspector general that the VA generally agreed with the recommendations and that it would initiate a timeliness review of its entire medical system, not just the four regions analyzed by the inspector general. In a statement, the department said that in addition to hiring new clinicians, it had taken several other measures to improve mental health services, including creating a new office to oversee its mental health programs.”

•  Army Wants PTSD Clinicians To Stop Screening For Fakers.  Wired   ”In a big reversal, the Army has issued a stern new set of guidelines to doctors tasked with diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among returning soldiers. Stop spending so much time trying to spot patients who are faking symptoms, the new guidelines instruct.” In its guidelines, the “Army Surgeon General finds great fault with a dense personality test popular with clinicians that ostensibly weeds out ‘malingerers,’ as PTSD fakers are known.”

•  VA Trains Clergy On Panel Mental Health Issues.  Army Times  ”The Veterans Affairs Department is holding ‘teach the preacher’ workshops in rural areas with the goal of training clergy to support veterans with mental health problems. Training includes help in identifying psychological issues, and briefings about how to get treatment and benefits from VA.” The workshops “will be held this year in rural parts of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.”

• VA Extends Authentidates’ Telehealth Contract For Remote Monitoring Of Vets.  HealthTechZone  ”Authentidate Holding Corp., a provider of secure web-based software applications and telehealth products and services for healthcare organizations,” has “announced that its contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to remotely monitor patients’ vital signs and improve patient care, has been extended for 364 days.” HealthTechZone adds, “‘We are pleased that the VA has exercised their first option to extend our contract term,’ said Ben Benjamin, CEO, Authentidate said” in a press release. He added, “We are working closely with the VA to better deliver care to patients and believe this extension opportunity reflects positively on our progress.”

•  VA Should Care For Lejeune Vets, Lawmakers Say.  Army Times  “Key lawmakers are appealing directly to President Obama to get the Veterans Affairs Department to provide free health care to veterans who were exposed to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune during a 30-year span that ended in 1987.” The appeal was made in a letter sent to Obama on Friday by the leaders of the Veterans Affairs Committees in the House and Senate. In April, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki “said…it was premature to provide health care to everyone who served at Lejeune from 1957 until 1987. Shinseki suggested veterans could still file for disability claims if they felt they had a service-connected disability.”

• Wartime Killing May Raise Veterans’ Thoughts Of Suicide.  HealthDay  “The experience of killing in war is strongly linked with suicidal thoughts, according to a study of US veterans of the Vietnam War. Researchers analyzed data from a survey of a nationally representative sample of Vietnam War veterans and found that those with more killing experiences were twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts as those with fewer or no experiences of killing.” The lead author of the study, “recently published online in the journal Depression and Anxiety,” was Shira Maguen, a clinical psychologist at the Veterans Affairs hospital in San Francisco. In a news release, Maguen said, “We want clinicians and suicide prevention coordinators to be aware that in analyzing a veteran’s risk of suicide, killing in combat is an additional factor that they may or may not be aware of.”

Related Posts:

• New VA Initiatives to Improve Benefits Delivery to Veterans and Families
• VA Offering Training for Rural Clergy
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – February 17, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – October 27, 2011
• UCLA and VA Get The Balding Men To Pay For Treatment

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1. Veteran’s war-to-work idea for comrades is a growing effort.  A little bit of salt and a lot of votes could propel a farm helping recovering veterans expand its sales into the stores of the nation’s largest retailer.
 
2. Pacific pivot by US draws warning from Chinese army paper.  A Chinese military newspaper accused the United States on Saturday of stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, saying it will have “a massive impact on regional peace and stability.”
 
3. Guantanamo defense team cites Santeria case as due-process precedent.  In arguing that the United States discriminates against alleged al-Qaida terrorists by subjecting them to a special war court, a Pentagon defense attorney invoked a surprising precedent at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last week.
 
4. As veterans seek mental health care, VA faces criticism over delays and shortages.  Nationally, there is growing concern that the VA is failing its mission. It’s facing criticism for staffing shortages and delays in seeing veterans worried about their mental state.
 
5. War declared on sex assaults.  This week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta outlined new guidelines for investigating military sexual trauma, which the Department of Defense reported as being slightly on the rise. For some plagued with memories of being sexually assaulted while in the military, it seems too little, too late.

6. VA office announces new medical claims forms.  St. George Daily Spectrum  The US Department of Veterans Affairs announced the release of 68 forms designed to speed up the processing of veterans’ disability and pension claims. Adding to the three existing forms that deal primarily with Agent Orange claims, the new forms bring …

7. Learn ways to help ensure VA benefits.  Pensacola News Journal  As a veteran who has been through the belly of the bureaucratic beast and been rewarded for patience and persistence, I know. Now the US Department of Veterans Affairs is reaching out to potentially eligible clients — including those on active duty, …


8. Hundreds of homeless veterans live in Central Florida.  WFTV Orlando  The Homeless Services Network and other groups have partnered with the US Department of Veterans Affairs to offer homeless vets medical care, information on housing, and new clothes. “They’re here for all the vets,” said Tim Gilham, former Marine Corp.

9. The “Hire Our Heroes” Event in Houston, TX Created Brand New Success Stories.  San Francisco Chronicle  Hire Our Heroes Event Makes for Great Success Stories – Helping Veterans Land Jobs with VA Home Loan Experts at Security America Mortgage, Inc. in Houston, Texas! Houston, Texas (PRWEB) April 21, 2012 In recent headline news within the United States, …

10.  Sayre artist’s work in national competition.  Towanda Daily Review  Walt Kozier’s painting, “Take My Hand,” recently received first place in the art division of the Local Veterans Creative Arts Competition for the Wilkes-Barre Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center, making it eligible for national competition.

More Veteran News

•  VA pledges to speed up Northern California disability claims.  Sacramento Bee  The US Department of Veterans Affairs is offering what looks like a smidgen of progress to deal with a big backlog and a high error rate at the office that handles disability claims for Northern California vets. Responding to a Thursday letter from 16 …

•    Obama Salutes Wounded Warriors’ Bike Riders.  AP  President Obama “cheered on 22 injured service members who spun their way around the South Lawn of the White House in specially built bikes” on Friday as part of the sixth annual Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride. The President called the annual event, which was launched in “2004 by a New York bartender who rode cross-country to raise awareness” about wounded troops, “one of the better ideas to come out of a bar.” In a photo accompanying the article, Obama and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki are shown welcoming the participants as they rode to the White House.

•  Military Mental Health: A Lagging Indicator.  Time Veterans Affairs announced Thursday it is “boosting its mental-health workforce by 1,600 psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers – a 10% hike, as well as hiring 300 support staff to help them do their jobs.” Announcing the effort, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said, “As more veterans return home, we must ensure that all veterans have access to quality mental healthcare.” But Time says that may be easier said than done, considering that both the “civilian world” and the Army have a “shortage of such help.” The blog also suggests Shinseki made the announcement “under pressure”: In May 2011, a “federal appellate court ruled that the VA’s provision of mental-healthcare to vets is so poor as to make it unconstitutional.”

• Technology Speeds VA Effort To Cut Claims Backlog.  Federal Computer Week Veterans Affairs has “put a new Web portal and support systems into place to speed up its claims processing and reduce an outstanding backlog of claims, Tom Murphy director of compensation service,” told the House Veterans Affairs Committee at an April 18 hearing. The agency is preparing for a “huge influx of 1.3 million new claims in 2012 while also reducing” its outstanding claims backlog. VA Secretary Erik Shinseki has “pledged to eliminate the backlog and process all outstanding claims within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy by 2015.” Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould said the new claims are expected “because VA has finally decided to accept claims related to Agent Orange exposure.”

•   DOD Establishes Procedures To Address Potentially False Personality Disorder Discharges.  CNN Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer  Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported, “We asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta about false diagnoses being used to discharge military members.” Panetta was shown saying, “There are procedures within the DOD that allows these individuals to raise these concerns and I hope they’ll follow the procedure to determine whether or not they were treated fairly.” Gupta added, “The Pentagon also gave us statement saying that if military members feel they were discharged unfairly, they can appeal to a discharge review board.” Blitzer asked, “How often are victims getting psychiatric discharges?” Gupta: “We found that between the years 2001 and 2010, 31,000 military members were discharged because of the diagnosis, ‘personality disorder.’”

