Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 8-17-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Shinseki Announces New Vet Centers.  
2. Shinseki Touts New GI Bill’s Provisions.  
3. Obama To Discuss Iraq, Afghanistan During Speech At VFW Convention.  
4. Official Touts Importance Of Virtual Lifetime Electronic Records.  
5. VA Said To Face "Epidemic" Of PTSD-Related Suicides.  
6. Florida United Way Chapter Awarded Grant To Combat Veterans’ Mental Health Issues.  
7. Families Of Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan And Iraq Wait Moths For Arlington Burial.  
8. CBO Says It Is Difficult To Compare Improved VA System To Others.  
9. VA To Begin Verbal Consent Policy On HIV Tests.  
10. VFW Convention Opens In Phoenix.

1.      Shinseki Announces New Vet Centers.   The Salt Lake Tribune (8/15, LaPlante) reports, "Washington County will be one of 28 locations to receive a new center where combat veterans can receive readjustment counseling and other assistance starting in 2010, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki announced on Friday. The community-based Vet Centers are part of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ mental health outreach program. They will provide mental health screening, post-traumatic stress disorder counseling, employment help and other services. The new centers will bring to 250 the number of locations nationwide. … Utah Department of Veterans Affairs director Terry Schow said the announcement of the Washington County center — for which he has been pushing for several years — was ‘great news.’"
      The Northwest Florida Daily News (8/15) reports, "A veteran’s mental health center will open in Okaloosa County next year. Few details about the new center were available Friday afternoon, but the facilities traditionally offer an array of programs, including mental health screenings and post-traumatic stress disorder counseling, according to a news release from U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller. Right now, the Department of Veterans Affairs operates more than 230 such community outreach centers across the country to provide ser-vices to veterans and their families. Each center is staffed with social workers, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, counselors and outreach specialists – most of whom are veterans themselves.
      The La Crosse Tribune (8/15) reports, " La Crosse County will get a new veterans center in 2010, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Friday. It will be among 28 new centers across the U.S. where combat veterans will receive readjustment counseling and other assistance, according to the department’s news release. No one could be reached late Friday for details, such as where the new center might be located in the county. It also is intended to serve veterans in Monroe County." 

2.      Shinseki Touts New GI Bill’s Provisions.   The Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer (8/16) reprints a message from Secretary Shinseki titled, "Investing In America’s Veterans." According to Shinseki, "Educated by the G.I. Bill and motivated in part by the bill’s incentive to home ownership, the veterans of the ‘Greatest Generation’ engineered a post-World War II economic boom that allowed the United States to become the world’s largest economy, leader of the free world, and ultimate victor in the Cold War. Today, our youngest veterans offer a similar promise of future leadership, thanks to a post-9/11 G.I. Bill that was sponsored by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and 58 co-sponsors, including then-Sen. Barack Obama. This new G.I. Bill is the most comprehensive educational benefits package offered to veterans since the original G.I. Bill in 1944. It provides money for tuition and books, fees, a living allowance, and the option to transfer unused educational benefits to spouses or children. V A pays 100 percent of costs up to the highest rate of in-state tuition and fees at state colleges and universities."
 

3.      Obama To Discuss Iraq, Afghanistan During Speech At VFW Convention.   In continuing coverage, the AP (8/17, Sidoti) reports, "A commander in chief fighting two wars, President Barack Obama plans to thank veterans for their service on Monday while pressing his commitments to wind down the Iraq war and redouble efforts in Afghanistan." While addressing "members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars gathered in Arizona at the organization’s annual convention," Obama will "’talk about where we are currently in both those two conflicts. He’ll talk about what we owe the men and women in uniform’ as well as ‘their contributions to the betterment of those two countries,’ said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs." Gibbs "said he also expects the president to discuss his defense budget and decisions such as ‘whether or not we’re going to fund expensive weapons programs the Pentagon says we don’t need, or give our men and women fighting in those two dangerous places in the world and other places the resources they need.’" 

4.      Official Touts Importance Of Virtual Lifetime Electronic Records.   The American Forces Press Service (8/15, Cragg) reported, "For servicemembers who still remember hand-carrying their medical records back and forth to appointments, the new virtual lifetime electronic record will help prevent misplaced paperwork and help providers maintain and offer quality health care," Navy Rear Adm. Gregory A. Timberlake, "the acting director of the Defense Department-VA Interagency Program Office, said" Thursday "in a ‘DotMilDocs’ interview on Pentagon Web Radio." President Barack Obama, "along with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, announced April 9 that VA and the Defense Department have taken steps toward creating a joint virtual lifetime electronic record, or VLER." 

