Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country

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

1. Senator Encouraged By Steps On VA Claims Processing.
2. VA To Review Gulf Veterans’ Disability Claims.
3. VA Urged To Allow Using Marijuana To Treat PTSD.
4. Company Using Technology To Help With PTSD.
5. Retreat Helps Veterans, Families Deal With PTSD.
6. Vermont Towns Increase Disabled-Veterans Property-Tax Exemption.
7. Texas College System Opens Veterans Center.
8. Congress Hears From Veteran Service Organizations.
9. Company Donates To National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic.
10. VA Shuts Down Electronic Health Records Exchange Due To Glitch.

Have You Heard
Cynthia Dade, lead technologist in Nuclear Medicine at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit, never thought her involvement in a VISN 11 Leadership Development Program would help save the life of one of her family members, but on January 13th that’s exactly what happened. “I received a call from my sister saying that my mother was sick. I rushed to my mother’s home and immediately noticed that she was having left-sided weakness along with facial drooping,” Dade recalls. “I remembered what I had learned from Ms. Peterson and knew that we had only a short amount of time to get my mother to a hospital and allow them to administer TPA (Tissue Plasminogen Activator – a protein involved in the breakdown of blood clots) to bust up any clots that had formed or that might be forming.” Registered Nurse Renee Peterson chaired the facility’s Stroke Program for which Dade helped develop informational materiel related to strokes for veterans and employees during her leadership training. She recognized the signs of stroke from the material she put together for the program and was able to get her mother to the hospital in time for a full recovery.

1.      Senator Encouraged By Steps On VA Claims Processing. The AP (3/4) reported that Sen. Daniel Akaka and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki agree “that reforming the VA disability claims system must be a top priority,” and in a release, Akaka said “that he is encouraged by the administration’s commitment to add thousands of staff to process veterans’ disability claims.” However, the senator also believed “the situation will get worse before it gets better, because it will take years and significant resources to fully train new VA claims staff.”

2.      VA To Review Gulf Veterans’ Disability Claims. Truthout (3/2, Littlepage) reported that VA Secretary Eric Shineski promised “to review Gulf War veterans’ disability claims.” The VA’s Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Task Force will soon complete “a comprehensive report that will redefine how the VA” deals with ill veterans who deployed during the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991. The task force is seeking “to identify gaps in services as well as opportunities to better serve veterans of the Gulf War.” AllGov (3/4, Brinkerhoff) also covers this story.

3.      VA Urged To Allow Using Marijuana To Treat PTSD. The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (3/4, Gierer) reports that the Marijuana Policy Project is advocating that Department of Veterans Affairs be allowed to “use marijuana in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.” The Project “says the VA forbids its doctors from recommending medical marijuana to veterans even in the 14 states where medical marijuana is legal,” base on advice from the DEA.

4.      Company Using Technology To Help With PTSD. On its website, KXRM-TV (3/4, Prince) reports that Great Life Technologies “has been at the forefront of integrating bio-energetic testing, wave interference, and sophisticated electronic technology,” and they “are using this technology to assist veterans with PTSD — free of charge.”

5.      Retreat Helps Veterans, Families Deal With PTSD. KBJR-TV Duluth, MN (3/4, 7:04p.m. EST) broadcast, “One in eight veterans returning from war suffers posttraumatic stress disorder. Grim statistics show a significant percentage of those men and women end up with severe emotional distress, and more often than you might think, end up killing themselves.” Now, “Project New Hope, a military family retreat” This “first of its kind, weekend-long family get away gave the families a chance to share painful experiences with each other.” The program is now expanding. “Jeff Hall with the US Department of Veterans Affairs says this provide the right psychological tools for support.” Bruce Billington the founder and executive director of Project New Hope was shown saying, “We work to provide them with the education, training and skills necessary to manage their lives after war-time service.”

6.      Forty-Three Vermont Towns Increase Disabled-Veterans Property-Tax Exemption. The Brattleboro (VT) Reformer (3/5, Garofolo) reports that 43 towns in Vermont increased their property tax exemption for disabled veterans. The moves are the result of three years of campaigning by Veterans activist Lou Lertola, who is “seeking the maximum property tax exemption allowed under state law,” $40,000. His “movement has run into little opposition.” To qualify, a veteran with at least 50 percent disability must get from the VA a letter to go “to the town clerk’s office, then finally to the Listers to appropriate the correct amount from the property tax bill.”

7.      Texas College System Opens Veterans Center. The Atascocita (TX) Observer (3/4) reports that Lone Star College System held a grand opening event for its new Veterans Affairs Center, with Rep. Michael T. McCaul, amongst others speaking at the event. McCaul commended the college system, saying, “This center is of particular importance.” LSCS chancellor Dr. Richard Carpenter said, “We want this center to be a model, not just for the facility but for the people.” The center will provide “financial guidance, disability services counseling, free tax assistance, Veterans-Helping-Veterans support groups, education benefits support, career counseling and many other services geared specifically to the returning veteran.”

8.      Congress Hears From Veteran Service Organizations. The Imperial Valley (CA) News (3/4) reports that the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee held a joint hearing Thursday to receive the legislative presentation of various veterans groups. Wounded Warrior Project Board Member Andrew Kinard “called upon the VA to provide more coordinated care for America’s wounded warriors,” saying that “far more fundamental changes are needed to provide the kind of help wounded warriors need and deserve,” and calling for “a holistic, coordinated approach to help a severely injured veteran to thrive again.” House Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Bob Filner said, “Today the veteran service organizations have provided important insight as the Committee analyzes the budget and looks to meet the urgent needs of veterans.”

9.      Company Donates To National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic. TMCnet (3/4, Adkoli) reports that Harris Corporation donated $10,000 to help sponsor the upcoming 24th Annual ‘National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic’,” which is co-sponsored by the Disabled American Veterans and the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Veterans with an inpatient or outpatient status with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and active duty military servicemen and women are eligible to participate,” if they have “qualifying disabilities.” Jim Traficant, vice president of Harris Healthcare Solutions, said, “Harris is very proud to offer our encouragement and gratitude for their incredible service by sponsoring the Winter Sports Clinic.”

10.    VA Shuts Down Electronic Health Records Exchange Due To Glitch. Nextgov (3/4, Brewin) reports that the VA shut down the Bidirectional Health Information Exchange, which lets that agency access AHLTA, the Defense Department’s electronic health record system, when “it found errors in some patients’ medical data clinicians downloaded from the Defense network,” with requested health records sometimes including no, partial, or incorrect information. Jean Scott, director of the Veterans Health Administration’s Information Technology Patient Safety Office, in a departmental patient safety alert, said that while the glitch discovered “did not cause harm to any patient…’the potential exists for decisions regarding patient care to be made using incorrect or incomplete data.'” Roger Baker, chief information officer at VA, said that the agency has fixed the bug and the BHIE will go back online on March 9.