•    TBI Clinic Takes Individual Approach To Care.  Army Times “The Army has had more than 126,545 diagnosed cases” of traumatic brain injury “since 2000, and recently a record number of concussions were detected among US troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq last year due to improved battlefield diagnoses; an average of 16 were inflicted each day last spring, according to Pentagon figures reported by USA Today.” To understand TBI better, the Army devised a “comprehensive plan.” The plan includes “protocols,” aimed at detecting TBI “early. Soldiers who were in vehicles struck by a blast, near a blast or knocked unconscious now must be evaluated for at least 24 hours afterward.”

•  VA Program Keeps Traumatized Veterans At Home.  Meriden (CT) Record-Journal The VA “Caregiver Support Program for Post 9-11 Veterans” was “designed to help disabled veterans stay in their homes and provide support for family members who care for them.” According to “caregiver support coordinator Bonnie Cecarelli, ‘the VA started taking applications last May and, so far, just 18 Connecticut caregivers are participating.’” Cecarelli predicts that the program will grow as more soldiers return home. “The program was established after a study showed that disabled veterans fare better at home than in institutions, Cecarelli said.”

•   Incorporating Our Veterans: Peaceful Living Event.  Montgomery (PA) News   ”Local nonprofit Peaceful Living found a void in community support for returning veterans and is working to mend it.” After discovering that “nearly 18 veterans commit suicide every…Executive Director Joe Landis” organized a workshop scheduled for May 1 titled “Sowing Hope: Hearing, Respecting, Supporting Our Veterans.” The workshop’s keynote speaker is Montgomery County Community College psychology professor Ann Marie Donohue, who organized the “Student Veterans Organization at Montgomery County Community College and” served as “a contributing member to the 2007 Brain Injury Conference convened to provide recommendations for treatment and care for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans with traumatic brain injuries.”

•  Joint Pathology Center Doctors Use Forensic Science To Treat Wounded Warriors.  WJLA-TV  ”Doctors at the Joint Pathology Center are relying more and more on forensic science to determine how to treat everything from bullet wounds to IED blasts as soon as a they happen in the battle field.” Using “cutting-edge” technology, the physicians determine “what elements are present in tissue samples, then send that information to clinics such as Walter Reed to help treat injured patients.” The analyses enable the VA to “figure out how do you manage these patients, do you remove the fragments? What type of care do they need?” explained Col. Thomas Baker, Interim Director of the Joint Pathology Center. He said about “5,000 soldiers who have suffered a traumatic injury” could have “some sort of foreign material still lodged in their body.”

• Business School Reforms Get the Green Light.  Bloomberg BusinessWeek  SUNY Empire State College’s degree program for military veterans was among the winning projects that “received $7.1 million in funding from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) this week.” The grants were the “culmination of a contest — the Ideas to Innovation Challenge, launched in 2010 — that asked the business school community and the business world for ways to improve management education.” The Saratoga Springs, New York-based business school says it will use the GMAC funds to develop a program to ease new veterans’ transition to the “business world.” SUNY’s goal is to “convert some of the veterans’ military training into course credits” that can be applied towards “an MBA degree.”

•    VA Hosting Detroit Veterans Business Expo In Late June.  ExecutiveGov  Veterans Affairs will “host the National Veteran Small Business Conference and Expo in Detroit from June 26 to June 29″ at the Cobo Center. The VA expects about 6,000 veterans to attend the event, which will include “more than 200 business training sessions, online and onsite networking and booths hosted by nearly 400 industry professionals.” Notably, VA data show there are presently “more than 700,000 veterans” living in the Detroit metropolitan area.

•   Lack Of Jobs Not Always Reason For High Veteran Unemployment.  Augusta (GA) Chronicle  The percentage of jobless veterans is “higher than the national average, but evidence suggests it’s not always for a lack of jobs.” Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Membership Director Jason Hansman says the array available resources “can be overwhelming” for veterans. Locally, IAVA executive director Jim Lorraine says the Augusta Warrior Project is “making a dent in the demand for veteran services,” but finding veterans and “educating them about their options is an ongoing issue.”

•  40 Great Employers For Veterans.  Military Times EDGE  Hiring veterans has “come into fashion,” especially in the “financial services” industry. “Ten of the top 40 companies on our list this year specialize in financial services, including our top-scoring company, USAA.” Smaller companies also are “rolling out the red carpet” for veterans: Intuitive Research and Technology Corp. and Kearney & Co., both of which have “fewer than 600 employees, have instituted vet-friendly programs ranging from special orientation for former service members to hiring programs for their spouses.”

• Mayor Launches “Jobs For Veterans.”  WJXT-TV  Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown is “launching Jobs for Veterans, a one-stop service to help military veterans transition to civilian life by connecting them with educational opportunities and job leads at veteran-friendly employers.” In today’s economy, companies need that “never-give-up attitude and that sense of ingenuity that so many of our returning veterans can offer,” Brown said. Nearly “one in four Jacksonville residents claims a direct relationship to the military as a service member” or veteran; and Brown’s office says Jobs for Veterans is another step towards growing Jacksonville’s “reputation as the most military-friendly city in the nation.”

•   Medal Of Honor Recipient Seeks Better Care For Vets.  Galesburg Register-Mail “One of the 81 living Medal of Honor recipients stressed the need for the public to provide adequate care for wounded soldiers returning from duty, during a speech to the Galesburg Rotary Club on Thursday.” Retired US Army Col. Harold Fritz, who “received the nation’s highest military award as a lieutenant in Vietnam, argued that government needs to provide cutting-edge health services for returning soldiers, while not overburdening taxpayers.” Fritz, who served “until 1993,” is president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. He presently works at the VA Clinic in Peoria, Illinois.

• The VA’s Palo Alto Healthcare System Welcomes Marines With Open Arms.  San Jose Mercury News  Nearly “800 Marines” spent their Saturday at the VA’s Palo Alto Healthcare System as “part of an effort to welcome Marines with open arms — and get them in the door.” The daylong event, which included “health screenings, dozens of community organizations and a family-friendly barbecue, was organized for Marines who live within a 150-mile radius” of the Palo Alto facility. The Marine Corps “paid the Marines a day’s wages — about $210 — for attending.”

•   Hospital Sues Veteran For Almost $200,000.  Charlotte (NC) Observer  After experiencing slurred speech and a headache, Cleveland Davis’ family rushed him to Carolinas Medical Center, thinking he had a stroke. “Doctors found problems, including a blood clot next to his brain and severe circulation problems in his legs.” Carolinas HealthCare System charged Davis roughly $200,000 and is suing him for the charges he incurred. “A combat veteran who received the Purple Heart for injuries suffered in Vietnam, Davis contends that if the hospital had done its job properly,” the VA would have “covered his medical bills.” Documents Davis submitted to the court contend “that the hospital didn’t properly process the documents needed to submit the bills to the VA.”

• Veteran Finished Ninth Boston Marathon.  Bedford (MA) Minuteman Mike Welsch, a “veteran and former Lance Corporal in the US Marines, and left leg amputee, ran his ninth Boston Marathon” on April 16 in “10.5 hours.” Welsch has been “receiving medical treatment at the Bedford VA Hospital for many years and he credits VA staff for helping him to accomplish his goals.”

• VA Picks Gilbert For New Clinic.  Arizona Republic  Gilbert “officials are celebrating another coup for the town’s expanding healthcare industry” after the VA announced plans to build a “two-story, 60,000-square-foot” medical clinic near “Val Vista Drive and Pecos Road.” The agency anticipates the Gilbert clinic, which will replace an existing VAMC “near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport” in Mesa, will be ready by the spring of 2014. VA officials say the new clinic will add “audiology, radiology and dental care” to the services offered and it will have the capacity to “house outpatient services for more than 19,000 veterans in Maricopa County and parts of Pinal and Gila counties.”

•   Helena Vet Center Proposal Takes Another Blow.  Helena (MT) Independent Record “Advocates for a veterans center in Helena suffered a blow” earlier this month as a letter from a top VA official “suggested existing services in Helena are more than adequate. … ‘The Vet Center services currently available in Helena remain underutilized by eligible Veterans and their families,’” VA Undersecretary for Health Dr. Robert Petzel “wrote on behalf of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.” The letter was “received April 5″ by retired Montana National Guard commander Adj. Gen. John E. Walsh and Montana VA Administrator Joe Foster in response to a letter they “had written Shinseki on the matter.” The letter from Petzel said the VA would “monitor local needs for ‘possible future augmentations.’”

•      VA Approves Contract For Odessa VAMC Expansion. KOSA-TV  ”Veterans Affairs has approved a contract for the construction of a new VA clinic. It will be double the size of the current Odessa clinic and offer much more in services.” West Texas VA Health Care System Iva Jo Hanslik said the expanded clinic will offer “audiology services, more mental health services, optometry and ophthalmology care and physical therapy.” Hanslik said the design phase is expected to take from “three to six months, after which the construction phase will begin.”

