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

Category: Veterans’ Affairs Department

  • Alex Horton slays the PTSD dragon

    Our drinking buddy, Alex Horton, formerly of the excellent military blog, Army of Dude, and currently the social media honcho at the Department of Veterans Affairs, knocks another one out of the park with his post today “The Mt. Rainier Shooting and PTSD: How the Media Got It Wrong“. This is why he beat us in the 2008 Weblog Awards shoot out;

    When I asked her today, VA clinical psychologist Dr. Sonja Batten said that “despite this image in pop culture of the dangerous, unstable Veteran, there is no direct, causal link between combat-related PTSD and the type of violence shown at Mt. Rainier. Although PTSD is associated with increased anger and irritability in some individuals—whether civilians or Veterans—this sort of negative portrayal of Veterans is unfair and does a disservice to those individuals who have served our country. We work every day in VA to dispel these negative and inaccurate stereotypes.”

    In other words, the misguided and incorrect correlation between military service and violent crimes like murder can lead to damaging stereotypes that can inhibit the success of Vets once they leave the military. The Texas Veterans Commission says some employers have reservations about hiring Veterans because they may show signs of post-traumatic signs in the workplace. Hiring managers may think they’re getting a Travis Bickle instead of a “Sully” Sullenberger.

    He wrote to tell us that he was working on this post yesterday, so we’ve been keeping our eyes open for it. You really need to read the whole thing.

  • What’s with Shinseki and hats?

    A veteran found the above pictured cap in the Washington, DC Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington, DC. At first he thought it was pretty funny, but, like the rest of us who’ve been married several years, his wife convinced him that his initial reaction was wrong, according to the Army Times;

    “My first reaction was, ‘Oh, that’s pretty funny,’ because I have a tendency to laugh at inappropriate things,” McCuin, an Army Reserve officer, said in a telephone interview. “My wife, who has much less a sense of humor about these things, thought it was awful.”

    McCuin said that instead of purchasing the hat for his car’s dashboard as a joke, he shot VA’s social media department the photo he had taken, along with a tweet: “Nice message, guys,” he wrote.

    VA officials quickly responded with their own message. “This does nothing except perpetuate stereotypes. Unacceptable anywhere near a VA Medical Center.”

    Later that day, our buddy, Alex Horton, who manages the VA blog, Vantage Point had written a post about PTS and TBI entitled “The Stigmas Surrounding PTSD and TBI” I suppose to atone for putting the hat in a VA hospital store.

    I suspect that Janet Napolitano would like us all to wear those hats in public as a sort of warning label for the remainder of the public, but this is a real boner for the VA which should be doing it’s best to counter the negative stereotypes of veterans, not perpetuating the myths. yeah, if you have one of these hats, that’s fine, I just think it’s inappropriate for the VA to make a profit from it.

  • Prayer ban lifted in Houston VA cemetery

    COB6 sends us a link to an article from his undisclosed location which announces that the Department of Veterans Affairs as agreed in a court-sponsored settlement to stop preventing mourners from praying at funerals in Houston’s VA cemetery;

    The documents state that VA will pay attorneys fees and expenses of $215,000, but the government admits no liability or fault, and stresses that some provisions of the agreement already were policy or practice at the department.

    Under the settlement, VA would agree “not to ban, regulate or otherwise interfere with prayers, recitations, or words of religious expression absent family objection” and to allow veterans’ families to hold services with any religious or secular content they desire.

    VA also agrees not to edit or control private religious speech by speakers at VA-sponsored ceremonies or events and pledges to return a Bible, cross and Star of David to the cemetery’s chapel, which must remain open and not be used for storage or referred to as a meeting facility

    Allowing someone to pray to their own God in a government cemetery isn’t establishing a religion, so I don’t know where those gumballs at VA decided that it was a good idea to prevent prayer.

  • Shinseki at the Convention

    Eric Shinseki at the 2011 American Legion Convention

    I don’t know who he thinks he’s kidding, but Eric Shinseki the director of the Department of Veterans Affairs just promised that he’s committed to ending veteran homelessness by 2015. I admire his commitment, but his staff are incompetent boobs. For example, he bragged that they’ll have our medical records automated “soon” and as proof that his agency can accomplish this, he pointed out the success they had with implementing the new GI Bill…you remember that abortion, right? Payments were late and families went hungry waiting on the checks to keep the former servicemembers in college.

    But Shinseki did just join the American Legion today. Where has he been all of these years?

  • How Far Would YOU Go?

    It’s taken me a coupla days to calm down enough to post this one. I kept reading about the thing and getting pissed. For something different each time, mind you, but even as semi-literate as I am a post with little more than WTF! said over and over seemed a waste of time.

    So here goes: Army vet with PTSD sought the treatment he needed by taking hostages – but got jail instead

    Fifteen months of carnage in Iraq had left the 29-year-old debilitated by post-traumatic stress disorder. But despite his doctor’s urgent recommendation, the Army failed to send him to a Warrior Transition Unit for help. The best the Department of Veterans Affairs could offer was 10-minute therapy sessions — via videoconference.

    So, early on Labor Day morning last year, after topping off a night of drinking with a handful of sleeping pills, Quinones barged into Fort Stewart’s hospital, forced his way to the third-floor psychiatric ward and held three soldiers hostage, demanding better mental health treatment.

    “I’ve done it the Army’s way,” Quinones told Henson. “We’re going to do it my way now.”

    Aside: As a ‘Nam vet watching friends and others trying to get help before there even WAS a diagnosis of PTSD around; and watching civilians who had watched one too many movies about Crazy Vietnam Vets cringe away from me when it became known I’d visited the place I reckon I’m just a bit sensitive.

