Veterans Department to Increase Mental Health Staffing

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Team VCS

 Lawsuit mentioned

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By JAMES DAO Published: April 19, 2012

The Department of Veterans Affairs will announce on Thursday that it plans to hire about 1,600 additional psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health clinicians in an effort to reduce long wait times for services at many veterans medical centers.The hiring, which would be augmented by the addition of 300 clerical workers, would increase the department’s mental health staff by nearly 10 percent at a time when the veterans health system is being overwhelmed not just by veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but also by aging veterans from the Vietnam era.

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

The announcement comes as the department is facing intensified criticism for delays in providing psychological services to veterans at some of its major medical centers.

The department’s own inspector general is expected to release a report as soon as next week asserting that wait times for mental health services are significantly longer than the department has been willing to acknowledge.

Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat who is chairwoman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has also scheduled hearings next week about the delays.

And last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, issued a scathing ruling saying that the department had failed to provide adequate mental health services to veterans.

“No more veterans should be compelled to agonize or perish while the government fails to perform its obligation,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the majority. The Obama administration has appealed the ruling.

The veterans department says that it has worked hard to keep pace with the tide of new veterans needing psychological care, increasing its mental health care budget by 39 percent since 2009 and hiring more than 3,500 mental health professionals.

The department says it has also established a policy to do mental health evaluations of all veterans not in crisis within 14 days, a goal it says it meets 95 percent of the time.

However, the inspector general’s report is expected to question the validity of that claim.

One issue confronting the department has been finding enough mental health clinicians to fill job openings, particularly in rural areas. The director of veterans health care in Montana recently was reassigned, for instance, amid complaints that she had been unable to hire psychiatrists to staff a new psychiatric unit.

But department officials said they were confident that they would be able to find qualified mental health clinicians in most regions. Funds for the new jobs will be allocated out of the current department budget, the officials said, and clinicians will be added to all 21 of the department’s service networks.

The vast majority of the new hires, about 1,400, will be patient care providers. But the department also plans to hire more than 100 people for a crisis hot line as well as 100 examiners to review disability compensation and pension claims.

That disability compensation system is struggling with a growing backlog, with nearly 900,000 veterans currently waiting for decisions on their claims.

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Veterans push to get job credit for military experience

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Team VCS

By Mackenzie Carpenter, Molly Born

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff

When is a combat medic no longer a skilled medical professional? When is a tank driver no longer qualified to operate heavy equipment? When is a troop division commander too inexperienced to be a security guard at a bank?

When they’re newly minted veterans.

Thanks to the tangled web of licensing and credentialing requirements in all 50 states, when soldiers certified as proficient in a military occupation get their discharge papers, most must start over.

Trucking jobs require a commercial driver’s license, and that usually means going back to school. While the average cost — about $5,000 — is covered by the post-9/11 GI Bill, the time and effort can be a deterrent to veterans needing a job immediately.

Fifteen states allow a waiver of the licensing test if the veteran had two years’ experience driving a similar vehicle — but that’s more challenging than it seems. Military trucks all have automatic transmissions, for example, while many commercial trucks are manual.

Three other states are enacting similar provisions, but eight states have declined to enact the waiver, and 25 others have not indicated their plans.

For Jim Barr, vice president of government relations of Ryder Trucking, a national transportation company, the tank-to-truck disconnect is frustrating.

“The industry has 200,000 skilled trucking jobs that are going unfilled,” he said at a recent conference in Washington, D.C. “There are a lot of people coming out of the service with qualities we want and need.”

At the conference, co-sponsored by the American Legion and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a parade of heavily decorated military officers, federal officials, veterans advocates and business leaders told horror stories.

Ismael “Junior” Ortiz, deputy assistant secretary for the Veterans and Employment Training Department at the U.S. Department of Labor, described how a member of the Florida National Guard, an experienced diesel mechanic who served in 247 combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, could not get a commercial driver’s license from Florida unless he went to school to be recertified.

That man is Ortiz’s brother.

Washington state is frequently cited as a model — it enacted a law that allows military training and experience to satisfy equivalent requirements for a wide range of civilian occupations.

“Each state has their own way of doing business,” said Ed Kringer, who directs the Department of Defense’s office of state liaison and education opportunities. He’s spearheading an effort to help states streamline credentialing. His staff has identified the 10 largest military occupations from each service and is comparing them with 17 civilian occupations for a report to be released in June.

If the military occupation’s skills line up exactly with a state’s requirements, the veteran should get a license. “If it’s only about 50 percent, then they shouldn’t get a license but at least credit for 50 or 60 percent,” Kringer said.

Heather Van Hausen’s military occupation was combat medic, known in military argot as a “68 Whiskey.” She is taking courses at Westmoreland County Community College in health care administration, but is frustrated because many of her courses duplicate what she already learned on the battlefield.

Like so many who share her military occupation, the 35-year-old Arnold resident can’t transfer her skills to become a licensed nurse’s assistant. Instead, she’s looking for a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant or retail store while going to school, now that her unemployment compensation is running out.

According to Department of Defense data, the third largest category of those 101,000 veterans in 2011 who collected unemployment were combat medics.

There are efforts to streamline the process: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Department of Defense and the Teamsters have worked together on a Commercial Driver’s License Veterans to Work initiative, and the Motor Carrier office issued a regulation last May allowing states to waive the skills test portion of the commercial test for military personnel with comparable safe driving experience.

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Fort Bragg recommends changes to Warrior Transition Battalion based on inspection findings

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Team VCS

VCS Executive Director Patrick Bellon Quoted

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From the Fayetteville Observer

by Greg Barnes,Staff Writer

An inspection of Fort Bragg’s battalion for wounded soldiers found that the post needs to do a better job of selecting and training the battalion’s staff leaders, Brig. Gen. Michael X. Garrett said Tuesday.

While the inspection confirms that the Warrior Transition Battalion is doing many things right, Fort Bragg will make improvements to better serve its nearly 500 physically and mentally wounded soldiers, said Garrett, chief of staff of the 18th Airborne Corps.

Garrett made his remarks while releasing findings by Fort Bragg’s inspector general at a news conference on post. Fort Bragg did not release the report, saying it is the property of the Department of the Army’s Inspector General’s Office and can be obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Included in the recommendations, Garrett said, is for Fort Bragg to begin searching the entire Army to find the best soldiers to lead the battalion’s staff. Fort Bragg now limits its search to soldiers on post.

