Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From the VA:

1.      VA Issues New Medical Forms To Streamline Claims Process. New Andrews Air Force Base’s Capital Flyer (10/28) reprints a VA release announcing the agency’s issuance of three new disability benefits questionnaires for physicians of veterans applying for VA disability compensation benefits. Intended to streamline the claims process, the new guides are “a major step in the transformation of VA’s business processes that is yielding improvements for veterans as we move to eliminate the disability claims backlog by 2015,” according to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. Shinseki has set the goal of processing all claims by 2015 in fewer than 125 days, with a decision quality rate of at least 98 percent. The first three questionnaires, the first of 79 planned, are designed to tie in with VA’s automated health records system and have are available to VA regional office claims adjudicators, and have been place on the Internet for access by private practitioners. The three new guides cover B-cell leukemia, Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease, the three new conditions covered under a regulation that took effect October 30 making them presumed eligible for disability claims for Agent Orange exposure.

 2.      World Series Game Dedicated To Veterans Initiative. On its website, Major League Baseball (11/1, Newman) notes that it “dedicated Sunday’s Game 4 of the 106th World Series to its ongoing role in the Welcome Back Veterans initiative with an all-day effort, honoring and encouraging support of returning military members and their families.” After noting that Sunday’s events included a “morning appearance by 15 former Rangers and military brass at VA North Texas Health Care System,” the website adds, “Welcome Back Veterans is an MLB Charities initiative…designed to support returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families in helping them make a successful transition to civilian life.”
     Former Major Leaguers Visit Vets At VA Facility. The WFAA-TV Dallas, TX (10/31, Norton) website noted that on Sunday, former players with the Texas Rangers, one of the teams competing in this year’s World Series, “used their star power to say thanks to some real heroes during a morning visit to the VA North Texas Health Care System facility in Dallas.” Major League Baseball “organized the visit and dedicated Game 4 to the vets, who got a few autographs from the array of ex major leaguers.” In turn, those players “did their best to convey their appreciation.” KDAF-TV Dallas, TX (10/31, 9:09 p.m. CT) also aired a report on the former Rangers’ VA facility visit.
     Mobile Vet Center Stationed Outside Stadium During Game. In its “Rangers” blog, the Dallas Morning News (10/31, Mosier , 257K) said that during Sunday’s game, the Veterans Affairs Department was going to “have a mobile Vet Center outside” of Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, where Sunday’s World Series game was played, “as an outreach to combat veterans needing readjustment help.” The website for Texas Cable News (11/1, Mosier) publishes a similar story.

 3.      State Suicide Prevention Conference Set For New Hampshire. A Media Newswire release (10/30) announces that the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is pleased to announce a New Hampshire Suicide Prevention Conference will held in Lincoln on November 5. It also notes that the Mobile Vet Center, National Guard and the VA Medical Center “will all be in attendance.”

 4.      South Carolina Group Gets VA, State Funds To Expand Housing For Homeless Vets. The Charleston (SC) Post Courier (10/31) reports that the Good Neighbor Center, a non-profit providing transitional housing for homeless veterans, “soon will expand to accommodate 14 additional veterans,” thanks to a $800,000 expansion being funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the state of South Carolina. The construction is set to begin next month and be finished in six months, according to the group’s executive director.

 5.      Study: Apnea Usually A Problem For Combat Vets With PTSD. MedPage Today (10/31, Phend) reported, “Combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) almost universally suffer sleep problems — with more cases of sleep apnea than might otherwise be expected — US Army researchers found. In a group of 135 young, otherwise healthy combat veterans with PTSD, 98.5% reported sleep complaints, Nick Orr, MD, and colleagues at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center…reported” during the “annual international scientific meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST).”

 6.      Former Dallas VAMC Psychiatrist’s Effort To Help Vets Noted. The Dallas Morning News (10/31, Horner, 257K) reports, “Over the years, as many as 200 homeless veterans visited Dr. Joel Feiner’s cluttered office at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center.” The “outspoken, award-winning Dallas psychiatrist helped transform many” veterans’ lives. Feiner “recently retired as medical director of the VA’s Comprehensive Homeless Center and as a professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, making for some tearful goodbyes.”

 7.      VA Study Finds Gender A Key Factor Post-War Mental Health Issues. AOL News (10/29, Drummond) reports, “According to a new study, a gendered distinction in the mental health problems that plague military servicemembers might help experts identify effective prevention and treatment strategies. Female veterans are more likely to be diagnosed with depression after serving in a war zone, while men appear more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder. The San Francisco VA Medical Center study of 330,000 veterans, all of whom served between 2002 and 2008, found a clear divergence between male and female diagnoses. Female veterans suffering from mental health problems were also, on average, younger than their male counterparts.”

8.      VA Holds Women’s Summit In Arkansas. KTHV-TV Little Rock, AR (10/30, Abubey, 7:46 p.m. EDT) reports on the first Women’s Summit in Arkansas. Coverage begins with Rhonda Norman, a Gulf War veteran who, the reporter says, “has a host of medical problems that serves as a constant reminder.” Norman says that there are “a lot of names for my problems: “connective tissue disorder, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, things of that nature.” While now receiving care from the local VA hospital, Norman adds that “I fought the VA system for nine years before I could really get somebody to listen that hey, I am disabled and I do have some issues.” Also appearing on camera are VA regional director Cheryl Rawls, who says that “Women don’t typically don’t see themselves as veterans. and women typically when they are done serving, they come back and they go into their traditional roles as the caretaker, and not as a person that should be taken care of.” Dr. Betty Brown, the associate director of the VA Women’s Center in DC, also appears briefly. The report notes that Arkansas “now has more than 20,000 of the nation’s 1.8 million women veterans.”

 9.      Women’s Clinic Opens At DeBakey VAMC. The Montgomery County (TX) Courier (10/30) reports that the Women’s Health Center has been moved from the fifth floor of the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center to a new, completely renovated space located on the first floor. The new 2,800-square-foot clinic will have seven exam rooms, a larger waiting area and its own private entrance; the “one-stop” women’s clinic provides routine primary care, gynecological services, patient education and preventive medicine.

 10.    Virginia-Based Company Wins VA Construction Contract. At the end of “Government Contracts Awarded,” the Washington Post (11/1, Mizell, 605K) reports, “Gormley/Hi-End Joint Venture of Alexandria,” Virginia, “won a $1.5 million contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs for construction of structures and facilities.”