Montana Veteran Files VA Appeal Over Unqualified Doctor Evaluation

Mont. case could have implications for thousands of vets 
Great Falls Tribune
Eric Newhouse
May 15, 2015

But since the Montana Board of Psychologists concluded that the RBANS test wasn't sufficient to measure neurological impairment because of a TBI and that Bateen wasn't qualified to make neurological diagnoses, Del Negro argues that all vets diagnosed by Bateen ought to have their cases re-evaluated.

Gatlin studies for his classes at his home office.
Gatlin and his wife have been fighting the VA for last
two years while Gatlin has been a grad student, and
struggling to find a balance between school and his case.
(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/ABBY REDFERN)

WASHINGTON – Echoing a state licensing board, a VA appeals board here has ordered the Fort Harrison VA Hospital to provide a full neurological examination for a University of Montana graduate student with a traumatic brain injury.

It's a decision that could have implications for thousands of vets with TBI across the state and around the country — but the VA flatly says that won't happen.

The case involves Charles Gatlin, a Ranger-qualified former Army captain who suffered a brain injury after a large truck bomb knocked him unconscious near Kirkuk, Iraq, in 2006.

The Army put Gatlin through a three-day battery of neuropsychological tests in 2006, 2007 and 2009 and concluded he had suffered significant attention problems, processing speed deficits and persistent frontal lobe dysfunction.

After three years, the final test concluded that the injuries had stabilized and appeared to be permanent.

Retired from the Army with a 70 percent TBI disability rating, Gatlin and his wife, Ariana Del Negro, returned to Montana.

At the Fort Harrison VA hospital, staff psychologist Robert Bateen ran Gatlin through a short screening exam, concluded that his cognitive deficits were not significant and dropped his TBI disability rating to 10 percent, although he also added a 30 percent rating for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Gatlin appealed that ruling to the VA Board of Appeals two years ago, but also filed a complaint with the Montana Board of Psychologists, the state board in Helena that licenses psychologists, arguing that the screening assessment wasn't adequate to measure his cognitive ability; that Bateen wasn't qualified to make the assessment because he wasn't a neuropsychologist; and that Bateen incorrectly characterized the results of that test.
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Iraq War Veteran With TBI Sent to Psychologist?

Veteran files grievance, alleges VA psychologist practiced outside scope of expertise
Missoulian
By Martin Kidston
10 hours ago

A Purple Heart recipient from the Iraq War and his wife have filed a grievance against a doctor at the VA Medical Center at Fort Harrison, accusing him of practicing outside the scope of his expertise when evaluating the residual effects of traumatic brain injury.

On Nov. 8, 2013, a screening panel with the Montana Board of Psychologists found reasonable evidence that VA psychologist Robert Bateen caused retired U.S. Army Capt. Charles Gatlin unreasonable risk of mental harm and financial loss by using the incorrect panel of tools to assess the residuals of his traumatic brain injury.

The board also found cause that Bateen failed to consider Gatlin’s prior medical evaluations, and that Bateen erred by offering opinions in an area of psychology for which he was not qualified to practice.

“He’s a psychologist making neuropsychological observations,” Gatlin’s wife and caregiver, Ariana Del Negro, said last week. “It’s as if the VA sends a patient with cancer to an eye doctor for assessment.”

The state Board of Psychologists agreed in part when it found reasonable cause in November. The results are now being contested by Assistant U.S. Attorney Victoria Fancis, who’s representing Bateen before the Hearings Bureau with the Montana Department of Labor.
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Vet commits suicide at Montana VA hospital

Vet commits suicide at VA hospital campus
Independent Record
By SANJAY TALWANI
August 26, 2013

A 62-year-old man committed suicide Monday at the Veterans Affairs hospital campus at Fort Harrison.

“We did have a death here on campus,” VA Montana spokeswoman Terrie Casey said. “Obviously we’re saddened and concerned about the event.”

She said the deceased man was a veteran. She did not immediately know whether he was a patient receiving care at the facility.

Lewis and Clark County Coroner M.E. “Mickey” Nelson confirmed that the man died from a single gunshot wound in a restroom with the door closed. It was reported at about 12:30 p.m.
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Another National Guards solider dies in parachute incident

Soldier dies in training at Fort Harrison
By EVE BYRON Independent Record

A soldier training at Fort Harrison Sunday afternoon died from injuries received during parachute activities.

The soldier was with the West Virginia Army National Guard’s 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group. Major Tim Crowe, chief of public affairs for Montana at Fort Harrison, declined to provide details of the accident, including the name of the soldier, whether the incident involved a helicopter or airplane, or how the death occurred.


Read more: Soldier dies in training at Fort Harrison

Tester, military brainstorm on VA services

Senator Tester said it's time to think outside the box and that is exactly what has been needed all along. Between service and civilian life, they don't fit in either box and we let them down expecting them to just jump right in.