New training

Garrett said although the leadership staff meets regulatory training requirements, a new “resilience” training program being developed will focus on the wounded soldiers’ physical, emotional, social, family and spiritual strengths.

Garrett said Fort Bragg also will recommend to the Department of the Army that the battalion’s senior leadership be nominated, similar to how the Army selects battalion commanders and command sergeants major.

Patrick Bellon, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense in Washington, D.C., was unimpressed with the findings or the recommendations.

“If I had to sum it up succinctly,” Bellon wrote in an email, “this report basically says nothing to see folks … move along.”

Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, ordered the inspection Feb. 14, after hearing complaints from spouses of soldiers in the battalion and from advocates of the soldiers.

Since then, The Fayetteville Observer has heard from more than 40 past and present battalion soldiers.

Many complained of being overmedicated, of being accused of faking injury or illness or of getting separated from the Army on trumped-up charges or incomplete or altered medical records.

Garrett said a review of 292 punitive administrative actions taken against soldiers in the battalion during the past two years found none that needed to be reversed. The inspection did, however, find that some of the soldiers’ files lacked full and proper documentation. A Fort Bragg spokesman later called the errors in documentation minor.

Garrett said those who are complaining about the battalion should address their chain of command. If they can’t get satisfaction there, Garrett said, they can go to him or Helmick.

“There is nothing we want more than to satisfy those 40 people that don’t seem to be getting what they want from their chain of command,” Garrett said. “We are not going to throw our hands up. We don’t care if it’s one of them. We are going to continue to work our processes, continue to look at ourselves and continue to improve where we can to ensure that we provide the absolute best care to our soldiers and their families. They deserve nothing less.”

Garrett said many of the battalion’s soldiers will have to transition back to civilian life. Although they don’t often like to hear that, he said, a key component of managing their expectations is to keep them properly informed.

“One of the things that just jumped out at us is that we have got to continue to seek better ways to manage expectations and we have to be more creative,” he said.

Bellon wonders why so many soldiers would jump their chain of command and go to the media when there is such a cultural resistance in doing so.

“That 40 soldiers felt so strongly that they would go outside the chain of command demonstrates that serious deficiencies must exist,” he said.

Garrett said there is a perception among battalion soldiers that its leadership is not considering the medical conditions of soldiers who are being punished or separated from the Army for adverse actions.

At the recommendation of Fort Bragg’s inspector general, Col. Maggie Dunn, Garrett said the Army will begin recording any adverse actions rather than just telling the soldier.

Bellon took exception to the recommendation.

“Offering to provide increased documentation of adverse actions seems to sidestep the wider complaint,” Bellon said. “The issue is those actions taking precedent over or ignoring the medical condition. That response seems tone deaf.”

Garrett said some soldiers in the battalion also perceived a lack of care and compassion among the staff leaders.

“This obviously affects the command climate and will be addressed by Lt. Gen. Helmick and the hospital commander,” he said.

No punishments

Garrett said the inspection found no reason to punish battalion staff, but he said many will soon be leaving through the normal Army transition process. That includes Lt. Col. Tom Schumacher, who has been the battalion’s commander for less than two years.

Garrett said an independent review determined there are appropriate medicine management policies in place, and the battalion’s staff is complying with providing medication to the soldiers.

He said there have been no “discernible trends” among soldiers in the Warrior Transition Battalion in the past two years. He said the battalion has seen two suicides, 16 “suicidal gestures” and 12 reports of domestic violence.

“It is unacceptable that two suicides, 16 attempts and 12 reports of domestic violence would be considered an insignificant trend,” Bellon responded. “Zero across the board should be the goal.”

Bellon said it appears that the findings place most of the blame on the soldiers, not the leadership.

“Overall, this reads as if they are saying it is all the soldiers’ fault,” he said. “How can it all be the soldiers’ fault? Shouldn’t some of the blame be with leadership? Especially if they are claiming a lack of information and documentation is part of the problem in this case?

“Managing expectations is indeed a key part of leadership’s job, which they admit to failing to do.

Please help us continue our efforts on behalf of veterans.

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Paul Sullivan Testifies: From the Inside Out: A Look at Claims Representatives’ Role in the Disability Claims Process

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Team VCS

 

From the Inside Out: A Look at Claims Representatives’ Role in the Disability Claims Process House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs | 334 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC | Apr 18, 2012 10:00am Witness Testimony of Mr. Paul Sullivan, Managing Director for Public Affairs and Veteran Outreach Bergmann and Moore, LLC Hearing on 04/18/2012: From the Inside Out: A Look at Claims Representatives’ Role in the Disability Claims Process

The National Organization of Veterans’ Advocates (NOVA) thanks Chairman Jeff Miller and Ranking Member Bob Filner for the opportunity to testify about the disability claim process at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).   NOVA is honored to share our views for this hearing, “From the Inside Out: A Look at Claims Representatives’ Role in the Disability Claims Process.”

NOVA is a not‑for‑profit 501(c)(6) educational membership organization incorporated in the District of Columbia in 1993.  NOVA represents more than 500 attorneys and agents assisting tens of thousands of our nation’s military Veterans, their widows, and their families obtain VA benefits.  This statement was reviewed and approved by NOVA’s Board of Directors.  I testify today as an employee of Bergmann & Moore, LLC, a Bethesda, Maryland law firm representing Veterans’ whose disability claims were denied before VA and the U. S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC).   Partners Glenn Bergmann and Joe Moore are both NOVA members, and Joe Moore also serves on NOVA’s Board of Directors.  Glenn Bergmann, Joe Moore, and I all previously worked for VA.

NOVA members represent Veterans before all levels of VA’s disability claim process.  This includes the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA, or “Board”), the CAVC, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit).  In 2000, the CAVC recognized NOVA’s work on behalf of Veterans when the CAVC awarded the Hart T. Mankin Distinguished Service Award to NOVA in 2000.

Our main goal for this hearing is to continue our strong working relationship with Congress and VA so our Veterans receive timely and accurate disability compensation claim decisions from VA.  Receipt of timely benefits remains vital for the Veteran’s economic security as well as opening the door to free VA medical care.  NOVA believes  the “Veterans’ Choice of Representation Act,” part of the ‘‘Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006” (Public Law 109-461) works as intended.  The 2006 law eliminated the prohibition on the charging of fees for services of an attorney or agent provided before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals makes its first final decision in a Veteran’s case.

