Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 9-14-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans 

1. Shinseki’s Commitment to Accelerate Payments To Filipino WW II Veterans Noted.  
2. Medal Of Honor Recipients To Meet In Chicago This Week.  
3. Pentagon And VA Work To Prevent Suicide.  
4. Remains Of Civil War Soldier Will Be Brought To New York Tuesday.  
5. GI Bill Offers Degrees Of Gratitude.  
6. With "Veterans Chat," VA Expands Its Suicide Prevention Campaign.  
7. VA, Pentagon Looking To Link EHRs.  
8. Pentagon Said To Be Falling Short On Evaluation Of Mental Health Interventions.  
9. DAV Members To Participate In "Virtual March."  
10. Veterans May Benefit From Service Dogs.  

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HAVE YOU HEARD?
September is National Preparedness Month, a time for veterans, VA staff, and their families to take important steps to prepare for emergencies: Get a Kit of emergency supplies including water, food, flashlight, and first aid kit. Make a Plan for your family in an emergency, including how to stay in touch, shelter in place or evacuate. Know about possible threats at home and in the work place and how to respond. Get Involved to help your community prepare. Learn more at www.ready.gov and keep up with H1N1 flu information at http://www.publichealth.va.gov/h1n1flu/ 

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1.      Shinseki’s Commitment to Accelerate Payments To Filipino WW II Veterans Noted.   The Philippine Star (9/13) reports, "The United States government has given its commitment to speed up the processing of claims of thousands of Filipino World War II veterans. The assurance was given by US Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki in a meeting with Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) in Washington recently. … A total of 3,138 Filipino veterans with US citizenship already received $15,000 each, while 3,414 non-US citizen Filipino veterans got $9,000 each, Teodoro said. He conveyed the Philippine government’s appreciation for continuing US support for the veterans’ war claims. Shinseki reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to facilitate record verification procedures and the payment of claims. He informed Teodoro that the DVA plans to embark on an extensive outreach program for WW II veterans in the Philippines to meet the deadline for the submission of documentary requirements set on Feb. 16, 2010, a year after the signing of the Stimulus Bill. During the meeting, Teodoro thanked Shinseki for the DVA’s grant-in-aid to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) amounting to $5.5 million since 2003, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment amounting to $1 million, the delivery of which will be completed next year."  

2.      Medal Of Honor Recipients To Meet In Chicago This Week.   The Chicago Tribune (9/13, Reich) reports, "When more than 50 of the 95 living recipients of the Medal of Honor meet in Chicago this week for their annual convention, they’ll form one of the nobler gatherings this city has seen. Never before have the Medal of Honor recipients convened here. But most of these men — tested so severely in combat — were simply ordinary Americans before their wars, and after. And they can tell us a great deal about what makes a hero."  

3.      Pentagon And VA Work To Prevent Suicide.   The Louisville Courier-Journal (9/13, Ungar) reports, "The federal government estimates that 5,000 veterans commit suicide each year, and Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said suicides among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans could top combat deaths. He made the statement last year at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association and cited a study by Rand Corp., a nonprofit research organization, showing as many as 20 percent of veterans returning from these conflicts will suffer major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, and seven in 10 won’t seek help from the departments of Defense or Veterans Affairs. The toll is also rising in the active military, with the Army reporting the most confirmed suicides – 140 last year. Locally, Fort Knox reported five confirmed suicides in 2008 and 2009. Fort Campbell reported 24 suspected or confirmed suicides in the same period and in late May suspended regular duties for everyone for three days so commanders could better help soldiers at risk. Driving these numbers are pre-existing mental illnesses, post-traumatic stress disorder and relationship or financial problems worsened by long or repeated deployments, say mental health experts, who also
point to the stigma against seeking help in a culture known for toughness. Many families and veterans organizations argue that more needs to be done to stop the deaths. And military and Veterans Affairs officials say they are taking the problem seriously, beefing up mental health resources and suicide prevention programs."  

3.      Remains Of Civil War Soldier Will Be Brought To New York Tuesday.   Westchester.com (9/13) reports, "The New York National Guard brings home the remains of a New Yorker found at Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland to his home state next Tuesday. The remains of this unknown Soldier, who was between 19 and 21 years old when he was killed during the Civil War’s single bloodiest day, will arrive at the New York National Guard Camp Smith Training Site on Tuesday, Sept. 15 and then be brought to the New York State Military Museum on Wednesday, Sept. 16 and interred at Gerald B. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery with full military honors on Thursday, Sept. 17, the 147th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam." 