•  VA Clinic Keeps Promise To Veterans.  Greenville (SC) News  The recent “groundbreaking on a new Veterans Affairs clinic in Greenville is good news for veterans.” At present, Greenville’s VA clinic, which “delivers services to around 16,000 veterans,” has more than doubled the “amount of patient visits every year than were expected when the facility opened more than 20 years ago” and it also “lacks adequate parking.” Hence, the $3.8-million expanded clinic, which will be located on more than three acres near the Greenville Memorial Hospital, “is money well spent”; and as Sen. Lindsey Graham said at the groundbreaking ceremony, it is a way to express “our gratitude toward our nation’s veterans.”

• Veteran’s Voice: A Soldier’s Death.  People’s World  Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Gregory McLaughlin discusses PTSD and its link to veterans’ “suicidal symptoms and tendencies.”

•  Blue Star Marker Added To East Tenn. Vet Cemetery.  AP  The Tennessee Federation of Garden Clubs donated a Blue Star Memorial Marker that “honors servicemen and women and is part of the Blue Star Highway system, which covers thousands of miles across the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii.”  WBIR-TV “Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Many-Bears Grinder unveiled the marker during a ceremony Friday at the East Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery. Officials say the Blue Star marker pays tribute to US armed forces who helped defend this country and their families.”

•   Veterans Benefits Focus Of Upcoming Fair.  Charlotte (NC) Observer  A fair at the VFW Post 9488 on April 28 will give service members and veterans information about how they can “sign up for health benefits or get help with claims.” The fair, which is “sponsored by the W.G. (Bill) Hefner VA Medical Center’s Rural Health program, the Winston-Salem VA Regional Office, the Charlotte Vet Center and VA’s Mobile Vet Center,” will have staff and volunteers on hand to help.

•  Frat Members Restore Fallen N.Y. Soldier Mural.  AP  ”College fraternity members spent Friday restoring a roadside mural dedicated to a fallen soldier that they ruined by painting over her image with their organization’s Greek letters.” Livingston County Sheriff John York the “two Kappa Sigma Epsilon members” were restoring a “tribute to Army Sgt. Devin Snyder, who was killed in Afghanistan in June.” After her death, Snyder’s friends “painted an American flag superimposed with her portrait on a large rock alongside Interstate 390, close to her hometown of Cohocton.”

•  Oklahoma Family To Build Homeless Center For Veterans. KOTV-TV  ”Joy Steward and her family have operated a homeless shelter for veterans since 2006, when they noticed many veterans, including the Steward’s grandson, were having a hard time when they returned home. The Stewards have now decided to open a homeless center for veterans. This $500,000 project covers more than 5,800 square feet and will have 25 beds for veterans.” Joy Steward explained, “It’s a place for veterans to get back on their feet. It isn’t just about giving them a safe place to live, which is very important, it’s also a way to impart information that may prevent their staying stuck in homelessness and addiction.”

• Mail Carrier Accused Of Stealing Vet’s Drugs.  Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press A  postal worker “charged with stealing painkillers from a military veteran on his mail route pleaded not guilty Friday to a nine-count federal indictment” at the US District Court in Chattanooga. “Michael Murdock faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of misappropriation of postal funds and up to five years on each count of theft of stolen mailed matter.”

•  A Soldier’s Long March Back From Hell.  U-T San Diego  Bataan Death March survivor Lester Tenney. “Over…three years and four months, Tenney would be beaten, starved and worked as a slave in the Philippines and Japan.” Though he’s forgiven the Japanese and has made peacetime visits to Japan, Tenney is still seeking an apology from Mitsui, the Japanese conglomerate that enslaved him and others during WWII. Mitsui is seeking to build California’s high-speed rail project. Tenney calls seeking an apology from Mitsui his “final mission.”

• This Time, A Warm Welcome For Returning Vietnam Veteran.  Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle  ”When Jim Lachman’s plane from Vietnam landed in San Francisco in June 1969,” there were no “welcome home signs or words of thanks.” Her husband’s “un-welcome home from war nagged Bernie Lachman, herself a veteran, so much that 43 years later, she righted a wrong.” On Saturday, Lachman “returned home from Vietnam again — but this time, to the balloons, flags, and thank you’s he never received the first time.” Lachman, a “junior social work major at The College at Brockport,” had been in Vietnam since January as part of the school’s “Vietnam Program.”

• The Mission Continues.  Time  “Merely serving wasn’t enough” for former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens. “When he came home, he decided that wounded veterans needed a pathway back into society”; and in 2007, he and three colleagues launched The Mission Continues. The orientation session for the “Bravo Class 2012 of The Mission Continues” will be held at “Petco Stadium in San Diego before the Padres-Phillies game on Sunday.”  U-T San Diego  The Bravo class, which will be “sworn in” today during a ceremony before the Padres game “numbers 121 people.” Notably, a Washington University survey of the “first 52 Mission Continues fellows found that 91 percent were still engaged in civic activities after leaving the program.”  KGTV-TV  114 Mission Continues fellows and 40 Wells Fargo employees spent Saturday sifting through “trash, tires, appliances and other unwanted items to help beautify a two-mile stretch” around the San Diego River. Saturday’s cleanup “kicked off the fellowship program, which usually lasts about 28 weeks. Each participant earns a stipend of $7,000 for six months of service.”

• Town Celebrates With Wounded Soldier.  Wabash (IN) Plain Dealer  ”A giant party took place Saturday” at Warvel Park in North Manchester. It was a “combination birthday party and welcome home party for PFC Rex Tharp,” who lost his right leg to an IED explosion in Afghanistan in January.

•  Triple Amputee Sgt. JD Williams.  WBKO-TV  Business members of the “Bowling Green community and south central Kentucky are doing their part to help a hero.” On Saturday, “help was in Bowling Green to help wounded soldier sergeant J.D. Williams, his wife Ashlee, and daughter Kaelyn start a new life.” Williams lost “three limbs to an IED bomb in 2010″ in Afghanistan. Organizers estimated nearly $100,000 was raised at Saturday’s event.

•   Thousands Gather For Wounded Marine Homecoming.  Military News Examiner  The “sounds of a homecoming hit the heavens over Mooresville, North Carolina” as US Marine Garrett Carnes “came home” for the first time since losing “parts of both legs in an IED Afghanistan explosion.” Thousands of people “lined the streets to welcome Garrett and his wife, Courtney.”

•  Veteran’s War-to-work Idea For Comrades Is A Growing Effort.  Stars And Stripes  “Datil Pepper Salt from Veterans Farm in Jacksonville, Fla., which employs veterans injured since Sept. 11, 2001, beat out about 4,000 entries to claim a spot among the 10 finalists in the Wal-Mart ‘Get on the Shelf’ contest.” If the entity “finishes in the top three — you can vote online through Tuesday — Wal-Mart will carry the product on its website,” while the grand-winning product will be sold at Wal-Mart Stores. “The farm is the brainchild of former Army Staff Sgt. Adam Burke, 34, who began looking for a way to help after meeting a homeless veteran in 2009.” The farm teaches returning veterans about the business and physical characteristics involved with running a successful agricultural enterprise.

•  Veterans Receive New Garden.  Hudson Valley Your News Now  ”Female Veterans in Ballston Spa receive a new outdoor garden to enjoy the summer. It’s part of Kohls’ Volunteers in Action Go Green Event to benefit local nonprofit organizations in the Capital Region.” The Guardian house is one of only two New York shelters “dedicated to female veterans.”

•   Meet The Heroes: Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight WWII.  Pascagoula Mississippi Press  As part of its Meet the Heroes series, reports Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight will “send 95 World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for its third trip to Washington D.C. to visit the World War II Memorial.” During the daylong visit, veterans will have the opportunity to “visit the Lincoln, Vietnam and Korean War memorials, the Iwo Jima Monument and Arlington National Cemetery to view the changing of the guard ceremony.” The article provides a brief biographical synopsis on several of veterans slated to attend the event.

•  Air Force Captain Who Disappeared On Mission In 1951 Gets A Marker At Arlington National Cemetery.  Chicago Tribune

•  World War II POW Who “Paved The Way” Surprised With Flight To DC.  Rockford (IL) Register-Star

•  Legion Honoring World War II, Korean War Vets At Luncheon.  Hendricks County (IN) Flyer

Related Posts:

• New VA Initiatives to Improve Benefits Delivery to Veterans and Families
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News April 14, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 28, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 27, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 19, 2012

Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=202062

We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need

1.    VA plans to hire 1,900 additional mental health staffers.  The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to hire 1,900 new mental health staffers to deal with gaps in existing psychiatric care and to prepare the agency for next wave of veterans returning home from war.
 