NOVA’s Training Seminars for Attorneys and Non-Attorney Agents

At NOVA, our primary purpose is providing quality training to attorneys and non‑attorney practitioners who represent Veterans, surviving spouses, and dependents.  NOVA offers four types of training.

Our primary type of training is our seminars held twice each year.  These events are attended by hundreds of attorneys and non-attorney agents.  Our seminars include presentations by leading practitioners and experts about VA’s disability claim process.

Guest speakers at NOVA training seminars often include academics as well as top VA and CAVC leaders.  Our seminars provide Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits for attorneys.  NOVA membership requires completion of our seminars every two years.

A second type of training is NOVA’s “Beginner’s Guide to Veterans Law.”  These DVDs are essential for those just beginning a Veteran disability claim law practice.  Last year, NOVA began offering our third type of training feature, NOVA webinars, where attorneys and agents can learn about Veteran law via the internet and receive CLE.

And, finally, NOVA members are able to access a heavily used private on-line bulletin board to ask questions of more experienced attorneys, share practice tips, and keep updated on new case law and VA regulations.

NOVA Interaction with Veterans

When Veterans contact NOVA for assistance, NOVA’s interaction remains limited to providing referrals to our NOVA members listed on our web site.  Each of our NOVA members operates independently, so there are different procedures regarding intake, screening, and acceptance of cases.  Because of their legal training, experience, and focus on Veteran law, after a review of the Veterans’ claim file, NOVA attorneys know when Veterans’ claims have merit.

As trained litigators, NOVA members assist Veterans by obtaining vital military service records, military medical records, and independent medical opinions regarding Veterans’ medical conditions.  In cases where veterans have significant impairment, such as mental health conditions and brain injury, these attorney-provided services are essential in order to win the Veteran’s claim.  In many instances, NOVA members’ representation of Veterans results in significant changes in the case law which improves the likelihood future veterans will receive appropriate, prompt, and full disability compensation.

The Current System’s Challenges

NOVA appreciates the significant, recent, and bi-partisan increases in appropriations for VA as well as consistent Congressional oversight of VA activities.  While VA continues improving in many areas, several other areas urgently need the attention of Congress.  The area in most need of immediate improvement is VA’s overwhelmed and beleaguered disability claim processing system.

The areas of greatest concern for NOVA are VBA’s inability to provide prompt and full access to records and VBA’s unconscionably long delays in claim processing.  Our testimony provides several recommendations to overcome these obstacles interfering with our ability to properly represent Veterans.

VBA’s delays are legendary and worsening.  At the Regional Office level, Veterans wait an average of more than seven months for a decision.  As of April 16, 2012, more than 903,000 Veterans’ and beneficiaries’ claims languish at VBA.  At the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, more than 256,000 disability claims remain mired, waiting an average of an additional four more years for a decision.  In total, VA’s disability claim backlog exceeds 1.1 million.  In addition, more than four thousand cases remain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims docket.  When VA focuses attention on expediting new claims, VA exacerbates the already bad situation by increasing the error rate, leading to even more appeals and even longer delays.  VBA appears to be grinding to a halt.

Last Sunday, The New York Times reported the Oakland VA Regional Office takes an unconscionable 313 days to process a new claim (“Paperwork Buries Veterans’ Disability Claims,” Aaron Glantz, April 15, 2012).  That’s more than ten months.   A few years ago, VA was averaging five months.  These significant VA delays seriously harm our Veterans who need access to VA healthcare and who need disability benefits to pay rent, put food on the table, and pay other important expenses.

During testimony before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on February 29, 2012, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki stated VA has seen a 48 percent increase in claims filed since 2008.  He expects the claim volume to increase by another 4 percent in 2013 to 1.25 million claims.  This means an already bad situation continues deteriorating.  This is unacceptable for our Veterans.

In response to these disturbing statistics, and the significant impact delays and errors have on our Veterans’ health and economic stability, VA sought out, and Congress wisely funded information technology (IT) programs to handle the tidal wave of more than one million claims flooding into VBA each year.  NOVA applauds these moves to bring VBA into the 21st Century.

First Set of NOVA Recommendations: Access to Information

NOVA urges Congress to enact legislation to improve and expedite the access by attorneys and agents accredited by VA to information about their Veteran clients.  This is absolutely vital in order to protect the Constitutional rights of our Veterans.

1.      Access to Veterans’ Electronic VA Records by Private Practitioners

VBA’s proposed e-Benefits system, also known as the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS), does not contain a component absolutely vital to our nation’s Veterans and beneficiaries: full and immediate access to Veteran’s claim records by their attorney or agent.  This is the top complaint of NOVA members who work with Veterans every day.  The lack of access undermines our Veterans’ due process rights and property rights.  See Cushman v. Shinseki, 576 F.3d 1290 (Fed. Cir. 2009) (ruling that applicants for VBA benefits have a constitutionally protected property interest in their entitlement to those benefits).

NOVA urges Congress to mandate that VA promptly provide advocates full access to paper and electronic claim records.  What NOVA seeks is a “read only” secure access to Veterans’ records via the internet.  Such a system is already in place at the Social Security Administration (SSA).  SSA uses the “Appointed Representative Suite of Services” (ARSS) computer system.  Information about legal representation is promptly entered into a beneficiary’s records, and attorneys are provided with full and immediate access to SSA records on-line.  SSA’s ARSS system should serve as a model for VA to adopt in its new IT system that also preserves and protects Veterans’ rights.  In simple terms, if ARSS meets the standards for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA; Public Law 104-191, 1996), then Congress should mandate a similar system for VA.

2.      Improving Access to VBA Points of Contact for Private Practitioners

Under current VA rules (M21-1MR, Part I, Chapter 3, Section C, 14, “General Information on Fees”), VA’s Attorney Fee Coordinators (AFC) at VBA Regional Offices serve as liaisons with attorneys and agents, many of whom are NOVA members.  In most cases, AFCs are cooperative and helpful to NOVA members, providing prompt and accurate status updates on Veterans’ claims.  This is important because NOVA members representing Veterans are not co-located inside the VA Regional Office and do not have physical access to VBA staff, VBA computer systems, or VBA paper records.  Our contact is limited to e-mails, FAX, and telephone, which is severely restricted by VA.  Private practitioners currently have no assured access to VA claims processers, and long delays often result in cases where VA communicates with veteran advocates only via the U.S. Postal Service.

