Top 10 Veterans News From Around the Country 10/5/10

Find out What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. VA To Open New Clinic In Montana.
2. VA Spreads Word About Student-Produced Film.
3. Four Veterans Honored With US Postage Stamps.
4. Hospital, County To Discuss Leasing Land To VA.
5. Vets Home In Pennsylvania Receives Low Ranking.
6. Lawmakers, Advocates Pleased With VA Budget Proposal.
7. VA, DOD Said To Be Committed To Mental Health Of Troops.
8. Agent Orange- Funding Seen Making War Bill A “Bigger Target.”
9. Iraq Vet Says VA Hospital, Army Counselors Helped Him Recover From Injury.
10. DOD Opens Investigation Of Complaints About Mental Healthcare At Camp Lejeune.

Have You Heard
Military spouses braved a January Minnesota ice storm to attend an outreach meeting at the St. Cloud public library on the challenges and responsibilities of parenting during and after military deployments. St. Cloud VA Medical Center social workers Mike Mathies and Connie Selden offered resources and an opportunity to discuss the challenges military families face. The meeting was part of a series of educational and support meetings offered by the St. Cloud ’s OEF/OIF program for Veterans, family members and interested members of the community. “These families can use all the support our community can offer. We want them to know we are here to help,” Mathies said.

1.      Lawmakers, Advocates Pleased With VA Budget Proposal. In continuing coverage, the Federal Times (2/5, Maze, 40K) reports, “Initial reviews are good for the Obama administration’s proposed $125 billion veterans budget for 2011. The Democratic chairman and top Republican” on the House Veterans Affairs Committee “both used the word ‘robust’ to describe a budget proposal” that, according to the Times, also has pleased veterans advocates. The Times adds, “VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, appearing Thursday before the House committee, said the budget is designed to keep the department on a path that is more people-focused, results-oriented and forward-looking — a process that continues to be difficult because the number of veterans and survivors seeking help from VA continues to grow.”
Budget Sets Aside Money For Electronic Record Systems. Federal Computer Week (2/5, Lipowicz, 90K) reports, “The Veterans Affairs Department is setting aside $157 million next year for the Defense-VA Interagency Program Office to develop a Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) for all servicemembers, according to VA’s fiscal 2011 budget request. The goal is to create a next-generation VLER system that will allow secure and seamless sharing of patients’ medical data between the DOD and VA.” The VA “also is budgeting $347 million in fiscal 2011 for its HealtheVet electronic health record system, which is the next-generation of the longstanding VistA (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) medical record system.”
Budget Also Calls For Five New Veterans Cemeteries. The Omaha (NE) World-Herald (2/4, Cordes) reported, “The federal budget that President Barack Obama unveiled Monday includes authorization and planning funds for the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish a new national veterans cemetery in the Omaha area,” along with four others in various parts of the country. The World-Herald noted that the budget “also includes…money for a new VA hospital in Omaha, replacing the current one near 42nd Street and Woolworth Avenue.” The North Platte (NE) Telegraph (2/4, 12K) published the same story.
According to the WHEC-TV Rochester, NY (2/4, Stagnitti) website, one of the national cemeteries called for in Obama’s budget is “designated for the Rochester-Buffalo area.” WHC noted that US Rep. Louise Slaughter and US Rep. Eric Massa, both Democrats from New York, said veterans in the area deserve such a facility.
County In Colorado A Possible Site For National Cemetery. The Wet Mountain Tribune (2/4, Drenner), a paper based in Westcliffe, Colorado, said, “Custer County seems to be one small step closer to its dream of a national veterans cemetery being established in the Wet Mountain Valley. Earlier this week,” Obama “placed in the 2011 preliminary budget a line item that included the creation of a new national veterans cemetery in Southern Colorado. For three years, Custer County has been one of nine proposed sites for that cemetery.”

2.      VA, DOD Said To Be Committed To Mental Health Of Troops.In an opinion piece on the Huffington Post (2/4), psychotherapist Belleruth Naparstek writes, “There’s been a push to educate our troops and the general public about posttraumatic stress as well as TBI’s (traumatic brain injury), thanks to a renewed commitment to the mental health of our troops, found in both” the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, with the current secretaries of both agencies “working hard at destigmatizing mental health problems, in ways never seen before.” Naparstek goes on to say that she expects VA “will get more flexible in how it offers services. And there will hopefully be much more widespread use of self-administered guided imagery downloads.”

