Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARINES!!!!

Now … on to the news

From the VA:

1.      Returning Vets Create New Generation Of Patients For VA. In a story carried by at least 150 different publications, Reuters (11/10, Carey) focuses on the cost of America’s two current wars, not just in dollars but in human cost when it comes to issues faced by veterans and their families, including the risk of mental health problems, high unemployment, substance abuse, domestic violence, violent crime, and homelessness. Such veterans, according to Reuters, make up a new generation of patients for VA, which up until the conflicts with Iraq and Afghanistan had been focused on aging veterans. Reuters spoke with the head of VA’s national suicide prevention program, Jan Kemp, who, after pointing out that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has been trying to get all states to provide more recent data on veteran suicides, said the data VA does have “suggests that suicides are maybe lower among veterans receiving treatment.”
     Study: Returning Vets More Likely To Need Mental Than Physical Healthcare At VA. Dartmouth College’s The Dartmouth (11/9, Kirkpatrick) noted, “Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical treatment from Department of Veterans Affairs facilities are far more likely to require medical assistance for mental health difficulties than for physical injuries, according to a study published this month by researchers” from Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) “and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.” Tracy Stecker, a study researcher, “said further analysis was necessary before the researchers could determine whether VA hospitals needed to be improved to cope with the influx of veterans seeking treatment for mental health problems. ‘We’re just laying down the groundwork that most people coming back from war need psychiatric help,’ Stecker said.”
     Vet Supporting VA Campaign To Promote Agency’s Services. KHGI-TV Lincoln, NE (11/9, 6:46 p.m. CT) broadcast that “for many veterans, coming home from war is a time of uncertainty and recovery.” The VA, however, “has ways to help,” a message the agency is trying to convey with a “new ad campaign to promote” its services. KHGI interviewed the star of the campaign, actor and Nebraska native Robert Kugler, who encouraged his fellow veterans to “make sure that they’re signed up for…VA benefits as soon as possible.” KHGI (11/9) also covered this story on its website.
     While being interviewed by WXIX-TV Cincinnati, OH (11/9, 9:46 a.m. ET), Kugler said the point of VA’s ad campaign is to “welcome veterans home,” as well as tell them about available benefits and about “VA’s website, va.gov/myva.” Kugler recommended that “every veteran” go to that website to “make sure that they’re aware of all the benefits that they’ve earned.” Meanwhile, during an interview broadcast by WTOL-TV Toledo, OH (11/9, 9:11 a.m. ET), Kugler pointed out that available benefits mentioned in VA’s ad campaign include “healthcare, education benefits, and…home loans.” Kugler also touted VA’s ad campaign during an interview aired by WHAM-TV Rochester, NY (11/9, 8:21 a.m. ET), one in which Kugler said the purpose of the ad campaign is to try and “get more access to…all the veterans out there to make sure that the process of enrolling into” VA is as “easy as possible.”
     KABB-TV San Antonio, TX (11/9, 6:46 a.m. CT) also interviewed Kugler, who said that his transition from military life was not difficult, “mainly due to the fact” that he went to a Vet Center and was “put in touch with a coordinator” who served as his contact throughout the “process of getting enrolled in…VA.” KIDY-TV San Angelo, TX (11/9, 6:46 a.m. CT) and KXVA-TV Abilene (TX, 6:46 a.m. CT) aired the same interview with Kugler, who also spoke about VA’s ad campaign with WRAL-TV Raleigh, NC (11/9, 8:40 a.m. ET).
     VA Launches Blog. NextGov (11/10, Brewin) notes that on Monday, VA “launched its first official blog, which taps the talents and insights of two former Army grunts and experienced bloggers to personalize the relationship veterans have with a bureaucracy they often view as impersonal and unresponsive.” Brandon Friedman, a vet who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and who is now VA’s “director of new media and editor of the new VAntage Point blog, sees it as a platform to reach veterans and develop a two-way conversation with them and their families. That fits in with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s take on the new blog, which will help the department ‘interact with veterans, their families and the public in ways we’ve never done before,’ Shinseki said,” adding, “Instead of waiting for veterans to find us, we’re going to seek them out where they already are — which is, increasingly, online.”
     Federal Computer Week (11/10, Lipowicz, 90K) says VA has “jumped into the blogosphere with its first official blog, ‘Vantage Point,’ which has gotten nearly 200 comments since it debuted Nov. 5.” VA Secretary Eric Shinseki “said the blog is intended to expand…VA’s outreach by encouraging two-way communication and comments from readers.” Federal Computer Week, which points out that VA “created an Office of New Media in late 2009,” adds, “In addition to the blog, the department has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.”
     VA, Others Offering Assistance To Homeless Vets. The WEYI-TV Flint, MI (11/9, Armstrong) website reported, “Across the country and here in MidMichigan government organizations, private businesses, and non-profits join forces to help…end homelessness for roughly 100,000 veterans. ‘I was homeless for almost a year,’ says 49-year-old Sheila Hunt,” who “works at Lutz VA Medical Center in Saginaw.” After noting that Hunt is “one of 35 Michigan veterans who received money” from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for permanent housing, WEYI added, “Veterans who’ve overcome homeless encourage others to contact the Department of Veterans Affairs for help finding permanent housing.”

