Capitol Hill PTSD awareness event highlights struggles, triumphs

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Team VCS

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 27, 2012) — Army wife Kristina Kaufmann knows the severity of post-traumatic stress disorder. She has lost three friends to suicide because of it. But she also knows the power she has to help stop it.

“As a commander’s spouse, I have the opportunity to use this tragedy as a way to open the dialogue,” Kaufmann said. “[I have the opportunity] to talk about mental health, to talk about depression, to talk about asking for help.”

Kaufmann is just one of many people associated with the military who have realized the impact post-traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD, has had on Soldiers and civilians alike, and who are working to end the deaths that result from it.

The sergeant major of the Army and its surgeon general were among those who joined Kaufman today, speaking on Capitol Hill about the Army’s efforts to battle the devastating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and other brain injuries.

The event, dubbed “Visible Honor for Invisible Wounds,” was geared toward addressing the stigmas attached to PTSD and remembering troops or family members who have committed suicide as a result of the disorder.

Kaufmann gave the dedication for the event by speaking about her own experiences with PTSD and the shame that is brought on by it. She explained how the term “new normal” is used to describe the reality of living in wartime, and how the normalization of wartime often leads to feelings of inadequacy or inability to cope.

“Nothing about ten years of war is normal,” Kaufmann said. “And when we can call it that, it can set the bar at an unattainable height. In effect, it says if you can’t live up to this new normal you’re weak, and that you’ve failed, and it adds to the stigma.”

Kaufmann’s theme of weakness and failure was echoed by Sgt. Maj. of the Army Raymond Chandler III, who gave the keynote address at the presentation. He spoke about coming close to death while in Iraq, and how that experience led to PTSD. At first, he said, he was too ashamed to admit that he struggled with the issue, but he eventually sought help.

“I spent about two years in almost-weekly behavioral health care counseling in Fort Bliss, Texas,” Chandler said. “And that care made a significant change in my life.”

Chandler’s personal experience with asking for help with PTSD was followed by Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho reporting on ways the Army is working to combat the disorder, and how those treatments can be effective.

Horoho said that in 2011, the Army spent $171 million on behavioral health support such as the counseling Chandler went through. She added that this year’s budget for the same treatments is now $181 million. The money is going toward developing new technologies like telebehavioral assistance for Soldiers both in Afghanistan and on U.S. soil.

Horoho stressed the point that these aids were also directed toward military family members, and how the Army recognizes that PTSD affects spouses and children in addition to the Soldiers themselves.

“What we’ve learned over these 11 years [at war is] that we not only need to treat the Soldier, but we have to treat the entire family,” she said. “They’re all affected by the stressors of war.”

Vietnam veteran Earl Kinard, who attended the event, gave a firsthand account of what living with PTSD is like, and how he is often reminded of the trauma of combat.

“Certain things like helicopters, like military situations that I see in films sometimes [trigger it],” he said. “As you get older, you try to hide it. When I came out of Vietnam, I tried to do the work instead of fretting about it [But] I’ve been through hell.”

For veterans like Kinard, the Army’s commitment to bringing the suffering associated with PTSD and related disorders to light seems to be a step in the right direction.

“The Army is doing good,” Kinard said. “The Army sees a problem and they try to solve the problem.”

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After Court Settlement, VA Takes Over GIBill.com and Other Sites

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Team VCS

From VA’s blog June 27, 2012 by Alex Horton

In a legal win for Veterans, VA is taking control of the formerly privately-owned website GIBill.com. This means Veterans will be better protected against deceptive marketing practices launched by businesses eager to cash in on the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

At VA, our job is to support Veterans wherever they choose to attend school, but we also have an obligation to ensure Vets are adequately and accurately informed about their education options.  That’s why, in February 2011, we drew attention to misinformation that Veterans faced while searching for resources on VA’s education benefits. In doing so, we pushed back on marketing companies responsible for deploying official-looking websites designed to funnel troops and Veterans to certain for-profit schools. In such cases, Veterans have been led to believe that for-profit schools are their only option for using the GI Bill—which isn’t true.

