Veterans! Here’s your Top 10 News stories of the day compiled from the latest sources

We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need

1. Veterans’ chief wants to expand help.  Daily Mail – Charleston  The department’s veterans outreach program started after five West Virginia veterans killed themselves in a nine-month stretch in 2008. Social workers from the US Department of Veterans Affairs don’t travel into rural areas, State Veterans Assistance …

2. Virginia Veterans get good news.  Suffolk News-Herald  … which exempts veterans with a 100-percent service-connected, permanent and total disability from paying property tax on their primary residence, includes veterans with a “total disability rating” from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. …

3. New vouchers on the way for homeless vets in LA, but are they enough? 89.3 KPCC..Veterans for years have protested outside the gates of the Veterans Administration campus in West Los Angeles. A newly filed ACLU lawsuit accuses the VA of failing to provide adequate services to homeless veterans. The US Department of Veterans Affairs …

4. Work to begin in November on new veterans clinic.  Appleton Post Crescent  The US Department of Veterans Affairs is building the outpatient clinic at 2800 University Ave. in an effort to improve health care for veterans throughout northeastern Wisconsin. The building will cost $45 million to construct and the development’s …

5. House OKs funds to help prevent veterans’ suicide.  Allentown Examiner  One method that has been shown to help veterans, Holt said, is to have trained counselors check inwith them on a regular basis to assess their mental health. “I have been on a campaign to see that the VA(US Department of Veterans Affairs) and the …

6. Gaylord man sentenced for defrauding Veterans Affairs in Saginaw.  The Saginaw News – MLive.com  US Magistrate Judge Charles E. Binder on Monday ordered Michael Andrews to serve three years or probation and pay more than $19105 in restitution to the US Department of Veteran Affairs. Andrews, 50, pleaded guilty in March to one count of embezzling …

7. VA Reaching Out to Women Veterans.  Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog)  The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has begun a major initiative to reach out to women veterans to get their input on ways to improve health care services that VA provides them. Representatives at VA’s Health Resource Center (HRC) are placing

8. Hiring Heroes Act of 2011 aimed at assisting veterans.  Youngstown Vindicator  The Hiring Heroes Act of 2011 is a bill aimed at reducing the 27 percent unemployment rate among military veterans by 20 to 24 percent. The bill, which recently cleared the US Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and awaits action …

9. National Movement to Support Veterans Needs Continued State Support.  Huffington Post (blog)  To take advantage of these discounts, a veteran needs to show a valid ID. Unfortunately, if an honorably discharged veteran is not under VA care or is not disabled, they are not eligible for an ID card from the Veterans Administration. …

10. Check off on DMV application gives veterans choice.  Lake County News  – A new program initiated by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) will help connect veterans in California with the services and benefits they have earned through their prior or …

Have You Heard?

VA has embarked on a major initiative to reach out to women Veterans in order to solicit their input on ways to enhance the health care services VA provides to women Veterans. Representatives at VA’s Health Resource Center (HRC) are placing calls to women Veterans nationwide, asking them to share their experiences with VA and suggest potential enhancements that will further VA’s mission to provide the best care anywhere. “We are taking a proactive approach to enhancing VA health care for women Veterans,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “We are seeking the input of women Veterans so VA can continue to provide high quality health care to the growing numbers of women Veterans.” Women Veterans are one of the fastest growing segments of the Veteran population. Of the 22.7 million living Veterans, more than 1.8 million are women. VA estimates by 2020 women Veterans will constitute 10 percent of the Veteran population. The HRC, which started placing calls on June 1, is contacting women Veterans who have enrolled, but have not begun using VA services. For more information about VA programs and services for women Veterans, visit: www.va.gov/womenvet and www.publichealth.va.gov/womenshealth.

More Veteran News

• First Lady To Help With NC “Extreme Makeover” Home. “First lady Michelle Obama will participate in an episode of ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ that features a boarding house being built in North Carolina for homeless women veterans. The White House says Obama will join the crew of the ABC television show Thursday to help build the new home for Barbara Marshall and the women of the Steps N Stages Jubilee House in Fayetteville.” Obama is “participating as part of Joining Forces, an initiative to support service members that also involves Dr. Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president.”

