New effort at TCU focuses on combat veterans’ moral injuries

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Team VCS

By CHRIS VAUGHN Fort Worth Star-Telegram Published: June 5, 2012

FORT WORTH — War changes people. That is indisputable.

The changes differ infinitely, depending on the individuals, their background, age and maturity, their war, when they served, the place they served. It is counterproductive to stereotype.

But amid all the discussion in recent years of post-traumatic stress disorder and its effects on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, a small group of mental-health professionals, military chaplains and civilian ministers now says some of the symptoms are what they call “moral injuries” that can involve guilt, shame, grief and betrayal.

“In the medical model, all the bad mental-health things that can happen come from PTSD,” said Brett Litz, a clinical psychologist and professor in Boston who is conducting research funded by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments. “That’s simplistic thinking. It says that the only harmful aspects of war are about life threats. That’s too narrow. Even though it’s controversial, it is critically important that we think about other ways that war affects people psychologically, biologically, spiritually and morally.”

Fort Worth is now on the front line of trying to understand, research and treat moral injuries. At the Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University, an Indianapolis-based philanthropic foundation has funded the opening of the Soul Repair Center.

Although the Soul Repair Center won’t officially open until Veterans Day, Brite is already ramping up the program, naming the Rev. Rita Nakashima Brock and retired Army chaplain Herman Keizer Jr. co-directors and making contacts nationally in the mental-health field and the faith community.

Brite President D. Newell Williams promised that this is no academic exercise.

“The people setting the tone for this conversation will be veterans, not faculty,” Williams said. “Like any good program of repair and recovery, those who have suffered the injury bring the critical perspective. We expect that to be the case from the beginning of this to the end.”

Moral injuries

The program is not limited to Iraq or Afghanistan veterans since there is a considerable population of Vietnam veterans still grappling with their combat experience. But at no time in U.S. history has there been more focus on the mental health of troops returning from war.

More than 2 million men and women have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, including hundreds of thousands of National Guardsmen and reservists. Most of them have served multiple tours in a muddled combat situation, where the enemy is often indistinguishable from innocent civilians — or can’t be seen at all.

Many veterans have no lingering problems from their combat tours.

But others do. Since 2002, the VA has treated almost 224,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for post-traumatic stress, according to its records. The Army has been accused of pushing soldiers with mental-health problems out of the service on disciplinary issues; civilian employment for many young veterans remains elusive; and, most alarmingly, suicides have been stubbornly high among active service members and veterans.

The VA recently said that 18 veterans commit suicide every day and that hundreds more, even those receiving care, are attempting suicide every month.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a medically defined anxiety problem caused by a life-threatening event, experts say. The symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance and emotional withdrawal.

Moral injuries are different in that they are brought about by “perpetrating, failing to prevent or bearing witness to acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations,” according to the VA. While an individual can have both PTSD and moral injuries, experts said, the symptoms of moral injuries are often different: depression, insomnia, reliance on alcohol or drugs, or suicidal thoughts.

Perhaps a veteran is struggling with having ordered an airstrike on the wrong location and killing innocent people. Perhaps a veteran is struggling with survivor’s guilt, grief at the loss of a close friend. Or perhaps a veteran is struggling with having taken the life of another person, militarily justified or not.

Medical and counseling treatments are available for PTSD, but there is a recognition that moral injuries need to be treated differently, experts said.

“The VA can’t do anything for someone who says, ‘I have sinned,’” Williams said. “Religious communities have answers to confessions of sin.”

‘He came back a different human being’

Brock, one of the directors of the Soul Repair Center, is an author, professor and well-known leader in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She lives in Oakland, Calif., but intends to commute to Fort Worth as needed. The idea at Brite is more hers than anyone else’s.

She is the daughter of a career soldier who served 29 years, from World War II to Vietnam, where he supervised a small medical aid station on a combat outpost. He retired immediately after returning from Vietnam and died in 1976 as a middle-aged man — largely, she believes, of a broken heart from what happened there.

He never talked to her about it, so she is left guessing.

“He came back a different human being than the one who left,” she said. “Knowing what I know now, I think he came back with moral injuries.”

The other director, Keizer, is a retired colonel in the chaplain’s corps who served in Vietnam in 1969-70, earned a Purple Heart and stayed in the service through the Army’s “hollow” years in the 1970s.

He participated in the writing of a leadership manual in the late ’70s and early ’80s to try to return honor, ethics and loyalty to Army leadership.

Not everyone likes the term “moral injury”; some say it suggests that a service member obeying an order or conducting justified military action is acting “immorally.” Litz, a professor in the psychiatry and psychology departments at Boston University and a mental-health researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System, said “that is an understandable reaction.”

“But from my vantage point, someone, by virtue of their beliefs, could be affected by what they see or do,” he said. “There are some very painful and difficult decisions that get made about life and death in war. That, fundamentally, is about morality.”

A nationwide vision

Brock acknowledges that she is a strong opponent of the war in Iraq but said that is not relevant when it comes to helping veterans.

“Our position isn’t to take moral or political positions,” she said. “We all have them as people, of course. But moral injury doesn’t come from supporting war or not. It comes from the experience of war.”

Brite intends to develop a curriculum to teach divinity students how to work with veterans; conduct research and publish papers; work with other divinity schools nationwide; reach out to military chaplains; and build a website for clergy to consult when someone in their congregation is struggling.