However, there are harmful exceptions, where some AFCs are directed by their supervisors to refuse to provide attorneys and agents with critical information.  The lack of accurate and timely information about the status of a Veteran’s case significantly interferes with the ability of NOVA members to properly represent their clients.  In many instances, AFCs provided inaccurate information or referred NOVA members to VBA’s 1-800 phone number.  NOVA understands AFCs often have several other job functions and lack the time and training to properly and promptly assist attorneys and agents.  However, when an AFC does not provide information or provides incorrect or incomplete information, VA’s actions further delay veterans’ claims.

NOVA urges Congress and VA to make it clear, through law or regulation, that AFCs are to assist accredited attorneys and agents by providing accurate and prompt status information on Veterans’ claims.  We believe the duties of AFCs should be limited to the role of assisting accredited attorneys and agents in all but the smallest Regional Offices.

3.      Entering Information Sent to VA in a Correct and Timely Manner

Most large Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) staff are co-located inside VA Regional Offices.  They often hand-deliver critical and time sensitive documents such as notices of disagreement and substantive appeals, and thus are able to ensure VA’s databases are correctly updated and documents are associated with the Veterans’ paper claims folder.

In contrast, NOVA members are not co-located at VA Regional Offices.  Therefore, NOVA members usually fax or mail POA and NOD forms to VA Regional Offices.

Unfortunately, it is the widespread experience of NOVA members that, depending on the individual Regional Office, documents need to be resent because VA lost them – or did not update the system correctly when they were received so no one knows they are in the claims folder – anywhere from 25 to 75 percent of the time.  This is especially critical since the mishandling of timely documents such as an appeal can potentially cause further delay of a Veteran’s case.

NOVA urges Congress to mandate that VA upgrade the training provided to mailroom employees, including offering incentives encouraging VA’s mailroom staff to complete their jobs correctly the first time.

4.      Decreasing Blocked Calls and Incorrect Information Given by VA

Calling VA’s Toll-Free “Inquiry Routing and Information System” (IRIS), 800-827-1000, too often results in incomplete or incorrect information.  As described above, many AFCs refer attorneys and agents to IRIS.   The results are dismal, and in need of urgent correction.  According to VA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG):

In [Fiscal Year] 2009, individuals reached an agent 76 percent of the time.  Of those reaching an agent, agents answered 72 percent of their questions correctly.  When we combined VBA’s reported data on access and accuracy, we concluded that any one call placed by a unique caller had a 49 percent chance of reaching an agent and getting the correct information.

Even worse, VA employees appear hesitant to answer indirect questions, defined by OIG as questions “that are not asked directly but are relevant to providing a complete answer” (emphasis added).  In those cases, VA staff only answered 60 percent of indirect questions accurately.  This issue remains a chronic challenge for VA.  For eight years, Veterans and their advocates remain unable to obtain correct answers from VA.

Knight Ridder Newspapers reported on an internal VA report from 2004 (“VA Help Lines Found to Regularly Provide Wrong Information,” Chris Adams, December 30, 2005):

According to an internal VA memo on the mystery-caller program that’s buried deep in the department’s Web site, 22 percent of the answers the callers got were “completely incorrect,” 23 percent were “minimally correct” and 20 percent were “partially correct.”  Nineteen percent of the answers were “completely correct,” and 16 percent were “mostly correct.”

Veterans, attorneys, and agents deserve correct and complete answers.  NOVA recommends that VA improve training and oversight with two goals in mind.  First, VA needs to end the 24 percent of calls from Veterans to VA that are blocked.  VA needs to increase the accuracy of both direct and indirect answers provided to veterans to well above 90 percent.

Second Set of NOVA Recommendations: End Delays in Adjudicating Appeals

In order to please Congress, VA has previously placed an emphasis on adjudicating original claims as quickly as possible.  Although we applaud Congressional attention to this matter and the noticeable results in claim processing, these numbers have come at a steep cost.  That cost is in the area of Veterans’ appeals.  Just to give an example of the chronic understaffing in this area, our firm heard from multiple Regional Offices that its appeals consist of more than 3,000 cases and are growing by the day.  However, the ROs have only two or three Decision Review Officers (DRO) working on appeals.  At those offices, we were told the wait for a Statement of the Case (SOC) to be issued following the submission of a Notice of Disagreement is “at least 1100 days.”

Although a wait of more than three years is, by itself, inexcusable, what makes this wait worse is that Veterans’ claims do not even get in line for a BVA decision until an SOC has been issued and the Veteran has filed a Substantive Appeal.  BVA is currently working on cases with 2010 docket numbers.  In practical terms, this means a Veteran who already waited three years for VA to issue a SOC, who then submits a Substantive Appeal, must wait an additional two years before BVA reviews the case.

The final insult in all of this is that BVA is forced to remand many cases back to Regional Offices.  (If the Veteran is not represented by a private practitioner, the Veteran’s case is sent to the Appeals Management Center.)  In theory, a Regional Office is supposed to provide “expedited” treatment to the Veteran’s case.  However, in practice, the Veteran’s claim goes to the back of the line and waits once again with the rest of the appeals.  Chronic VA delay in processing Veterans’ appeals harms our Veterans by denying them access to medical care and economic security.   NOVA supports VBA’s goals and intents of hiring more DROs, as they remain the most efficient way to fix the multiple errors found in the majority of rating decision issues.

NOVA supports hiring more DROs to meet the increasing number of appeals handled at VA’s Regional Offices.  DROs should also be used for their intended purpose.  However, DROs were recently tasked with handling hundreds of thousands of Vietnam War Veterans’ disability claims for medical conditions associated with exposure to Agent Orange (Nehmer v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, No. CV-86-6160).  We understand nearly all Nehmer cases are resolved, and this should allow DROs to return to their original function.  Unfortunately, most DROs are returning to enormous backlogs and heightened pressure to adjudicate cases quickly, without regard to accuracy.

Conclusion

NOVA supports funding for VA initiatives to computerize VA’s obsolete claims processing systems.  NOVA believes our reasonable and practical recommendations to VA’s initiatives, especially greater and faster access to Veterans’ records and an end to VA’s systemic delays, will result in our Veterans receiving more timely and accurate decisions from VA.   NOVA offers to work with the Committee and VA to implement our recommendations.