5.      VA Said To Face "Epidemic" Of PTSD-Related Suicides.   The St. Paul Pioneer Press (8/16, Rosario) reports, "Enrique Monjarrez sat on the living room couch, the barrel of a shotgun pressed against his lower chin, the butt wedged tightly between his feet. It was about 4 a.m., late summer of 2006. He was intoxicated. He was delusional. He was finally giving in to the demons. Time to kill the pain, he remembers thinking at the time. He was struggling to reach the trigger when his wife walked in. … The attempted suicide took place three years after the 31-year-old former Marine from St. Paul returned from serving six months in Iraq. He sought treatment at the VA Medical Center at Fort Snelling, not far from where he now works administering tests and processing paperwork for potential Marine recruits. But, as he describes it, he didn’t allow it to take. So, less than a year later, St. Paul firefighters found him unconscious, face-down in a snowbank, overdosing and convulsing on a volatile cocktail of prescription drugs he had wolfed down minutes earlier." According to the Pioneer Press, "Monjarrez’s struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression and his attempts to take his life are hardly an anomaly. In fact, they are a disturbing national crisis, if not an epidemic. More active-duty military members and reservists killed themselves between January and mid-July this
year than were killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a recent New York Times series. The VA acknowledges that an average of 18 veterans commit suicide daily. There are also roughly 1,000 suicide attempts a month among veterans in contact with the VA in some manner." 

6.      Florida United Way Chapter Awarded Grant To Combat Veterans’ Mental Health Issues.   The Daytona Beach News-Journal (8/16, Circelli) reports, "The United Way of Volusia-Flagler Counties received a $240,000 grant that is being distributed to Serenity House, the local Mental Health Association, The House Next Door and Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare to provide services until August 2010. The grant comes from the Community Foundation in Jacksonville and the Iraq Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund of the California Community Foundation. ‘The trauma that a soldier brings back from these wars will impact everybody that soldier is in a relationship with,’ said Ray Salazar, president of the local United Way, who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam." 

7.      Families Of Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan And Iraq Wait Moths For Arlington Burial.   The New York Post (8/16, Fisher) reports, "The families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are being told to wait — sometimes two months — until their loved ones can be buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery. The hallowed memorial site, which handles up to 27 burials a day, is so overwhelmed with the bodies of elderly veterans and young soldiers that families are told they’ll have to go without full-honors ceremonies if they want a timely burial, according to a spokesman. ‘We’re losing veterans at a pretty good clip — World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War,’ said Dave Foster, a spokesman for the military." 

8.      CBO Says It Is Difficult To Compare Improved VA System To Others.   McClatchy (8/16) reported, "The Department of Veterans Affairs has made significant improvements to its health system, but comparing it to other systems is difficult, according to a new report released by the nonpartisan" Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In "recent years, the VA and its supporters have touted several studies that detail the VA’s improving quality measures, sometimes saying those studies show it has the best health care system in the nation." But comparing "that system – and its implications for the debate over overhauling the nation’s health care system – with other health plans is difficult, the CBO said. For starters, the vast majority of veterans who receive some of their care from the VA also get care outside the system."
      During Healthcare Meetings, Veterans Praise VA Care.   On its website KARE-TV Minneapolis, MN (8/16, Croman) noted that on Friday, during a town hall meeting on healthcare held in Willmar, Minnesota, veteran Larry Paulson "said he believes the Veterans Administration hospital system is a government run health care program that works well and could serve as a model." Paulson, who "said the VA hospital in Saint Cloud runs like a top," added, "Talk about pre-
existing conditions, look at the shape of these guys who are coming back missing arms, missing legs, their brains fried. Yet the VA deals with that day after day. Don’t tell me the government can’t run a program that works!"
      Similarly, the Des Moines (IA) Register (8/16, Beaumont, Clayworth) noted that at a public meeting on healthcare held recently in Iowa, veteran Bill Wallace said he gets "really good treatment" at the "VA hospital in Iowa City." He told others in attendance at the meeting that while they may not "like government," they should "try to go the middle path on this." 

9.      VA To Begin Verbal Consent Policy On HIV Tests.   The AP (8/17, Hefling) reports, "The Veterans Affairs Department on Monday begins offering routine HIV tests to veterans who receive medical care. Under the new policy, veterans must verbally consent to the test," which can also be declined. Previously, "veterans had to sign a consent form. The new policy follows recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," which "says all patients should be offered HIV testing even if they are not considered at risk. The hope is that by dropping the written consent, more veterans will get tested and get medical treatment earlier." 

10.    VFW Convention Opens In Phoenix.   The Arizona Republic (8/15, Creno) reports, "As many as 13,000 military veterans are heading for Phoenix beginning today to bring together the people who fought in old wars and new wars, elect new leaders and hear a speech from the president. The Veterans of Foreign Wars is hosting President Barack Obama for the group’s annual meeting, but it’s not the only reason members are getting together. VFW spokesman Jerry Newberry said communicating with members, both new and old, is on the agenda. He said a key message is that the group welcomes the new generation of veterans, including women."