Program for TBI veterans saved for now with new VA funding

VA reform bill saves program for veterans with TBI
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: August 4, 2014

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday will sign into law landmark reform of the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs, but the stroke of his executive pen will also save an unrelated effort to rehabilitate veterans with traumatic brain injuries.

The massive $16.3-billion VA overhaul passed by Congress last week included a measure sponsored by Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., extending for three years a unique VA pilot program that provides assisted living and therapy to those with moderate to severe TBI.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that Obama will sign the bill during an event at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Over 300,000 servicemembers have suffered TBI since 2000, according to the Department of Defense, and the injuries have become a grim signature of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where improvised explosive devices were widely used to attack convoys and foot patrols.

As such injuries ballooned, Congress directed the VA to test out how assisted-living services could help veterans with rehabilitation, quality of life, and reintegration. In 2011, the department signed up 20 certified residential brain injury rehabilitation providers for services at 150 sites across the United States.
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