Biography

Paul Sullivan, Managing Director

Public Affairs & Veteran Outreach

Bergmann & Moore, LLC

Bethesda, Maryland

Paul Sullivan serves as the Managing Director for Public Affairs & Veteran Outreach at Bergmann & Moore, LLC, one of the Nation’s largest law firms dedicated solely to the representation of Veterans whose disability claims were denied by VA, both before VA and CAVC.

In 1990 and 1991, Paul served as a Cavalry Scout with the Army’s 1st Armored Division during the invasion of Iraq and Kuwait in the Gulf War.   Between 1995 and 2000, Paul worked for the National Gulf War Resource Center in Washington, DC, where he led the national effort to pass the “Persian Gulf Veterans Act of 1998,” a law significantly expanding healthcare, disability benefits, and scientific research for 250,000 ill Gulf War Veterans.

From 2000 to 2006, Paul worked as a Lead Program Analyst at the Veterans Benefits Administration.  He produced statistical and analytical reports about the Veterans’ disability claim activity.

From 2006 to 2011, Paul worked as the Executive Director at Veterans for Common Sense.  Paul worked at NOVA from 2011 to 2012.  Paul’s advocacy for fellow war Veterans is cited in more than 10 books about war and Veterans.  Paul is a Life Member of both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans.

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Vet heard voices, sought help — and was sent home

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Team VCS

VCS Executive Director quoted and our lawsuit is discussed.

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Article by: MARK BRUNSWICK , Star Tribune

Updated: April 16, 2012 – 11:45 AM

As 1 in 3 Iraq vets seek mental health care, VA faces criticism over delays and shortages.

After six sleepless nights, Blake Uddin knew he was in trouble.

He was hearing voices and feeling “clairvoyant.” A sergeant in the Wisconsin National Guard with two tours of duty in Iraq, Uddin drove himself to the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital, where he expected to be admitted.

Instead, after a two-hour exam, doctors said he was not a threat to himself or others, even though they called his Guard unit and suggested he not be allowed around weapons. He was told to come back the following week.

Four days later, with the voices now telling him, “Run … run … they’re coming,” he stole a car, crashed it and spent desperate minutes rushing across four lanes of morning rush-hour traffic. Footage from an overhead traffic camera shows him stepping in front of a semi-truck slowing to keep from striking him. Then he is hit by a van and thrown 50 feet into a ditch.

A psychologist who later examined him said Uddin was experiencing “an acute, significant, psychotic break.” The psychologist took the unusual step of criticizing the VA for not admitting him or giving him medication and called the VA’s lack of action “perplexing.”

“I’ll take responsibility for it,” Uddin says now of the morning last year that changed his life. “But light needs to be shed that things could have changed.”

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is facing unprecedented demands on its mental health system. Like Uddin, about one of every three soldiers returning from Iraq was seen in a VA facility for mental health treatment within a year of returning.

Nationally, there is growing concern that the VA is failing its mission. It’s facing criticism for staffing shortages and delays in seeing veterans worried about their mental state.

“There is a serious systemic problem with access to mental health care,” said Patrick Bellon, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, which sued the VA for how it handled access to its mental health programs. “If you are in a serious mental crisis, two weeks might as well be forever.”

Asked to respond, a spokesman for the VA in Washington provided a two-page summary of actions the department has taken, including increasing mental health staffing levels from 14,207 in 2006 to more than 21,000 currently and increasing screening to identify veterans who may have depression and alcohol misuse, or who have experienced military sexual trauma.

Read more.http://www.startribune.com/local/147459825.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

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Weak economy, lack of opportunities have returning vets fighting for jobs

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Team VCS

Military service is synonymous with sacrifice.

But for many troops coming home to Western Pennsylvania from Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere — what some officials have called “the coming tsunami” of veterans looking for work in a fragile job market — that sacrifice isn’t ending when they receive their discharge papers.

For nearly four years, Eric Seitz, 30, moved from site to site in the Marine Corps as a infantry radio and satellite communications operator in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since he returned here in January 2011, he’s been taking courses at Community College of Allegheny County Boyce campus, and has put out more than 50 resumes and applications for entry-level jobs since fall.

He turned down his single offer — a graveyard shift emergency call center operator position — for more time with his 23-year-old fiancee, Kayla Anselmi, who picked up a second job in September to support them. It puts a strain on their relationship at times. They’re getting married next year.

“We’ve got everything in place but me working,” he said.

At a time when the country is trying to shake off a deep recession, the military is beginning the largest downsizing of its forces since the post-Cold War drawdown, ending in 1998. An estimated 250,000 soldiers, on average, leave the military every year, but for the next five years, that could increase to 340,000 annually. Of that total, more than a million veterans are expected to flood the workplace.

How many will be coming to Western Pennsylvania, and for what kind of work? What are the barriers they face, and what are the military, the government and employers doing to help them vault those barriers?

This region has had its share of recent factory closings. At a small job fair in Johnstown last month, veterans found themselves competing with local residents who had lost their jobs after DRS Technologies Inc., a local defense contractor, downsized.

But there is work out there, in the booming Marcellus Shale and health care industries, which have vowed to hire veterans.

Those companies will have a lot to choose from: The state boasts the fourth-largest number of veterans in the country, while in the dozen counties region around Pittsburgh, 9,541 veterans after 9/11 fought in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Still, for job hunters like Mr. Seitz, it’s as though their years in the military never happened.

“A lot of the stuff I did there with the infantry doesn’t carry over into the civilian life so it doesn’t really help as far as getting hired goes,” says Mr. Seitz, who instead underscores his leadership and work ethic on his resume.

“It’s hard to get an answer back from anybody. I’m talking entry-level jobs.”

Jonathan Quicquaro, a 25-year-old Navy veteran, repaired and maintained electronic parts for jets — a job that required physical and mental muscle. Now, he’s back in Latrobe struggling to support a wife and child while attending the University of Pittsburgh’s Greensburg campus, even as he suffers chronic pain from service-related injuries.

“Now you’re just a face. People don’t know who you are or where you fit in,” he said. “When you’re in the military you have a whole network of people that try to help you, and then when you get out, that support network is instantly gone.”

He stopped by an American Legion post in Ligonier, “but a lot of the guys, they are 20, 30 years older than you, and they’re all sitting around talking about Vietnam or Korea.”