2.    Marine Corps to open officer infantry school to women.  The Marine Corps will soon allow women to attend its school for infantry officers, as part of a larger effort to determine how to expand the role of women in the Corps.
 
3.    7th Fleet sailors to take part in cultural exchange with Vietnam counterparts.  The USS Blue Ridge will stop in Da Nang on Monday for the third annual Naval Exchange Activity Vietnam, a weeklong skills and cultural exchange with the U.S. Navy’s counterparts from Vietnam, officials said Thursday.
 
4.    Navy’s top enlisted chief: More ‘heads up’ for sailors being separated.  The Navy wants to give sailors being involuntary separated from the service earlier notification of their impending exits, the service’s top enlisted sailor said Thursday.
 
5.    Wounded vets pedal for fellowship, awareness.  Twenty five wounded veterans are bicycling 50 miles around Washington as part of the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride.
 
6.    Veterans’ remains go unclaimed, unburied, sometimes for years.  On Friday, 15 veterans will be buried with full honors in an Arizona cemetery. One served in Africa during World War II, another in Korea. A third earned an Army Commendation Medal for his service in Vietnam.

7.    Students promote importance of occupational therapy.  Quinnipiac Chronicle  Scott MacDonald describes himself as many things: a triathlete, road racer, professional poker player, an employee of the US Department of Veteran Affairs and a paraplegic. One word he does not identify with is handicapped. Ryerson Stinson, a student …


8.    Erie VA hopes to get some of nationwide increase in mental-health staff.  GoErie.com
The Erie Veterans Affairs Medical Center hope to receive some of the mental-health staff being added nationally to address the needs of veterans returning from war. The US Veterans Affairs Department on …

9.    VA picks Gilbert for new regional health care clinic.  Arizona Republic  The US Department of Veterans Affairs will build a 60000-square-foot health care clinic in Gilbert, town officials said today. The two-story center, to be built on the northeast corner of S. Val Vista Drive and Market Street, is expected to open in …

10. SD woman convicted in federal court of illegally taking veterans’ assistance.  The Republic  Johnson says the maximum penalty for the convictions is 10 years in prison and a $250000 fine. Jonson says Maki took nearly $60000 in payments from the US Department of Veterans Affairs she knew she was not entitled to receive.

Have You Heard?

Charlie Mitchell, a professor as well as a volunteer at The HONOR Center (providing Hope, Opportunities, Networking, Outreach and Recovery), located in Gainesville, Fla., teaches theater appreciation and improvisation for political and social change in addition to his work with Veterans.  One of the most important exercises the Veterans do is called “Difficult Conversations.” Here, a Veteran identifies a conversation he needs to have but is worried about – perhaps reconnecting with a family member, or explaining an addiction to a friend. Mitchell often plays the other person so the Veteran can act out what he or she might say. The scene is practiced several times, with other Veterans suggesting how to improve the conversation after each take. At the end of each session, the group wraps up by discussing what they learned. Mitchell said that the reaction to improvisation is always “overwhelmingly positive.” Sometimes the Veterans talk about life skills: how to listen, how to be patient, how to act in social situations. Other times, he said, the Veterans are thankful they had a good time.  “Most of these guys are not in a joyful time,” he said, “so to bring them a little bit of fun, even if it’s just for that hour, is huge.”

More Veteran News

•  Plantation South Dunwoody to host forum on veterans’ care.  Patch.com  The benefit is available through the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Called “Aid in Attendance,” it’s designed to help veterans and their spouses help pay for rent in assisted living communities. The benfit isn’t new, but many people who are …

• Veterans Department To Increase Mental Health Staffing.  New York Times  “The Department of Veterans Affairs will announce on Thursday that it plans to hire about 1,600 additional psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health clinicians in an effort to reduce long wait times for services at many veterans medical centers. The hiring…would increase the department’s mental health staff by nearly 10 percent at a time when the veterans health system is being overwhelmed not just by veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but also by aging veterans from the Vietnam era.” In a statement to be released on Thursday, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki stresses, “As more veterans return home, we must ensure that all veterans have access to quality mental health care.” The Times notes that VA’s “announcement comes as the department is facing intensified criticism for delays in providing psychological services to veterans at some of its major medical centers.”

•    Michelle Obama Military Focus Helps As Women Swell Ranks.  Bloomberg News “Michelle Obama and Jill Biden started Joining Forces a year ago with the intention of helping military families cope with extended separations, unemployment and other issues.” During an “April 4 conference call with reporters to announce pledges of more than 15,000 jobs for service members’ spouses from US companies, the first lady lauded the men and women who she said ‘take on so much.’” According to Bloomberg News, Joining Forces is “also working to improve training for doctors and nurses who treat military veterans suffering from combat trauma, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and on efforts to make it easier for military spouses to transfer state professional licenses.”

•   Survivors Of Tokyo Bombing Raid Honored. CBS Evening News  More “70 years ago today, 80 Americans who became known as ‘Doolittle’s Raiders’ did the impossible and helped turn the tide” in the US conflict with Japan during Word War II. On Wednesday, 20 “vintage B-25 bombers flew in formation over Dayton, Ohio,” to honor four of the five remaining survivors of the raid on Tokyo that was led by “dashing aviator Jimmy Doolittle.”  Washington Times  96-year-old veteran Richard E. Cole, “one of the five remaining survivors of Doolittle’s Tokyo Raid, was unfazed by the pomp and circumstance around him, as well as the rock star welcome he and his fellow Raiders received at the 70th anniversary celebration of the famous April 18, 1942, mission, hosted” by the National Museum of the United States Air Force. On Wednesday, Cole “quietly told the crowd that he never expected the daring raid, the nation’s first military response against the Japanese homeland four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, to make him a legend.” Cole added, “We’re grateful we had the opportunity to serve, and mindful that the nation benefited from our service.”  AP  “A flyover by World War II bomber planes, Chinese visitors and a memorial ceremony with four Doolittle’s Raiders helped mark the 70th anniversary Wednesday of the daring US air attack on Japan. Thousands of people flocked to the National Museum of the US Air Force near Dayton for the events, part of a four-day observance.” Cole, the “oldest surviving Raider, said all the attention surprises the Raiders, who earlier in the day gathered privately for their annual toast to those who have gone before them.”

• Honored Veteran Stands Up For VA Site.  Louisville Courier-Journal “Supporters of the proposed Veterans Administration hospital on Brownsboro Road couldn’t have asked for a better advocate than Dakota Meyer, the Kentuckian who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in a firefight in Afghanistan.” Meyer, the “second in a long line of speakers at a public meeting Wednesday at Kammerer Middle School” in Louisville on Wednesday, had a “message for the hundreds of area residents who don’t want the hospital built in their backyards: ‘Us as veterans, it wasn’t an inconvenience for us and our families when we went out and we fought for you to be free in this country,’ Meyer said. Meyer received cheers and a standing ovation, but his endorsement didn’t seem to change the minds of about two dozen speakers” concerned about traffic at VA’s chosen location for the new hospital.

•  Recruitment Ads By For-Profit Colleges Targeted.  AP  On Wednesday, US Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Kay Hagan (D-NC) “introduced a bill to try to check the flood” of for-profit college advertising, “which has particularly targeted Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for the benefits they receive under the new GI Bill. The measure would prohibit colleges of all kinds from using dollars from federal student assistance programs, including the GI Bill, to pay for advertising and recruiting.” The bill “faces daunting odds in Congress.”

• Pressure To Reduce VA Disability Claims May Cause More Delays.  Washington Post  ”With the Veterans Administration facing a growing backlog of more than 900,000 disability claims, advocates for veterans warned Wednesday that pressure by the VA to reduce the numbers will increase the number of mistakes it makes,” which could lead to more appeals and longer delays. The comments were made Wednesday, during a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on the VA disability claims process. Thomas J. Murphy, “director of compensation service for the VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration, testified that the VBA is implementing a series of…training, process and technological improvements aimed to meet the department’s goal of processing all claims within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy by 2015.” The chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, US Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), said his panel will “maintain ‘vigorous oversight’” of the improvement efforts.
  

• House Panel Approves Automatic Vets’ COLAs.  Army Times  The House Veterans Affairs Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee “moved Wednesday to erase a tiny bit of uncertainty over cost-of-living adjustments in veterans’ disability and survivor benefits by passing a bill that would provide automatic annual increases beginning next year.” The Times adds, “Major veterans’ groups and VA support” the bill. In a “statement, VA officials said they support the bill ‘because it would be consistent with Congress’ long-standing practice of enacting regular cost-of-living increases for compensation and DIC benefits in order to maintain the value of these important benefits, but would eliminate the need for additional legislation to implement such increases in the future.’”

