This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veterans’ Affairs Department

  • Troops stepping up for mental health

    Just A Grunt sent us a link today from CNN in regards to the healthcare profession looking to returning troops to step into the mental healthcare field with help in Massachusetts from the State Department of Veterans’ Services;

    Born a year ago with funding from the Department of Veteran Services in Massachusetts, a program through the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology called Train Vets to Treat Vets has recently picked up steam. It has several goals: mentoring new veterans, providing services to at-risk and homeless veterans, and educating the public about ways they can help.

    “As the stigma (of seeking professional mental health treatment) breaks down more and more, and more veterans are willing to come into treatment, (the need) is just going to increase and increase,” said Robert Chester, 25, who served in the National Guard for six years and became a student at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.

    “That’s why we want to get more veterans into mental health, both to break down the stigma and get more clinicians out there.”

    It makes absolute sense, because who knows what the troops have been through in war better than the troops know?

    Since the program’s start, Chester has fielded e-mails every day from veterans who want to get involved. Six will enroll in the school’s fall class.

    Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology President Nick Covino says the idea for the program came from a Latino mental health program the school began about eight years ago.

    I just want to know why the Department of Veterans Affairs isn’t involved in it since they need more mental health clinicians than anyone else?

  • Cheap talk

    According to Stars & Stripes, Ric Shinseki and Leon Panetta made a joint appearance in front of their oversight committees; House Armed Services and House Veterans Affairs committees; to smile and wave away questions about why their clerks can’t talk to each other about veterans’ health records;

    “Collaboration and cooperation between VA and DOD have never been more important, and I think for the next two decades … this will be the work of the nation,” Shinseki said.

    The agencies represent the two largest bureaucracies in the country, in terms of personnel and funding.

    Panetta said the VA health care system is already “overwhelmed” with claims from troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and he expects problems to get worse as the Afghan war winds down and the military starts reducing its personnel numbers.

    Shinseki said he and Panetta have met regularly, sorting out ways to ease transition out of the military.

    Like I’ve said before, when I left the military in 1994, my records were sent to the VA after I turned them in at outprocessing and within a few months, I had appoints scheduled for me and jumped through the hoops to get my care finalized. So what the hell has changed, well, except that technology should have made it easier than the days that they sent actual paper records between agencies?

    I’m sure there are some critics out there with more knowledge of the problem than me, but to me this is just sloth on the part of bureaucrats when there used to be a completely acceptable system that worked admirably and now there’s not.

  • Shinseki: Backlog at DVA is good news

    Yes, you read that right, back during the last Administration a backlog of enrollment in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs meant incompetence and evidence that the Bush Administration didn’t care about veterans, But, now, Shinseki, in a Rick Maze piece at Army Times, sent to us by Chief Tango, says it’s good news that the backlog has grown.

    Appearing before the Veterans of Foreign Wars in an election-year address aimed at showing the best side of the Obama administration’s policies, Shinseki said the total inventory of veterans’ claims was 400,000 when the administration began and is about 880,000 today.

    The growth, he said, “is what happens when we increase access.” While it has meant some veterans are waiting longer for their benefits to start, “it was the right thing to do,” he said

    Really, the Obama Administration “increased access”? How exactly? If I’m not mistaken, the last expansion of access to VA benefits came from the Bush Administration and they had half of the backlog that the Obama Administration is currently dealing with.

    Of course, the Army Times doesn’t address that little fact. Yes, the Obama Administration is funding the DVA at a higher rate, but that’s only because they plan on pushing those of us on Tricare into the VA system and it’s so Brandon Friedman can tell tell me that this administration is expanding spending on veterans while Leon Panetta is actually jacking up our Tricare premiums, which, by the way, doubles on October 1st.

  • Veterans’ records found in home of dead VA clerk

    The Department of Veterans’ Affairs have notified 15 veterans that their records were found in the home of a deceased VA employee in Dayton, Ohio, according to the Dayton Daily News. Of course, the department claims that it doesn’t know why that the hundreds of pages were in the home of the recently passed clerk in early May. The veterans were only notified this last week;

    In his June 22 letter to Arnold, Glenn A. Costie, director of the Dayton VA Medical Center, said: “I was recently notified that VA medical records were found in the former residence of a deceased staff person. Records pertaining to you were among those found.”

    The letter did not identify the deceased staffer or describe the person’s job responsibilities.

    The letter informed Arnold that he could file a complaint with the VA to assert that his privacy rights had been violated. Costie also suggested that Arnold could take steps to protect himself against identity theft.

    “VA takes our obligation to honor and serve America’s veterans very seriously,” Costie wrote. “We believe it is important for you to be fully informed of any potential risk to you, and apologize for any inconvenience or concern this situation may cause.”

    Yeah, the VA takes their obligation seriously, so seriously they lose records and computers with Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on an almost monthly basis.

    I don’t use the VA, but they have my PII, so I have to subscribe to Lifelock at my own expense to combat their incompetence. On top of that, it takes weeks if not months to contact victims of missing information…time enough for criminals to take advantage of it before you even know your stuff is stolen.

  • Hamilton gets early release; vets angry

    Hamilton

    We talked about Michael Delos Hamilton when he was first arrested and again when he was sent to jail for 18 months and now they’re letting him out early, despite the fact that he bilked the VA out of tens of thousands of dollars for PTSD disability benefits from his single year of service in the early 60s. Benefits that should have gone to a legitimate recipient.

    Local veterans are more than a little angry at Hamilton’s early release according to the Jacksonville, North Carolina Daily News;

    “I am not pleased to hear that he’s getting out early,” said retired Master Sgt. John Cooney, adjutant for the MOPH Beirut Chapter who testified against Hamilton in his September trial. “I don’t know that he has learned his lesson and I don’t even know if he would have learned his lesson if he’d stayed in there the whole (16 months).”

