Armed Forces Family Aid Concert

This part of the story is true.

Armed Forces Family Aid Concert,’ April 29th – May 1st
Posted by Rick Amato Apr 26th 2011
A tremendously important story has gone virtually untold by the media, ignored by our political leaders, and unknown to the American public. Despite the extraordinarily high price they have paid, America’s severely wounded veterans are enduring humiliating financial hardships of epic proportions. Home evictions, utility shutoffs, car repossessions, and foreclosures are commonplace.

“The Armed Forces Family Aid Concert” seeks to benefit those families suffering severe financial hardship.

You can read the rest here Armed Forces Family Aid Concert because I won't post it. It is a blend of truth and spin.

Readers of this blog know that there has never been more done to help veterans with PTSD and it is due to congress finally getting involved. Funding for research and treatment has been at an all time high in the last six years, and that is a good thing, but the above article attempts to portray the congress as being AWOL on PTSD and military families.

There are families suffering right along with the veterans. There are foreclosures piling on more stress and lost incomes. There are over 100,000 claims tied up, turned down or sitting in a pile that belongs to a veteran suffering financially while he/she has to fight to have the claim approved. How do I know this? Because it happened to us.

We spent six years fighting the VA to have my husband's claim approved. Other than the money we needed to pay bills, the denials increased the stress because he felt even more betrayed and all of this added to what PTSD was doing to him and the family. Back in the 90's no one was talking about PTSD or any of this. Families like mine had nowhere to turn to for help so this is a good thing. What would be even better would be for the general public to have some clue about what is going on. This article points that fact out and rightly so. Knowing people care offers more than just support. It offers hope.

Congress has made it easier to prove a PTSD claim and they have also passed a Caregiver's bill to help families of disabled veterans. While this does not stop the suffering, it helps.

The problems families have are enormous but the biggest ones come between wound and compensation.