PTSD veterans have new battle now

PTSD veterans have new battle now
by
Chaplain Kathie

How long can you tell the truth, be doubted, yet somehow find the strength to keep telling the truth hoping tomorrow will be the day you're believed? How long can you suffer, knowing help is supposed to be there for you to heal and to be able to pay your bills? Bills that you could have paid if you were not suffering and able to work but the job you had was serving the country pile up while you keep telling the truth, keep trying to find the help you thought were promised to you. Not easy. Never has been. But now it will be easier to prove you're telling the truth.

"That is our sacred trust with all who serve – and it doesn’t end when their tour of duty does."

President Obama


Weekly Address: Help for Vets with PTSD
Posted by Jesse Lee on July 10, 2010 at 06:00 AM EDT
President Obama announces that the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by Secretary Shinseki, will begin making it easier for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to receive the benefits and treatment they need.


The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release July 10, 2010
Weekly Address: President Obama Announces Changes to Help Veterans with PTSD Receive the Benefits They Need

WASHINGTON – In this week’s address, President Barack Obama announced that on Monday the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by Secretary Shinseki, will begin to make it easier for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to receive the benefits they need. For many years, veterans with PTSD have been stymied in receiving benefits by requirements they produce evidence proving a specific event caused the PTSD. Streamlining this process will help not just the veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, but generations of veterans who have served and sacrificed for the country.


The audio and video of the address will be available online at http://www.whitehouse.gov/ at 6:00 am ET, Saturday, July 10, 2010.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
As Prepared for Delivery
Weekly Address
July 10, 2010

Last weekend, on the Fourth of July, Michelle and I welcomed some of our extraordinary military men and women and their families to the White House.

They were just like the thousands of active duty personnel and veterans I’ve met across this country and around the globe. Proud. Strong. Determined. Men and women with the courage to answer their country’s call, and the character to serve the United States of America.

Because of that service; because of the honor and heroism of our troops around the world; our people are safer, our nation is more secure, and we are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq by the end of August, completing a drawdown of more than 90,000 troops since last January.

Still, we are a nation at war. For the better part of a decade, our men and women in uniform have endured tour after tour in distant and dangerous places. Many have risked their lives. Many have given their lives. And as a grateful nation, humbled by their service, we can never honor these American heroes or their families enough.

Just as we have a solemn responsibility to train and equip our troops before we send them into harm’s way, we have a solemn responsibility to provide our veterans and wounded warriors with the care and benefits they’ve earned when they come home.

That is our sacred trust with all who serve – and it doesn’t end when their tour of duty does.

To keep that trust, we’re building a 21st century VA, increasing its budget, and ensuring the steady stream of funding it needs to support medical care for our veterans.

To help our veterans and their families pursue a college education, we’re funding and implementing the post-9/11 GI Bill.

To deliver better care in more places, we’re expanding and increasing VA health care, building new wounded warrior facilities, and adapting care to better meet the needs of female veterans.

To stand with those who sacrifice, we’ve dedicated new support for wounded warriors and the caregivers who put their lives on hold for a loved one’s long recovery.

And to do right by our vets, we’re working to prevent and end veteran homelessness – because in the United States of America, no one who served in our uniform should sleep on our streets.

We also know that for many of today’s troops and their families, the war doesn’t end when they come home.

Too many suffer from the signature injuries of today’s wars: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. And too few receive the screening and treatment they need.

Now, in past wars, this wasn’t something America always talked about. And as a result, our troops and their families often felt stigmatized or embarrassed when it came to seeking help.

Today, we’ve made it clear up and down the chain of command that folks should seek help if they need it. In fact, we’ve expanded mental health counseling and services for our vets.

But for years, many veterans with PTSD who have tried to seek benefits – veterans of today’s wars and earlier wars – have often found themselves stymied. They’ve been required to produce evidence proving that a specific event caused their PTSD. And that practice has kept the vast majority of those with PTSD who served in non-combat roles, but who still waged war, from getting the care they need.

Well, I don’t think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application. And I’ve met enough veterans to know that you don’t have to engage in a firefight to endure the trauma of war.

So we’re changing the way things are done.

On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by Secretary Ric Shinseki, will begin making it easier for a veteran with PTSD to get the benefits he or she needs.

This is a long-overdue step that will help veterans not just of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, but generations of their brave predecessors who proudly served and sacrificed in all our wars.

It’s a step that proves America will always be here for our veterans, just as they’ve been there for us. We won’t let them down. We take care of our own. And as long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, that’s what we’re going to keep doing. Thank you.

This has been a long, hard fought battle. While it has been about justice for hundreds of thousands of veterans from different generations, it is also for the veterans of tomorrow. It began when Vietnam veterans came home and started fighting for it. It will end when every man or woman serving this country is treated for what war does to them.

Many of the veterans I've been helping will now be able to have their claims approved and they have hope restored. For some, this comes too late to matter to them or their families. They have already died waiting for the help that never came. Yet there is hope the mistakes and mistreatment of our veterans will not be repeated.

The only problem is, there may not be enough help to be there for them. When veterans had PTSD but were refused help, they dropped out of the system and out of the lines waiting for help. They will begin to seek help again with this rule change and I doubt anyone is ready for what is to come.

There is one more thing this weekly address by President Obama did. It managed to get the media to pay attention. Almost every newspaper across the country has something to say about PTSD and I bet that reporters will be looking for stories this week about veterans and PTSD.

Just some of the headlines

Expanding PTSD benefits is the right call Washington Post
New Regulations May Ease Vets With PTSD NPR
Rules changes help vets The News-Press
New rules go into effect today for PTSD claims Kansas City Star
Vets to get post-traumatic stress help KVOA Tucson News
New rules give veterans easier path to disability benefits Dayton Daily News


This is a wonderful thing and a great step in raising awareness but the interest will be replaced by the next celebrity scandal, so savor the focus for now. Maybe this may even get communities to finally step up and help? Maybe a family will begin to understand their veteran was telling the truth all along and the VA was wrong? Maybe a family on the verge of falling apart will find another glimmer of hope that things will get better?

There will be floods of veterans entering into the system again, trying to finally find the justice they have been denied and get the help they've needed all along. Yet all these years between the traumas of combat and the rest of what life has done, will take a long time to recover from. The good news is, it has begun and this is a new battle they have a chance of winning.

UPDATE
Looks as if my fears were well founded.....

VA expects no claims spike under new PTSD rules

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jul 12, 2010 14:55:42 EDT

Veterans Affairs Department officials who are lowering the bar for veterans to receive benefits related to post-traumatic stress disorder say they don’t expect more people to try to jump over it.

But VA may be underestimating a potential flood of claims that could result from an Obama administration decision to make it far easier for veterans who served in noncombat jobs to prove their mental health issues are service-connected.

Final rules are expected to be published in Tuesday’s Federal Register, and will apply to any PTSD-related claim filed beginning Tuesday or that is pending before VA, including those under appeal at any step in the process. As a result, retroactive benefits claims are possible for some veterans, because the effective date for benefits is the date a claim is filed.

Veterans whose PTSD claims were denied will have to reapply, with their benefits effective from the day of the claim.
go here for more
VA expects no claims spike under new PTSD rules