Williams said the school intends to make the curriculum and training work for people of all faiths.

“We are confident that there are remedies within the Christian faith to address moral injury, but we don’t think that’s the only place,” he said. “This is not meant to be exclusively Christian.”

The school also intends to form a “think tank” of scientists, clergy, mental-health professionals and combat veterans to drive all of its missions.

“Five years from now, what we’d like to see is, if you are a veteran who lives on the West Coast or in the Northeast, that there would be a trained clergyperson you could go to within a day’s drive and talk to,” Williams said. “If, after five years, all there is is a center at TCU that helps veterans in this area, we will have failed.”

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on New effort at TCU focuses on combat veterans’ moral injuries

Will We Pay Our Debt to Our Veterans?

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Team VCS

VCS ED Quoted. Water Reed scandal we helped expose is also discussed. From the Fix Soldiers are coming home from our two wars with a staggering rate of invisible brain injuries—and the addictions that go with them. With treatment estimated to cost $1 trillion, will America really meet their dire needs?

By Katie Drummond

05/22/12

Robert LeHeup will be the first to admit that he’s an alcoholic. “I drink so that I don’t go to shit,” says LeHeup, a 30-year-old bartender living in Columbus, South Carolina. “I drink because I have to.”

LeHeup is a former Marine sergeant, who served two grueling tours in Afghanistan during the US invasion and early occupation. He drinks to dull memories of the everyday chaos and carnage. He drinks to tolerate his disgust at the raucous bar-goers who have no idea how easy life is in America, compared to the casual violence and grinding poverty of Afghanistan. He drinks because, in the Marines, that is just what everybody does.

“There was this drive to prove to each other that we can handle our liquor,” recalls LeHeup, who increasingly channels much of his distress more productively into his burgeoning writing career. “In the Marines, when I was stateside, I drank a fifth before I went out drinking, you know what I mean?”

LeHeup, in his ongoing struggle with alcoholism, is anything but an outlier among this generation of military service-members. In fact, more than a decade after the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an unprecedented number of men and women in the US military are currently in the throes of addiction.

In addition to the incalculable personal tragedies, the long-term socioeconomic costs range from healthcare to lost productivity, and could eventually rival even the estimated total costs of waging the two decadelong wars: $3 to $4 trillion dollars. (As sold to the American people by the Bush administration, the price tag of each war was said to be under $100 billion.) Recent estimates are lacking, but a 1997 report from the Office of the Inspector General warned that in a single year, the single problem of alcohol abuse among soldiers and veterans cost the country nearly $1 billion dollars, widely viewed as a conservative count.

Among veterans who’ve sought treatment for PTSD, between 50{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} and 80{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} also suffer from addiction.

There is no shortage of studies and statistics on the extent of the problem. Consider these: Between 24{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} and 38{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of service-members between the ages of 18 and 25 (depending on their branch) qualified as “heavy drinkers” in a 2006 study, compared to 15{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of the civilian population.

A total of 11,200 active-duty soldiers were busted for using illicit drugs in 2011, up from 9,400 in 2010.

And 17{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of active-duty personnel admitted to “misusing” prescription drugs—primarily opiate painkillers—in a 2008 survey by the Department of Defense. By comparison, a 2010 survey of civilians found that 6{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} reported “nonmedical use” of prescription meds.

Of course, the consumption of alcohol or illicit drugs by soldiers is hardly a new phenomenon. Indeed, warriors have been imbibing for thousands of years. In the words of retired Army Brigadier General Stephen Xenakis, they drink “to celebrate, to forget and to fortify themselves for the next day’s battle.”

The phenomenon continues to this day. According to a 2004 study, young recruits report that they drink because alcohol is viewed as “a necessary ingredient of successful group socializing,” because it is inexpensive and ubiquitous, and because it is “the only thing there is to do during off hours.”

Where official military policy is concerned, alcohol use is strictly prohibited during deployment. On installation, imbibing—regardless of one’s age—was once a mainstay of military culture. More recently, leaders have frowned upon such consumption. “Alcohol use is greater than anything else,” Major General Anthony Cucolo said in 2009. “We are most concerned about alcohol use and abuse [among soldiers].”

If addiction isn’t new for the military, it’s much more complicated than media reports tend to convey. For example, there’s a widespread notion that many Vietnam Vets are the walking wounded, addicted to heroin and homeless.

But while thousands of soldiers experimented with the plentiful heroin in Vietnam during combat, the vast majority actually cleaned up and reintegrated into society successfully in the first few years after they came home. Rates of addiction among those veterans are in fact lower than rates among nonveterans from the same generation.

Yet one group of Vietnam Vets didn’t share in this relatively positive outcome: those who also suffered from a mental health ailment incurred by combat. Among veterans who’ve sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the years following their military service, between 50{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} and 80{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} also suffer from addiction. For decades, veterans groups have charged that these and other veterans’ health needs have been inadequately met.

PTSD has likely been around for as long as war itself. Called “soldier’s heart” during the Civil War, “shellshock” in World War I, and “combat fatigue” in World War II, PTSD was made an official diagnosis only with its inclusion in the DSM in 1980, due to the high incidence of psychological distress in Vietnam Vets.

This link between addiction and mental health is precisely what makes the situation of today’s soldiers so dire. More men and women who have seen combat in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are suffering from brain-based damage—primarily, PTSD and traumatic brain injury (TBI)—that frequently precipitates addiction. And, crucially, these soldiers have received grossly inadequate care from the military’s medical system.

