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

We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need

1.   ‘Stand Down’ offers homeless vets access to services, benefits, clothes.  The Seattle Times  On Thursday, he was able to check in with federal Department of Veterans Affairs and other officials at the “Stand Down.” Many of them are already-familiar faces, though, and he said he wasn’t sure how much more anyone can do. “We know everyone in this …
2.   Civil War preservation group hosts celebration.  nwitimes.com  The headstones are being provided by the US Department of Veterans Affairs and are being installed by volunteers, including Crown Point excavator Ken Ziese. Any donations given at the door of Saturday’s event will go to new headstones for the wives of …
3.   Group aims to help local Veterans find jobs and create businesses.  WVLT  That’s why congress needs to pass this bill.” The State Commissioner of the Tennessee Veterans Affairs met with local veterans and small business owners to talk about what they can do at home. Ann Davis with the Tennessee Veterans’ Business Association …
4.   New East TN Veterans Cemetery to bury first veteran. WBIR-TV  … rest of the week even though the cemetery has not been officially dedicated. Veterans Administration officials said that ceremony is tentatively scheduled for the afternoon of October 28, 2011. Dignitaries from around the state are expected to attend.
5.   Veterans Court puts its focus on helping those in trouble.  The Olympian  In Veterans Court the prosecutor, defense counsel, judge, treatment providers, social workers, veteran administrator and representative from the state Department of Veterans Affairs, work collaboratively to ensure that the defendant is held accountable …
6.   Post University Named Military-Friendly School For Second Consecutive Year.  Hartford Courant  Ed Lizotte, Post University’s director of military programs and veterans affairs. “It is a testament to our commitment to providing active duty, veteran, and military dependents with the educational opportunities and support that they need to succeed. …
7.   INTEGRITYOne Partners to Participate in Major Veterans Affairs IT Program.  PR Newswire … (IT) consulting firm recognized for the creative solutions, innovative ideas, discipline, and rigor its high-performing teams deliver to clients, announced today its participation in the T4 program at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). …
8.   Days before DADT repeal, lawmakers ask DOD for a delay.  Two prominent House Republicans are asking military leaders to keep the controversial ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy in place past next Tuesday’s repeal deadline because several paperwork questions are unresolved.
9.   Walk to honor bring attention to post-traumatic stress disorder.  The Coloradoan  Those with post-traumatic stress disorder would be given an option to seek care from the local US Department of Veterans Affairs branch or the therapist of their choice, at the VA’s expense, or be referred to a nonprofit organization. …
10.  Joint Chiefs Chairman Reflects On Wars, Bin Laden. USA Today Michael Mullen, who “steps down as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the end” of this month, Mullen “attended town-hall-style meetings” in Atlanta “and in Miami this week…and warned of homelessness among veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Veterans Affairs Department estimates 76,000 veterans are homeless on any given night.” USA Today quotes Mullen, who said the US owes veterans “every effort to repay” them for the sacrifices they make during war.

Have You Heard?

VA Medical Centers Make Top Performers List

Twenty VA medical centers from across the nation were recognized by The Joint Commission as Top Performers on Key Quality Measures for 2010.
Read more at VAntage Point

More Veteran News

• Mullen Praises VA But Says Agency Can Improve. AP  “Worried about the military becoming disconnected from civilian Americans, the top US military official met with veterans and community leaders in Miami in the latest of dozens of town hall events he has been holding across around the country.” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “who will be retiring in October, and other military leaders have held more than 200 town hall-type events to give a voice to the challenges troops are facing and better connect with communities across the United States.” During the Miami event Mullen discussed Veterans Affairs, stating, “We’ve seen extraordinary care” in VA, but “I think the VA leadership would also say we still have miles to go.”

• The FDA’s Dr. Lawrence Deyton On The Tests Of Leadership. Washington Post Interviewer Dr. Lawrence Deyton, “director of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products. In his long public service career, Deyton established community programs for clinical research on AIDS at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) where he was chief public health officer and oversaw VA programs aimed at HIV, hepatitis C, bioterrorism, military environmental exposure, women veterans health tobacco use and employee occupational health.” When asked what is “some of the best leadership advice” he has ever received, Deyton said, “One of the sayings that I’ve used for a long time comes from Eric K. Shinseki, the secretary of the VA. It goes something like this: ‘If you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevancy even more.’ To me, that advice means you either need to lead change or change will lead you.”

• Report Finds Improved Performance By Hospitals. New York Times “In the latest advance for health care accountability, the country’s leading hospital accreditation board, the Joint Commission, released a list on Tuesday of 405 medical centers that have been the most diligent in following protocols to treat conditions like heart attack and pneumonia.” The Commission’s “list of top performers included a disproportionate share of small and rural hospitals, as well as 20 Veterans Affairs medical centers.”

• HHS Consumer Health IT Summit Power-Charged For Progress. Healthcare IT News In Washington, DC, on Monday, “Federal officials hosted a consumer health IT summit” that was “charged with a wave of energy toward grass roots change, specifically supporting patient-centered care.” During the event, “Federal officials…announced that the Blue Button program launched by the Veterans Health Administration, is now going mainstream. It has extended its reach beyond…VA and is now supported by healthcare providers and health plans, with availability already extended to millions of Americans.”

