VA Claim backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009

The question is, where were you when this happened? I'm talking to you Republicans choosing to remain silent as the problem grew and grew and they waited, suffered waiting and their families suffered, as Bush cut VA funding and Nicholson returned funds unspent. Where were you when they were being turned away from the VA with PTSD and suicidal, and then ended up killing themselves? Where were you Republicans out there claiming to care so much about the troops? Why were you silent? Why didn't you complain when men like John Mc Cain were voting against veterans and what they needed? Did you even pay attention?

I'm talking to you Democrats out there. Those of you who were more interested in protesting the occupation of Iraq, claiming how much you wanted to save the lives of the troops at the same time you did not utter a single word about what the living and wounded were going thru right back here? You are supposed to be the people caring more about the veterans in this country. You allowed Bush to make any claims he wanted about taking care of the troops and being "grateful' for their service at the same time he was stabbing them in the back and then you complained because they didn't know the truth.

And yes, I'm talking to the rest of you out there all so patriotic waving the flag on Memorial Day as you do on Veterans Day. Where are you the rest of the year when they are suffering? Are any of you writing letters to President Obama or Congress? State after state are cutting back their VA State budgets because of the economical crisis. Where are these wounded veterans and disabled veterans suppose to go when they need medical care and financial compensation so they can live their lives? The same lives they were willing to lay down for this country? Ever think, I mean really think about them?

President Obama has a lot on his plate right now and while his intension is to take care of our veterans, having proven that already with his budget increase, this is a crisis for them and will just keep growing unless you decide that the veterans of this country are worthy of you attention.

Read the following article and then watch the video below. Wounded and Waiting will show you exactly what kind of men and women we're talking about. They are not just numbers. They are our countrymen, our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and neighbors.

Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million

Monday, 01 June 2009

By Jason Leopold

During the past four months, the Department of Veterans Affairs backlog of unfinished disability claims from grew by more than 100,000, adding to an already mountainous backlog that is now close to topping one million.

The VA's claims backlog, which includes all benefits claims and all appeals at the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on Jan. 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in four months.

The issue has become so dire that veterans now wait an average of six months to receive disability benefits and as long as four years for their appeals to be heard in cases where their benefits were denied.


Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said during a hearing in March that the VA is “almost criminally behind in processing claims.”
go here for more
Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million

Wounded And Waiting - watch more videos

Wounded and Waiting Videos Pulled Thanks to Sony

Wounded and Waiting troops let down by Sony Music.

by Chaplain Kathie

I've done over 20 videos on the wounded troops. Between Vietnam, the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan, the female veterans, their families and two videos on trauma survivors with PTSD from other causes, plus homeless veterans, there has been only one dispute that could not be resolved. The last time, it was two songs by Toby Keith. The production company must have changed their minds and the songs were allowed. The problem is, the damage was already done. I had to mute the music so that video could be watched. I had to pull the video after the dispute was redacted because I couldn't get the music to play again on YouTube. It was still up on Google.

Wounded and Waiting is covered under Creative Commons because these videos are free, for eductional use and are free to pass on. I spend a lot of my own money buying CD's looking for the right one for a video I'm making. Even more hours looking for the right pictures. This video covered all the wounds they come back with. Amputations, burns and especially PTSD.

The song Leave No Man Behind was from Black Hawk Down. It was the perfect song considering what the wounded of Iraq and Afghanistan have to go through when they come home. Apparently Sony Music or Hans Zimmer have a problem with it being used to make people feel the pain the veterans are going thru so they can do something about it. It's really a shame. Of all the songs I listened to, this one hit the mark head on with the haunting music.

If you are a veteran, especially a wounded one, I hope you think twice before buying music from Sony. Apparently when it comes to leaving you behind, they are the first in line. If they are afraid they are losing money because this video was a help to veterans and a promotion of their soundtrack, they just got it backwards. This is not a simple case of file sharing some songs, it's life saving for our veterans.

If the video helped you, I'm glad and it was worth the effort of putting it together. For anyone trying to find the information on it now, I'm sorry you won't be able to watch it on YouTube or Google. It was pulled from there too.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

I CAN'T RECALL WHEN THE WORD VETERAN... CAME TO MEAN WORTHLESS FREELOADER

Subject: I CAN'T RECALL WHEN THE WORD VETERAN... CAME TO MEAN WORTHLESS FREELOADER


TO ALL VETERANS FROM AGNES M "IRISH" BRESNAHAN US ARMY CAPTAIN SICG/MI 10 SEPTEMBER 1971 TO 10 JUNE 1977

T&P SC CHEMICAL EXPOSURE STATESIDE EFFECTIVE DATE 11 JUNE 1977 SITE OF CHEMICAL EXPOSURE FORT MCCLELLAN ALA, FORT RITCHIE MD AND FORT DRUM NY DIAGONESED AT WALTER REED MEDICAL CENTER 1973.


IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT ON TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2008... VETERANS ARE VISABLE AT THE POLLING STATIONS AS VETERANS... WEAR YOUR DOG TAGS, HATS, ETC... ALL OF US MEN AND WOMEN NEED TO SHOW THAT WE ARE VETERANS VOTING... VOTING FOR WHAT WE EARNED, VOTING THAT ALL VETERANS THEIR WIDOWS/WIDOWERS CHILDREN.. ALL ERAS.. RECEIVE THE PROPER MEDICAL TREATMENT AND DIGINITY OF KEEPING OUR OATH... THE US GOVERNMENT HAVE NOT KEPT THEIR PART OF THE OATH... INSTEAD DEIND EVEN BASIC MEDICAL CARE... TOO MANY OF US HAVE DIED KEEPING OUR OATH. ALL OF US WOULD PROUDLY WEAR THE MILITARY UNIFORM OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY AGAIN. WE LOVE OUR COUNTRY EVEN THOUGH THIS GOVERNMENT THOWS US AWAY.... PLEASE PLEASE... ALL BRANCHES ALL ERAS LET ANYONE WHO SEES YOU ON 4 NOVEMBER 2008 KNOWS YOU OFFERED YOUR LIFE FOR OUR COUNTRY....STAND PROUD....

I SALUTE YOU YOUR FAMILY AND CHILDREN .... AS WE WILL BE KNOWN AS THE NOBLE GENERATION.


WELCOME HOME SIMPER FI... VOTE


IRISH BRESNAHAN

VA takes 185 days this year to process a claim, last year it was 177 so what's going on?

In a post I did earlier today, the VA said they needed to higher "tech savvy" workers to speed up the time it takes to process a claim.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

VA 400,000 claim backlog causes search for "tech savvy workers"
Peake: VA needs young, tech-savvy workers
Still, it is taking an average of 185 days to process claims, two months longer than VA’s goal.

Sounds like a good idea until you consider this. Last year I did a video, Wounded and Waiting. I just looked back on that video because I knew there was a lot of data in it. The problem with the number of days it now takes to process a claim, is now longer than it was last year. According to a report on Army Times, it took 177 days to process an original claim and it took 657 days to process an appeal. Back then the congress was complaining about all of this. So why is it, it is now taking longer and no one is really screaming about any of this?

Does congress know what this puts the veterans through? Until a claim is approved, they are not counted on anything. This includes the checks for disability they need to live off of and pay their bills especially when their disability keeps them from getting a paycheck. It is taking longer now than last year? Are there any reporters out their paying attention to any of this or are they expecting the blog world to pay attention so they can just read about it and then take the easy way out?

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

More wounded, less doctors and nurses than during Desert Storm

Shortages could be hurting Army health care

By Laura Ungar - Gannett News Service
Posted : Saturday Jan 12, 2008 7:52:09 EST

Injured in a roadside blast in Iraq, Sgt. Gerald Cassidy was assigned to a new medical unit at Fort Knox, Ky., devoted to healing the wounds of war.

But instead of getting better, the brain-injured soldier from Westfield, Ind., was found dead in his barracks on Sept. 21. Preliminary reports show he may have been unconscious for days and dead for hours before someone checked on him.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., linked his death in part to inadequate staffing at the medical unit. Only about half of the positions in the unit were filled when Cassidy died. The Army is investigating the death and its cause, and three people have lost their jobs.

“By all indications, the enemy could not kill him, but our own government did,” Bayh told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Not intentionally, to be sure, but the end result apparently was the same.”

As more wounded soldiers return from war, critics say staff shortages and turnover have affected the quality of health care at Army posts across the nation.

Overall, the Army’s Medical Corps has downsized significantly since the Persian Gulf War in the 1990s, dropping from 5,400 to 4,300 physicians and from 4,600 to 3,400 nurses.

According to the Department of Defense, more than 29,000 service members have been wounded in action in Iraq or Afghanistan in the last six years, compared with fewer than 500 in Operation Desert Storm.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/army_doc_shortage_080114w/

This is what I've been screaming about since before the invasion of Iraq. No one was ready for any of them and they started to care too late for too many. I often wonder what would have been happening if the media didn't report on any of this. Then I wonder what could have been done if they reported on all of this sooner.

Watch wounded and waiting and see what this is doing to all of them.
PTSD Soldiers Wounded And Waiting
12 min - Aug 24, 2007 -
star(5.0,4)
(4 ratings)
And Waiting...The men and women we send into combat are wounded and waiting. Why? Why do they have to wait to have their wounds treated

Ty Ziegel update

Last night I finally had the chance to watch all of the program CNN did on our wounded warriors. At the end of the program they said Ty and his new wife were getting divorced.

As sad as Ty's story is, the fight he had to get what he wouldn't need if he didn't get wounded serving, the fact his brother is serving in the Marines as well, there is this love story coming to an end.

We know the divorce rate, especially with PTSD veterans is high, but we never stop to think about the added stress of having to fight the government to obtain what these veterans should have received without any delays at all.

To ask them to come home with no income for at least six months while they wait for a claim to work to the top of the pile, or worse, be turned down, is a disgrace. It's added stress on an already stressed out veteran and the family standing by their side.