As the two wars wind down, the price paid in veterans’ mental and physical illnesses will become only more glaring. Two factors stand out as fateful: First, that our military, unlike in generations past, is entirely comprised of volunteer fighters; second, that these two wars were two of the longest in our history. As a result, soldiers have been redeployed to an unprecedented extent. Three, four, even five tours of duty are now par for the course.

More than half of vets with PTSD will be diagnosed with alcohol abuse, a third with drug abuse.

They’re also suffering from devastating rates of PTSD, often described as “the invisible wound” of this generation’s wars. The condition, estimated to afflict at least 25{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of returning service-members who saw combat, is characterized by a bevy of symptoms, including rage, insomnia and anxiety—that can often be soothed with alcohol or drugs.

Myriad studies have long found a distinct connection between PTSD and substance abuse. A comprehensive 2006 analysis by Veterans Affairs sums them up: An estimated 52{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of those afflicted with PTSD will be diagnosed with alcohol abuse or dependence, and 34.5{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} with dependence on drugs. According to the report, PTSD doubles one’s odds of an alcohol-use disorder, and a drug-use disorder triples the risk.

Thanks to technological breakthroughs in better body armor and battlefield medicine, more soldiers are also coming home alive: With injury survival rates that exceed 90{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d}, more members of our military than ever before are living with brain damage, physical disability or chronic discomfort caused by injuries that, in previous wars, would have killed them.

In particular, exposure to insurgents’ use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), such as roadside bombs, has been a routine experience for US soldiers. A veteran of 26 such blasts told The New York Times, “It feels like you’re whacked in the head with a shovel. When you come to, you don’t know whether you’re dead or alive.”

 

Not surprisingly, IEDs cause both PTSD and traumatic brain injury. A 2008 report provided the first estimates of the rates of such casualties among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan: 19{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} suffered a TBI, 18{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} PTSD and 5{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} a combination. The consequences of the extraordinarily high rate of IED exposures and casualties not only for soldiers but for almost every aspect of the military services are frankly unprecedented.

Growing anecdotal evidence suggests that soldiers afflicted with both post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury face especially grave risks to their psychological well-being. TBI-induced damage to the frontal lobe, which controls executive functions, can short-circuit the brain’s capacity to choose between right and wrong, recognize future consequences of actions and generally keep impulsivity in check.

Unfortunately, drug abuse also targets this same brain area, impairing inhibition and decision-making, and facilitating addiction by fueling compulsive drug seeking and craving-induced relapses. Together, the injuries caused by PTSD and TBI, and reinforced by addiction, can catalyze a chain reaction that increases the risk of violence and suicide. The sudden, powerful emotions sparked by a PTSD flashback may meet no inhibitory check from the frontal cortex.

“Nobody was there to help me,” says an ex-Army colonel with PTSD and TBI and in recovery from alcohol and cocaine. “I was like damaged goods.”

Robert Bales, the 38-year-old Army staff sergeant accused of the Kandahar massacre of March 11, in which he killed 17 defenseless civilians, has a medical history all too typical of a redeployed soldier in these wars. Bales reportedly suffered a traumatic brain injury when his humvee detonated a roadside bomb in Iraq. He lost part of his foot in a separate incident. The day before his alleged Afghanistan murder spree, he was standing next to a fellow soldier when that man’s leg was blown off. Reports of Bales’ alcohol abuse have also surfaced.

The massacre provoked moral outrage and inevitable comparisons to the infamous My Lai massacre in Vietnam. However, unlike Second Lieutenant William Calley, who was found guilty of premeditated murder at My Lai and sentenced to life in prison (later converted), Bales may never go to trial on charges that include 17 counts of murder—and for which he faces the death penalty. Some experts suggest that his lawyer is considering an insanity defense based on the effects of PTSD and TBI.

The scope and severity of combat-related invisible brain injuries may well surpass current expectations, according to controversial new research by Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. The center’s studies show that many cases of TBI rapidly develop into a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative and incurable neurological disease linked to symptoms of dementia, including memory loss, personality changes, impaired judgment, depression and dementia.

Since 2001, the military has confirmed traumatic brain injury—the precursor to CTE—in more than 220,000 of the 2.3 million troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, although many experts say that the actual number is much higher.

With adequate preventative measures, those factors—repeat deployments, grueling physical and mental health problems—might never have resulted in what is looking more and more like an epidemic of PTSD and TBI, as well as a substance abuse crisis, among veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

But the military and Veterans Affairs are both overwhelmed, short-staffed and cash-strapped, after so many years combat. As a result, soldiers are falling through the cracks of a healthcare system stretched far too thin.

In fact, it took a major scandal—the Washington Post‘s 2007 expose of Walter Reed Army Hospital—to catalyze the military and VA’s focus on troops with brain injuries. Congress responded by allocating some $300 million for research into TBI and PTSD. That money, however, gives no evidence of having curbing the rates of substance abuse or violent incidents among soldiers and veterans, nor has it mitigated the stark prospects for their health in both the short and long terms.

“I think the military is taking the problem of addiction seriously, now,” Patrick Bellon, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, says. “But it’s been more than 10 years. So the response to mental health, to addiction, has simply been too slow for soldiers.”Whether the military will take the problem seriously when the wars are over—and for the decades that follow—remains to be seen. At present, no one knows how many invisible brain injuries have gone undiagnosed. As a result, estimates of the extent of the health complications issuing from these traumas, including addiction, are hard to make. One thing is certain: these complex and severe problems are only going to increase over time—along with the cost of treatment.