•   Lawyers Want Access To Vets’ Electronic Claims.  Army Times  “Attorneys who help veterans file benefits claims are worried that electronic claims processing will hurt rather than help some people unless lawyers also have access to the claims records.” For “security reasons, access to electronic records will be severely restricted,” a situation that “has drawn complaints from veterans service officers and lawyers who help veterans. ‘The lack of access undermines our veterans’ due process and property rights,’ said Paul Sullivan, a managing director at the Bethesda, Md.,-based law firm Bergmann & Moore LLC, who testified Wednesday before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on behalf of the National Organization of Veterans’ Advocates.”

•   Automatic VA Enrollment Plan Splits Vets Groups.  Army Times  A proposal by US Rep. Bill Owens (D-NY) “that war veterans should be automatically enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Department health system has divided veterans groups over concerns that the legislation would strain an already burdened system and estrange those who did not serve in combat.” Robert Jesse, VA’s principal deputy undersecretary for health, “said his department has not yet formed an opinion on Owens’ bill.”

Related Posts:

• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News April 19, 2012
• VA to Increase Mental Health Staff by 1,900
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News April 17, 2012
• New VA Initiatives to Improve Benefits Delivery to Veterans and Families
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News April 16, 2012

Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=201401

We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need

 
1.    USAFE commander says ‘resource environment’ to drive Air Force changes.  At a change of command ceremony in March, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe expressed some sadness over the pending departure of the last U.S. Air Force A-10 squadron on the continent. But in an interview this week with Stars and Stripes, Gen. Mark A. Welsh III said emotion plays no role in deciding what stays and what goes as the military consolidates assets in Europe and shifts resources elsewhere.
 
2.    Facebook complicates military deaths overseas.  One spouse learns of her husband’s death in Afghanistan after a message on Facebook. Another unit shuts down its page to avoid similar problems.
 
3.    DOD: Number of sex assault reports holds steady in 2011.  The DOD offers two reporting options for sexual assault victims: restricted and unrestricted. Restricted reports allow victims to seek medical treatment and other services but remain confidential, which means the crimes are not investigated and few details are available.

4.    Louisiana Veterans exemption heads to voters.  The Advocate  If voters approve the proposition, the first $150000 of a qualifying veteran’s home would be exempt. The proposition applies only to veterans who have been rated 100 percent disabled by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, said Richard Blackwell, …

5.    West Michigan veterans call for stop of ‘misleading marketing’ by colleges.  The Grand Rapids Press – MLive.com  More than 9800 student veterans in Michigan used the Post 9/11 GI Bill to pay for college between Aug. 1, 2009 and June 15, 2011, according to data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. In all, they received $79.6 million to cover tuition and …

6.    Highmark and PA Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Partner to Host. MarketWatch   Highmark Blue Shield and the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA) are collaborating to host a first-ever local education and employment symposium for veterans.

7.  Coming up on the social scene.  Albany Times Union  “They Marched For Us, We Walk For Them,” the fifth annual walk sponsored by Albany County American Legion SAL and Auxiliary, benefits state VA Hospitals, nursing homes, veteran …
 
8.    Montana’s VA Director Reassigned Out Of State Pending Administrative Investigation.  Billings (MT) Gazette  ”Embattled VA Montana Director Robin Korogi has been reassigned to the VA’s regional office in Denver, effective Monday. The move is necessary ‘so the results from an administrative investigation board can be thoroughly reviewed and evaluated,’ said Anita Urdiales, executive assistant to Ralph Gigliotti, director of VA Rocky Mountain Network 19, which includes facilities in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Utah.” The Gazette adds, “VA Montana…has come under growing scrutiny from VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki and VA Undersecretary for Health Robert Petzel.  AP Korogi has been “reassigned to Denver while officials review why an acute psychiatric wing has not yet opened” in a Fort Harrison mental health hospital that was completed last June. Some “former employees at Fort Harrison have said staff morale is low, contributing to the inability to find the needed psychiatrists. Korogi argued in March that the relatively low pay of $180,000 to $190,000 a year along with a national shortage of psychiatrists and the requirement that they be on-call was making it difficult to staff the wing.”
 
9.    Rights Groups To Learn About Military Assaults.  Courthouse News Service  ”The Department of Defense and Department of Veteran Affairs must disclose more information about sexual assault on women in the military.” Six “Defense Department offices and five Veteran Affairs offices released a limited number of documents, explaining that they could not or would not respond to all” Freedom of Information Act requests coming from the “Service Women’s Action Network, American Civil Liberties Union and American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut.” According to the Courthouse News Service, US District Judge Mark Kravitz “declined to grant the agencies summary judgment” in a case brought to the court by the aforementioned groups, which claim that “sexual assault of women in the military is rampant and unaddressed.”
 
10.   Getting Heavy Drinkers To Quit Before Surgery.  MD News  “A new study of male patients in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system suggests that surgeons should postpone surgery for heavy drinkers in order to make the procedures safer and more effective.” The lead author of the study, which was “published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons,” is Anna D. Rubinsky. In a statement, she said, “Implementing preoperative alcohol screening and providing proactive interventions could potentially decrease the need for costly postoperative resources and improve patient outcomes.”

Related Posts:

• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 28, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 27, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 19, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 16, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 15, 2012

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1.   North Korea highly likely to stage nuke test after missile launch, expert says.  It is highly likely that North Korea is preparing for an underground nuclear test in another apparent snub of the international community, a South Korean spokesman said.
 
2.   Military career skills program for spouses under scrutiny.  My Career Advancement Account has proved wildly popular: More than 147,000 spouses have participated since it began in 2009, and demand was so high the military briefly suspended the program, retooled it to apply only to the spouses of junior servicemembers and reduced the maximum benefit from $6,000 to $4,000.
Afghan forces to lead special operations under agreement with US.  All special military operations in Afghanistan – including night raids – will be led by Afghan security forces under a deal signed Sunday between the United States and Afghanistan.
 
3.   Prosthetics get the personal touch.  Prosthetics long have focused on function. But the same design sensibility that has come to influence practical items like smartphones is turning synthetic limbs into a platform for self-expression. As Scott Summit helps fulfill that desire, he is influencing what it means to live with a disability.
 
4.   Vet Affairs not a money-making assignment .  Watchdog group puts the House Veterans Affairs Committee among the worst for congressional fundraising efforts
 
5.   Lessons learned in Libya.  When Operation Odyssey Dawn launched in March 2011, AFRICOM found itself in an unlikely role: leading a kinetic military operation on the African continent. While the no-fly zone mission over Libya eventually proved to be a success, AFRICOM’s unique structure complicated U.S. efforts, particularly during the early stages of the mission, according to an article in the March edition of PRISM, a National Defense University security studies journal.

6.   P-Noy bares more medical benefits for war veterans.  Philippine Star  Leslie Bassett, deputy chief of mission of the US embassy, said the US Department of Veterans Affairs celebrated 90 years of service to veterans in the Philippines this year. “Every month we are honored to distribute over $8 million in benefits to …

7.   Homeless veterans need our help.  Rapid City Journal  Thanks to a public-private partnership in our state, Scott now has a roof over his head while he gets back on track. The Berakhah House in Sioux Falls and similar facilities around our state are showing veterans like Scott how much we care about them.

8.   Veterans sign petitions for East Tennessee VA hospital.  Chattanooga Times Free Press  WBIR-TV reports that veterans gave the petitions to elected leaders during a meeting Saturday in the hope of enticing them to vote in favor of a plan that would create a veteran’s facility from an old hospital in the city of Harriman.

9.   Tougher citizenship requirements nearly kept Lacey Army veteran from 6-figure.  TheNewsTribune.com  The couple has struggled to pay their bills with his Army retirement pay and his wife’s salary as a nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Lakewood. Rhonda Phillips’ niece had drug problems, and the state placed the niece’s three children, …

10.  More women vets are homeless, but housing scarce.  CBS News  A new report from the VA inspector general examining veteran housing that receive VA grants found bedrooms and bathrooms without locks, poorly lit hallways and women housed in facilities approved for men only. Nearly a third of the 26 facilities …

Related Posts:

• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News April 04, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News April 06, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 23, 2012
• Homeless Women Veteran on the Rise; VA Improving Services
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Todays News March 09, 2012

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1.    Student vets group shuts down sham chapters at for-profit colleges.  Student Veterans of America has shut down chapters at 40 for-profit colleges after discovering that many of the groups were memberless fronts used to promote the schools as “veteran friendly.”
 
