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

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1.   Hospice Savannah uses donation to improve treatment for veterans.  Savannah Morning News   Onlookers applaud as a memorial to American veterans is unveiled on the grounds of Hospice Savannah’s Hospice House. By Corey Dickstein Through partnerships with the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the We Honor Veterans group, Hospice Savannah …
2.   NIH Funds Continued Research in Suicide Prevention.  University of Rochester Newsroom  A major collaborative undertaking with the US Department of Veteran Affairs, the Veteran Affairs Center of Excellence for Preventing Suicide in Canandaigua, includes several Medical Center faculty members. In addition to his work in China, Conwell, …
3.   Lawmaker asks DOD to review cases for possible upgrade to Medal of Honor.  A California lawmaker is calling for a full review of top military medals to see if deserving heroes were passed over for the Medal of Honor, citing the story of Sgt. 1st Class Alywn Cashe as a prime example of officials downplaying battlefield valor.
4.   Vets resource center to open in Minneapolis.  KARE  A new Veterans Resource Outreach Center will open in February of 2012, at 1201 Harmon Place near downtown Minneapolis. The center is one of 16 the US Department of Veterans Affairs has approved nationwide. It will provide social services, …
5.   Stevens Institute of Technology Partners with Bright Star Scanning to Train.  MarketWatch   Founded in 2008, it has a singular goal of providing veterans with training and employment in real-world, long-term careers in a supportive environment designed to help them succeed. Working alongside the Department of Veteran Affairs, United Way, …
6.   Father’s quest for military gravestone for reservist son inspires bill.  Poughkeepsie Journal  Karl Rabe/Poughkeepsie Journal For information on current policy regarding eligibility to receive government headstones and markers, visit the US Department of Veterans Affairs website at www.cem.va.gov or call 1-800-697-6947. All 77-year-old Charles …
7.   How Congress Is Wasting Taxpayer Money And Government Time.   Washington Post   “As Washington has become increasingly partisan and year-long budget agreements harder to come by, Congress has relied more and more on stopgap budgets.” In 2009, the “Government Accountability Office found exactly how stopgap budgets muck up the basic functions of government: CRs have frequently forced agencies to put off hiring, reduplicate contracts and delay such things as food oversight and Social Security payments to disabled Americans. In 2009, the GAO says, the Veterans Health Administration estimated that a one-month CR ‘results in over $1 million in lost productivity at VA medical facilities and over $140,000 in additional work for the agency’s central contracting office.'”
8.   Study Associates Glaucoma With Cocaine Abuse.  Medscape   “Male veterans who had used substantial amounts of cocaine were 45% more likely to have glaucoma, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Glaucoma.” The “study looked at 5.3 million men and women who visited the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) outpatient clinics in fiscal year 2009.” Medscape adds, “The VA has a very strong program of vigilance for drug abuse and keeps a particularly thorough database of records on it because drug abuse is common among veterans, the investigators said.”
9.   Heart Stent Patients May Safely Go Home Same Day As Procedure.  Bloomberg News  “Patients with clogged arteries who get a heart stent implanted to hold open the vessels may safely be released from the hospital the same day as the procedure, potentially reducing health-care costs, a study found.” The lead author of the study, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is Sunil Rao, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
10.  A Home And More For Female Veterans.  Albany (NY) Times Union The Guardian House, the “Capital Region’s first residence for female homeless” veterans, “opened in Saratoga County Monday amid other exciting developments for women who have served in the military.” The Times Union continued, “The home’s supporters raised about $300,000 in private donations over three years and received a $212,000 grant from the VA to purchase the home, make repairs and furnish it,…said” Budd Mazurek, executive director with the Saratoga County Rural Preservation Co. The Times-Union added, “Also, the Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany in the coming months will open a women’s wellness center on its eighth floor, where former female military personnel will access gender-specific care through a single physician for the first time, said Jane Weber, female veterans program manager at Stratton.”

Have You Heard?

A Home for Homeless Female Vets

As more women join the military, VA has expanded care and benefits they have earned through service, including a grant that helped build a home for homeless female Veterans to help them get back on their feet. Learn more

More Veteran News

•  Some Neuroscientists Says Vets With PTSD May Not Be Getting Access To Memory-Dampening Drugs.   USA Today  “Aversion to memory-dampening drugs among medical researchers may leave millions of veterans and assault victims needlessly suffering post-traumatic stress disorders, some neuroscientists are warning. A growing number of drugs show signs of leaving memories intact but dampening the emotions of PTSD victims, while others show even stronger effects on wiping out memories, says medical ethicist Adam Kolber of the Brooklyn Law School in New York.” He has “called for scientists to expand research into memory effects of drugs, such as propranolol, commonly given to treat high blood pressure, which show signs of taking the edge off a memory’s emotions if given within a few hours of trauma.” Some critics, though, think memory-dampening drugs change the fundamental identities of patients.