 2.      Illinois Governor Unveils Veterans Cash Lottery Ticket. In a story on competing ideas to “dig Illinois out of its fiscal mess,” the Alton (IL) Telegraph (11/10, Yount, 23K) notes that on Tuesday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn “unveiled the new Veterans Cash lottery ticket,” the proceeds from which will “help augment Illinois’ veterans’ budget.” WICS-TV Champagne, IL (11/9, 5:09 p.m. CT), WQAD-TV Davenport, IA (11/9, 5:05 p.m. CT), WSIL-TV Carterville, IL (11/9, 5:05 p.m. CT), and WREX-TV Rockford, IL (11/9, 12:04 p.m. CT) also aired reports on the lottery ticket unveiling.

 3.      Tennessee Governor Encouraging Businesses To Consider Hiring Veterans. WJHL-TV Johnson City, TN (11/9, 5:42 p.m. ET) broadcast that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has “declared this week ‘Veterans Employment Week,’ to encourage businesses to consider military veterans for jobs.” Across the country, the rate of unemployment “among veterans has remained higher than the national average.”

 4.      VA Paying New Agent Orange Benefits. In continuing coverage, the KPBS-TV San Diego, CA (11/9, Pico) website said Veterans Affairs has “begun to pay new benefits” for three Agent Orange-related diseases, while the Lake County (CA) News (11/10) notes that in a written statement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the new Agent Orange benefits “demonstrate a commitment” by VA to “provide Vietnam veterans with treatment and compensation for the long-term health effects of herbicide exposure.” Numerous local TV stations from around the country also aired reports noting the new VA benefits, including WAFF-TV Huntsville, AL (11/9, 12:06 p.m. CT).
     The Oak Park (IL) Leaves (11/9, Shields) pointed out that in August, Vietnam vet Michael Rollheiser sent results of medical tests he took “to the VA Compensation Committee in Texas, hoping they would pay him for his health problems presumably caused by Agent Orange.” Rollheiser told the Leaves that he “did some research and found that the government begrudgingly admits to the medical effects of Agent Orange.”

 5.      Shinseki Praised For Honoring Vet Killed On 9/11. In a Coon Rapids (MN) Herald (11/10, 4K) op-ed about Veterans Day, Klobuchar says it was her “great honor to be in Alexandria this fall for a ceremony officially naming” a VA clinic in Alexandria, Minnesota, in “honor of Max Beilke,” a veteran who was “killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when an airliner hijacked by terrorists smashed into the Pentagon building.” According to Klobuchar, it was “fitting that the VA Secretary himself, Eric Shinseki, came to Alexandria” for the ceremony to “show his support and pay his respects to the memory of a fellow soldier.”

 6.      VA Doctor Urges More Research On Medical Device Tracking. The “White Coast Notes” blog for the Boston Globe (11/10, Cooney, 253K) reports, “Dr. Frederic Resnic of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his colleagues, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, see an opportunity” to track medical devices implanted during surgeries in order to “mine heart procedure data as it is being compiled.” In an “editorial also appearing in the journal, Dr. John Rumsfeld” of the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Dr. Eric Peterson of “Duke University Medical Center say the study is an important advance, showing that automated monitoring can work, but it needs to be repeated on a larger scale and with more information from doctors about patient outcomes. ‘This study reinforces how far the United States is from achieving proactive device surveillance,’ they write,” adding, “Moving from a reactive model to a proactive surveillance system requires a major national commitment, but it will be a meaningful commitment to a new era in patient safety.”

7.      VA Connecticut Co-Conducting Study On Pain Management. The Hartford (CY) Courant (11/10, Beals) says the Community Health Center in Middletown, Connecticut, and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System will “conduct a study on pain management” that the Community Health Center “said…will be the first partnership between a federally-qualified health center and a Veterans Affairs healthcare system.” The study, which will “seek to develop a pain management practice that can be used at all 12 health center sites” in Connecticut, will be “funded by a $453,000 grant from the Mayday Fund, a national foundation dedicated to pain management.” The Courant adds, “The three-phase study will integrate pain management practices into primary care and develop practices and protocols across to be used across the country.”

 8.      Boston Vet Center To Operate Outreach Clinic. Near the end “To Your Health,” the Plymouth, Massachusetts-based Old Colony Memorial (11/10) reports, “The Boston Vet Center,” a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) clinic that is “separate from the Veterans Administration (VA) Health Care System” but falls “under its umbrella for administrative support, will operate an outreach clinic at The Nathan Hale Veterans Outreach Center, 15 Main St., Plymouth, from noon to 7:30 p.m. Fridays. If there is a demand for services, hours and days may be expanded.”

 9.      New PTSD Policy Expected To Benefit Female Veterans In Particular. The Phoenix-based Arizona Republic (11/9, Creno, 380K) said a new Veterans Affairs policy easing requirements to qualify for post-traumatic stress disorder benefits is “expected to benefit women in particular because they typically play support roles in war instead of being directly involved in battles.” The Republic added, “It is not clear how many veterans locally and nationally will take advantage of the new opportunity, said Paula Pedene, public-affairs officer for the Phoenix VA Health Care System.”

 10.    Women Vets Attend Summit in Arkansas. The Manila, Arkansas-based Northeast Arkansas Town Crier (11/10, Snider) reports, “Over 155 women veterans from around the state gathered Saturday, Oct. 30, for Arkansas’s First Annual Women Veterans Summit at Pulaski Technical College Campus Center in North Little Rock.” The women were greeted by Veterans Affairs “employees at the door for sign-in.” The event’s keynote speaker was “Betty Moseley Brown, Ed. D, associate director, VA Center for Women Veterans.”