America claims to be committed to taking care of ailing veterans for their entire lives if need be. For the generation of veterans of the war in Vietnam, which ended in 1975, the peak in healthcare costs and disability payments has not yet been reached. For the new generation of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the peak is not due for another 40 or 50 years. By one estimate, the total price tag for this care will be $1 trillion. Yet budget hawks in Congress, especially among the Republicans, have already proposed cutting funds for veteran affairs.

The total price tag for veteran care may hit $1 trillion. Yet budget hawks in Congress have already proposed cutting VA funding.

Harry, a 35-year-old former Army corporal from New York, is but one example of a system that has too often failed this generation of soldiers.

After six years of service, Harry—who asked that his last name not be used—came home with the kinds of anxiety and nightmares that characterize PTSD. He was also suffering from a devastating injury wrought by an improvised explosive device: Harry is blind in his right eye, underwent the insertion of two metal plates into his skull and now relies on a leg brace to stay mobile.

Largely because of his injuries, reintegrating into civilian life proved tougher than Harry had anticipated. He was depressed but shied away from asking for help—a common problem in a military culture that, at least until recently, lauded tightened bootstraps over talk therapy. And, according to Harry, military doctors didn’t exactly offer it. “Nobody was there to help me,” he says. “I was like damaged goods.”

Instead, Harry relied on alcohol and cocaine to relieve the physical and psychological anguish. Arrested last year for drug possession, he’s now sober. Thanks, rather tellingly, to a court-ordered stint at a civilian—not military—rehab clinic.

“I fulfilled my contract [with the military], and that’s what got me into trouble,” he says. “When I came home, I would have at least expected them to fulfill theirs.”

This is the first in a three-part series investigating the causes, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of addiction in soldiers and veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

Posted in VCS In The News, Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Will We Pay Our Debt to Our Veterans?

Program helps civilians understand veterans’ views

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Team VCS

 

 

By Corinne Reilly  The Virginian-PilotHampton

It’s a simple story, and to those with a connection to the Army or Marine Corps, it might even be a cliche. But when Eric Endries tells it to outsiders, particularly those in law enforcement, he says it packs just the right punch.

Now a civilian with the state-funded Virginia Wounded Warrior Program, Endries starts by explaining that he used to be in the Army and did three tours in Iraq. The longest was 15 months, and he spent a lot of that time behind the wheel of an armored vehicle. In part because the military drilled it into him in training and in part because he saw firsthand the grave dangers of driving in Iraq, he learned how to decrease the risks:

– Look out for irregularities in dirt roads; they might indicate a buried explosive.

– Never go in reverse; it leaves you vulnerable.

– Avoid bridges and guardrails.

– Be aggressive.

– Don’t stop.

Then Endries explains how difficult it can be to dial those instincts down upon returning to the United States, and how, soon after his own homecoming, his wife made him hand over his keys because he was driving, in Endries’ words, “like a maniac.”

“To people in the military, it’s something we’re warned about when we get back. We’ve all heard the stories about driving after a deployment,” he said in a recent interview. “But when you tell it to a police officer who’s never been in the military, you see it click. You plant that seed that in some cases, when they pull someone over, there might be more going on than what’s obvious.”

That’s the thinking behind a new course offered to criminal justice workers across the state by the Wounded Warrior Program, which is part of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services (and which is not to be confused with the nonprofit Wounded Warrior Project). Besides effects on driving and other difficulties of transitioning back to civilian life, the two-hour course touches on combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, substance abuse among veterans, suicide and domestic violence. The Partnership for People with Disabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Mental Health Association of the New River Valley helped design the curriculum and launch the sessions.

Endries directs the Wounded Warrior Program’s Hampton Roads chapter, headquartered in Hampton. So far, the chapter has given the training five times across the region. A sixth session is planned for Monday at the Newport News Police Training Academy.

Besides police officers, participants have included judges, lawyers, probation and parole officers and social workers, said Harry Davis, a 21-year Army veteran and a Wounded Warrior Program employee who leads the local sessions. Two volunteers help Davis by sharing their personal stories. Both are combat veterans who’ve been incarcerated and have struggled with PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

Davis and Endries said they may arrange for more sessions if demand warrants. So far, they said, feedback has been positive. In pre- and post-training surveys, participants have shown a better understanding of veterans’ issues.

That’s exactly the aim, Endries said.

“The goal isn’t to get special treatment for veterans,” he said. But their military service and any aftereffects “should at least be a piece of the puzzle in terms of figuring out what comes next.”

The unfortunate reality is that many veterans end up in the criminal justice system, Davis said. If more workers within that system are trained to recognize problems such as combat-related PTSD, more veterans can be referred to the help they need, he said.

The trainings are only a small part of what the Wounded Warrior Program does. It offers a range of services for veterans of all eras, as well as their families, including financial assistance, support groups and help with Veterans Affairs, medical care and mental health treatment.

Davis said he ends each of the trainings with information on the program’s services and how veterans can reach them.

“That’s probably the most important part,” he said. “We let people know we’re here. The veterans just need to call us.”