Veterans not pursuing additional school chafe at the idea of taking minimum-wage jobs. Eric Howze, 28, was a military police officer in Iraq, and with his background in recruiting, he wants to be the one behind the tables at the job fair.

“I have a lot of potential, and I don’t want to necessarily take any job,” he says. “At $8 at hour, who really can have a sustainable life?”

“These men and women know how to be soldiers, not civilians,” said Brian Orczeck, a veterans representative and job counselor at PA CareerLink Alle-Kiski office in New Kensington.

“This is a battle they are not prepared for. These veterans were good at what they did in the service and they’re prepared to excel — they just don’t know how to get in the door.”

•

Historically, unemployment figures for veterans have always been slightly lower than for nonveterans, but that’s not the case for this generation of post-9/11 veterans. In 2011, the U.S. Labor Department said the unemployment rate for this group was 12.1 percent compared with 8.9 percent for the population at large. Veteran advocacy organizations contend the rate is higher, although for the first quarter of this year, jobless rates for this post-9/11 group of veterans was 9 percent compared to 12.8 percent a year ago.

For young veterans, though — between the ages of 18 and 24 — the jobless rate is 30 percent, according to the Labor Department, and those “are the people who are going to have the most difficulty,” said Ismael “Junior” Ortiz, deputy assistant secretary for the Veterans Employment and Training Service at the U.S. Department of Labor.

“They didn’t have the ability to build their resume or their networks, that piece they need in order to find a good job.”

Government and corporate America say they have gotten the message loud and clear: The barriers to employment that veterans are facing are formidable. They include:

• The veteran jobs cyber bureaucracy: An abundant yet unwieldy ecosystem of online government and private sector career assistance programs, job boards and websites which both veterans and employers find overwhelming, duplicative and difficult to navigate.

• The tank-to-truck disconnect: There is a perception, at least, of a huge mismatch between military and civilian job experience. Credentialing and licensing requirements differ in all 50 states, which means that soldiers skilled in driving heavy equipment may nonetheless be required to go to school all over again to obtain a commercial driver’s license. Well for passenger transport there is need of mpu certificate. The Pentagon wants to change that, but some states balk, worried that they’re being asked to lower their standards.

• Death by PowerPoint: Career counseling programs that are outdated, boring and poorly marketed. The military’s 20-year old Transition Assistance Program, a 21/2-day series of workshops for soldiers separating from the military, is undergoing major retooling and reform.

• Lost in translation: There’s a big language gap between employers, who have difficulty understanding military jargon on resumes, and vets, who don’t know how to describe their teamwork, technical skills, emotional intelligence and work ethic either on paper or during the interview.

“My resume said I was a ‘multichannel transmissions operator maintainer,’ but out there, that means nothing,” says Ben Keen, founder of Steel City Vets, a new support group aimed at soldiers who served in the two most recent Gulf wars. “So, instead I said I set up phone and Internet transmission for units and leaders out in the desert leading all the way into the White House.”

He got a job at an IT firm in the Strip District, Electronics for Imaging, but spends his spare time counseling fellow veterans who haven’t been so lucky.

• Substance or P.R.? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is hosting more than 400 “Hiring Our Heroes” fairs across the country this year, up from 120 last year. Some local groups have sponsored similar events. But veterans say some are insufficiently marketed or helpful. At one recent “Hiring Our Heroes” fair at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, nearly 300 veterans walked in throughout the day, but sometimes there were more employers than job hunters in the room. Roughly 250 veterans attended a much smaller job fair in Vienna, Ohio, but many arrived late in the day, some unprepared, having heard about the event on the news that morning. Army veteran James Metzger said he traveled 45 minutes from Sebring, Ohio, and was disappointed to find no on-the-spot interviews available.

• No National Guard or Reservists Need Apply: There are widespread reports of reluctance by employers, especially small businesses, to hire National Guard or Reservists for fear they will be deployed again. Federal officials have declined to comment on these reports, but many veteran career counselors advise them not to mention they’re in the Guard or Reserves on their resumes.

•

In the 1990s, Heather Van Hausen remembers seeing ads on television advising the would-be recruit to “Find your future … in the Aaarmy.”

But being all that you can be, as these veterans are finding out, is actually not all it’s cracked up to be.

The 35-year-old Arnold resident spent 15 years as an Army combat medic, where, in Iraq, she treated and transported injured comrades, sometimes under fire. Discharged in July, the quiet, petite mother of two is now going to Westmoreland County Community College — while applying for part-time work at Walmart, Kmart, Sheetz and a Dairy Queen in New Kensington to supplement her $977 monthly living stipend.

“I could do vitals. I could dress wounds. I could repair an engine. I could plug a bullet hole with a tampon,” she says wryly. “But I guess that isn’t going to do much on a job application.”

The top brass in military, government and business circles say they’re on the case and have moved quickly to brand their efforts: from “Hire a Hoosier” job fairs in Indiana to any other number of catchy-sounding programs — Boots to Suits, Helmets to Hardhats, Troops to Teachers.

The White House sees a strong campaign issue, too. Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama went on “The Colbert Report” to talk up Joining Forces, an initiative supporting veterans and military families that she and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, unveiled a year ago. A recent Obama re-election campaign ad has also urged passage of the Buffett Rule, noting that if millionaires “paid a fair share it could mean up to $32 million for more than 600 jobs that leveraged skills developed in the military.”

Within the federal government itself, Mr. Obama said “it’s important to lead by example,” said John Berry, the president’s director of the Office of Personnel Management.

At a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in June, Mr. Berry said, the president told top department secretaries that he wanted the percentages of veteran employees in federal agencies to rise, pronto, calling out some who’d lagged behind. Mr. Berry proudly noted that his agency, OPM — which serves, in effect as the government’s human resources department, overseeing more than 2.8 million federal employees — hired the largest percentage of disabled vets of any government agency, and the second-largest percentage of veterans overall.

Mr. Obama also created, by executive order, an inter-agency Council on Veterans Employment “to keep the thing moving,” Mr. Berry said, and establish a full-time veterans employment program office in every agency to monitor progress and network with other government agencies.

While recent news reports have cited the Departments of Labor and Veterans Affairs as some of the worst offenders when it comes to laying off veteran employees, total veteran hiring has gone up across the government, from 24 percent in 2009 to 28.5 percent in 2011. “Some are doing a good job at this, and some need to drop a few pounds and run faster,” he said.