This questionable practice has caught the eye of Congress, the media, and, most recently, 15 state attorneys general who launched an investigation into QuinStreet, the marketing company that runs GIBill.com and other sites like it.  GIBill.com is perhaps the most visible for-profit lead generator that specifically targets active duty troops and Veterans.

This week, the Kentucky Attorney General’s office reached a settlement with QuinStreet, which includes an agreement to turn over the GIBill.com domain to VA, as well as to shut down its related social media sites on Facebook and Twitter. According to a statement from the Kentucky Attorney General, the move to relinquish the domain and hand it over to VA was an “unprecedented achievement and one which significantly raises the bar for similar settlements going forward.”

 

Through GIBill.com, QuinStreet diverted student Veterans to their for-profit school clients—schools that are also under scrutiny for allegedly taking generous GI Bill tuition payouts in exchange for degrees of questionable value amid higher dropout rates—especially when compared to non-profit private and public universities.

President Obama’s executive order earlier this year put schools accepting GI Bill dollars on notice that they would be held accountable for deceptive recruitment tactics. As noted by Holly Petraeus of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, military and Veteran education benefits “should not be wasted on programs that do not promote—and may even frustrate—their educational goals.”

While deceptive marketers still exist, this is a welcome step in the direction of further protecting Veterans. So what can you do to protect yourself? Knowing which school is right for you is a good place to start. Check outour guide on how to best select the program that fits your education and employment goals.

To stay on top of news, announcements, or changes that impact Veterans education benefits, bookmark our GI Bill page, and follow our GI Bill Facebook page to get updates right in your timeline. It’s also a good idea to only trust VA benefits information from government websites.

Thanks to efforts from the White House and across state and federal agencies, the business of taking advantage of Veterans is coming to an end. As always, we’ll be watching these issues closely to ensure student Vets are provided with the best information to make the most informed education choices possible.

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For-profit schools cash in on the GI Bill

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Team VCS

By Aaron Smith @CNNMoney June 26, 2012: 10:46 AM ET

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Veterans are the intended beneficiaries of the post-9/11 GI Bill, but for-profit private schools are raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from the government.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The GI Bill was designed to help veterans, but the biggest beneficiaries seem to be the for-profit private schools that are raking in taxpayer dollars.

The Department of Veterans Affairs bankrolls four years of higher education for veterans who have served since September 11, 2001. The VA paid out $4.4 billion for tuition and fees in the two academic years spanning 2009 to 2011. For-profit private schools raked in 37{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of those funds, but educated just 25{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of veterans, according to the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee.

So what are taxpayers getting in return? According to the VA, the graduation rate is just 28{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} at for-profit schools like University of Phoenix and DeVry University (for all students, not just veterans). That compares with a graduation rate of 67{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} at non-profit private schools and 57{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} at public schools.

The GI Bill covers all tuition atpublic schools, and up to $17,000 per year at private schools. But tuition at many private schools far exceeds that, so veterans take out loans to cover the balance.

The average tuition at a for-profit school is steep — six times higher than a community college and double the cost of a four-year public school, according to Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the HELP committee. And students at for-profit schools have a loan-default rate of 47{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d}, according to the Senate committee.

In 2010, after hearing complaints from constituents about problems with for-profit schools, Harkin conducted an undercover investigation.

The cost of war: Soaring disability payments for veterans

“The findings alarmed me,” said Harkin, in an email to CNNMoney. “We found widespread predatory and deceptive recruiting practices, high drop-out rates and inadequate, or even non-existent, academic and student support services, among other things.”

Meanwhile, the for-profit schools are pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars in VA cash. From 2009 to 2011, the VA paid $196 million to the University of Phoenix, $175 million to ITT Tech, $128 million to DeVry University, about $50 million each to Kaplan and The Art Institutes, and $28 million to Westwood College.

