VA Appeal Backlog at 400,000

VA appeals backlog claims at 400,000!
But this is the worst part of all!

Noting the backlog of more than 400,000 appeals, he said,

"Many veterans will end up waiting at least six years just for the decision on their appeal. Veterans and their families deserve better."

Under the RAMP program, veterans can choose to withdraw their existing claim and transfer to two new "lanes" for a quicker decision.

Which means, if they do, the backlog of claims will suddenly decrease while the number of veterans waiting to have their claims approved did not change!
Read it here on Military Times

New VA Secretary Faces 400,000-Case Appeals Backlog, IT Delay

Inspiring National Veterans Wheelchair Games

National Veterans Wheelchair Games brings adaptive sports to Orlando
Orlando Sentinel
Patrick Connolly
August 1, 2018

Over 650 disabled military veterans, including some from Great Britain and Puerto Rico, are expected to compete in 21 events.

The National Veterans Wheelchair Games rolled into Orlando this week, bringing events ranging from wheelchair rugby to archery and table tennis.

The 38th games kicked off at the Orange County Convention Center on Monday with events happening through Saturday. Admission is free except for paid convention center parking.

Josh Burch, a Marine veteran from Virginia, is in his first year of playing wheelchair rugby. Wheelchair rugby isn’t exactly like the rugby other athletes play, he explained.

“It’s not really like rugby at all,” Burch said. “It’s more like basketball and catch.”

For the games, he’s on a team with Mason Symons, an Army veteran from Texas who has dreams of making it to the USA team. He said things can get heated sometimes.

“It’s intense, it’s combative,” Symons said. “It gets pretty brutal.”
read more here

VA finds 'deteriorating' conditions at DC hospital

This is what happens when the President decided that it was a good thing to privatize the VA and then appointed people to make sure that happened.

Too bad when people tried to warn about this, some just passed it off and wanted to "give him a chance" to pull it off!

He is finishing the job the others in Congress started a long time ago. Destroy the VA instead of honoring the fact that veterans, unlike civilians, prepaid for the care they need BY GETTING DISABLED IN THE FIRST PLACE SERVING THIS COUNTRY!

Memo: VA finds 'deteriorating' conditions at DC hospital
STARS AND STRIPES
By NIKKI WENTLING
Published: August 1, 2018

Since then, inspection reports from the Food and Drug Administration and the VA’s National Program Office for Sterile Processing have revealed ongoing problems. The reports, obtained by Stars and Stripes this spring, detailed instances of dirty syringe bottles, unsanitary conditions, rooms in disarray and staff and supply shortages that led to canceled procedures.

WASHINGTON – After being deemed high risk in January, the flagship Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington has continued to deteriorate in quality during the first six months of 2018.

The hospital was designated “critical” and its performance is under administrative review, including possible changes of leadership, according to a memorandum sent to the D.C. hospital July 17 from Carolyn Clancy, then executive in charge of the Veterans Health Administration. The memo was obtained Wednesday by Stars and Stripes.

“Unfortunately, we have not seen the amount of improvement desired over the past two quarters and now see benefit in utilizing additional measures to support the facility in stabilizing the hospital’s quality to the extent that it can be sustained,” Clancy wrote.

According to the memo, the hospital isn’t getting better, despite public assertions from VA officials over the past several months that problems there were being fixed.
read more here

Stop being absent from your own life!

Time to filter out the BS and fill up with something to actually work toward!

OK, you can tell what kind of mood I'm in right now. 

Frustrated does not even come close to wanting to get up on my roof and scream that it is time to stop being absent from your own life!

You found excuses because you looked for them.

You found other people to blame, because you looked for them.

You found whatever you wanted to find when you wanted to find it.

So when the hell will you find what you need to stop screwing around and get serious and #TakeBackYourLife from PTSD?

How many officers do you need to hear from? One this site, you've read about officers in every department of people who made it their job to do whatever it takes to save others.

HOW ABOUT YOU DO THE SAME FOR YOURSELF?

Fire Department Captain "I thought I was bulletproof"

First Responders and PTSD: Still waiting to just get over it? Pay attention! Your life is calling in sick. Time to #TakeBackYourLife

First responders can be haunted by close encounters with suffering and death

“I thought I was bulletproof. I thought nothing ever bothered me.”

Captain Rick Stack, a long-time North Attleboro firefighter, has been diagnosed with PTSD.

But beneath the aura of command he cultivated, invisible damage was webbing slowly outward. Stack didn’t know it yet, but the job was taking a toll — week after week, month after month, year after year. In time, his own suffering would break through the surface.

read more here