VA says PTSD claims up 125%

VA says PTSD claims up 125%
December 18, 2010 posted by Chaplain Kathie
This is just the beginning. You may think that nine years after troops were sent into Afghanistan that this would be close to the end but then you’d have to think that all other veterans had been taken care of. The fact is, they haven’t been. There were many Vietnam veterans unaware of what was “wrong” with them along with many more wanting nothing to do with the VA. They had heard horror stories about claims being denied leading them to believe they would be subjecting themselves to even more suffering turning to the government they no longer trusted. All of this topped off with the stigma hanging over their heads of being labeled as a “mental cases” or “crazy Nam vet” not worth much at all. It has taken over 40 years to make up for one year of their lives in hell yet there are many more who have not gotten the message yet that help and hope is waiting for them.
The other issue is that they know they will have to wait in a very long, ever growing, line. They will stand behind a quarter of a million men and women waiting over 125 days just to be told if their claim is approved or not. Most of the time when it is finally approved, they do not receive the 100% for a service connected disability like PTSD preventing them from working. They have to fight for the rest of the percentage they should be entitled to. Others will wait until their claim works to the top of the pile only to be informed their claim has been denied or more paperwork is needed to be done.
PTSD claims alone have increased 125% and there have been 200,000 new Agent Orange-related claims, only 30,000 of which have been decided, the department said.
New claims flow into the sea of other claims from other groups of veterans because when men and women were sent into combat, no one thought to make sure the VA was ready for the increase in need war would create.

Veterans Affairs faces daunting job of reducing medical claims backlog
From Jennifer Rizzo, CNN National Security Producer
December 17, 2010 11:20 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A quarter-million medical claims have been in the system for 125-plus days, official says
Secretary Shinsheki had vowed to eliminate that delay time by year’s end
Changes in guidelines contributed to a higher number of claims
Washington (CNN) — Veteran claims for medical benefits are still piled high at the Veterans Affairs Department, despite a major push from the secretary of the department for quicker claims processing.
There are a quarter of a million claims in the system that have not been assessed within 125 days of being filed, according to Mike Walcoff, acting under secretary for benefits. Backlogged claims amount to more than one-third of the cases in the system, a similar ratio to last year.
Veterans Affairs faces daunting job of reducing medical claims backlog

While they wait, bills are not paid if they are unable to work. This adds to the long list of symptoms PTSD comes with. Depression is part of PTSD. Waiting month after month to hear if their service will be honored or not feeds depression along with paranoia because they know what the truth is and justice would not allow them to suffer instead of being taken care of. They see their families suffer because they can no longer provide for them. This builds all of the other symptoms of PTSD as they feel their lives are being threatened while watching it all fall apart.
In combat, the only safe emotion is anger. When PTSD takes over, that is the strongest emotion allowed to come out. The extra battle of fighting the VA feeds anger at the same time it robs them of hope. Advocates tell them the sooner they get treated the better but what we don’t tell them is they will go through hell to get treated. We don’t tell them that while they are suffering, seeing it all turn to crap, they will have to face months, if not years, of fighting the VA to get it. We won’t tell them that getting the help they need may take longer than the reason they need help in the first place.
For Vietnam veterans, most of them served 12 months overseas. One year in hell caused a lifetime of suffering in far too many. According to a 1978 publication from the Disabled American Veterans’ study, Readjustment Problems Among Vietnam Veterans by Jim Goodwin Psy.D, there were well known issues that have since been forgotten as if none of these studies had ever been published. While veterans wait, millions are wasted on repeating what was already known. By 1978 there were 500,000 Vietnam veterans suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder even though the VA had no yet accepted the term. These men and many female veterans ended up fighting to heal at the same time they spent years trying to get the VA to help them heal, which made it all worse.
Trauma is Greek meaning “wound” and it was used because PTSD comes from an outside force after exposure to life threatening events. It really means a wound to a person’s emotional part of their brain caused by the stressful situations creating disorder. In other words, had they lived without the traumas of combat, or in the case of civilians without exposure to other causes, they would not be suffering. But the process of filing claims with the VA and then waiting for their claims to be approved adds more trauma into their lives instead of easing their already wounded minds. If help was waiting for them there would have been less chronically ill lacking the ability to support themselves. It all gets worse as time goes by because what happens in their lives adds to it. The last thing they need is a prolonged battle with the VA.

read more here
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/12/18/va-says-ptsd-claims-up-125/