During that same two-year span, the VA paid about $20 million to the University of California and another $15 million to The State University of New York. Even less money went to esteemed – and hard to get into – non-profit private schools like Harvard, which received $3.6 million from the GI Bill, and Princeton University, which received $173,000.

Troublesome allegations have been levied against for-profit privates. The White House accused “some institutions” of recruiting brain damaged veterans without providing academic support, encouraging vets to take out “costly loans” from the schools themselves, withholding information about graduation rates and engaging in “misleading recruiting practices on military installations.”

 

In April, the White House issued an executive order against these types of activities: “Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill became law, there have been reports of aggressive and deceptive targeting of service members, veterans, and their families by some education institutions.”

ITT Tech, DeVry University, Kaplan and The Art Institutes didn’t return calls for comment.

But Richard Castellano, spokesman for the University of Phoenix, said that his school has worked with veteran student organizations to recommend reforms to Congress and the White House, including “a student complaint process and mandatory [education] counseling.” He said these reforms “ended up included in the president’s executive order.”

Steve Gunderson, president and chief executive officer of the Association for Private Sector Colleges and Universities, said for-profit schools are “one of the most highly regulated groups in the country,” and have been working closely with Congress and veteran organizations “to achieve solutions to the many areas of concern.” (See correction, below.)

Job challenges loom for war vets

He said he was disappointed that the White House “circumvented ongoing discussions with Congress” by implementing its executive order.

Some veterans have also complained about losing credits when they transfer from for-profit privates to other schools. Gunderson blamed that problem on the schools that refuse to accept the credits.

“It is nothing but academic elitism by some regionally accredited institutions for not accepting credits from other regionally-accredited institutions — regardless of institution type,” he said.

Read original article ..http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/26/news/economy/veterans-schools/

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$5B CAMO SNAFU:Army looks to change uniforms.

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Team VCS
  • Image

    PHOTO:Bryan Bedder/The Daily

    Uniforms in the camouflage lab at the Natick Soldier Center in Natick, Mass.

  • PHOTO:Bryan Bedder/The Daily

    The camouflage lab at the Natick Soldier Center in Natick, Mass.

  • Image

NATICK, Mass. — The Army is changing clothes.

Over the next year, America’s largest fighting force is swapping its camouflage pattern. The move is a quiet admission that the last uniform — a pixelated design that debuted in 2004 at a cost of $5 billion — was a colossal mistake.

Soldiers have roundly criticized the gray-green uniform for standing out almost everywhere it’s been worn. Industry insiders have called the financial mess surrounding the pattern a “fiasco.”

As Army researchers work furiously on a newer, better camouflage, it’s natural to ask what went wrong and how they’ll avoid the same missteps this time around. In a candid interview with The Daily, several of those researchers said Army brass interfered in the selection process during the last round, letting looks and politics get in the way of science.

“It got into political hands before the soldiers ever got the uniforms,” said Cheryl Stewardson, a textile technologist at the Army research center in Natick, Mass., where most of the armed forces camouflage patterns are made. You can follow melodyeotvos for more updates.

The researchers say that science is carrying the day this time, as they run four patterns through a rigorous battery of tests. The goal is to give soldiers different patterns suitable for different environments, plus a single neutral pattern — matching the whole family — to be used on more expensive body armor and other gear. The selection will involve hundreds of computer trials as well on-the-ground testing at half a dozen locations around the world.

But until the new pattern is put in the field — a move that’s still a year or more away — soldiers in Afghanistan have been given a temporary fix: a greenish, blended replacement called MultiCam. The changeover came only after several non-commissioned officers complained to late Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, and he took up the cause in 2009. Outside of Afghanistan, the rest of the Army is still stuck with the gray Universal Camouflage Pattern, or UCP. And some soldiers truly hate it.

“Essentially, the Army designed a universal uniform that universally failed in every environment,” said an Army specialist who served two tours in Iraq, wearing UCP in Baghdad and the deserts outside Basra.  “The only time I have ever seen it work well was in a gravel pit.”