When they are in the service and wounded, physically with visible wounds and invisible ones, they are expected to just do with what the unwounded receive and no longer fit into that box.

The DOD and the VA have a habit of just plodding along with the same treatments and rules as if one size fits all, when they never did. Sure, you can train them all alike but they never all end up with the same talents or excel at the same tasks. Would you take a Marine with the skills of a sniper and put him in the motor pool just because he was trained like everyone else? Would you take a man trained to cook for hundreds and put him in a tank? None of that would make any sense at all so how is it they can manage to think then but not when the men and women they trained need them instead?

The rest of the country has been doing very well addressing PTSD head on when it comes to police, firefighters, emergency responders and survivors. There are trained people all over the country to respond to traumatic events and emergencies. Crisis Intervention, Community Emergency Response Teams, Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness teams, Stress Debriefers, you name it, they are trained and ready to go, but when it comes to the military and the VA, they only allow in certain types instead of highly trained, ready, able and willing to step in people from the communities.

I am a Chaplain, trained, certified and experienced to respond to traumatic events because I know what it looks like from the other side when no one responded to Vietnam veterans. I've been a Chaplain for a year, but have been doing the same work since 1982. Would the VA hire me as a Chaplain with all of this topping it off with my own insurance and licenses? No. I didn't get a degree from a seminary. What good does it do to take a person with very little life experience and put them on the front lines just because they went to the right school? If this worked, there would be no need for all the trainers traveling all over the country doing the training of responders in the field.

The troops are waiting for help and so are the veterans. It's time the DOD and the VA caught up to the rest of the country and got out of the box no one really fits in.

Tester, military brainstorm on VA services
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record - 08/22/09

FORT HARRISON - A group of military leaders and health experts joined Sen. Jon Tester Friday in a brainstorming session aimed at finding ways to help veterans transition out of the service, find jobs and better promote the VA's many services.

A member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, Tester, D-Mont., has held similar sessions since his election to office three years ago.

Among the results of the sessions are new vet centers in Kalispell and Great Falls, an increase to the mileage reimbursement for disabled vets, and more clinical resources to help treat veterans living in rural areas.

But Tester admitted Friday that work remains and the group spent more than an hour thinking "outside the box," broaching such ideas as educating families on post-war issues, reaching veterans on reservations, and expanding the VA system to include something of a hiring service for vets leaving the service.
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Tester, military brainstorm on VA services

Montana National Guard, Picking Up The Pieces

Picking up the Pieces (PDHRA)

This is the link to the video the Montana National Guard is showing. I've been posting about it for a couple of days now and it is very important that it not only be seen, but duplicated across the country.

Guard stresses PTSD symptoms at meetings
By ERIC NEWHOUSE • Tribune Projects Editor • May 21, 2008

LEWISTOWN — Montana's National Guard expanded its PTSD outreach efforts this week, hosting a series of 20 public meetings in armories across the state.


As part of its effort to familiarize the public — and veterans in particular — with post-traumatic stress disorder, it played a video produced at Fort Harrison entitled "Picking Up the Pieces." That had Tiffany Kolar wiping her eyes.

"It raised a lot of questions for me," Kolar said after Monday night's meeting. "I have a brother who served with the Idaho National Guard and who later committed suicide. Now I'm learning a lot about what must have been happening."

Kolar's husband is currently serving his second tour of duty in Iraq, and she and her mother-in-law need to understand the danger signs, she said.

"There were some things we didn't recognize the last time he came home, so we want to be better informed this time," said Darlene Kolar, his mother.

Only a handful of people showed up for the meeting here, but the Guard's personnel officer, Col. Jeff Ireland, said he was happy for any attention.

"If these meeting are able to help even one person, for all the time and effort we've expended, it's been worth it," Ireland said.

The Guard has sent out personal invitations and videos to 2,000 behavioral health care specialists in Montana, as well as to all the veterans' organizations, he said. Next on the list is a mass mailing to all ministers and religious leaders in the state, he added.

The meetings are the result of the suicide of Spec. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself in March 2007 after returning from combat with the 163rd Infantry. He was not able to handle weekend guard drills, and was given a less-than-honorable discharge as a result.

As a direct result, Ireland said, Montana is now providing longer mental health assessments after return from combat, strengthening its family support units, creating crisis readiness teams to investigate abnormal behavior, requiring a personal investigation by the adjutant general before any soldier is discharged less than honorably, and producing and promoting its own video. go here for more

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080521/NEWS01/805210309

The video interviews hit all the points. Getting the clergy involved, how it hits the members of the family trying to understand and be supportive, what goes on inside of the veteran, how it's not their fault. The beginning of the video, I have to say I was no impressed. The graphics moved too fast and blurred when on full screen but as soon as the interviews began, I knew they hit the mark. Get passed the beginning and pay attention to the value in the interviews. It's a shame more people did not attend this.