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Program helps civilians understand veterans’ views

VA pleased with early response to Veterans Retraining Assistance Program

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Team VCS

Veterans the spots of filling up. First come, first serve. Please  take advantage or pass it along to someone who can.  By LEO SHANE III Stars and Stripes Published: May 31, 2012

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs officials said they’re on pace to fill all 45,000 spots in the new Veterans Retraining Assistance Program in the coming weeks.

The program is available to veterans aged 35 to 60 who need new or updated work skills to find employment. It offers a $1,473 living stipend starting July 1 to participants enrolled in college or technical school classes, as a way to help them make ends meet while they are retrained.

The initiative was a key piece of the veterans employment legislation passed last year, one of the few bipartisan measures to come out of the highly partisan Congress.

While much of that legislation focused on younger veterans — whose unemployment rate has remained stubbornly above the national average — the $1.6 billion retraining program caters to the estimated 400,000 mid-career veterans currently out of work.

Since opening the application process two weeks ago, VA officials have received about 12,000 resumes from veterans. VA Undersecretary for Benefits Allison Hickey said nearly 80 percent of the applicants have been accepted into the program.

Applicants must not be eligible for other veterans education benefits, including the post-9/11 GI Bill, to qualify for the retraining program. Hickey said veterans rejected under that clause are immediately put in touch with benefits coordinators, to better educate them on other assistance programs.

“Most of them just aren’t aware of education benefits they already have, but just aren’t using,” she said.

The program will expand to include 54,000 more veterans this fall.

House Veterans Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said the effort is key to ensure that “the unemployment rate among veterans in their prime earning years continues to decrease.”

But he also expressed concern that VA and Department of Labor officials haven’t been aggressive enough in publicizing the program. He questioned why officials haven’t launched a nationwide paid advertising campaign, something VA officials said they haven’t yet needed.

The program provides the living stipend for 12 months. Hickey said the benefit is awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged | Comments Off on VA pleased with early response to Veterans Retraining Assistance Program

Important info: Programs Assist Veterans with Jobs, Education, Homes

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Team VCS

At VCS we like to share information important to veterans.

By Terri Moon Cronk American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2012 – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wants veterans to know about their benefits, from job and education opportunities to home loans and programs for those who are disabled, a VA official said yesterday.

Veterans caught in today’s high rate of unemployment likely can find a job in one of the more than 200 high-demand careers that have been identified by the Department of Labor, said Curtis Coy, VA’s deputy under secretary for economic opportunity. Those occupations are listed on the VA’s website.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s most-recent figures from last year show 900,000 veterans out of work, averaging 7.7 percent of Americans, and 12.1 percent for veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. “The high-demand jobs list is not a narrow one; in fact, it is a very broad list,” Coy said, adding that the 2011 legislation, VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 was enacted for veterans looking for “meaningful employment in high-demand jobs.”

Overall, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act would lower the rate of unemployment among the nation’s veterans, and combine two Congressional provisions from the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act and the Hiring Heroes Act, VA officials said. The act also would provide veterans tax credits in an all-inclusive jobs package to fight the veteran unemployment rate. The act has more than 20 provisions, including tax credits for businesses that hire veterans, Coy said.

It also makes the Transition Assistance Program mandatory as of Nov. 21 for every departing service member. TAP readies departing active-duty personnel to re-enter the civilian world, officials said. “[TAP] is going to have a major impact on VA, DOL and the Defense Department because what used to be a voluntary program is now mandatory,” Coy said.

Coy also wants veterans to know they can apply for up to a year of paid training to qualify for high-demand jobs through the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program.  The VRAP training is geared toward veterans between the ages of 35 and 60, the hardest-hit unemployed age group, he said, adding that the education benefit must, by law be used toward earning an associate’s degree or job certification. “The marketing tool we use is if you are or know of a veteran between ages 35 and 60 who’s unemployed and [can] use another year of educational benefits to attain a high-demand job, the VRAP program is the exact, wonderful new benefit that will help them get that meaningful employment,” Coy said.

Applicants for the education program are taken on a first-come, first-served basis after their eligibility is confirmed, he added. The VA website has details. “I think the VA always has been the institution that takes a look at our veterans, not only today, but veterans of the past, and provides those services and benefits that Congress has so generously provided to [them],” said Coy, a 24-year Navy veteran. “Our job is to ensure veterans know of and get the benefits they so richly deserve.”

In addition to benefits for training for jobs, Coy wants veterans and active-duty service members to know about VA’s Home Loan Guaranty program for VA mortgages and Specially Adapted Housing Grants.VA mortgages in the past 15 quarters had the lowest foreclosure rates of any component in the country, Coy said.

“That speaks volumes about our veterans, their responsibilities, and how they deal with business,” he said. “The foreclosure rate in this country and the number of homes under water is a problem for many Americans. What we’ve done to help our veterans is keep a very close eye on [their] mortgages.”  VA doesn’t lend veterans the money for mortgages. Instead, VA provides a loan guarantee. “We have a vested interest in being good stewards of our taxpayer money,” Coy said. “Last year, we helped over 72,000 vets retain their homes who may not have been able to retain them otherwise. That’s a 10-percent increase over the year before.”

He said the VA provides proactive support for veterans who might get into trouble with their mortgage. “We can be good agents for them, and in some cases intercede or help them with their banks and mortgage lenders to perhaps restructure [the loan] or take a look at the nuances of that particular mortgage,” Coy explained. “We want to make sure our veterans stay in their homes, and we do everything to help them do just that,” he added.