The specialist asked that his name be withheld because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.

“As a cavalry scout, it is my job to stay hidden. Wearing a uniform that stands out this badly makes it hard to do our job effectively,” he said. “If we can see our own guys across a distance because of it, then so can our enemy.”

The fact that the government spent $5 billion on a camouflage design that actually made its soldiers more visible — and then took eight years to correct the problem — has also left people in the camouflage industry incensed. The total cost comes from the Army itself and includes the price of developing the pattern and producing it for the entire service branch.

“You’ve got to look back and say what a huge waste of money that was,” said Lawrence Holsworth, marketing director of a camouflage company called Hyde Definition and the editor of Strike-Hold!, a website that tracks military gear. “UCP was such a fiasco.”

The Army’s camouflage researchers say the story of the universal pattern’s origins begins when they helped develop a similarly pixilated camouflage now worn by the Marine Corps. That pattern, known as MARPAT, first appeared in 2002 after being selected from among dozens of candidates and receiving plenty of input from Marines on the ground at the sniper school in Quantico, Va. The Marines even found one of the baseline colors themselves, an earth tone now called Coyote Brown.

“They went to Home Depot, looked at paint swatches, and said, ‘We want that color,’ ” said Anabelle Dugas, a textile technologist at Natick who helped develop the pattern. That particular hue, she added, was part of a paint series then sold by Ralph Lauren.

Around the same time, the Army was on the hunt for a new camouflage pattern that could solve glaring logistical problem on the ground in Iraq. Without enough desert-specific gear to go around, soldiers were going to war in three-color desert fatigues but strapping dark green vests and gear harness over their chests. At rifle distances, the problem posed by the dark gear over light clothing was as obvious as it was distressing.

Kristine Isherwood, a mechanical engineer on Natick’s camouflage team, said simply, “It shows where to shoot.”

The Army researchers rushed to put new camouflages to the test — several in-house designs and a precursor of MultiCam developed by an outside company. The plan was to spend two years testing patterns and color schemes from different angles and distances and in different environments. The Army published results of the trials in 2004, declaring a tan, brushstroke pattern called Desert Brush the winner — but that design never saw the light of day.

The problem, the researchers said, was an oddly named branch of the Army in charge of equipping soldiers with gear — Program Executive Office Soldier — had suddenly ordered Natick’s camouflage team to pick a pattern long before trials were finished.

“They jumped the gun,” said James Fairneny, an electrical engineer on Natick’s camouflage team.

Researchers said they received a puzzling order: Take the winning colors and create a pixilated pattern. Researchers were ordered to “basically put it in the Marine Corps pattern,” Fairneny said.

For a decision that could ultimately affect more than a million soldiers in the Army, reserves and National Guard, the sudden shift from Program Executive Office Soldier was a head-scratcher. The consensus among the researchers was the Army brass had watched the Marine Corps don their new uniforms and caught a case of pixilated camouflage envy.

“It was trendy,” Stewardson said. “If it’s good enough for the Marines, why shouldn’t the Army have that same cool new look?”

The brigadier general ultimately responsible for the decision, James Moran, who retired from the Army after leaving Program Executive Office Soldier, has not responded to messages seeking comment.

It’s worth noting that, flawed as it was, the universal pattern did solve the problem of mismatched gear, said Eric Graves, editor of the military gear publication Soldier Systems Daily, adding that the pattern also gave soldiers a new-looking uniform that clearly identified the Army brand.

“Brand identity trumped camouflage utility,” Graves said. “That’s what this really comes down to: ‘We can’t allow the Marine Corps to look more cool than the Army.’ ”

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We must attend to veterans mental health needs

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Team VCS

From the Arizona Republic

by Sharon M. Helman

During June, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the nation recognize national PTSD Awareness Month. We are taking time to focus on post-traumatic stress disorder and the other mental-health needs of our veterans.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki often reminds us that as the tide of war recedes, we have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to anticipate the needs of our returning veterans. As they return home, we must ensure they have access to quality mental-health care in order to successfully make this transition to civilian life.