• At Start Of Summit, Lawmakers Disagree On Government’s Role In Creating Jobs For Vets.  Washington Post  On Tuesday, a Capitol Hill summit on veterans employment “erupted into an acrimonious and partisan debate over the government’s role in creating jobs for veterans. The event, billed as a summit to discuss best practices for hiring veterans into the private sector, began on a testy note during opening statements when Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), criticized chairman Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) for suggesting the government should stay out of the way of businesses that are creating jobs for veterans.” Speaking “after Miller and Filner, Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) brought a stop to most of the partisan bickering,” stating, “From an ideological perspective, I don’t give a damn who creates the jobs.” Walz, a retired Army National Guard command sergeant major, added, “I just want them created.”

• Advocate: Legislation Is Needed To Help Vets Adapt To Civilian Workforce. PBS’ Nightly Business Report “The unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan vets is 12.4%, and for vets ages 20 to 24, about 21% are out of work.” President Obama “recently proposed a new tax credit to incentivize businesses to hire veterans,” while lawmakers in the House and the Senate are “considering legislation to improve vocational education.” Tom Tarantino with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America “says that legislation will give veterans the training they need to adapt to the civilian workforce.”

• More Veterans Are Using PTSD As Defense In Criminal Cases. Los Angeles Times “After a decade of combat overseas, growing numbers of veterans are relying” on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “as a central element of their defenses in criminal cases.” The Times adds, “Courts and prosecutors are far more willing now than during the Vietnam era to consider a veteran’s combat trauma in sentencing for nonviolent crimes, lawyers say. Veterans’ groups credit a growing awareness of PTSD, activism by advocates for the mentally ill and a nation sympathetic to the conditions under which soldiers must operate.”

• Rx Drug Choices Better If Patients Have More Info. MedPage Today “Many Americans mistakenly think FDA approval means a drug is both safe and effective, researchers reported. And substantial minorities think only effective and safe drugs can be marketed to consumers, according to Steven Woloshin, MD, and Lisa Schwartz, MD, both” of the White River Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont. MedPage Today adds, “But in a randomized trial, simple, brief explanations helped patients make better drug choices, Woloshin and Schwartz reported in the September issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.”

• The Reckoning. National Journal  Dr. Ronald Glasser warns in his “recent book, Broken Bodies, Shattered Minds: A Medical Odyssey from Vietnam to Afghanistan,” that the United States “will face a moral and economic reckoning in caring for so many…veterans” who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mental-health experts, meanwhile, are concerned about the effects of multiple combat deployments on veterans. Dr. Robert Petzel, Veterans Affairs’ undersecretary of health, stressed that when it comes to caring for the wounded, his agency and the Defense Department have “gone from a relatively low-level of interaction in 2001 to a degree of cooperation that is historically unprecedented.” The Journal also quoted Dr. Shane McNamee, the chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the VA’s Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in Richmond, Virginia, who said “we have” often “regeared to tailor our care delivery to subsequent waves of service members with different kinds of wounds.”

• Event Designed To Raise Awareness Of Suicide Prevention, Resources. Billings (MT) Gazette  A suicide awareness event was held by the “Suicide Prevention Coalition of Yellowstone Valley, Montana Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and RiverStone Health.” Edward Elhard, “team leader at the Vet Center, said 20 US veterans each day commit suicide. To help address the issue in Montana, the Vet Center uses a $300,000 Mobile Vet Center to reach veterans in the most remote corners of the state.”

•  Helping Veterans Avoid Suicide. Carmi (IL) Times “Information to help veterans and their loved ones identify post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and suicide risks will be presented in Carmi, Metropolis and Chester, the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) has announced. The first of the informational workshops is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 16, in Metropolis, followed by workshops Sept. 23 in Chester and Oct. 5 in Carmi.” During the workshops, speakers “from the Marion Veterans Affairs Medical Center will provide critical information on how to spot individuals struggling with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other suicide risks.”

•  Female Veterans Bring Changes At San Diego’s VA Hospital. KPBS-FM “KPBS reporter Alison St John says the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego is going though a cultural shift to adapt to the needs” of its female patients. Jennifer Roberts is the medical center’s “first full-time program manager for women vets. Every VA hospital now has one — thanks to a Congressional mandate passed in 2009 — to deal with the growing number of women veterans.”

•  Heart Of A Marine Foundation To Partner With Edward Hines Jr. Elk Grove Village (IL) Tribune  “The Heart Of A Marine Foundation, headquartered in Elk Grove Village,” and the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital “have partnered to assist veterans in ‘Walking Tall’. The Heart Of A Marine Foundation’s ‘Walking Tall’ program will donate 800 ergonomically correct, orthopedic canes to Hines VA annually.” The “first delivery of 180 canes was made Friday, September 9.”

• Former Homeless And Alcoholic Veteran Shares Story.  State Journal Formerly homeless veteran Samuel Priester is “one of many veterans who has taken advantage” of Veterans Affairs’ programs and resources. He “went through counseling and an aftercare/work program, and now owns his own home.” The Journal adds, “The VA in Clarksburg wants you to contact them if you are a veteran and need some help with work or housing,” you “can call the homeless program at 304-623-3461, extension 3583.”

• Prisoners Of War And Service Members Missing In Action To Be Honored During Service At Great Lakes National Cemetery. Flint (MI) Journal  “A service honoring prisoners of war and military personnel missing in action will be held Saturday at the Great Lakes National Cemetery,” which is located n Holly Township. The “second annual Prisoner of War/Missing in Action service, which starts at 1 p.m., will focus on the true story of three former prisoners of war. The program will also include music, poetry and a rifle salute.”