3.      Agent Orange-Related Funding Seen Making War Bill A “Bigger Target.” Politico (2/5, Rogers, 25K) reports, “Past and present are converging in an Afghanistan war funding bill as the White House seeks to add billions to pay medical claims owed to veterans exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.” And, “with the wartime bill now approaching $55 billion, the higher costs make it a bigger target in Washington’s latest firefight over deficits and debt. The new Agent Orange-related funding is striking in itself: $13.4 billion arising from a decision last October by Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to expand the number of illnesses presumed to be service connected for Vietnam veterans.”
Veteran Exposed To Agent Orange Uncertain If He Will Qualify For VA Benefits. The Contra Costa Times (2/5, Simerman, 186K), a newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California, says the cost of Shinseki’s decision, which added Parkinson’s and two other diseases “to the list of now 15 ‘presumed service-related’ illnesses for Vietnam” veterans, “remains uncertain pending a final rule, but budget increases for 2010 and 2011 include nearly $30 billion to account for the ruling, including 4,000 new benefits positions to deal with an expected surge in claims.” According to the Times, one veteran who has Parkinson’s but does not know if he will qualify for Agent Orange-related benefits is 69-year-old Bob Decker. Decker “never fought in Vietnam” but he “volunteered for a small Army group that tested Agent Orange.” The San Jose (CA) Mercury News (2/5) runs the same story.

4.      Hospital, County To Discuss Leasing Land To VA. The Decorah (IA) Journal (2/5, Greiner, 7K) reports Winneshiek Medical Center (WMC) is hoping Winneshiek County will consider leasing some land to the Department of Veterans Affairs. At Wednesday’s “meeting of the WMC Board of Trustees, Chief Administrative Officer Dan Werner explained he and the Medical Center’s legal team will meet with the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors Monday to discuss a lease to the VA for a community-based outpatient clinic on the Medical Center campus.”

5.      Vets Home In Pennsylvania Receives Low Ranking.n its website, WJAC-TV Johnstown, PA (4/4) reported, “The Hollidaysburg Veterans Home is receiving statewide attention, and it’s not good news. A report from the state Department of Health and Human Services found the facility rated below average when meeting inspection requirements.” The home, therefore, “received the lowest possible ranking, one start out of five.”

6.      Iraq Vet Says VA Hospital, Army Counselors Helped Him Recover From Injury. The Arkansas City (KS) Traveler (2/5, 5K) notes that during an interview it conducted Wednesday, veteran Zachary Gardner, who lost his right foot in Iraq, “said he gained ‘full recovery,’ thanks to Army counselors and help” from the Veterans Affairs hospital in Wichita.

7.      VA Spreads Word About Student-Produced Film.According to the lead item in “T -TOWN” for the Tuscaloosa (AL) News (2/4), a film “produced by students” at the University of Alabama (UA) “about the challenges faced by returning military veterans is being recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs. According to a UA news release, students in the university’s Documenting Justice filmmaking class produced the documentary film, ‘Searching for Normal,'” which “features narrative comments from Dick Powers, an Iraq veteran and one of the UA students who produced the film.” The News said VA “posted a link to the film on its Facebook page in late January, after Brandon Friedman, director of new media for the VA, met Powers at a conference” in Washington, DC.

8.      Four Veterans Honored With US Postage Stamps. According to the AP (2/4), two veterans who served during the Second World War, one who served in the first, and one who earned two Medals of Honor, are “being honored with new” US postage stamps. The Denver Post (2/5, Bunch, 282K) says one of the vets being honored with is Arleigh Albert Burke, a “famous World War II Navy commander” from Boulder, Colorado.

9.      DOD Opens Investigation Of Complaints About Mental Healthcare At Camp Lejeune. The AP (2/5, Maurer) reports, “The Defense Department will investigate complaints of substandard mental health care for Marines at Camp Lejeune, according” to US Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), who “asked for the probe amid reports of retaliation against a whistleblower. Public questions about the quality of mental health care provided by a private contractor at the base were raised last year by the September firing of Dr. Kernan Manion, a brain trauma specialist who had complained to commanders about poor facilities, inadequate care programs and weak security.” The AP adds, “Jones said the Defense Department’s Inspector General told him Wednesday that an investigation is open.”

10.    VA To Open New Clinic In Montana.The Western News (4/4, Harbaugh), which is based Libby, Montana, reported, “Within two months, a local clinic is slated to begin providing primary care in Libby for Lincoln County veterans, said Chuck Marsden, executive assistant to the director” for the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Marsden “said the clinic will initially only provide primary care, but will eventually be equipped to offer mental health services.”