    The story of  “Q” gets worse as it unfolds:

    He saw an Army therapist twice a week, and he was prescribed high doses of medications to treat anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and depression. In March 2009, his psychiatrist completed the Army’s Warrior Screening Matrix, a tool implemented by the service to determine when a soldier should be assigned to a Warrior Transition Unit, a medical unit for injured soldiers.

    The doctor answers questions about a soldier’s ability to perform his duties, his behavioral health, treatment needs, drug or alcohol abuse, suicide history, medical compliance, life stressors such as divorce and whether the illness or injury affects self-worth.

    Each answer gets a corresponding number, which are all totaled for a score.

    Less than 29: no need for the WTU.

    Between 30 and 199: Possible need for the WTU.

    Between 200 and 999: Needs to go to the WTU.

    A score of 1,000 or above: Failure to assign a soldier to the WTU is likely to hurt treatment.

    Quinones scored 2,331. The psychiatrist underlined it twice on the paperwork.

    He left a voicemail for Quinones’ company commander, but in the Army’s system, medical professionals are largely consultants. The decision on how to proceed is up to the commander.

    Quinones was never sent to the WTU. 

    There’s a lot of Army terms I’m unfamiliar with, but the story DOES come from S&S. The comments offer further validity.

    And it pisses me off! Not quite sure what to do next, but it’s for certain that this story needs to get out there.

     

  • DoD and VA still can’t share records

    SO here we are, two years after the Defense Department and the Veterans Affairs Department agreed to provide a seamless transition for transitioning service members’ health records between the agencies and they still can’t get the job done. In fact, they estimate it’ll take six more years to complete the project says Leo Shane at Stars & Stripes;

    Information technology experts say departmental infighting is hobbling the effort, and question whether the agencies will be able to stick to even the six-year estimate, considering their rocky past.

    Veterans groups are frustrated as well, especially with a wave of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans already beginning to seek health care services at VA facilities.

    “Every year they talk about a new plan,” said Jacob Gadd, Deputy Director for Health Care at the American Legion. “They just need to pick one that works and move forward already.”

    Yeah, how many of you spend that much time picking software? But who is surprised? Certainly not me. At Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the premiere health care facility in the country, the Army can’t share medical records between clinics in the same building, let alone with the DVA.

    As I’ve written before, I have complete confidence in the doctors and nurses at Walter Reed, but the administration sucks canal water. I could have two or three appointments on the same day and fill out the same forms for each clinic because there’s no file-sharing network in the hospital.

    Now when I retired in 1994, my records were sent by the Army automatically to the VA facility near my home who immediately contacted me and set up appointments for me. What the hell happened between 1994 and now that the two agencies are fighting over interoperability?

    I’m sure it’s contractors who are fighting over whose crap they’ll use. Fire ’em! Anyone who is working for the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs and doesn’t put 100% of their efforts towards the welfare of the troops…just send ’em down the road with empty pockets.

  • VetVoice and the homeless vet issue

    Thank goodness that the Republicans took over the House last year or VetVoice’s dicksmith wouldn’t have anyone to blame for the report yesterday that number of homeless veterans are on the rise – well, actually the number has fallen by 55,000 recently, but the total number rose as the number of veterans increases since the beginning of the war.

    I did a search of their archives and the only things I could find in regards to the homeless before January when this Republican class moved into the House, was praise for the Democrats raising spending on homeless vets and a guest piece by John Edwards promising to house the homeless.

    Oh, there was piece listed written by Rick Duncan/Strandlof blaming “neocons” for the homeless vets, but of course, they removed all of his posts to disassociate themselves with him, but his posts still show up in the search function.

    So overall, more homeless are off the streets since 2009 by more than a third, but the remainder are somehow the fault of Republicans in the House, not the Democrat in the White House and the Democrats running the Senate. Or the House Democrats who ran that joint from 2006 until 2010.

    Oh, yeah, the number of homeless veterans is down from a peak of 400k to 131k in 2009 – was that the fault of Republicans, too? How about doing something instead of pointing fingers and ignoring statistics, there, dicksmith. You guys throw money at Harry Reid, a draft dodger by your own standards, why not throw it at homeless veterans instead.

    And I’d like to see their accounting methods for determining who is a homeless veteran and who is not. If we’re busting them left and right here at TAH, is the VA even asking them if they’re really veterans?

  • VA censors religious speech in Houston

    COB6 sends this link from his undisclosed location about the Houston Department of Veteran Affairs trying to enforce a sort of religious neutrality at the Houston National Cemetery;

    In one example cited in documents filed this week in federal court, cemetery director Arleen Ocasio reportedly told volunteers with the National Memorial Ladies that they had to stop telling families “God bless you” at funerals and that they had to remove the words “God bless” from condolence cards.

    “It’s just unfair that somebody would ask us to take God out of our vocabulary,” said Cheryl Whitfield, founder of Houston National Memorial Ladies.

    “I could’ve kept my mouth shut and let things happen, but when it comes to standing up for your belief in God and giving comfort to the families, I don’t want to regret not saying anything,” Whitfield said. “We all had to stand up for what we believe in.”

    Yeah, I think that’s an overreaction. Folks need God and answers most when they’ve lost a family member. I don’t see how a simple “God bless you” can offend anyone.

    The Houston VA got in trouble earlier this year when they tried to stop a pastor from mentioning God in a prayer at the cemetery (a link to the Liberty Institute)

    Federal District Judge Lynn N. Hughes granted a temporary restraining order preventing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and its Director of the Houston National Cemetery, Arleen Ocasio, from preventing Pastor Scott Rainey from praying in Jesus’ name during his invocation at a Memorial Day ceremony sponsored by the National Cemetery Council for Greater Houston (a private, non-profit association). At a conference with the judge moments ago, the government conceded and informed Pastor Rainey that it will not oppose his prayer on Memorial Day.