Eligibility for a VA home loan includes being a veteran or service member, having good credit and the ability to pay the mortgage, Coy said, noting no money down is required, unlike private lenders. “We are very scrupulous to make sure veterans don’t get in over their heads on their mortgages,” he said.

The VA also offers Specially Adapted Housing Grants for disabled veterans and wounded warriors, with grants up to $64,000 in homeowner assistance used to configure veterans’ homes for their particular disability, Coy said.

Information on the grant is available on the VA website, along with toll-free numbers, a list of 57 regional offices across the country, and some 800 vocation and rehabilitation programs.

Related Sites:Department of Veterans Affairs 

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Important info: Programs Assist Veterans with Jobs, Education, Homes

VA Audit: Over 40,000 Veterans Appeals Ignored

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Team VCS

From Ben Krause VCS AD for Advocacy and founder of disabledveterans.org

 

VA Regional Offices are ignoring 18.5 percent of veterans’ appeals on average, according to a recent audit. The Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that ignoring claims causes a processing delay of 444 days.

Let’s hope the VA notices your appeal. In “Audit of VA Regional Offices’ Appeals Management Processes” report, auditors found that one veteran’s claim had been ignored for over 1,500 days.

As of the date of the audit, 246,000 disability appeals were on file. If the 18.5 percent average holds across the entire VA, another 45,000 appeals claims are not on record despite the VA having the appeal on file.

To assess appeals processing, the Veterans Affairs OIG created a sample of VA regional offices across the US. These offices served as the “average” regional offices. The auditors then handed the different offices 783 potential NOD’s. VA adjudicators failed to identify 145 of these as potential appeals.

Here is how the process works. A veteran files an appeal because they disagree with a decision by the VA. In this form, it is considered a Notice of Disagreement (NOD). Once a review of the claim is completed, if the reviewer does not agree with the veteran, a Statement of the Case is created by the VA. If the veterans still disagrees, they appeal and VA then certifies the appeal to the Board of Appeals.

For the Notice of Disagreement portion, the VA has set a target of 125 days to complete the review. The VA has also set a 180-day target for the certification process.

In 2010, VA took an average of 656 days to fully process an appeal. This audit does not provide the average for 2011, but one unidentified regional office averages 1,219 days.

The audit of the Veterans Benefits Administration also revealed de novo review appeals are decided more quickly. A de novo review means the Decision Review Officer will look at the existing evidence and make a new determination. It is like looking at a claim with new, more experienced eyes.

The Veterans Affairs OIG released the results of their audit into disability claims appeals earlier this week. The Veterans Affairs OIG audit was intended to seek out the root of delays relating to veterans’ appeals.

On a high level, it revealed that regional offices are focusing primarily on new claims and not appeals. This means, if the claims adjudicator gets it wrong the first time, the veteran has a very long wait to get the appeal decided in less than one year. If the VA fails to notice the appeal, that veteran will have another 1 year and 4 months to wait before VA even begins to adjudicate the appeal.

This audit evaluated eight regional offices throughout the country. The Veterans Affairs OIG specifically selected regional offices that would serve as an average across the VA.

The regional offices audited were: Boston, Lincoln, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Montgomery, New York, Philadelphia, and Salt Lake City.

 

DisabledVeterans.org Survey Critique

This survey does a great job exposing some of the issues veterans are experiencing. It tells us that a de novo review is a quicker solution. It also tells us that the VA is failing to even notice almost 20 percent of veterans appeal.

The survey fails to identify the regional offices and their performance. It gives us a list of which regional offices were audited. It does not tell use the performance of each. Instead, the Veterans Affairs OIG craftily assigns numbers to each. It does not tell us which regional office is assigned to what number.

It further fails to give us a firm averages. How long does it take to process an NOD? How long does it take to process the appeals certification? We do not know.

http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-10-03166-75.pdf

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged | 17 Comments

Enrollment begins for jobs program targeting older vets

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Team VCS

Published: May 29, 2012 From Stripes.com U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

With the Vow to Hire Heroes Act passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last year, a new employment program aiming to recalibrate the career prospects of veterans over 35 is now available for applicants.

The Veteran Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP) targets those between 35 and 60, despite the large number of unemployed veterans from the Iraq-Afghanistan era, according to a story in The Washington Post.

Through VRAP, 99,000 successful applicants will be eligible for up to $1,473 a month in benefits that can be used towards retraining for high-demand jobs.

The first-come, first-serve basis program covers a year of education between July and March 31, 2014.

The Washington Post story interviewed two of the first applicants for VRAP, including Cheryl Blackburn, an Army veteran who was having trouble finding employment without a college degree.

“I wanted to get back in government, but everybody said you needed a degree,” said Blackburn, a D.C. resident who once worked as a security consultant for the State Department. “I had the experience, but I needed the degree.”

Blackburn told the paper she hopes to use the program to earn a degree in finance at the University of the District of Columbia or Northern Virginia Community College.

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

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Enrollment begins for jobs program targeting older vets

Twenty-One Attorney’s General write Congress to fix 90-10 loophole

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Team VCS

The movement to change the loophole incentivizing the misleading and aggressive targeting of our troops and veterans for their education benefits is gaining momentum. Read the bipartisan letter to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate HELP and Veterans Affairs committees. Show your support by calling your congressmen and senators today. We must remove the target from our troops and veterans.