2.    Marine’s lawyers seek order to cancel discharge hearing over Obama statements.  Lawyers for a Marine sergeant facing possible discharge after making “political statements” about President Barack Obama are seeking a federal court order blocking a discharge hearing set for Thursday at Camp Pendleton.
 
3.    Appeals court hearing challenge to Defense of Marriage Act.  A closely watched constitutional challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act went before a U.S. appeals court for the first time Wednesday, setting the stage for a possible Supreme Court decision next year on whether legally married same-sex couples are entitled to equal benefits under federal law.
 
4.    Fewer dollars means cuts to Pacific quality-of-life programs.  Military bases in Japan and South Korea are cutting spending on quality-of-life programs for troops and their families even as the U.S. boosts its commitment to peace and stability in the region.

5.    Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare Applauds VA Proposal.  MarketWatch The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare today expressed strong support for a proposed rule by the US Department of Veterans Affairs to remove barriers to home healthcare by exempting in-home video telehealth care from having a required copayment …

6.    Senator on disability seeks cuts to Wash. benefits.  Seattle Post Intelligencer  Joseph Zarelli gets $601 a month from the federal government, indicating that he is considered 40 percent disabled by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, according to records obtained by The Associated Press under public records law.

7.    Veterans Views: Efficiency and lean thinking hallmarks of VA.  Park Rapids Enterprise
It was obvious that our elected leaders support veterans and veterans programs but based on our nations current fiscal situation they are looking for ways to cut the VA budget without impacting veteran services. We heard from VA Deputy Secretary …

8.    Apartments designed for disabled vets.  WAVY-TV   Federal, state and local officials broke ground today on a $6.6 million project to assist disabled veterans in Virginia Beach. Cedar Grove Apartments are designed to become permanent housing for disabled veterans of the US …

9.    Anthony J. Capriglione.  NorthJersey.com  He was a veteran of the US Navy, fought in World War II and served on the USS Knapp in the South Pacific. After completion of his time in the service, he was very active in Veterans Affairs at the local, state and national level.

10.    VA sees shortfall of mental health specialists.  USA TODAY  As thousands of additional veterans seek mental health care every month, the Department of Veterans Affairs is short of psychiatrists, with 20% vacancy rates in much of the country served by VA hospitals, according to …

Have You Heard?

Research Roundtable Caps VA Celebration of Women’s History Month

Improving the health and health care of women Veterans is a high priority within the Department of Veterans Affairs, said a panel of leading researchers on March 27. Learn more

More Veteran News

•   VA cuts funding to embattled North Charleston shelter.  Charleston Post Courier  Expansion at the former Good Neighbor Center is on hold after the US Department of Veterans Affairs halted payments. The construction of the extention of the Good Neighbor Center remains …

•    Criminal Justice Day to feature talk by Iraq War veteran.  The Daily News Online  COMING HOME: Michael Messina, chief of police at Buffalo and Batavia VAs, Suicide Prevention Coordinator Joan Chipps and Jason Jaskula, master sergeant with the Army Reserves and a detective with US Dept. of Veterans Affairs, get ready for Criminal …

•  Michelle Obama Unveils Push To Get 15,000 Military Spouses Jobs On Or Near Base.  AP  Mrs. Obama “visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to distribute Easter treats from the White House pastry shop to military families staying there.” She “brought tickets for the families to attend the White House Egg Roll on Monday.” The Obama family’s dog Bo accompanied the First Lady “as she greeted…families and children who were decorating Easter cards with stickers, cotton balls and crayons.”  CNN  Michelle Obama on Wednesday brought pastries and Bo to the Fisher House, which is a “refuge for veterans and their families as they receive medical care at Walter Reed.” Nineteen “of those families took part in making arts and crafts, with the first lady on hand to spend some time chatting and signing autographs.” CNN adds, “It’s been a year since the First Lady and Dr. Jill Biden kicked-off their ‘Joining Forces’ initiative, and next week the two will hit the road on a two-day tour…to celebrate its one year anniversary.”

•   Panel Told Of Effort To Make PTSD Diagnoses Consistent.  Seattle Times  A Wednesday field hearing of the US Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, “both Army and VA officials testified on the considerable efforts made in recent years to reach a common approach to diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder among the tens of thousands of military personnel returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” But “medical records of…soldiers reviewed by The Seattle Times – indicates disagreement remains about how to diagnose PTSD, with Army medical staff often skeptical of VA diagnoses as well as those made by other Army clinicians.”  Tacoma (WA) News Tribune , “A senior Pentagon official told US Sen. Patty Murray at a hearing in Tacoma on Wednesday that cost isn’t a consideration for the care of US service members” with PTSD. During the hearing, military “and veteran care officials acknowledged the system to evaluate so-called “invisible wounds” can be confusing and inconsistent. They stressed, however, that the Department of Defense and US Department of Veterans Affairs are working together to fix problems and improve diagnoses and treatment. That work includes reducing backlogs, educating service members on the process and improving training given to providers.”  AP  US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) “is questioning military and Veterans’ Affairs officials over concerns that cost has been a factor in reversing diagnoses of soldiers found to suffer” from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Murray’s “questioning came Wednesday at a Tacoma field hearing of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, which she chairs.” While the AP did not mention what VA officials had to say in response to the questioning, it did say “military officials pointed out that it is not US policy to deny soldiers and veterans necessary medical care or benefits for financial reasons.” But some soldiers who have PTSD challenged that claim at Wednesday’s hearing.

• US Mission: End Homelessness For Veterans By 2015.  McClatchy  Thousands of veterans are the “beneficiaries of a federal effort to end all homelessness among veterans by 2015.” Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki recently told Congress that there will be fewer homeless vets if a VA request to spend more money on homeless assistance programs in 2013 is approved. But US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who heads the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, “says far too many female veterans are falling through the cracks and getting inferior service when they do find their way to government shelters.” McClatchy adds, “A report by the VA’s inspector general last month found serious safety and security shortcomings facing women in shelters.”

•   More Women Vets Are Homeless, But Housing Scarce.  AP  ”Once primarily male veteran problems, homelessness and economic struggles are escalating among female veterans, whose numbers have grown during the past decade of US wars while resources for them haven’t kept up.” That last point was made in a recent Veterans Affairs inspector general report on organizations that receive VA grants to shelter homeless vets. The AP does add, however, “The department is increasingly focused on preventing veterans from becoming homeless and helping families stay together when possible, said Pete Dougherty, executive director of the VA’s homeless veterans initiative office.” In a story which has mostly good things to say about what VA is doing for homeless vets

• VA Sees Shortfall Of Mental Health Specialists.  USA Today  “As thousands of additional veterans seek mental health care every month, the Department of Veterans Affairs is short of psychiatrists, with 20% vacancy rates in much of the country served by VA hospitals, according to department data.” The department “has expanded its behavioral care staff by 50% since 2005 to nearly 21,000. Even so, it is difficult to attract psychiatrists to rural areas or places where the cost of living is high, says Mary Schohn, VA director of mental health operations.” USA Today quotes US Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, who said, “If VA is unable to provide” care for vets seeking mental health services, “they need to recommend a provider in the community who can see” such vets right away.

•   Veterans Views: Efficiency And Lean Thinking Hallmarks Of VA.  Park Rapids (MN) Enterprise  Gregory Remus says he was in the Minnesota delegation of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) that went to the “annual Midwinter Legislative Conference in Washington in February.” It was “obvious,” he says, “that our elected leaders support veterans and veterans programs but…they are looking for ways to cut the VA budget without impacting veteran services.” Remus notes that according to VA Deputy Secretary John Gingrich, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and his agency are working on improving claims processing and a shared medical treatment database with the US military. Remus says his organization is concerned that VA is not budgeting enough money for construction projects and that rural healthcare initiatives are protected “in this environment of increasing needs for women’s health care, homeless veterans, prosthetic research, and veteran’s mental health.”

•   VA, Pentagon Eye 3M’s Health Data Dictionary For Joint EHR Project.  iHealthBeat “The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs might be planning to use 3M’s Health Data Dictionary to standardize terminology for their joint integrated electronic health record project, or iEHR project

• VA Cancels Microsoft Software License Agreement.  Washington Business Journal, “The Department of Veterans Affairs has discontinued a key enterprise software license agreement for Microsoft Corp. products, a move that could save the VA nearly 30 percent in annual licensing fees, Nextgov ” According to the Business Journal, the “agreement typically required customers to pay an annual fee of 29 percent for desktop software and server software to lock in discounts on upgrades. Approximately 300,000 employees use Microsoft operating system and desktop application software.”