Last year, VA provided specialty mental-health services to more than 1.3 million veterans — a 35 percent increase since 2007. That’s why we recently announced VA will add an additional 1,600 mental-health staff professionals and an additional 300 support-staff members nationwide, including 16 at the Phoenix VA Health Care System.

 

These efforts to hire more mental-health professionals build on our nationwide record of service to veterans. VA has increased the mental-health-care budget by 39 percent since 2009.

What’s more, we’ve increased the number of mental-health staff members by 41 percent since 2007. That means that today, we have a nationwide team of professionals who are 20,590 strong.

While we have made great strides to expand mental-health-care access, we have much more work to do. The men and women, who have had multiple deployments from our recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, have carried a tremendous burden for our country.

Secretary Shinseki has challenged each of us as VA leaders to improve our progress and identify barriers that prevent veterans from receiving timely treatment.

As we meet with veterans in Phoenix and we offer them our signature evidence-based therapies to treat health issues such as PTSD, we learn firsthand what we need to do to improve access to care and to offer the best care possible.

In addition to our focus on PTSD, we also look to other mental-health issues such as substance abuse, homelessness, anxiety disorder, depression and the saddest of all, suicide. Our team at the nationwide Veterans Crisis Line has fielded more than 600,000 calls from veterans in need and helped rescue more than 21,000 veterans who were in immediate crisis. That’s 21,000 veterans who have been saved.

As a health-care CEO who has witnessed the way we can change veterans’ lives for the better, I hope you will join me in encouraging all of our nation’s veterans to remember that VA is here for them. It’s a benefit they’ve earned. We are honored to welcome them home.

 

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2012/06/15/20120615veterans-mental-health-needs.html#ixzz1yuxf5f9z

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VA Supports Family and Friends Seeking to Encourage Vets to Get Mental Health Services

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Team VCS

Media Campaign Promotes “Coaching Into Care” Program

 

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs recently completed a media campaign for its call center “Coaching Into Care,” a telephone service which provides assistance to family members and friends trying to encourage their Veteran to seek health care for possible readjustment and mental health issues.

 

“Coaching Into Care is a valuable service for family members and friends of Veterans who might be reluctant to seek mental health care,” said VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki.  “In the last three years, VA has devoted more people, programs, and resources toward mental health services to serve the growing number of Veterans seeking mental health care and this marketing effort is designed to expand our reach to those who need our services the most.”

 

The “Coaching Into Care” service offers free coaching to callers, with no limit to the number of calls they can make.  The goal of these sessions is to connect a Veteran with VA care in his or her community with the help and encouragement of family members or friends.  Callers will be coached on solving specific logistical problems and ways to encourage the Veteran to seek care while respecting his or her right to make personal decisions.

 

The service is available toll-free at 1-888-823-7458, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday, and online at http://www.mirecc.va.gov/coaching/.  If a Veteran is experiencing an acute crisis, callers should contact the Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 for immediate help.  “Coaching Into Care” works directly with the Veterans Crisis Line and the Caregiver Support Line to provide guidance and referrals.

 

The department is a pioneer in mental health research, high-quality, evidence-based treatment and access to high-quality care.  VA has many entry points to care through the use of 300 Vet Centers, the Veterans Crisis Line, and integration of mental health services in the primary care setting.

 

This campaign is part of VA’s overall mental health program.  Last year, VA provided quality, specialty mental health services to 1.3 million Veterans. Since 2009, VA has increased the mental health care budget by 39 percent.  Since 2007, VA has seen a 35 percent increase in the number of Veterans receiving mental health services, and a 41 percent increase in mental health staff.

 

In April, as part of an ongoing review of mental health operations, Secretary Shinseki announced VA would add approximately 1,600 mental health clinicians as well as nearly 300 support staff to its existing workforce of 20,590 mental health staff to help meet the increased demand for mental health services.