    Maybe he wouldn’t have learned his lesson, but serving the whole term would have given others food for thought. I still can’t figure out why these phonies have no problem getting VA benefits while real injured veterans wait forever.

  • Yet another thing you can’t trust the VA to help you with

    Yeah, I know it’s a shocker, but it seems that fiduciaries that the VA recommends to help veterans who aren’t competent enough to manage their own funds have been ripping off those veterans they’re supposed to help, according to My San Antonio;

    Gambling addicts, psychiatric cases and convicted criminals are among the thieves who have been handed control of disabled veterans’ finances by the Veterans Affairs Department, a Hearst Newspapers investigation has found.

    For decades, theft and fraud have plagued the fiduciary program, in which the VA appoints a family member or a stranger to manage money for veterans whom the government considers incapacitated. The magnitude and pace of those thefts have increased, despite VA promises of reform. Three of the largest scams — ranging from about $900,000 to $2 million — each persisted for 10 years or more before being discovered.

    I guess that asking the DVA to recognize and filter out thieves is too much. After all, a fish doesn’t know it’s wet.

  • Sh!tbaggery: It’s Not Just for Junior Guys Any More

    TSO’s got his hands full right now dealing with Timmy “The Craven” Poe, so he sent me a link concerning one each William John Roy. As in CSM William John Roy, US Army. It looks to be worth mentioning.

    CSM Roy – what a guy! According to Roy, he saw Combat in Vietnam with MACV SOG as a combat medic. Was wounded twice, got 2 Purple Hearts, plus a Bronze Star while in ‘Nam. And he also served in Germany, Bosnia, and Afghanistan.

    Per CSM Roy, he got seriously hurt in a rocket/mortar attack near Jalalabad. But don’t worry too much. He applied to the VA for assistance. The VA looked at the paperwork he sent them, and came through for him – bigtime. They awarded him nearly $60k in disability and educational benefits.

    Then someone apparently took a closer look at his paperwork. And his claims began to fall apart.

    Seems that Roy had claimed to have served in combat in Vietnam. With MACV-SOG. In 1974. That’s odd – MACV-SOG was disbanded in 1972. And the Paris Peace Accords were signed in January 1973. Hmm.

    And one of the documents he submitted to the VA was a Purple Heart certificate signed by President Nixon. But it was dated 4 months after Nixon left office. Hmmmmm.

    A little more digging, and it turned out that Roy wasn’t involved in the incident in Jalalabad that he claimed injured him. More investigation showed Roy also appears to have been in Germany the whole time he claimed to have been in Vietnam. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. “Uh, Houston, we have a problem.”

    In a way, it’s too bad this guy wasn’t COL James “Bigamist” Johnson’s CSM. Those two would have made quite a pair, and it seems they deserve one another. Both appear to have been stupid enough to attempt to pull truly outrageous crap while simultaneously being arrogant enough to think they could get away with it. Maybe they were e-mail buddies. (smile)

    Roy was indicted on 6 June 2012 in US District Court in Los Angeles. He was charged with seven Federal offenses – one count of presenting false writings, three counts of making false statements, and three counts of theft. He now faces up to 57 years behind bars if convicted on all counts.

    No, Roy wasn’t indicted on Stolen Valor Act charges. He lives in California – which falls under the jurisdiction of the 9th Circus Clowns of Appeasement. Figures.

    But I guess I can live with that in Roy’s case. The Federal government tends to get a wee bit upset when it’s the victim of fraud, or when you steal from them. And when they’re a victim of fraud or theft, they usually hit back – hard.

    “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” You’d think a CSM would know that rather than having to find it out the hard way.

    Then again, you’d also think a CSM should be able to read an encyclopedia and a calender, too.

  • National Cemeteries and Caskets

    I ran across a story today that leaves me with decidedly mixed feelings.

    Here’s a summary: some years ago a World War II veteran – Lawrence Davis, Jr. – died in Florida. He apparently had no family willing to make funeral arrangements for him.

    As a World War II veteran, Davis was authorized to be buried in a National Cemetery. VA regulations and Federal law in effect then and today allowed the VA to bury him. But those same laws and regulations did not allow (or require) the VA to provide him a casket.

    So Davis was buried without a casket. In Florida, that’s apparently still allowed; I don’t know how common that is in other states. He was later honored, per the cemetery’s policy, at a periodic ceremony held to honor veterans who die and are buried with no family present.

    The story has sparked predictable outrage. As the cited article notes, a bill has been introduced in Congress (the Dignified Burial of Veterans Act of 2012) mandating the VA “review its burial standards” and authorizing the VA to purchase caskets (or urns) for all veterans buried in National Cemeteries.

    As I said, I have mixed feelings.

    Obviously, everyone – veterans and non-veterans alike – deserve a dignified burial. But is it really the Federal government’s responsibility to provide a casket for each and every veteran who chooses to be buried in a National Cemetery? And what is inherently disrespectful about burial sans casket?

    I’ve also got serious concerns about how the bill “fixing” this will be implemented and funded if passed. What will the standards be for such government-provided caskets – and what will they cost? (I kinda doubt they’ll end up being the proverbial old-time “pine box.”) And just what else in the VA budget will get cut to free up the funds to buy them? ‘Cause if you think the VA budget will be increased to fund this – well, in that case I happen to have a bridge I’d like to talk to you about selling . . . .

    As a Veteran, my heart tells me the bill proposed to “fix” this is a good thing. But as a believer in limited government – and a fiscal conservative – my head tells me this could be a really bad idea. And it also tells me that maybe we’re trying to “fix” a problem that isn’t really a problem at all.

    What say you all?