• States Save By Moving Vets From Medicaid’s Rolls To VA’s. Stateline “A growing number of states are shifting health care costs to the federal government by finding military veterans who receive Medicaid and signing them up for medical benefits through” the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Arizona, “California and Texas are among the states that are working to replicate a program first launched in Washington State.” Veterans “generally find that the benefits offered through the VA are more generous that what they were getting through the state.”

• VA Denies Censorship At Houston National Cemetery. Houston Chronicle “The US Department of Veterans Affairs has denied allegations of religious censorship at Houston National Cemetery – accusations that have sparked calls for investigations from members of Congress – according to a new document filed” recently in Houston’s Federal courthouse. The “document is the government’s first detailed response to a lawsuit that accuses VA officials and cemetery director Arleen Ocasio of closing the cemetery chapel, banning volunteer groups from saying the words ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ at burial services, and forbidding the groups from religious recitations or prayers during the services unless families submitted the texts to her for approval. The lawsuit’s claims are factually inaccurate, argues assistant US attorney Fred Hinrichs” in the document.

• Doctor’s Exhibit Paints Picture Of War’s Impact. NPR posted audio of a profile it recently aired of Dr. Bill Blahd, a physician at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Idaho who has “depicted the daily trauma he sees in a powerful art exhibit on the impact of war.” NPR added, “Hundreds of people have viewed the exhibit, many stopping to share their own stories about the impact of war on their lives. Blahd says he continues to treat many of the same” Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who inspire his work. The aforementioned exhibit is on display at a Gallery in downtown Boise, Idaho.

• Brain Injuries Double Dementia Risk For Vets. NBC Nightly News Research presented Monday at the annual meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association found head injuries suffered by US soldiers in the Vietnam War “may be linked to dementia years later.” The “findings could mean a frightening scenario, of course, for veterans of our current dual wars,” thousands of whom “have come home suffering brain injuries.” Dr. Kristine Yaffe was shown stating that veterans who had been exposed to traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) “had about a two-fold risk of developing dementia during our study.”

• Brain Injury Gauges To Be Used In Afghanistan By US Army. USA Today The US Army will “outfit a brigade of soldiers in Afghanistan in the next few weeks with gauges worn on their bodies that can alert medics to an explosion’s severity — proof of possible brain injury.” The gauges represent the start of an “effort over the next several months to wire up soldiers and vehicles with sensors, black boxes and digital cameras. The data may shed light on how blast exposures damage the brain, even when a soldier appears only dazed, researchers say.”

• VA Doctor Addresses How To Treat Vets With TBIs. Psychiatric Times Dr Bruce Capehart, medical director of the OEF/OIF program at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Durham, North Carolina, and Dr. Dale Bass, associate research professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, address the “epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of mild TBI among combat veterans, with a particular focus on blast injury and the presence of comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” The authors conclude, “Making an accurate TBI diagnosis in a combat veteran includes obtaining a history of past head injuries, including those injuries not considered significant by the veteran; performing a careful clinical assessment of psychiatric symptoms; possibly referring for neuropsychological testing; and providing symptom-focused treatment. Appropriate treatment can result in significant clinical benefit for the veteran.”

• Testimony: VA Still Struggles To Provide Mental Health Care. Army Times “Horror stories continue to plague the Veterans Affairs Department’s mental health care system, even as billions of dollars are spent annually on the 1.2 million troubled veterans who seek help, witnesses told” the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last Thursday. The committee’s chairwoman, US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), “said she called the hearing to give voice to veterans and families affected by system backlogs and to find out what VA is doing to solve the problem.”  “VA officials said changes are coming,” including through the expansion of access to counseling and care at Vet Centers run by the agency.

• Anthropology And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Veterans: An Interview With Erin Finley. PLoS Blogs Erin Finley, a “medical anthropologist whose research focuses” on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Finely says that in her recently published “book, Fields of Combat: Understanding PTSD among Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan,” she examines a “revolution that has been ongoing over the past several years in the PTSD treatment provided” by Veterans Affairs. Finley adds, “We have very good treatments available for PTSD, and the VA has worked to make those treatments available at facilities all over the country.”