 

The “Coaching Into Care” advertisements ran on cable TV and radio stations in media markets throughout the U.S.  The ads featured three scenarios that many Veterans and their family members commonly experience following the Veteran’s return from combat experiences.  Veterans were directly involved in the media campaign.  VA launched the media campaign as part of its observation of June as “PTSD Awareness Month.”

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A beautiful Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Center, but is it enough?

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Team VCS

VCS ED quoted.  By GARY PETERSON AND MARK EMMONS  Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif. Published: June 22, 2012 Palo Alto The new Mental Health Center at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto, opens Friday, June 22. The Mental Health Center is a 90,000-square-foot facility with 80 beds that includes 20 acute psychiatric beds and is part of a nationwide push by the VA system that is pto cope with the mounting flood of vets returning home from the Iraq and Afghanistan war theaters. US DEPARTMENT OF VETERAN AFFARIS

Chris Hurt walked the wide-open halls of the new Mental Health Center at the VA Palo Alto campus, admiring the airy feel of an 80-bed unit that features enclosed courtyards and even an area to play basketball.

The acute inpatient psychiatric facility, he said, is like “night and day” from the old, claustrophobic building next door where he recently spent two weeks.

“Every single person here goes through moments where they’re so miserable that they just want to get out,” said Hurt, 25, who served two tours in Iraq as an Army specialist. “I don’t think anybody wants to be here. But this is better because it’s more like a hospital and less like a psych ward.”

The 76,000-square-foot center, which will be unveiled in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday afternoon, is a tangible example of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ national expansion of mental health services to meet the record number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking help for emotional problems like post-traumatic stress disorder — the signature, invisible wound of these conflicts.

“There’s a lot of people,” Hurt added, “who will be coming out a lot worse off than me.”

But while the VA is in the process of hiring 1,900 mental-health workers, the government agency has endured withering criticism from many veterans and advocacy groups for being behind the curve in helping America’s newest warriors — especially when it comes to resolving a crushing backlog of disability claims.

“I’m sorry, but this is all smoke and mirrors,” said Shad Meshad, co-founder and president of the National Veterans Foundation. “There are 2.4 million people who have served in these wars. There’s a tsunami of mental health issues coming and will be with us for decades. It’s great that the people who use these 80 beds have a shot. But as a country we have yet to put our arms around this problem.”

Count Bob Handy, a World War II Navy veteran and chairman of Veterans United for Truth, among the skeptics.

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“You can build all the edifices in the world, and if you don’t have the staff to do what they’re supposed to be doing, you could be doing it in an old World War II Quonset hut,” Handy said. “They’re spending all this money on visible things when they’re not fixing the problem.”

The VA is struggling to treat an unprecedented number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are seeking treatment for mental disorders — almost 425,000 of the nearly 1.5 million military personnel who have left the service since the decadelong conflicts began. A recent VA report indicated that 245,658 have been examined for potential PTSD.

That condition results from the insidious nature of conflicts where troops

are in a state of hypervigilance to protect themselves from unseen threats such as improvised explosive devices. Symptoms include flashbacks, mood changes, sleep problems and emotional numbness to the civilian world.

Handy’s organization and another advocacy group, Veterans for Common Sense, sued the VA in 2007, contending it is an unresponsive bureaucracy that needlessly delayed treatment of veterans for PTSD.

While the suit revealed that the VA had knowingly underreported veteran suicides — it now estimates 18 per day — last month the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s position that it wasn’t a matter for the courts to decide. But the court did criticize the VA for “unchecked incompetence,” and the case may head to the Supreme Court.

But in other quarters, there is acknowledgment of progress as shown by the new Palo Alto facility, the VA’s intent to increase staff, and a recent Department of Defense decision to review PTSD diagnoses for members of all branches of the military dating to the Afghanistan War’s beginning.

“Yes, absolutely,” said Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, a veterans rights proponent who doesn’t hesitate to criticize the VA. “In Congress we’ve certainly increased the resources available to the VA to address these kinds of problems. The VA is clearly getting the importance of this issue and how widespread it is.”

Added Patrick Bellon, a veteran and executive director for Veterans for Common Sense: “Credit where it’s due. It seems like they’re taking the problem more seriously. They’re being more proactive. I think they’re making an honest effort to learn from their mistakes of the past.”

Dr. Jerome Yesavage, the Palo Alto VA’s associate chief of staff for mental health and a Stanford University professor of psychiatry, said the system now is better equipped to deal with the growing need.

“There’s been a huge effort made to de-stigmatize mental-health problems by the VA and military,” Yesavage said. “The VA is much more organized to be a welcoming place for veterans with these problems.”

While Bellon does have doubts about the VA’s goal of increased staffing because the jobs are short term and not necessarily attractive to medical professionals, the hope is new state-of-the-art facilities will be a recruiting tool.

The $60 million Mental Health Center is part of a $1 billion construction boom at the Palo Alto facility over the next eight years. Another centerpiece will be a 174,000-square-foot rehabilitation center — scheduled to open in August 2014 — that will house the hospital’s polytrauma center, which has been treating some of the most grievously wounded troops since the wars began.

Yesavage said the newest building should largely be populated by younger veterans and will treat patients with severe emotional problems who might pose a threat to themselves or others. Because many of these patients are hospitalized involuntarily, three of the four wards are locked units and the entire building is designed with safety features to prevent suicides.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, believes that the new Mental Health Center and other coming facilities in Palo Alto are important if the VA, nationally, hopes to catch up to the growing demand for services.

“I’m hopeful that this is something good because I think the rest of the VA looks to Palo Alto for leadership,” Rieckhoff said. “If Palo Alto can make this work, it can be a powerful model for the rest of the country.”

Hurt said the hospital has made a difference in his life. A native of the Central Valley town of Ripon, Hurt voluntarily admitted himself after family members convinced him that he needed to seek help after he spoke of hearing voices.

“We come back from war and everything just seems so normal,” said Hurt, who served 27 months in Iraq. “That just throws us off. We try to act like nothing’s wrong when something is wrong.”

Released from the VA on Monday, Hurt said he hopes to come back in August when the new building is opened to patients.

“But just as a visitor,” he said.

 

 

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Army to Renew Efforts to Combat High Suicide Rates

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Team VCS

 

by Jeremy Schwartz Austin American-Statesman

FORT HOOD — The Army chief of staff on Friday said he will dispatch top Army officials to major installations across the country to study suicide prevention efforts in hopes of lowering record suicide rates among active duty service members.

Gen. Ray Odierno made the announcement during a visit to Fort Hood, where alarming suicide numbers have helped galvanize national attention on the issue in recent years.

“Obviously suicide continues to be a major concern. It’s something that is vexing to us, and we have studied it incredibly hard,” Odierno told reporters. “We’re focused on this, and we’re going to sustain our focus on this.”

We have to make clear that we will not tolerate actions that belittle, that haze, that ostracize any individual, particularly those who have made the decision to seek professional help. — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta

Odierno said Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Lloyd Austin would visit Army posts to study existing suicide prevention programs and look for improvements.

The Army has spent millions of dollars to implement a range of suicide prevention programs, but solutions have proven elusive so far: The Associated Press recently reported that active-duty suicide rates are at their highest point in the past decade, as the U.S. has waged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Odierno spoke hours after Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told an annual convention on military suicide in Washington, D.C., that suicide numbers among service members are moving in a “tragic direction.”

Panetta said part of the solution lies with commanding officers who have day-to-day contact with their troops.

“We have to make clear that we will not tolerate actions that belittle, that haze, that ostracize any individual, particularly those who have made the decision to seek professional help,” Panetta said in a speech to mental health professionals.

Panetta, who pledged to elevate mental fitness to the same level of importance as physical fitness, called suicide perhaps the most frustrating challenge he has come across since becoming defense secretary, in part because the trend is heading in the wrong direction even as more resources are aimed at the problem.

