Just read Jamie Reno’s piece that was posted at Veterans for Common Sense (via Newsweek) on the slowly changing culture at the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs towards treating PTSD and actually respecting our veterans.
I know, we’ll believe when we see it, and the definition of PTSD is contrived anyway. But many veterans and advocates do see a political will to move this agency in a different direction and actually give some respect to veterans.
Worth recalling is that then-Sen Barack Obama was one of a handful of senators in 2005 who hit the Bush administration when it targeted veterans with 100 percent disability rating and PTSD diagnosis.
And when is the last time veterans advocacy groups like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and Veterans for Common Sense were quoted in magazines like Time and Newsweek. Times are changing.
Writes Reno:
Shinseki, a wounded vet (he lost part of a foot in Vietnam) who clashed with former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the run-up to the war in Iraq, spelled out the VA’s new approach in a July speech to a medical symposium. ‘We have looked at ourselves closely and have decided to make advocacy—yes, advocacy—on behalf of veterans both our culture and overarching philosophy … It will involve a long-term process in reorienting our workforce and our work habits toward this philosophy. Culture change will take longer.’
One practical application of the new philosophy: the VA has launched its first-ever nationwide search for veterans in rural areas who suffer from PTSD but are unable or unwilling to travel long distances to a VA office. …
Shinseki is also working to improve the agency’s strained relationships with veterans’ services organizations. ‘The culture at the VA is changing,’ says Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan group for veterans of the current war. ‘They’ve reached out to us, and they’re saying the right things and bringing in good people.’ But Rieckhoff, an Army first lieutenant who served in Iraq, warns that implementing these changes will be a ‘massive challenge’ and that the VA still needs to adopt more of an open-door policy. ‘The VA has to accept that they’re just one component of a comprehensive solution to the veterans’ mental-health problems that must also include the Department of Defense, veterans’ organizations, and the public.’
With the national dialogue focused on civilian health care and the economy, Shinseki’s efforts to transform the VA have flown mostly under the radar. But people have begun to take notice, and even some of the agency’s harshest critics are guardedly optimistic. Paul Sullivan, a veteran of the Gulf war who worked at the VA as a project manager until 2006, is executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, which, with another veterans’ organization, sued the VA over its slow response to veterans’ disability claims. Despite the lawsuit, which is still in the courts, Sullivan calls Shinseki ‘a breath of fresh air at VA. But VA isn’t out of the woods yet; it remains in crisis due to decades of chronic underfunding, unresponsive leaders, and overly complex policies that often result in unfair delays and denials for health care and benefits. There’s still a long way to go.’ …
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