5.      GI Bill Offers Degrees Of Gratitude.   The Middletown (OH) Journal (9/13). 

6.      With "Veterans Chat," VA Expands Its Suicide Prevention Campaign.   In continuing coverage, George W. Reilly noted in the lead item for his Providence (RI) Journal (9/14) "Veterans’ Journal" column that the "Suicide Prevention campaign of the Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding its outreach to all veterans by piloting an online, one-to-one chat service for veterans who may or may not be enrolled" in the VA healthcare "system who prefer reaching out for assistance via the Internet. Called ‘Veterans Chat,’ the new service enables veterans, their families and friends to go online where they can anonymously chat with a trained VA counselor. If a participant is determined to be in a crisis situation, the counselor can take immediate steps to transfer the person to the VA Suicide Prevention Hotline, where further counseling and referral services are provided and crisis intervention steps can be taken."

 7.      VA, Pentagon Looking To Link EHRs.   New Hampshire’s Foster’s Daily Democrat (9/13, Cook) (9/13, Cook) reported, "The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are working on a new electronic medical records system that will let the agencies share information, a change that could speed up the VA benefit approval process for service members leaving the military." The piece continues to note concerns about privacy, weighing them against the increased efficiency of electronic records. The piece notes that "In the last three years, the VA has reported two security breaches involving the information of millions of active-duty military members and veterans. … Cynthia Smith, a Department of Defense spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said the agency will try to provide the best security for the new system. … While many DOD and VA facilities already use electronic records, the challenge will be integrating the
agencies’ systems. Officials are working on a cost estimate for the project. That will be built into the 2010 DOD budget that Congress will finalize in January, she said. She added that the VA budget is due to increase by $25 billion over the next five years." 

8.      Pentagon Said To Be Falling Short On Evaluation Of Mental Health Interventions.   Stars And Stripes (9/14, McCloskey) reports, "With an estimated 20 percent" of US "servicemembers returning from war zones suffering" from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), "a burgeoning suicide rate in the ranks and occasional murder or other extreme outbursts of violence, the Pentagon is scrambling to grapple with the mounting psychological fallout from America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Combat stress clinics have been set up near the front lines," troops "in training are learning how to gird themselves against mental troubles," and officers "are required to watch for signs of suicide risks among their subordinates. But in a vast military organization obsessed with metrics and measuring every aspect of its performance, experts say there is one glaring gap: The Pentagon has no system in place to evaluate whether its downrange crisis interventions are actually working." There "are no attempts being made to count the number of soldiers who visit the combat stress clinics or track their long-term mental health – an omission, mental health experts say, that means the military has no way of knowing about subsequent discipline problems, violent behavior or suicide attempts that might be traced back to battlefield stress."

9.      DAV Members To Participate In "Virtual March."   The Air Force Times (9/12, Kennedy) reported, "Thousands of Disabled American Veterans members will march the virtual highway" to Washington, DC, "next week to increase public awareness of veterans issues. They plan to focus on the Veterans Affairs Department’s disability claims process and 1 million claim backlog. ‘It is a terrible problem that will affect every veteran if not fixed now,’" DAV National Commander Roberto Barrera "said in a news release. ‘A detailed proposal intended to eliminate the backlog, save millions of taxpayers’ dollars and drastically cut the time in which veterans are not left in limbo will be rolled out during the virtual march,’" which, according to the Times, "will begin Tuesday
with video messages from veterans, family members, advocates, lawmakers and celebrities." 

10.    Veterans May Benefit From Service Dogs.   In an editorial, the Wheeling (WV) News-Register (9/12) noted, "Eight years ago," the Department of Veterans Affairs "was authorized by Congress to begin a program of providing service dogs to veterans. A mini-investigation by The Associated Press has disclosed that since the program began, the VA has provided just two dogs for veterans." The News-Register added, "Apparently some in the VA…decided to let sleeping dogs lie after they failed to get the program off the ground. Fortunately, a few members of Congress think differently," and bills have now "been introduced to provide funding for a pilot project to match some veterans with service dogs. VA officials should be told that if they don’t get the program moving, they’ll be in the doghouse with Congress." The Altoona (PA) Mirror (9/14, 32K) runs the same editorial, under the headline, "Dog VA To Unleash Program."