•  Poll: 1 In 3 Vets Sees Iraq, Afghan Wars As Wastes.  AP  “One in three US veterans of the post-9/11 military believes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth fighting, and a majority think that after 10 years of combat America should be focusing less on foreign affairs and more on its own problems, according to an opinion survey released Wednesday.” The findings from the Pew Research Center “highlight a dilemma for the Obama administration and Congress as they struggle to shrink the government’s huge budget deficits and reconsider defense priorities while trying to keep public support for remaining involved in Iraq and Afghanistan for the longer term.” According to the AP, the poll results “portray post-9/11 veterans as proud of their work, scarred by warfare and convinced that the American public has little understanding of the problems that wartime service has created for military members and their families.”

•  Veterans Proud But Struggling In Civilian Life.  USA Today   “Veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq are having greater difficulty returning to civilian life than veterans from previous eras but remain proud of their service, according to the results of a Pew Research survey released” this week. Forty-four “percent of those surveyed say their adjustment to civilian life has been difficult, compared with the 25% of veterans surveyed from previous eras. Half of those who served in combat report signs of post-traumatic stress, and 75% report living with nightmares and flashbacks from their combat experience.”

•  20 Percent Of Returning Iowa Soldiers Unemployed.  AP   “Twenty percent of the 2,800 Iowa soldiers who returned earlier this year from Afghanistan didn’t have civilian jobs waiting for them, an informal survey showed.” Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve conducted the survey. The “tough job market may be one reason many returning soldiers enroll in college under the GI bill. About 1,000 of the Iowa National Guard members who returned in July indicated they planned to go to college.”

•  Tactics To Improve Drug Compliance.  American Medical News  “Working with noncompliant patients isn’t easy, says” Dr. Lars Osterberg, “chief of general internal medicine at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in California,” who added, “It takes an awful lot of compassion and patience and understanding.” American Medical News added, “Most noncompliance is due to patients’ intentionally forgoing medication, but new technologies could help patients who are forgetful or misunderstand instructions. These include seemingly obvious fixes, such as easier-to-understand prescription-bottle labels and drug packaging that separate pills by when they should be consumed — the way that birth-control pills are labeled.”

• Nonprofit Honors Three Local Hospitals.  Northwest Florida Daily News   “Three local hospitals were nationally recognized as top performing hospitals. They are Fort Walton Beach Medical Center, Twin Cities Hospital and the VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System, which includes VA hospitals and outpatient clinics (such as the one at Eglin AFB) from Panama City to Biloxi, Miss. The national recognition” for “performance in five categories” — heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical and children’s asthma – “came from The Joint Commission,” which is described on its website as a “nonprofit organization that accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States.” The Daily News said VA performed well in treating pneumonia.

•  Fort Sam Cemetery Director Has Ties To Alamo.  San Antonio (TX) Express-News 65-year-old Gill Gallo, the director of Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, has “something few people can claim: a family link to the Alamo, and to the burial of fallen troops from the storied battle for Texas independence.” Since Gallo “became Fort Sam’s cemetery director in July 2010,” he has “begun to contemplate the trials of his ancestor, Juan Vargas, an Aztec Indian and Tejano pioneer who at age 40 was captured by the army of Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna.” Gallo said Vargas’ life was spared “because he was older,” and “they didn’t want to kill him.” Gallo also spoke about the work he does at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, stating, “Every burial has got to be done in a dignified way, as if it was our own family member.”

• The VA’s Solution For Acquisition Talent Shortage.  AOL Government  “The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has found an innovative way to address a shortage of trained acquisition professionals, growing contracting complexities and a need to curb waste, fraud and abuse for itself and other federal agencies. Since September 2008,” VA has “operated its own Acquisition Academy — a school built from the ground up to train a new generation of procurement officers to handle the agency’s $16 billion annual procurement budget.” According to the academy’s chancellor, Lisa Doyle, the academy “wanted to create learning that improved performance.” AOL Government added, “In an age of belt-tightening and the demands to do something new, different and better, the VA’s academy is a model for what government must do to succeed in the world of procurement.”

• Vet Wants To Prove He Served In Vietnam.  “Sgt. Shaft”  Washington Times

•  Help, Salute For Women Veterans.   San Bernardino (CA) Sun

•  Brighton Heights Vet’s Stolen Van Is Back — Again.  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

•  Homeless Brevard Vet Finds Way To Get Life Back On Track.  Florida Today