President Obama also proposed a $1 billion “JobCorps” to hire veterans to rebuild roads and trails on public lands, while providing federal dollars to local agencies that hire more veterans as police and firefighters, but there’s been little movement in Congress on the proposal. One Republican recently called the “JobCorps” proposal on public lands a waste of money, but there’s been a new incentive for the private sector in the form of a tax credit worth up to $5,600 for employers who hire unemployed veterans, which doubles if they hire disabled veterans.

Will it work?

“This generation is leaving military service probably to face an economic environment unprecedented in drawdown periods of any previous war,” said Michael Haynie, director of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, noting that unemployment after World War II — the largest demobilization of the Armed Forces in our history — was 4 percent.

That downsizing, and this one, are a long way from Revolutionary War days, when, under orders from Congress, the new nation’s military was reduced to only 80 privates and a few officers — 25 of them ordered to guard stores at Fort Pitt.

Much has changed — or must change, said the gruff-talking Maj. Gen. Mark MacCarley, deputy commander of the Army Reserve, speaking at the February jobs conference in Washington, D.C., invoking Black Jack Pershing, Omar Bradley and other leaders who created warriors and led them into battle in the last century’s wars.

The military must now “make warriors transition to citizens, and make the process seamless.”

“When a warrior comes back to his family, he should be able to say, ‘yes I have served my country proudly, with distinction, now I am coming back to take care of my family.’ But too many don’t have that peace and harmony, and struggle to put food on the table,” he said.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he all but barked at the audience, “that is wrong.”

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Please Support Veterans For Common Sense

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Team VCS

Thank you for visiting our site. At Veterans for Common Sense we need your support. We hope you are visiting us because you read about our lawsuit against the VA in this weekend’s New York Times. Feel free to take look around at all the information we regularly post.  Our veterans coming home need us to all band together to ensure that they receive a square deal. Our brave men and women deserve our most strenuous efforts on behalf of their future. At VCS we intend to continue that fight, until the last veteran has all the care and tools to succeed that they require.

Please donate and join our mailing list today. Your information will not be sold to any third parties. We need your support to help us continue our efforts. We depend on support from everyday Americans in the form of grassroots support on issues and individual donations. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely, Patrick Bellon Iraq Veteran

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A Veteran’s Death, the Nation’s Shame

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Team VCS

VCS Staff Quoted

————

From the New York Times

Nicholas D. Kristof

HERE’S a window into a tragedy within the American military: For every soldier killed on the battlefield this year, about 25 veterans are dying by their own hands.

An American soldier dies every day and a half, on average, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every year — more than the total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since those wars began.

These unnoticed killing fields are places like New Middletown, Ohio, where Cheryl DeBow raised two sons, Michael and Ryan Yurchison, and saw them depart for Iraq. Michael, then 22, signed up soon after the 9/11 attacks.

“I can’t just sit back and do nothing,” he told his mom. Two years later, Ryan followed his beloved older brother to the Army.

When Michael was discharged, DeBow picked him up at the airport — and was staggered. “When he got off the plane and I picked him up, it was like he was an empty shell,” she told me. “His body was shaking.” Michael began drinking and abusing drugs, his mother says, and he terrified her by buying the same kind of gun he had carried in Iraq. “He said he slept with his gun over there, and he needed it here,” she recalls.

Then Ryan returned home in 2007, and he too began to show signs of severe strain. He couldn’t sleep, abused drugs and alcohol, and suffered extreme jitters.

“He was so anxious, he couldn’t stand to sit next to you and hear you breathe,” DeBow remembers. A talented filmmaker, Ryan turned the lens on himself to record heartbreaking video of his own sleeplessness, his own irrational behavior — even his own mock suicide.

One reason for veteran suicides (and crimes, which get far more attention) may be post-traumatic stress disorder, along with a related condition, traumatic brain injury. Ryan suffered a concussion in an explosion in Iraq, and Michael finally had traumatic brain injury diagnosed two months ago.

Estimates of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury vary widely, but aballpark figure is that the problems afflict at least one in five veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq. One study found that by their third or fourth tours in Iraq or Afghanistan, more than one-quarter of soldiers had such mental health problems.

Preliminary figures suggest that being a veteran now roughly doubles one’s risk of suicide. For young men ages 17 to 24, being a veteran almost quadruples the risk of suicide, according to a study in The American Journal of Public Health.

Michael and Ryan, like so many other veterans, sought help from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Eric Shinseki, the secretary of veterans affairs, declined to speak to me, but the most common view among those I interviewed was that the V.A. has improved but still doesn’t do nearly enough about the suicide problem.

“It’s an epidemic that is not being addressed fully,” said Bob Filner, a Democratic congressman from San Diego and the senior Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “We could be doing so much more.”

To its credit, the V.A. has established a suicide hotline and appointed suicide-prevention coordinators. It is also chipping away at a warrior culture in which mental health concerns are considered sissy. Still, veterans routinely slip through the cracks. Last year, the United States Court of Appeals in San Francisco excoriated the V.A. for “unchecked incompetence” in dealing with veterans’ mental health.

Patrick Bellon, head of Veterans for Common Sense, which filed the suit in that case, saysthe V.A. has genuinely improved but is still struggling. “There are going to be one million new veterans in the next five years,” he said. “They’re already having trouble coping with the population they have now, so I don’t know what they’re going to do.”

Last month, the V.A.’s own inspector general reported on a 26-year-old veteran who was found wandering naked through traffic in California. The police tried to get care for him, but a V.A. hospital reportedly said it couldn’t accept him until morning. The young man didn’t go in, and after a series of other missed opportunities to get treatment, he stepped in front of a train and killed himself.

Likewise, neither Michael nor Ryan received much help from V.A. hospitals. In early 2010, Ryan began to talk more about suicide, and DeBow rushed him to emergency rooms and pleaded with the V.A. for help. She says she was told that an inpatient treatment program had a six-month waiting list. (The V.A. says it has no record of a request for hospitalization for Ryan.)

“Ryan was hurting, saying he was going to end it all, stuff like that,” recalls his best friend, Steve Schaeffer, who served with him in Iraq and says he has likewise struggled with the V.A. to get mental health services. “Getting an appointment is like pulling teeth,” he said. “You get an appointment in six weeks when you need it today.”