Related Posts:

• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News April 04, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News March 23, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Todays News March 09, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Todays News March 08, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – March 05, 2012

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1.    Returning veterans fight for the civilian jobs they left behind.  After 10 years of war, some members of the Guard and Reserve are returning home to find their old jobs have been given to someone else, or they are coming back to fewer hours and benefits. Sometimes employers have been weary of accommodating the emotional and physical baggage that multiple deployments may exact.
 
2.    Prosthetics give injured Marine hope for future.  Today a patient in a special unit at Naval Medical Center San Diego for the most severely wounded troops, Marine Cpl. Kevin Dubois is carrying out his final mission as a Marine, a concentrated effort to stand up straight and walk again despite losing both legs up to his pelvis.
 
3.    Revised VA rules help ex-sailor wake from 27-year nightmare.  Working with a revised set of guidelines for handling claims involving sexual trauma, the VA recently concluded that a former female sailor’s anxiety, panic attacks and depression render her unable to work. She will receive a monthly stipend of almost $2,800, as well as $150,000 in retroactive benefits, dating to her 2006 application for disability compensation.
 
4.    Marines change recruiting pitch to include humanitarian missions.  After a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps is tweaking its recruiting pitch to emphasize not just combat prowess but also the Marines’ involvement in humanitarian missions.
 
5.    $120 million heat ray waiting for first action.  Designed for crowd control, “Active Denial System” made a cameo appearance in Afghanistan but was never used.
 
6.    Data on radiation, toxin exposure following Japan quake yet to be released.  A year after hundreds of U.S. troops ventured into Japan’s damaged eastern regions to bring aid to earthquake and tsunami survivors, the levels of radiation and other toxins detected in and around the places they worked has yet to be released. Part of a two-day Stars and Stripes special report marking the anniversary of the disaster.

7.    Wyo. vets can get benefit information via computer.  NECN  The US Department of Veterans Affairs is participating in a TeleBenefits program in cooperation with the Sheridan VA Medical Center. The system used for TeleBenefits is exactly the same as that proved to be successful providing health care to rural …

8.    Newsmakers Q&A: Ohio company part of campaign to hire veterans.  Columbus Dispatch  President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget proposal allocates $5 billion for local police and fire departments that hire veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has launched a series of employment programs, …

9.    After combat, many vets continue to battle with unseen wounds.  OregonLive.com (blog)  The OregonianTrevor Hutchison spends a lot of time on the phone, navigating the bureaucracies of the Army, the Department of Veterans Affairs. BEND — Oregon National Guard veteran …

10.  60th anniversary marked for Korean War veterans.  Fayetteville Observer  The state Division of Veterans Affairs is seeking Korean War veterans and their families to recognize during the 60th anniversary of the conflict. The project is part of the Department of Defense’s “Year of the Korean War Veteran,” which will begin in …

More Veteran News

• VA Hospital site pleases some, puzzles or upsets others.  Louisville Courier-Journal The main objection to the downtown medical district came from veterans, who feared traffic, parking problems and crime. The federal Department of Veterans Affairs concluded that building on an outlying “green field” would be faster and cheaper.

•  Supervisor Puglisi Announces Montrose VA Saved.  The Daily Cortlandt  The EUL was once being considered by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs to convert the bulk of the 62-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt Montrose VA campus into housing units. “The enhanced use lease the federal government, the VA, …

•       Florida Lawmakers Establish a Purple Heart Day.  WUSF 89.7 News  Veteran students will get the same priority. “This will help insure that our veterans will get the necessary courses before their federal benefits run out,” said Steve Murray, spokesman for the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs.

•    Fire Chief Suspended For Not Hiring Guardsman.  AP  The fire chief in Muskogee, Oklahoma, “says he’s accepted his three-week suspension after an internal investigation found that he rejected a job applicant four years ago because the candidate was a member of the National Guard. Derek Tatum said he was ‘green and unaware’ when he made the decision shortly after he was appointed chief in 2007.”  Muskogee (OK) Phoenix  Tatum was “suspended without pay for three one-week periods during the course of a month.” Meanwhile, Tatum said the “applicant who was not hired four years ago submitted a second application, met all qualifications, and was hired by the department about two weeks ago.”

•     VA Celebrates Women’s History Month.  Rafu Shimpo (CA)  Veterans Affairs joined the nation in “observing Women’s History Month in March by honoring women veterans for their significant historical contributions and encouraging them to take advantage of the VA benefits they’ve earned. ‘VA honors women veterans of all eras for their courage and sacrifice,’” said VA Secretary Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. The agency recently “launched a ‘Stories of Service’ video series depicting the role of women in the military.” In the “three- to five-minute video vignettes,” which are available at www.womenshealth.va.gov, female veterans from various eras and across all service branches “talk about their experiences in the military and how they made VA benefits work for them.”

•   Join Gary Sinise In Honoring Disabled Vet On Monday.  Albany Times Union  “Actor Gary Sinise will join Capital Region well-wishers on Monday for a motorcade escorting disabled veteran Joseph Wilkinson from the Village of Nassau to the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany.” Wilkinson, a “Lansingburgh native, served as a technical sergeant in Air Force Security Forces” during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. “Three years later, the first symptoms of health troubles showed up when his right leg started giving out when he ran”; and last year, the VA rated Wilkinson’s “service-related disability at 100 percent for worsening back, leg and bladder problems.”

•   Wounded Marine Officer Takes Steps Toward Recovery.  Stars and Stripes  US Marine Lt. Col. Ty Edwards, a Florida man who spends part of each day recovering from a traumatic brain injury he received from a sniper during a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Edwards has spent more than three years mending, and he “considers himself blessed to be alive.” Stars and Stripes said he “attributed his progress to the top-notch medical care he received in the war zone and back home,” initially at Bethesda Naval Hospital and then at James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa. It is his “home away from home” and the place “where he learned how to walk and speak in complete sentences again.”

•  Former Marine Lobbies To Adopt Canine Partner.  Westchester (NY) Journal News Megan Leavey and “Rex, the military service dog she had handled since her earliest days as a Marine at Camp Pendleton, Calif., had survived the blast of an improvised explosive device detonated by insurgents outside of Ramadi, Iraq, in September 2006.” The pair finished their “deployment and then spent the better part of a year rehabilitating from the injuries they had suffered together.” Now, Leavey, “wakes up each morning,” wondering if Rex will “be allowed to live out his final years in her comfortable home or if the military has other plans.” Since being discharged in 2007, Leavey, whose “uniform displays a Purple Heart, a combat valor medal and several other decorations, has maintained a constant campaign to adopt the now 10-year-old German shepherd.”

•  285 Soldiers Had PTSD Diagnoses Reversed At Madigan Army Center.  Seattle Times  ”The Army Medical Command has identified 285 Madigan Army Medical Center patients whose diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder were reversed as they went through a screening process for possible medical retirements, according to Sen. Patty Murray.” The command said patients deemed eligible for re-evaluation were “identified from a review of 1,500 soldiers screened by the forensic team for all types of mental-health conditions.” Last month, Madigan’s PTSD screeners “were removed from that duty while the Army Medical Command investigates why diagnoses were changed.”

•   Revised Rules Help Veteran Wake From 27-year Nightmare.  Norfolk (VA) Virginian-Pilot  The case of Katherine Glover, a Navy veteran who suffers from PTSD and was turned down for every request for disability benefits until the VA started using “a revised set of guidelines for handling claims involving sexual trauma.” After more than five years, Glover “finally got good news” about a $2,800 monthly benefit and $150,000 in retroactive benefits. The Virginian-Pilot reports Glover was raped in 1985 at a NATO base in Italy, but she “didn’t breathe a word of the trauma until 2002, when she finally told a representative from the Department of Veterans Affairs.” The story examines her path to benefits.

Related Posts:

• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Todays News March 08, 2012
• Google+ Plus and the “L-Shaped” Ambush
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – February 04, 2012
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – January 22, 2012
• Connecting the Military Dots

Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=192573

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1.    Army leaders talk future BCT cuts, sequestration effects.  The Army is still “a few months away” from decisions about additional brigade combat teams that will be eliminated, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno told Congress on Friday.
 
2.    For visiting Marines, an ‘incredibly powerful, healing measure’.  For the Company B Marines who arrived back in the states on Feb. 4, and for whom the trauma of war is still fresh in their minds, visiting their wounded comrades at Walter Reed and presenting Purple Hearts at the Marine Corps Memorial was a therapeutic venture.