They come back home more in this war that in others. The survival rate is 7 wounded for every 1 killed. They are surviving what would have killed them during the Vietnam war. Why is it that we can be so interested in saving their lives and so disinterested in what happens to them, what kind of life they will have or what kind of lives their families will have? It makes no sense at all to not take care of the ones saved. This should never be an issue whenever this country decides to commit men and women to a military action that will risk their lives and wound them. This should be one of the first things planed for and if things don't go as they should, this should be the first emergency supplemental funding request made. Why are they always last on the to do list?

Wounded vets getting run a round and it isn't rosy

Editorial in the Washington Post
'Frustratingly Slow'
Wounded veterans still are getting the runaround from their government.
Sunday, October 21, 2007; Page B06
ALL IT took was an article on The Post's front page for the family of a damaged veteran of the Iraqi war to get some desperately needed help. Federal officials, embarrassed by yet another story detailing the nation's callous treatment of its wounded, cut through the red tape. Troy and Michelle Turner of West Virginia are glad for the help, but we join them in wondering, "What about the others?" Thousands of men and women are losing out on needed care and benefits; that cries out for urgent action in overhauling the military's outdated system of treating its injured.
Days after The Post's Anne Hull and Dana Priest detailed the struggles of the former Army scout disabled by post-traumatic stress disorder, there were calls and visits from Washington, D.C. Mr. Turner's disability rating is being upped to 100 percent, care closer to home will be found and help is available to guide them through the labyrinth of regulations. Sadly, the Turners are not unique in the shabby way the country treats its military casualties. It's been eight months since The Post's investigation of Walter Reed Army Medical Center focused attention on the crisis in care facing those returning with physical and mental wounds from Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/20/AR2007102000981.html

It is really worse than this. There are now less service reps in the VA than there were in 2003.

Veterans groups maintain that the backlog amounts to official negligence. Since the launch of the Iraq war more than four years ago, the number of people charged with reviewing and approving veterans' disability claims has actually dropped. According to the American Federation of Government Employees, the VA employed 1,392 Veterans Service Representatives in June 2007 compared to 1,516 in January 2003.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39731

They also didn't plan on these veterans understanding what has been wrong with them for 30 years is because of PTSD and the fact they were wounded in service to this country.

148,000 Vietnam Vets sought help in last 18 months
In the past 18 months, 148,000 Vietnam veterans have gone to VA centers reporting symptoms of PTSD "30 years after the war," said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He recently visited El Paso.

I always hear a lot about how outreach work is so imporatant to our veterans. I always hear about how much the veterans of this country are supposed to mean to the people of this country. What I don't hear any of the elected ever say is that it's time for an emergency supplemental spending bill that will actually take care of all our wounded veterans. I never hear Bush say that all the mistakes he made in the past have been like an additional wound to our men and women serving this nation. I never heard any of the GOP who claim to be so much superior morally ask for forgiveness for the deplorable treatment our veterans received when they were in charge. I never once heard Larry Craig apologize for the way he acted toward them or how embarrassed he was over what he tried to do to them and almost got away with. I never once hear the Democrats apologize for not getting up in front of a microphone, starting an email chain about how the GOP betrayed the trust of our veterans when the GOP were in charge.

We heard a lot of talk from all of them over the words they used but we never hear them talk about what they have failed to do. You would think the wounded coming back and feeling as if they were not lucky to come back alive would matter more than words they are upset over.

Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com

www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

36 percent of veterans have at least one mental health issue

VA to spend $6.5M reviewing mental health care
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 7, 2007 15:52:32 EDT

The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a $6.5 million contract to evaluate its mental health services to Altarum Institute and The Rand/University of Pittsburgh Health Institute.
The two institutes will look at Veterans Health Administration services throughout the country, concentrating on services to veterans with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major-depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance-abuse issues.
The group will conduct surveys, review medical charts and interview patients to determine what works well and what could be done better — including making sure veterans have timely access to care.
VHA officials say 36 percent of the 1.5 million veterans enrolled in the VA health system have at least one mental health issue. Demands upon the mental health care system have increased greatly as troops have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, overwhelming the administrative system used to process claims as well as the medical staff that provides care.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/military_va_mentalhealth_070907w/

Wounded and Waiting video, Why do wounded veterans have to wait

Here are some facts. Not spin. Not what the reporters feel like repeating when they use figures that the DOD claims from time to time, but the cold, hard facts. From burns, to amputations, to suicides and PTSD. Why do they have to fight the wars we send them to fight and then fight us to have those wounds taken care of? It's my latest video. I just got tired of screaming that while the media seems so focused on the reported 99 suicides last year, they failed to mention what the VA said was really happening when they come home. We talk a good game of "supporting" them but when we allow any of this to happen to them, we prove we only talk about support.

Go to the bottom of this blog for Wounded And Waiting and ask yourself if you would wait or if you would be fine with being one of the 600,000 backlogged claims, or one of the discharged under "personality disorder" because you had PTSD and a combat wound? Would you be fine with the media putting out figures that are false and do not include a family member who committed suicide because they couldn't get the care they were promised? Would you be ok with any of this? Then why do we expect them to be?

Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com

www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington