VA official to clinics: Stop gaming the system. Thank you Larry Scott

VA official to clinics: Stop gaming the system

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jul 12, 2010 13:38:45 EDT

After years of complaints from veterans who say they aren’t getting VA medical appointments within 30 days even if Veterans Affairs Department records show they are, a top VA official sent out a memo asking employees to quit “gaming” the system.

“It has come to my attention that, in order to improve scores on assorted access measures, certain facilities have adopted use of inappropriate scheduling practices sometimes referred to as ‘gaming strategies,’ ” wrote William Schoenhard, VA’s deputy undersecretary for health for operations and management, in the April 26 memo.

The “gaming” came after VA required its employees to ensure patients were given initial appointments within 30 days of entering the VA system. Instead, several clinics came up with ways to make it look as if the veterans had canceled their appointments or hadn’t asked for one until within 30 days of when the appointment was made.

“As we strive to improve access to our veterans, we must ensure in fact that improvement does not focus or rely on workarounds,” Schoenhard wrote. “Workarounds may mask the symptoms of poor access and, although they may aid in meeting performance measures, they do not serve our veterans.”

The memo, first reported by Larry Scott of VAWatchdog.org, comes in the wake of exceptional gains in reducing appointment waiting times announced by VA officials.
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VA official to clinics: Stop gaming the system

Female shooter killed herself, five others in workplace attack

Police: Shooter killed herself, five others in workplace attack

[Updated 2:12 p.m., July 12] A former employee shot and killed five people at a business Monday in Albuquerque before turning the gun on herself, New Mexico authorities said.

Police said officers responded to a 911 call at 9:26 a.m. (11:26 a.m. ET) that multiple shots had been fired. When officers entered the building, they found a total of 10 people shot - four were dead, including a woman believed to be the shooter, officials said.

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Two people have since died as a result of gunshot wounds, two are in stable condition and two others are receiving emergency medical attention, police said.

"We believe this incident to be a domestic-violence workplace situation," Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said.
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Shooter killed herself, five others in workplace attack

Twilight series, Harry Potter and Monty Python defeat Westboro Baptist protests against heroes

Counterprotests Drown Out Westboro
July 12, 2010
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Protests at two Arlington churches organized by Westboro Baptist Church on Sunday morning were drowned out by more than 100 counterprotesters who rebuked the controversial group.

About a dozen members of Westboro Baptist Church picketed at Fielder Road Baptist Church and later at Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, two of four North Texas religious institutions they planned to visit Sunday. Most of the group's members were children related to Fred Phelps, the church leader, who was not there. The group has gained notoriety for protesting at military funerals and alleging that U.S. Soldiers' deaths are God's punishment for America's acceptance of homosexuality.

At both Arlington events, Westboro members were outmatched more than 10-to-1 by counterprotesters, many of whom opted for irreverence over anger as their weapon against the Topeka, Kan., group's message.

Westboro members' signs included: "Your Pastor is a Liar," "You Hate God," "God Hates Israel" and "Pray For More Dead Soldiers."

Some of the signs from counterprotesters were: "God Hates Signs," "I Love Pie" and "Cheerios Lowers Your Cholesterol." Counterprotesters also held signs featuring pop culture references including the Twilight series, Harry Potter and Monty Python.
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Counterprotests Drown Out Westboro

PTSD veterans have new battle now

PTSD veterans have new battle now
by
Chaplain Kathie

How long can you tell the truth, be doubted, yet somehow find the strength to keep telling the truth hoping tomorrow will be the day you're believed? How long can you suffer, knowing help is supposed to be there for you to heal and to be able to pay your bills? Bills that you could have paid if you were not suffering and able to work but the job you had was serving the country pile up while you keep telling the truth, keep trying to find the help you thought were promised to you. Not easy. Never has been. But now it will be easier to prove you're telling the truth.

"That is our sacred trust with all who serve – and it doesn’t end when their tour of duty does."

President Obama


Weekly Address: Help for Vets with PTSD
Posted by Jesse Lee on July 10, 2010 at 06:00 AM EDT
President Obama announces that the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by Secretary Shinseki, will begin making it easier for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to receive the benefits and treatment they need.


The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release July 10, 2010
Weekly Address: President Obama Announces Changes to Help Veterans with PTSD Receive the Benefits They Need

WASHINGTON – In this week’s address, President Barack Obama announced that on Monday the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by Secretary Shinseki, will begin to make it easier for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to receive the benefits they need. For many years, veterans with PTSD have been stymied in receiving benefits by requirements they produce evidence proving a specific event caused the PTSD. Streamlining this process will help not just the veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, but generations of veterans who have served and sacrificed for the country.


The audio and video of the address will be available online at http://www.whitehouse.gov/ at 6:00 am ET, Saturday, July 10, 2010.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
As Prepared for Delivery
Weekly Address
July 10, 2010

Last weekend, on the Fourth of July, Michelle and I welcomed some of our extraordinary military men and women and their families to the White House.

They were just like the thousands of active duty personnel and veterans I’ve met across this country and around the globe. Proud. Strong. Determined. Men and women with the courage to answer their country’s call, and the character to serve the United States of America.

Because of that service; because of the honor and heroism of our troops around the world; our people are safer, our nation is more secure, and we are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq by the end of August, completing a drawdown of more than 90,000 troops since last January.

Still, we are a nation at war. For the better part of a decade, our men and women in uniform have endured tour after tour in distant and dangerous places. Many have risked their lives. Many have given their lives. And as a grateful nation, humbled by their service, we can never honor these American heroes or their families enough.

Just as we have a solemn responsibility to train and equip our troops before we send them into harm’s way, we have a solemn responsibility to provide our veterans and wounded warriors with the care and benefits they’ve earned when they come home.

That is our sacred trust with all who serve – and it doesn’t end when their tour of duty does.

To keep that trust, we’re building a 21st century VA, increasing its budget, and ensuring the steady stream of funding it needs to support medical care for our veterans.

To help our veterans and their families pursue a college education, we’re funding and implementing the post-9/11 GI Bill.

To deliver better care in more places, we’re expanding and increasing VA health care, building new wounded warrior facilities, and adapting care to better meet the needs of female veterans.

To stand with those who sacrifice, we’ve dedicated new support for wounded warriors and the caregivers who put their lives on hold for a loved one’s long recovery.

And to do right by our vets, we’re working to prevent and end veteran homelessness – because in the United States of America, no one who served in our uniform should sleep on our streets.

We also know that for many of today’s troops and their families, the war doesn’t end when they come home.

Too many suffer from the signature injuries of today’s wars: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. And too few receive the screening and treatment they need.

Now, in past wars, this wasn’t something America always talked about. And as a result, our troops and their families often felt stigmatized or embarrassed when it came to seeking help.

Today, we’ve made it clear up and down the chain of command that folks should seek help if they need it. In fact, we’ve expanded mental health counseling and services for our vets.

But for years, many veterans with PTSD who have tried to seek benefits – veterans of today’s wars and earlier wars – have often found themselves stymied. They’ve been required to produce evidence proving that a specific event caused their PTSD. And that practice has kept the vast majority of those with PTSD who served in non-combat roles, but who still waged war, from getting the care they need.

Well, I don’t think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application. And I’ve met enough veterans to know that you don’t have to engage in a firefight to endure the trauma of war.

So we’re changing the way things are done.

On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by Secretary Ric Shinseki, will begin making it easier for a veteran with PTSD to get the benefits he or she needs.

This is a long-overdue step that will help veterans not just of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, but generations of their brave predecessors who proudly served and sacrificed in all our wars.

It’s a step that proves America will always be here for our veterans, just as they’ve been there for us. We won’t let them down. We take care of our own. And as long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, that’s what we’re going to keep doing. Thank you.

This has been a long, hard fought battle. While it has been about justice for hundreds of thousands of veterans from different generations, it is also for the veterans of tomorrow. It began when Vietnam veterans came home and started fighting for it. It will end when every man or woman serving this country is treated for what war does to them.

Many of the veterans I've been helping will now be able to have their claims approved and they have hope restored. For some, this comes too late to matter to them or their families. They have already died waiting for the help that never came. Yet there is hope the mistakes and mistreatment of our veterans will not be repeated.

The only problem is, there may not be enough help to be there for them. When veterans had PTSD but were refused help, they dropped out of the system and out of the lines waiting for help. They will begin to seek help again with this rule change and I doubt anyone is ready for what is to come.

There is one more thing this weekly address by President Obama did. It managed to get the media to pay attention. Almost every newspaper across the country has something to say about PTSD and I bet that reporters will be looking for stories this week about veterans and PTSD.

Just some of the headlines

Expanding PTSD benefits is the right call Washington Post
New Regulations May Ease Vets With PTSD NPR
Rules changes help vets The News-Press
New rules go into effect today for PTSD claims Kansas City Star
Vets to get post-traumatic stress help KVOA Tucson News
New rules give veterans easier path to disability benefits Dayton Daily News


This is a wonderful thing and a great step in raising awareness but the interest will be replaced by the next celebrity scandal, so savor the focus for now. Maybe this may even get communities to finally step up and help? Maybe a family will begin to understand their veteran was telling the truth all along and the VA was wrong? Maybe a family on the verge of falling apart will find another glimmer of hope that things will get better?

There will be floods of veterans entering into the system again, trying to finally find the justice they have been denied and get the help they've needed all along. Yet all these years between the traumas of combat and the rest of what life has done, will take a long time to recover from. The good news is, it has begun and this is a new battle they have a chance of winning.

UPDATE
Looks as if my fears were well founded.....

VA expects no claims spike under new PTSD rules

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jul 12, 2010 14:55:42 EDT

Veterans Affairs Department officials who are lowering the bar for veterans to receive benefits related to post-traumatic stress disorder say they don’t expect more people to try to jump over it.

But VA may be underestimating a potential flood of claims that could result from an Obama administration decision to make it far easier for veterans who served in noncombat jobs to prove their mental health issues are service-connected.

Final rules are expected to be published in Tuesday’s Federal Register, and will apply to any PTSD-related claim filed beginning Tuesday or that is pending before VA, including those under appeal at any step in the process. As a result, retroactive benefits claims are possible for some veterans, because the effective date for benefits is the date a claim is filed.

Veterans whose PTSD claims were denied will have to reapply, with their benefits effective from the day of the claim.
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VA expects no claims spike under new PTSD rules

Marine Mom Forced To Choose Between Injured Son, Job

The law allows family members of injured service members up to 26 weeks unpaid leave to care for their loved one.

This is something every injured serviceman or woman's family needs to know. They do have rights under the law to protect their jobs. This is also something every parent should pay attention to. Think of how much you help your own adult kids. Getting them through college, supporting them when they don't make enough money on their jobs or when they lose the jobs. Helping them make car payments and insurance premiums. What average people are willing to do for their 20 something offspring's is astonishing but then add in when they are in the military and ended up wounded serving this country.

IED blasts have blown off limbs, bullets hit brains and other body parts and fires have burnt off skin. Add in the fear these parents have to go through when their kids are deployed and then the fear of the unknown when they are able to survive but then having to worry about keeping their jobs and paying their bills. It is a story that is repeated over and over again across the country.

Marine Mom Forced To Choose Between Injured Son, Job
By Nicole Ferguson

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. – A Hopkinsville Marine mom said she was given an ultimatum in June. She could leave her injured son's bedside or lose her job.

"Before this happened I'd only missed a one day in over a year's time, and that was the day they put my mother on life support," said Susan Powell, a CNA at Western State Hospital. "I'd work overtime, never called in, so I just never thought they'd tell me my job was at risk."

On May 24, her 21-year-old son, Lance Corporal Franklin Powell, stepped on an IED in Afghanistan. Doctors determined much of the young Marine's leg would need to be amputated.

Powell said Western State Hospital had no problems letting her go to her son's bedside at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda Maryland on May 30.

The problems began a week into her second trip beginning June 16.

"They told me if I couldn't come back by Friday to work, my job would be terminated," said Powell of the phone call she received from Crown Services, a corporate office of Western State Hospital. "Once my situation allowed, I could come back and reapply."
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http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=12788050

Sgt. Rafael Peralta's brother says "I have big shoes to fill" as he becomes a Marine

Marine hero's brother makes good on his promise

By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
Updated: 4:36 AM 7/12/2010

Reporting from Camp Pendleton-- At his brother's funeral nearly six years ago, Ricardo Peralta made him a promise: He would join the Marine Corps and carry on in his example.

On Friday, Peralta, now 19, fulfilled that promise as he graduated from the school of infantry.

He will now report to a battalion in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and, like his brother, probably deploy to a war zone as an infantry "grunt."

"I have big shoes to fill," Peralta, a Marine private first class, said quietly.

His brother, Sgt. Rafael Peralta, was killed at age 25 during the battle for Fallouja, Iraq, in November 2004. He is revered by the Marine Corps as one of the true heroes of the long battle in Iraq.

His story is told to every recruit at boot camp in San Diego — how he saved the lives of fellow Marines by smothering an enemy grenade with his body. Marine brass, famously stingy in recommending battle citations, nominated him for the Medal of Honor.
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Marine hero brother makes good on his promise

DoD and VA Need for Partnerships, Warns NAMI Convention

Ask just about any group out here in the real world and they will agree with this. The VA and the DOD cannot do it alone. Ask any expert and they will tell you that there is a deep need for clergy to get involved as well. The biggest problem is, getting from here to where we need to be.

Military and Veterans Mental Health: State Budget Crises Hurt DoD and VA Need for Partnerships, Warns NAMI Convention


Download image WASHINGTON, July 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- American troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and other veterans cannot depend solely on the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) for mental health care—even though the civilian mental health care system is in crisis, according to the annual convention of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) held this past week.


"The VA and DoD can't do it alone. We need to rely on community providers," declared Jon Towers, senior policy advisor on the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs at a symposium broadcast live on C-SPAN.

In the opening speech at the 2010 NAMI Convention, U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy warned, "Every day in America, our military veterans are being held behind enemy lines" because of the nation's "Byzantine mental health system."

"By changing the mental health system for veterans, we will change it for all of us," Kennedy said.

"We're only going to see great progress when the civilian community starts paying attention," said Tom Tarantino, legislative associate for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) in the July 2 symposium.

"This shouldn't be a DoD-VA dialogue, but a national dialogue," said the Army Surgeon General's special assistant for mental health, Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, M.D., who called for a "needs assessment" in local communities to identify duplications and gaps in efforts.
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State Budget Crises Hurt DoD and VA Need for Partnerships

"Tea Party" protest at women veterans event?

In the words of one of them,,,this was just "too important to pass up." but when you think that taxes not only pay for war, they pay for the men and women we send as well, this is really sick. Too important for who? Some people to show up and say they don't care about anyone but themselves? Too important for the oblivious ignoring what this even was for? Unable to notice that the government is finally trying to take care of our veterans? This should prove once and for all that when it comes to politics, veterans are used as part of a game and it is disgraceful. They should have been paying attention to what has been happening to the veterans this even was about! Congratulations to the people who said they wouldn't protest this event. They not only showed due respect to the female veterans, they knew this was too important to the female veterans.

Tea party protesters picket Pittsburg women's veteran fair
By Doug Jastrow
Contra Costa Times

PITTSBURG — When three Democratic congressmen planned to lead an information fair to promote health and financial services for female veterans of the U.S. military, tea party organizers were presented with a problem: How do you endorse an event while at the same time protest its hosts?

The answer turned out to be a mixed message.

About a dozen protesters spent hours Saturday outside the event at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg holding signs both condemning the three congressmen and expressing support for female military veterans. Many who attended said they never noticed the small protest as they entered the event.

Once inside, attendees had the opportunity to speak with U.S. Reps. George Miller, Jerry McNerney and John Garamendi, all Democrats, about a wide variety of veteran issues. The fair also provided several workshops and vendor booths designed to assist female veterans as they transition to civilian life.

Jill Price, a tea party organizer, said it was difficult to rally support for a protest. She contacted more than 400 people on her mailing list but said, because of the nature of the event, enthusiasm was low. Price described her group as pro-military.

"I really don't mind standing alone," the Discovery Bay resident said, stating the chance to confront government officials who fail to properly represent the will of the people was too important to pass up.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15486489?source=rss

Georgia State Trooper on the job even on day off

Thursday July 8, 2010
No Days Off - ‘Morning Express’

Georgia State Trooper Darryl Benton is being hailed as a local hero after foiling a robbery on his day off. According to 'Morning Express' anchor Natasha Curry, "The trooper was out with his family when he noticed a man running behind a group of teenagers." When the trooper stopped his car to check it out, he realized that the man had just been robbed. "So what did he do?" asks Curry, "He chased the teens down and made them hand over the goods."
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No Days Off

Top Army generals fly to Pasco to apologize to soldier's grieving father

Top Army generals fly to Pasco to apologize to soldier's grieving father
By Erin Sullivan, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, July 10, 2010



DADE CITY — Four of the Army's top officers left the Pentagon on a jet Thursday morning and headed to Florida to tell a grieving man they were sorry.

The generals — Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff; Colleen L. McGuire, provost marshal general and the Army's highest ranking military police officer; John F. Mulholland Jr., commander of Special Forces; and Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general — arrived at Mike Murburg's rural, 5-acre ranch in the tiny community of Darby in full uniform. Murburg, drenched in sweat, worked outside on his tractor until they showed up. He showered quickly, but did not dress up.

Murburg, a lawyer, had been fighting for this — for a response, for answers — for two years. In June 2008, his 20-year-old son Norman "Ehren" Murburg III died during a Green Beret training exercise near Fort Bragg, N.C. At first, the Army said Ehren died from being bitten on his left hand by a 39-inch water moccasin, which was found near the site, its venom sacks empty. Murburg was shown photos of the snake. He didn't believe it. Ehren, who was an anthropology major at the University of Florida before joining the Army, grew up hunting and fishing. He knew about snakes. When Murburg visited Fort Bragg days after Ehren's death, he said many on site said they thought the death was related to the record-breaking heat wave.
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Top Army generals fly to Pasco to apologize