 

AGsLetterinSupportof90-10Change.May29.2012

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged | Comments Off on Twenty-One Attorney’s General write Congress to fix 90-10 loophole

Two UC-San Diego Researchers Aim to Help Gulf War Veterans with Gulf War Illness

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Team VCS

By friend of VCS and Gulf War and Somalia veteran

Written by Anthony Hardie, 91outcomes.com

“This is just as much about future combat operations as it is about the past”

Healthy and Ill 1991 Gulf War Veteran Research Study Participants Needed

(91outcomes.com) –  Two medical research researchers at the University of California-San Diego are aiming to help veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffering from Gulf War Illness by working to improve the scientific understanding of precisely what is going on in GWI patients’ bodies. One of the unrelated UCSD medical research projects is led by Dr. Beatrice Golomb, whose groundbreaking study found CoQ10 to be the first treatment proven successful in reducing some of GWI’s symptoms, including post-exertional fatigue.  She is also the author of a 1990s RAND Institute study on Pyridostigmine Bromide (PB) anti-nerve agent protective pills, which found PB to be associated with Gulf War Illness patients’ adverse health outcomes. The second is led by Dr. Bruce Zuraw, a widely published Professor of Medicine at the UCSD Medical School and Program Director of the UCSD Allergy and Immunology Fellowship Program.  His research interests include allergic inflammation in humans. Both medical research projects studies received their funding separately from the peer reviewed Gulf War Illness (GWI) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), an activity of the U.S. Department of Defense that receives its specific direction, peer review requirements, and funding on an annual basis from Congress. Dr. Beatrice Golomb: Developing a Biomarker for Oxidative Damage in GWI The first UCSD study is led by Dr. Beatrice Golomb and is a follow-on to her landmark CoQ10 GWI treatment study.  CoQ10 is believed to be effective because it helps alleviate ongoing oxidative damage at the cellular level, called “oxidative stress“. Dr. Golomb’s new study is seeking 40 participants — all ill — and this time involves measuring the oxidative damage resulting in Gulf War veterans with GWI. Entitled simply “Oxidative Stress”(GW093063), this study will look at potential oxidative damage biomarkers for GWI taken from samples of a blood draw and excreted in the urine. The study is narrowly focused.  Study participants must:

  • Be a Veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces; and
  • Have U.S. military service service in the Persian Gulf Region at any time during the one-year period commencing August 2, 1990 and ending July 31, 1991; and
  • Be between the ages of 35 and 73; and
  • Meet recognized diagnostic criteria for Gulf War Illness (to be determined by the study team).

Participation involves a short telephone interview and in-person testing during a visit of about 3 hours to the UCSD campus. Dr. Bruce Zuraw: Developing a Biomarker for GWI with Respiratory Symptoms The second UCSD GWI study, focused on respiratory issues inherent in many GWI patients’ disease, is slightly larger and is seeking 60 veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, including 30 “healthy” and 30 “ill” veterans. The study is being led by Bruce Zuraw, M.D. of the Veterans Medical Research Foundation of San Diego, and is entitled “Epithelial Cell TRPV1-Mediated Airway Sensitivity as a Mechanism for Respiratory Symptoms Associated with Gulf War Illness (GW080156).” Dr. Zuraw is hoping the project will help determine a possible test for diagnosing GWI with respiratory symptoms (a distinction he terms, “GWI-R”).  No such test currently exists, making it difficult to distinguish between GWI or GWI-R and other chronic multisymptom illness conditions for which causes — and perhaps more importantly, treatments — may be wildly different. According to a San Diego Union-Times article about his study:

Zuraw and his research team are focusing on Gulf War illnesses featuring respiratory problems, drawing on his work as director of the Allergy and Immunology Section at both the VA San Diego Healthcare System and the University of California San Diego.  Researchers have noticed that Gulf War veterans often have symptoms of inflammatory lung diseases such as asthma or chronic bronchitis, but they test negative for them.  The paradox led the San Diego team to an examination of transient receptor potential channels, or TRPs, in the lining of the lungs and nerves, and their role in increased airway sensitivity. They hypothesize that in patients with Gulf War illness, the receptors are locked in a harmful cycle: receptors in the epithelial cells of the lungs alert the nerves, the resulting nerve response irritates the lining of the lung, and the process repeats indefinitely, resulting in respiratory distress.  By isolating and documenting the interplay, they hope to create a means of diagnosing a distinct illness, and perhaps a means of stopping the cycle and its irritating effect on the lungs.  …. “It’s a gift when veterans offer their time to clinical research,” said Kerstin Lynam, the CEO of Veterans Medical Research Foundation. “Only through their participation can we learn more about this evasive disease.

Congress Directs the Funding The result of an odd twist of events, most Gulf War Illness research is now being conducted outside the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the agency that purports to be veterans’ “chief advocate”. Gulf War veteran activists recently discovered an unannounced, two-thirds budget cut in the VA’s current budget proposal, which would reduced already limited GWI medical research at VA to less than $5 million annually.  By contrast, peer reviewed treatment-focused GWI research was funded by Congress in the Department of Defense at $10 million last year.

As the name would suggest, Congress specifically directs the funding for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, which is administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Ft. Detrick, Maryland.