3.    St. Louis Leads Way in Welcoming Veterans Home.  FedSmith.com  The winter 2009 edition of “NIH MedlinePlus” quoted US Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that PTSD afflicts almost 30% of Vietnam veterans, as many as 10% of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans, 11% of veterans of the war in Afghanistan and 20% of …

4.    Scam targets vets and family.  Enumclaw Courier-Herald  First, what is Aid and Attendance? A&A is financial assistance from the Veterans Administration that helps with daily activities like bathing, dressing and taking medications. As a general rule, a veteran or the spouse of a veteran who is receiving …

5.    McKevitt honors war veterans.  The Island Now  McKevitt, whose father is a US Army veteran, praised the 14 veterans from local VFW and American Legion organizations honored during the ceremonies for the selfless sense of duty they demonstrated. “These are truly heroes as far as I’m concerned.

6.    Sixty Jobs To Be Cut At State Homes For Disabled Veterans.  Essential Public Radio
Under Corbett’s spending plan, the state Department of Military and Veteran’s Affairs would need to cut about 60 jobs from its six homes for disabled and chronically-ill veterans and their spouses. Craig said the cuts would have been worse if it …

7.    First Alabama state veterans cemetery on schedule for 2013 opening.  al.com  Initially, the cemetery will have space for 2776 burials, said Sandy Speakman, general counsel for the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs. “We are very pleased with our progress,” Speakman said. Dr. Barry Booth is one of those who’s keeping up with …

8.    Roanoke Homeless Veterans program extended.  WSLS  In the first year, it served 65 homeless veterans. In the last six months, it enrolled 32 additional veterans. (more) There are 960 homeless veterans in Virginia according to a US Department of Veterans Affairs report. The Roanoke TAP’s Homeless …

9.    Bill Addresses Loophole In Financing Of Veterans’ Education.  New York Times “Lawmakers introduced bills in both chambers Thursday intended to close a loophole that enables for-profit schools to take advantage of G.I. Bill aid to rake” in Federal money. In 1998, Congress “instituted the so-called ’90-10 rule,’ requiring that for every nine dollars of tuition covered” by Federal aid, there should be at least one dollar’s worth of private funds. The legislation introduced on Thursday “would close a loophole that counts military education benefits differently from Department of Education aid, which allowed schools to circumvent the rule by designating veterans’ education benefits as if the money were not paid” by the Federal government.

10.     Effort To Create Maine Veterans Court Advances.  AP  “The Maine Legislature is getting close to approving a special court to deal with military veterans accused of crimes.” The bill, which would “create a court program for veterans who are willing to plead guilty and get counseling,” is “expected to be approved by the Legislature.” Maine Gov. Paul LePage “also supports it.”

Have You Heard?

When someone is arrested in Tulsa, Okla., police officers ask if they served in the military.

Veterans facing criminal charges who are in need of mental health or substance use treatment may be eligible for Veterans Treatment Court, if they live in one of the growing number of communities where these courts exist.

Veterans Treatment Courts were developed to avoid unnecessary incarceration of Veterans who have developed mental health problems.

Although most courts work with Veterans of all service eras, communities are often motivated to start these courts by concerns about Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq and encountering legal trouble. And not just in Tulsa.

In 2010, there were 24 operational Veterans Treatment Courts, from Buffalo to Los Angeles, with several others in development. As of early 2012 there are now 88, with more on the way.

More Veteran News

•   Fort Bragg Brigadier General Defends Warrior Transition Battalion, Says It Can Improve.  Fayetteville (NC) Observer  ”Independent inspections of Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Battalion during the past 20 months show that best-practice standards are being met in many areas, Brig. Gen. Michael Garrett said Thursday.” Garrett “held a news conference a day after Gen. Frank Helmick, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, announced that he was ordering an investigation into the practices and procedures of the Warrior Transition Battalion. Kevin Arata, spokesman for the 18th Airborne Corps, said Helmick signed the order to start the investigation Thursday afternoon.”

•   Fort Harrison To Help With VA Disability Claims Backlog.  Helena (MT) Independent Record  ”Fort Harrison is one of three sites nationwide picked to tackle the growing backlog of disability claims before the Veterans Benefits Administration.” On Wednesday, Secretary Shinseki “told US Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester…of the selection of the Veterans Benefit Administration regional office at the fort along with sites in Wichita, Kans., and Milwaukee, Wis., to take part in the VA’s ‘Transformational Plan’ to reduce the backlog of disability claims. Tester said Thursday it could mean seven new jobs at Fort Harrison.”

•  VA To Train Homeless Vets For National Cemeteries.  Military.com  VA is “hoping to move some of America’s homeless veterans off the streets in part by giving them jobs at the country’s national cemeteries. Veterans in the program will be trained as cemetery caretakers and representatives, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told members of the House Veterans Affairs in testimony Feb. 15.” Shinseki said vets who successfully complete the apprenticeship “will be guaranteed full-time permanent employment at a national cemetery or may choose to pursue employment in the private sector.” Military.com adds, “The apprenticeship program comes even as the union representing federal employees slammed the VA for cutting back on its federal workforce by hiring private contractors for caretaker jobs.”

• San Marcos Nonprofit To Open Veterans Shelter.  San Diego Union-Tribune  A “nonprofit that assists homeless veterans will celebrate the grand opening of its first transitional center.” The Union-Tribune adds, “Fan of the Feather, Inc., will hold a ribbon cutting for the new home, ‘The Promised Land,’ at 5 p.m. at 3562 Grand Ave. in San Marcos. The facility will provide housing for seven female veterans.”

•  Sen. Patty Murray: The Future Veteran Workforce.  Washington Post   ”On Small Business” blog reports, “When soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan began experiencing much higher-than-normal unemployment rates in recent years, the government and private sector responded.” But while speaking “at a GE-sponsored event examining the future of the workforce Thursday in Washington, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the US Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, expressed chagrin at the inefficiencies that persist between job-seeking veterans and employers who are eager to hire skilled service-men and women.” Murray added, “We need” potential bosses and co-workers to understand that veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health conditions “can get better, and they can get back into their lives.”

• Medical: A Patient-Pleasing Doctor May Not Be Best.  Scripps Howard News Service  According to a study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, “people who are the most satisfied with their doctors are more likely to be hospitalized, run up higher medical costs and have higher death rates than patients who are less satisfied with their care. ‘Patient satisfaction is a widely emphasized indicator of health-care quality, but our study calls into question whether increased patient satisfaction, as currently measured and used, is a wise goal,’ said Joshua Fenton,” the study’s lead author. Dr. Brenda Sirovich, a “researcher at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., writing in an accompanying commentary, said” practicing “physicians have learned — from reimbursement systems, the medical liability environment and clinical performance scorekeepers — that they will be rewarded for excess and penalized if they risk not doing enough.”

•  Text Hotline Now Open To Help Veterans In Crisis.  WSAW-TV  ArmyTimes.com, Veterans and service members contemplating suicide can now text for help through the Veterans Crisis Line, formerly the national Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline. The confidential text-messaging is available 24 hours a day by texting 83-8255.” WSAW added, “The new number is one of several initiatives rolled out this month by VA to address suicide in the veteran population.”

•   VA’s Ensuring Safe Surgery Brochure.  Becker’s ASC Review  ”The VA National Center for Patient Safety offers a free, downloadable brochure designed to educate patients on what will happen before their surgery and how caregivers will ensure safe and correct surgery.” The brochure is called “Ensuring Correct Surgery.”

• VA Hospital Uses Unique Therapy Programs To Help Veterans.  WITI-TV  ”Veterans are conquering their own obstacles through different therapy programs,” including ones involving music, art, and theater, at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Milwaukee. WITI added, “All of these programs are geared toward helping veterans with treatment, recovery and therapy.”

• Iraq War Veteran Tells Local Leaders Vet Center Is Needed In Helena.  Helena (MT) Independent Record  ”A local Iraq war veteran with a history” of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “told local leaders Thursday of the need for a veterans center in Helena and how important such facilities can be in the treatment of PTSD. Local veterans advocates, including retired Adj. Gen. Gene Prendergast and retired 1st Lt. Diane Carlson Evans, are continuing a campaign to bring a center here, hoping to get the VA to take a closer look at Helena. The VA secretary said in December that it had no immediate plans to add such a facility here but would continue to look at ongoing needs.”

Related Posts:

• Veterans Crisis Line Provides Confidential Help to Veterans and Families
• Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – February 08, 2012
• VA Treating Veterans Mental Health
• Suicide: The War on Poverty…Poverty won!
• DOD Peddling Non-Answers in Mental Health Debate

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