National Veterans Foundation

GAO faults training for VA claims processors

AirForce Times By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 28, 2008 11:39:20 EDT

Although the Veterans Affairs Department has added thousands of staff to help process disability claims, a new study finds those new employees face no consequences if they don’t attend mandatory training.

And because the caseload is so heavy, instructors aren’t always available to provide on-the-job training for new employees.

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 16, 2008

A psychologist who helps lead the post-traumatic stress disorder program at a medical facility for veterans in Texas told staff members to refrain from diagnosing PTSD because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments for the condition.

SFGate
Patrick Campbell
Saturday, May 3, 2008

I still laugh when people ask me whether the military paid for my education. When I tell them how meager the actual education benefits are, their shock always make me feel like I just told a child that there is no such thing as the tooth fairy. Unfortunately, many of my battle buddies realized the hard way that the GI Bill isn't what it used to be. The education benefits for troops are so low that they either never enrolled, or dropped out of school because they couldn't handle working two part-time jobs or living back home on Mama's couch to afford to attend school.

My fellow veterans are struggling because the current GI Bill is woefully inadequate. Service members are forced to take out loans just to start classes, and then wait months to get any reimbursement. Even then, the benefit only covers 60 to 70 percent of the cost of a four-year public university. For expensive private schools, the GI Bill is barely a drop in the bucket. And every year, the GI Bill is losing value because education benefits have failed to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of education.

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VA Media Relations (April 24, 2008) – On May 1, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will begin contacting nearly 570,000 recent combat veterans to ensure they know about VA’s medical services and other benefits.

“We will reach out and touch every veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom to let them know we are here for them,” said Dr. James B. Peake, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “VA is committed to getting these veterans the help they need and deserve.”

By JASON WITZ
Assistant Englewood Editor

Eric Hall would often pinch his lapel to his lips and whisper, as if a microphone was transmitting the cryptic message.

No one knew what to make of the gesture.

A friend would ask the baby-faced Marine whether he needed anything. Hall would release his shirt and smile, downplaying the episode. Nothing more was said.

"During the last seven years, this administration has nickled and dimed our vets," said U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-FL . "It seems to me if we are going to continue to call on people to serve, we need to treat them like gold."

Since the Iraq War started in 2002, Marine, Army and National Guard troops have faced extended deployments, with little rest in-between. Mahoney believes the additional tours increase the risk of soldiers developing mental stress later.

"We have put a burden on them that we have never asked soldiers to do before, and we are seeing the repercussions of it," he said.

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Vet: VA Psych Ward 'Worse Than Hell'

April 16, 2008
Dallas Morning News

The voices in Jack Edenburn's head began soon after he returned from Vietnam. They told him to end it all.

He ignored them for almost 40 years, until the day he stood at the railroad tracks near his Lancaster home, fantasizing about stepping in front of a train. That's the day he went to Dallas VA Medical Center. And some days, he says, he regrets that decision.

"Imagine hell," he said of his five days in the psychiatric unit, "then think worse."

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I am a 22 year old disabled Army veteran from Frederick, Maryland. All my life I grew up with the dream and ambition of following my family's traditions and join the Armed Forces. That chance came for me in October of 2002. I was in my junior year of High school at Thomas Johnson High school in Frederick, when I was contacted by my Army recruiter. Not long after we had first spoken I was signing papers and preparing for the service. Though I still had over nine months in the Delayed Entry Program I was dedicated from day one. I would spend my mornings before school doing physical training with my recruiter. And afternoons assisting at the office, and learning the Army Values. After my Graduation in 2003 I spent the two months of summer with family, preparing myself for the life I was about to take on.

February 26, 2008

WASHINGTON – Military veterans who served in combat since Nov. 11, 1998, including veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, are now eligible for five years of free medical care for most conditions from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This measure increases a two-year limit that has been in effect nearly a decade.

“By their service and their sacrifice, America’s newest combat veterans have earned this special eligibility period for VA’s world-class health care,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.

Star Community Newspaper
By Lynn Proctor Windle, Staff Writer

In the hours leading up to Pat Ahrens’ death, he waged a desperate attempt to draw attention to what he described as the indifferent way the Veterans Administration treats veterans with mental issues.

Ahrens died Saturday night at a Plano hospital from a heart attack, family members said Monday. Details leading up to Ahrens’ heart attack were not released.

His crusade against the Veteran Affairs hospital began immediately after the death of another veteran, a man whom he had met only days before at the Dallas VA Medical Center where they were both patients in the hospital’s psychiatric ward. Ahrens had found the body of Christopher Nicholas Demopoulos hanging from the second story balcony of a local hotel.

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