Programs within the CDMRP portfolio are generally created by Congress at the request of patients suffering from a disease or disorder, and the GWI programs are no different.  Created under the Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Appropriations Act, the GWI program has existed — and grown — ever since.  Gulf War veterans sought the creation of the GWI CDMRP, and Gulf War Illness patients and their advocates are active in the program’s annual funding decisions by Congress. Funding decisions about individually submitted medical research proposals are determined through a multi-tiered process that includes Congressionally-mandated peer review – review of each proposal’s merits by other members of the scientific community.  CDMRP programs also include consumer reviewers – individuals affected by the specific disease or condition — at every step of the process. Congressional language authorizing the GWI CDMRP program has remained unchanged over the years.  It is perhaps most notable for what kinds of medical research studies are allowed — “studies of treatments” and “identification of objective markers for [GWI]” — and what are not — “no studies based on psychiatric illness and psychological stress as the central cause of Gulf War Illness”. The committee directs the Secretary of the Army to utilize the authorized funding for this program to undertake research on Gulf War illnesses. The committee directs that activities under the program should include studies of treatments for the complex of symptoms commonly referred to as Gulf War Illness, and identification of objective markers for Gulf War Illness. The committee recommends that no studies based on psychiatric illness and psychological stress as the central cause of Gulf War Illness be funded under the program. The committee directs that the program be conducted using competitive selection and peer review for the identification of research with the highest technical merit and military value. Further, the committee directs that this program be coordinated with similar activities in the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health. In April 2010, the highly reputable Institute of Medicine issue a report that found Gulf War Illness to be a unique diagnostic condition that affects about 250,000 veterans of the 1991 Gulf War as well as other U.S. Forces. John, a former military police Gulf War veteran from Washington State in his early 40s who asked that his last name be withheld to protect his medical privacy, agreed to be interviewed by the San Diego newspaper staff and supported the study, seemed to agree with those last six words, “as well as other U.S. forces.” “This is just as much about future combat operations as it is about the past,” John told the reporters. ********** TO PARTICIPATE If you are a U.S. military veteran of the 1991 Gulf War (Aug. 2, 1990 – Jul. 31, 1991), you appear to meet the basic study criteria information, and you’re willing and able to participate: For the new Golomb study at UCSD:

  • Call:  (858) 558-4950 extension 203 (Janis) or 210 (Kate)
  • Email:  jbritchie@ucsd.edu or cbloom@ucsd.edu
  • Compensation is provided including to help cover travel expenses.

For the Zuraw study at UCSD:

  • Call (858) 822-6599
  • Gulf War veterans who are both ill (with Gulf War Illness and GWI-related respiratory symptoms) and healthy are needed
Posted in Gulf War Updates, Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Two UC-San Diego Researchers Aim to Help Gulf War Veterans with Gulf War Illness

VA Partnership Aims to House 10,000 Homeless Veterans

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Team VCS

Advancing the goal of eliminating veterans homelessness by 2015. Glad to see the problem getting serious attention and concentrated efforts. People who served their country should not have to sleep on its streets. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Wednesday that it will collaborate with the “100,000 Homes” campaign and its 117 participating communities to help find permanent housing for 10,000 vulnerable and chronically homeless veterans this year.

“President Obama and I are personally committed to ending homelessness among veterans,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said in a VA news release. “Those who have served this nation as veterans should never find themselves on the streets, living without care and without hope.”

According to the 2011 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, homelessness among veterans has declined 12 percent since January 2010. For more information about this new follow AquaLib .

The new initiative is intended to help accomplish Shinseki’s goal of ending veteran homelessness in 2015. It will also support the ongoing work of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and a host of state and local organizations working to implement “Opening Doors,” the federal plan to end chronic and veteran homelessness.

The 100,000 Homes campaign is a national movement of over 100 communities working together to find permanent homes for 100,000 vulnerable and chronically homeless individuals and families by July 2014.

The new partnership will better integrate the efforts of VA case managers and their local partners by leveraging VA resources and those of participants in the “100,000 Homes” campaign. The campaign’s national support staff, provided by New York-based non-profit Community Solutions, will also work with VA to provide technical assistance to help communities reduce the amount of time necessary to house a single homeless veteran.

As a result, community organizations will be better able to utilize the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program. The program is a coordinated effort by HUD, VA, and local housing agencies to provide permanent housing with case management and other support services for homeless veterans.

The collaboration will also help VA increase the proportion of HUD-VASH vouchers that help house chronic and vulnerable homeless individuals. Research indicates that this approach can successfully end homelessness for vulnerable and chronically homeless veterans while also achieving significant public cost savings. From fiscal years 2008 to 2012, HUD has allocated funding to local public housing authorities to provide over 47,000 housing choice vouchers to homeless veterans.

Volunteers in participating “100,000 Homes” communities will help the VA identify homeless veterans through their registry week process. Registry weeks are community-wide efforts in which volunteers canvass their neighborhoods to survey homeless individuals and gather key information to help VA case managers expedite the housing process.

Support staff will also offer quality improvement training designed to help reduce the amount of time necessary to house a homeless veteran to 90 days or less. Pilot training in Los Angeles and New York City has already helped shave an average of 64 days from the veteran housing process in these communities.

In 2009, Obama and Shinseki announced the federal government’s goal to end veteran homelessness by 2015. Through the homeless veterans’ initiative, VA committed $800 million in fiscal year 2011 to strengthen programs that prevent and end homelessness among veterans. VA provides a range of services to homeless veterans, including health care, housing, job training, and education.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged | Comments Off on VA Partnership Aims to House 10,000 Homeless Veterans