On the Ground

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OP-DOC

‘Good Night Ryan’

A filmmaker explores the fate of Specialist Ryan Yurchison, who returned from Iraq with P.T.S.D. and, after seeking help at the local V.A. hospital, died of a drug overdose in a possible suicide.

While Ryan was waiting for a spot in the addiction program, in May 2010, he died of a drug overdose. It was listed as an accidental death, but family and friends are convinced it was suicide.

The heartbreak of Ryan’s death added to his brother’s despair, but DeBow says Michael is now making slow progress. “He is able to get out of bed most mornings,” she told me. “That is a huge improvement.” Michael asked not to be interviewed: he wants to look forward, not back.

As for DeBow, every day is a struggle. She sent two strong, healthy men to serve her country, and now her family has been hollowed in ways that aren’t as tidy, as honored, or as easy to explain as when the battle wounds are physical. I wanted to make sure that her family would be comfortable with the spotlight this article would bring, so I asked her why she was speaking out.

“When Ryan joined the Army, he was willing to sacrifice his life for his country,” she said. “And he did, just in a different way, without the glory. He would want it this way.”

“My home has been a nightmare,” DeBow added through tears, recounting how three of Ryan’s friends in the military have killed themselves since their return. “You hear my story, but it’s happening everywhere.”

We refurbish tanks after time in combat, but don’t much help men and women exorcise the demons of war. Presidents commit troops to distant battlefields, but don’t commit enough dollars to veterans’ services afterward. We enlist soldiers to protect us, but when they come home we don’t protect them.

“Things need to change,” DeBow said, and her voice broke as she added: “These are guys who went through so much. If anybody deserves help, it’s them.”

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Valuable Insight Gained from VA Suicide Prevention Hotline

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Team VCS

Suicide hotlines are available throughout the United States and many other countries. They provide a lifeline for individuals who are contemplatingsuicide or having suicidal thoughts. The increase in military veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has elevated concern for suicide prevention services among veterans. To address this potential health problem, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has increased its efforts by developing a group of suicide prevention task force teams, suicide prevention programs, increased access to mental health services, and the National Suicide Hotline for veterans. These enhancements to existing programs allow potential suicide attempters to receive desperately needed care through multiple resources. The suicide hotline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and may be the only outlet accessible to veterans contemplating suicide at particular hours of the day and night. In addition, the VA has worked tirelessly to expand access to other social services through a referral system integrated within the suicide prevention program. These resources include substance abuse programs, marital counseling, and other mental health services.

One of the largest barriers to getting help for suicidal thoughts is the stigma associated with it. For veterans, reaching out for help is seen as a sign of weakness. To combat this challenge, the VA has launched an awareness campaign that describes its suicide prevention program as a source of strength. Until recently, the effectiveness of these new strategies has not been fully measured. In particular, men, who represent the majority of veterans who commit suicide, have been underrepresented in studies focusing on validity and deliverability of suicide programs. To address this gap, Kerry L. Knox of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention at the VA Medical Center in Canandaigua, New York, led a study that assessed how the VA’s suicide hotline has helped veterans.

Knox discovered that the hotline resulted in a dramatic increase in callers admitting that they were indeed veterans. The callers were primarily middle-aged men. The hotline resulted in over 4,000 network referrals for follow-up services to address issues related to suicide such as depression and posttraumatic stress. “Moreover, the VA’s hotline consists of trained clinicians, whereas most community hotline responders have little if any training in crisis intervention,” added Knox. This factor alone may explain the increase in male responsiveness and is an important factor to consider when implementing additional suicide prevention programs aimed at veterans in distress.

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Soldiers voice concerns about Bragg’s Warrior Transtition Battalion

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Team VCS

by Greg Barnes, Fayetteville Observer

 

Leaders of Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Battalion are wrongly accusing soldiers of faking illness or injury in an effort to keep them from getting full military benefits, some soldiers in the battalion said during a meeting Monday night.

One of those soldiers, Sgt. Daryl Shaw, said he will become homeless April 19 – when he is separated from the Army – because he is being accused of feigning his illnesses. That, he said, means he will receive only 60 percent of his medical retirement benefits – or between $900 and $1,200 a month to feed his family of six.

As it stands now, Shaw said, two of his children will have to live with friends from his church; the other two will stay with him and his wife in an old RV that has no electricity.

Shaw was among about two dozen soldiers or their family members who spoke during the meeting, which was called in an effort to strengthen the voice of battalion soldiers who feel wronged and betrayed.

Nine of the soldiers indicated they have been accused of malingering, a military term that means faking illness or injury in an effort to receive some form of benefit.

Sgt. Jody Lee Piercy, a battalion member who organized the meeting, believes an inspection of the battalion that began in February will find no wrongdoing.

“They are going to come out and say everything is all right,” Piercy said.

Findings of the inspection, ordered by Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, commander of Fort Bragg and the 18th Airborne Corps, are due to be released to the public by April 18.

Helmick called for the inspection after hearing from Vickie Ray, a leader of a loose-knit group of advocates that has been trying to help soldiers in the battalion.

Ray, who lives in Texas and spoke during the meeting via computer link, said her organization of about 75 advocates is looking into getting legal representation for soldiers who need assistance.

Some of the soldiers who attended the meeting said they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other injuries that have become common since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. A study commissioned by the Army in 2008 found that as many as one in five soldiers could suffer from PTSD.

Some of the soldiers say their medical records are being improperly changed.

Shaw, who has 17 years in the military, said his original diagnosis of traumatic brain injury was changed to adjustment disorder. He said he also suffers from severe depression, anxiety and degenerative disks. He said he lost benefits because a doctor wrote on his medical evaluation board that he was feigning the illnesses.

“It’s just a shame that I see people get messed with all the time,” Shaw said. “It makes me furious.”

Soldier Robert Zimmer said he has been in the Warrior Transition Battalion for a year and a half. In that time, he said, “I have never seen such poor treatment.”

“I’ll tell you right now, I’ve had it. My family has suffered,” said Zimmer, who has six children.

Another soldier, Spc. Victor Lewis, accused the battalion of overmedicating the troops, saying they “make you feel like a junkie.” Overall, Lewis said during a break in the meeting, he is now being treated better by the battalion’s command.

The soldiers’ complaints were echoed by another group from the battalion that met the day Helmick ordered the inspection. Only a few of the soldiers attended both meetings.

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