• Marijuana May Be Studied For Combat Disorder. New York Times “Researchers are seeking federal approval for what is believed to be the first study to examine the effects of marijuana on veterans with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The proposal, from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in Santa Cruz, Calif., and a researcher at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, would look at the potential benefits of cannabis by examining 50 combat veterans who suffer from the condition and have not responded to other treatment.” Should the proposal for the study gain approval, investigators “will use marijuana grown by the University of Mississippi under a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

• Researchers Try To Discover Which Pill Is Best Treatment. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette It is “sometimes easier to explore therapies that have already taken place by collecting information from large hospital and insurance systems,” including Veterans Affairs. Joel Kupersmith, VA’s chief research and development officer, told the Post-Gazette, “We’ve been doing it for a long, long time — over 35 years — well before it was called comparative effectiveness research.” The Post-Gazette added, “In May, the VA launched what it’s calling the Million Veteran Program, merging the DNA of its patients with seven years of detailed medical records into one database that can be used for health and wellness research purposes.”

• Wrong Surgery Down, Close Calls Up At VA Hospitals. AP “Medical procedures and surgeries on the wrong patient and wrong body part have declined substantially at Veterans Affairs hospitals nationwide, while reports of close calls have increased, according to a study that credits ongoing quality improvement efforts,” including a VA requirement that hospital workers report medical errors and near-misses to their superiors. The study, published online Monday in the Archives of Surgery, is “based on reports from mid-2006 to 2009; they were compared with data from the previous five years.”

• DoD Personnel Chief Slammed In IG Complaint. Army Times “At least six senior Pentagon staff members…have filed a complaint with the Defense Department Inspector General against the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, retired Marine Maj. Gen. Clifford Stanley. The complaint, filed anonymously July 11, accuses Stanley of fraud, waste and abuse, incompetence, and creating a command climate marked by fear and mistrust.” In a “separate letter sent to lawmakers in May,” a group of DOD executives “expressed grave concerns about inaction in a number of areas under Stanley’s jurisdiction, including…scant progress on creating a seamless electronic records system with the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

• VA Ends Special Rules After 2008 Shredding Flap. Army Times Veterans Affairs has “ended special handling rules for claims related to a 2008 disclosure that supporting information filed by some veterans may have been shredded.” Because VA officials “could not say if other supporting documents had already been destroyed, more lenient claims processing rules were announced in November 2009. VA announced Monday that those special rules are no longer needed.”

• SAHA Gets New Round Of Funding For Homeless Vet Program. San Antonio Business Journal The San Antonio Housing Authority will “receive $528,840 in Section 8 public housing vouchers to provide housing and case management services for homeless veterans.” The “services will be coordinated locally through a partnership” with the Audie L. Murphy Veterans Affairs Medical Center. According to the Business Journal, US Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan “says this latest round of funds are part of a national initiative to place homeless vets in housing.” In a news release, Donovan added, “Over the past three years, HUD helped thousands of homeless veterans find a permanent place to call home while VA provided medical treatment, case management and other services to address their specific needs. We have no greater mission than to prevent and end homelessness, especially for those brave men and women who risked their lives to protect our nation.”

• New Bionic Knee Could Improve The Quality Of Life For Amputees. KSDK-TV The US Department of Veterans Affairs is “working with a New York company to come up with better prosthetic devices.” The agency, meanwhile, is paying for some disabled vets to use the Genium Bionic Knee, which uses computer technology to help the vets walk. Disabled veteran Mike Tallman, who has tested the knee, says it is very responsive.

• VFW, IAVA Director Also Supporting Bill. Providence (RI) Journal Mr. Ray Kelley, national legislative director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), said the VFW is putting its “full weight of support behind the Hiring Heroes Act of 2011.” The bipartisan bill, currently “under consideration in Congress, would extend Chapter 31 (vocational rehabilitation) benefits for disabled veterans who have exhausted unemployment benefits, streamline the federal hiring process for separating service members and make Transition Assistance Program attendance mandatory.”  In an opinion piece for the Huffington Post of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff notes that the “unemployment rate for new veterans jumped to 13.3 percent in June, 4 percent higher than the national average.” Rieckhoff says he supports the Veteran Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act, which, among other things, “would mandate Transition Assistance Programs (TAP) for all separating service members.” Rieckhoff urges leaders “from both sides of the aisle” to “swiftly pass” the VOW Act and the Hiring Heroes Act of 2011.

• Closer-To-Home Care Right Remedy For Veterans. Billings (MT) Gazette “Finally,” Veterans Affairs is “launching a closer-to-home project for Billings area veterans. Billings has been chosen as one of five sites nationwide for a trial of the Access Received Closer to Home project.” According to the Gazette, the project “has the potential to eliminate many unnecessary miles.”