VA Marks 85 Years

Normally something like this would present a hopeful moment but after tracking all that has gone wrong for our veterans all these years, I'm left to wonder what they are putting their money into. All these billions over all these years, especially in mental health and PTSD, all the studies, research, testing and we have ended up with a suicide rate going up every year along with everything else the veterans have had to deal with once they were supposed to stop worrying about their lives. I keep reading about this study and that study, remembering I read the same research being done thirty years ago. I keep reading they have done this, they have done that and end up finding out that their expensive this's and that's have done no good at all.

We read about the thousands of veterans calling into the Suicide Prevention Hotline but never manage to look at what the numbers are really telling us. How can it be a good thing that thousands of veterans have been so mistreated they would think of taking their own lives instead of being assured their lives mattered enough? That the VA was finally able to figure out why some came home with the war trapped inside of them and they were addressing it seriously? That research would not be funded over and over and over again after researchers have blown past research and it turned into a bunch of crap? When will they get this right? I get angry waiting because they keep dying when they should never have to face the choice to stay alive or die by their own hands.

When the VA releases a report that they know what I know then I'll be impressed. Considering I do not have anything more than a lot of years with them and a hell of a lot of common sense, but managed to figure it out, they should have a long, long time ago. The problem is what I know does not have a price tag, does not help any pharmaceutical corporation nor does it put more of them in their graves.

VA Marks 85 Years of "Discovery, Innovation and Advancement"
Researchers Have Brought Hope to Generations

WASHINGTON (April 22, 2010) - Eighty-five years of enriching the lives
of Veterans and all Americans through top-notch medical research will be
spotlighted April 26-30 when the Department of Veterans Affairs
celebrates National VA Research Week.

On April 22, Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs W. Scott Gould was
joined by disability advocate Lee Woodruff and country music star - and
Iraq and Afghanistan vet - Stephen Cochran at VA's Central Office in
Washington to kick off the official 85th birthday party for the
Department's research program.

"The rich history of accomplishment by VA researchers has improved
Veterans' lives and advanced the practice of medicine throughout the
country," said Gould. "The innovative VA researchers who turn so many
hopes into realities are truly national treasures."

VA, which has the largest integrated health care system in the country,
also has one of the largest medical research programs. This year,
nearly 3,400 researchers will work on more than 2,300 projects, funded
by nearly $1.9 billion.

VA's research program was recently in the news when the prestigious New
England Journal of Medicine published the results April 16 of a study by
VA's Albert Lo of Providence, R.I., to use robotics to improve the
recovery of stroke victims with impaired use of their arms and hands.

Gould noted the most recent space shuttle flight on April 5 carried to
the international space station a VA research project to study the
impact of aging on the human immune system. The study is overseen by
Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford, a VA researcher in San Francisco and a former
scientist-astronaut who flew on the space shuttle in 1991.

"From the development of effective therapies for tuberculosis and
implantable cardiac pacemakers, to the first successful liver transplant
and the nicotine patch, VA's trail-blazing research accomplishments are
a source of great pride to our Department and the nation," Gould added.

In 1977, VA researcher Rosalind Yalow was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Medicine for developing techniques that measure substances in the blood
with great accuracy. Her work brought about "a revolution in biological
and medical research," according to the Nobel Committee.

Eighteen years before, in 1959, Dr. William Oldendorf, a VA researcher
in Los Angeles, built a unique device to measure blood flow in the brain
with only $3,000. He went on to create something even more remarkable
-- a prototype for the first computerized tomography (CT) scanner.

"Examples of this dedication and advancement are not limited to
history," said Gould. "Today's committed VA researchers are focusing on
traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, post-deployment
health, womens health and a host of other issues key to the well-being
of our Veterans."