At Fort Hood, there have been 7 suicides this year as of early June, on pace to eclipse last year’s 10, but still less than the record 22 suicides in 2010, when one particularly difficult week saw four soldiers commit suicide.

Read the rest of this story:

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/army-to-renew-efforts-to-combat-high-suicide-2402887.html

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VA Continues Outreach for PTSD Awareness Month

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Team VCS

VA Continues PTSD Outreach with AboutFace Campaign

Veterans Provide Video Testimonials on Experiences with PTSD

WASHINGTON (June 20, 2012) – In observance of June as PTSD Awareness Month, the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has begun a new online initiative, AboutFace, focused on helping Veterans recognize PTSD symptoms and motivating them to seek treatment.

“We must do all we can to help Veterans identify possible indicators that they may be suffering from PTSD,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “It requires a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to be effective. We hope that this initiative, while just one aspect of our program, will play an important role in that effort.”

The AboutFace campaign introduces viewers to Veterans from all eras who have experienced PTSD and turned their lives around with treatment. Through personal videos, viewers will meet Veterans and hear how PTSD has affected them and their loved ones. Visitors will also learn the steps to take to gain control of their lives.

AboutFace, which is PTSD specific, was designed as a complementary campaign to VA’s current Make the Connection (www.MakeTheConnection.net) campaign. Make the Connection uses personal testimonials to illustrate true stories of Veterans who faced life events, experiences, physical ailments, or psychological symptoms; reached out for support; and found ways to overcome their challenges.

“VA is committed to ensuring the men and women who bravely served our Nation can access the resources and services tailored for them that can lead to a more fulfilling life,” said Dr. Robert Petzel, VA’s under secretary for health. “We want Veterans to recognize themselves in these stories and to feel optimistic that they can overcome their challenges with proper treatment. We set aside this month of June to urge everyone to increase awareness of PTSD so those in need can get effective treatment that will enable them to lead productive, fulfilling and enjoyable lives.”

AboutFace launched in June in time to help bring attention to PTSD Awareness Month. It is located on the National Center for PTSD website, www.ptsd.va.gov. There viewers will watch as Veterans candidly describe how they knew they had PTSD; how PTSD affected the people they love; why they didn’t get help right away; what finally caused them to seek treatment; what treatment is like and how treatment helps.

VA provides effective PTSD treatment and conducts extensive research on PTSD, including prevention. Those interested in further information can go to www.ptsd.va.gov to find educational materials including courses for providers on the best practices in PTSD treatment and the award-winning VA/DoD PTSD Coach Mobile App for electronic devices, which provides symptom management strategies.

These campaigns are part of VA’s overall mental health program. Last year, VA provided quality, specialty mental health services to 1.3 million Veterans. Since 2009, VA has increased the mental health care budget by 39 percent. Since 2007, VA has seen a 35 percent increase in the number of Veterans receiving mental health services, and a 41 percent increase in mental health staff.

In April, as part of an ongoing review of mental health operations, Secretary Shinseki announced VA would add approximately 1,600 mental health clinicians as well as nearly 300 support staff to its existing workforce of 20,590 to help meet the increased demand for mental health services. The additional staff would include nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers.

For more information on AboutFace, visit www.ptsd.va.gov/aboutface/ or contact the National Center for PTSD at (802) 296-5132.

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FINS: Hiring of Military Veterans May Reach 240,000 – White House

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Team VCS

VCS ED Quoted in the Wall Street Journal 

 

By Damian Ghigliotty

Since the Obama administration appealed to private companies to hire veterans, more than 70,000 vets and military spouses have found jobs, making President Barack Obama’s goal for industry to hire 100,000 by the end of 2013 likely to be achieved.

The 1,600 employers supporting Joining Forces, the White House’s initiative to rally job support for veterans, have committed to hire another 170,000 veterans and military spouses over the next two years in addition to those already hired, said Brad Cooper, executive director of Joining Forces. Those numbers have exceeded expectations, he said.

More than one million active-duty …

 

Read more..http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120621-712807.html

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