Post No. 16 - PTSD as first item on the agenda

Reporting for Roll Call -16:15 Hrs.-6-21-13

Hi LT:

Re: PTSD - Okay, you recommend that PTSD should be the first item on a veteran's agenda,to get his prmary doctor to set up an appointment with Mental Health Clinic, for an evaluation, and that this should be done completely separate from any other medical problems. Per your comment, to mention anything else just gives the VA bureaucracy a stronger opening to stall when it comes to filing a claim.

What this tells me is that the medical channels at the VA really have little to say about determining "disability". All they can do is give the medical facts about a given case, but not provide any kind of evaluation relating to disability. If that's the case then that's another one of those "landmines" in the process we were talking about.

Now, having gotten that appointment with the Mental Health folks, our Cherry Troop then faces whatever phsychological hoops these want him to jump through. And from that...are they the ones who make an evaluation about his level of PTSD? If so what happens next?

Re: For other problems, like Agent Orange impacts, you seem to be recommending that these be done separately. A shotgun approach?

Maybe it's just me, but such a piecemeal approach seems as cockamaimy a process as can be imagined. That's what it sounds like to me...but what do I know?

CENTURION  

Post No.15 - Moving into the Process

Reporting for Roll Call - 15:15Hrs - 6-19-13

Hi LT:

Re: VA Card...as I previously mentioned the medical services of the VA were then for those with service connected problems/disabilities or retirees. Maybe it was in the 90s, but it took enabling legislation by Congress to make it otherwise. If you recall, they mounted a big promotional campaign, including a deadline, to get veterans signed up for it. It wasn't until then that the idea of applying those services to all veterans really took hold. As far as I know, I'm still a Cat. C with that card. As to those who claim "they don't want or believe in getting a hand out", I've never considered that as anything but an ignorant outlook. Anyway, you asked me that question, and that was my take on it all. Any idiot can take a potshot at a situation, but it serves no purpose unless you have some thoughts about how to fix it...no matter how far out those might be (yeah, yeah...i"m as far out as it gets...I know.)

Re: PTSD...I'm with you, and glad we're getting into the process. The first thing that comes to mind is this: How is the claim initiated? I think our Cherry Troop should get some idea about it at this point. Who determines the need to file a disability claim? The veteran's doctor...both together? And what are the immediate requirements to do so? Can you give us some specifics about that? Not nitpicking, just curious and trying to understand the process. Well, I'm looking forward to that.

Short sidebar comment here...re: that 47% PTSD figure they've come up with...DUH...any veteran who has had combat experience must have been impacted by it. Granted, some more than others...interesting it's taken all those experts and pundits all this time to figure that out. C'est la vie!

CENTURION

POST No 15 - PTSD

Reporting for ROLL CALL  10:39AM  6/18/13

This morning, at Panera Bread here in Elk Grove, CA, I ran into an old buddy.  He was in combat in Vietnam, is my age, and is well off.  Happily married, a wonderful retirement and a fantastic home.  He has it all, and then some.  We got to talking about the VA, and by the time we finished, I had him on his way to the VA Advocate at our local VA Hospital.

Here's the long and short of it.  By now, here on ROLL CALL, we have 14 Posts with many replies.  We have 4 Rules and 3 Steps.  If in fact I could have read this all when I was honorably discharged from the US Army on Feb 4, '69, my life today would be noticeably different.  Of course, there were no personal computers then, and no Internet.  With this in mind, we are now about ready to tackle one of the most dreadful wounds of war:  PTSD.  Last week I heard a statistic that 47% of all American Veterans suffer from PTSD.  In one degree, or the other.  Some not so bad, some totally awful.  We are about to enter another room on ROLL CALL, and that is dealing with PTSD.

We already know there are @ one million backlogged claims at the VA today.  Many of these deal with PTSD.  Many of the Cherry Troops today, many with the '7 Year Burn', have been deployed more than one tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Some have severed 4 or more.  Let me assure you, these people are suffering from PTSD, in some form or the other.   And, from this point on, I am going to be dealing with the PTSD procedures at the VA.

Getting back to my friend an our conversation this morning, come to find out even though he 'doesn't need the VA', he does have a VA Card.  And he is receiving @ $200 per month for a disability.  (Maybe 20%?)  In Vietnam, he was a helicopter door gunner, and he also hauled Agent Orange.  He is now a diabetic, and there is no history in his family of this disease.  I told him to go to the VA Advocate this morning at the VA at Mather and sign up for 100% disability for Agent Orange 'wounds'.  He hesitated.  He told them the last time that they told him to go for PTSD.  His ears ring.  And, he actually did not believe me so much.

Then I asked him if he can remember when he was first diagnosed with diabetes.  He said 6 years ago.  I told him that he is 100% disabled, and he needs to put in a claim.  And, when he is 'awarded' his disability by the VA, it will go back 6 years to his original diagnosis for diabetes.  That means he will received a check for the rest of his life, tax free, for his 100% disability.  AND, he will receive a HUGE check for retroactive compensation going back to the first diagnosis for his diabetes 6 years.

He stood there and looked at me like I was trying to sell him some ocean front property in Utah.  Will he go to the VA Advocate?  Will he fill out the forms for his 100% disability from Agent Orange poisoning?  IF NOT, then he is crazy.  And, that's what PTSD is:  mentally ill.

So, now we are going to go into the subject of the Black Snake:  PTSD.

LT

Post No. 14 - Short Fallback and Re-Group

Reporting for Roll Call 14:30 Hrs 6-17-13

Hi LT:

Per our phone chat yesterday, I'm taking a short Fall Back and Re-Group moment here re:VA Card issue.

First of all, you asked...how come the armed services don't inform dischargees about their need to go get a VA card asap, after being discharged. I'm don't hold much with conspiracies here (diabolical or otherwise) Personally, I believe it really is just a case of -inertia- That is, the VA is the VA, and the armed forces are the armed forces, and although they're supposed to have some relation to each other, the two have never really "linked" together. In part that's also due to the way they were originally set up. Also, keep in mind, it wasn't until very recently that the VA Card was open to all honorably discharged veterans (2000-2002?). Since then, I suspect the reason the Services don't make any mention of it is because...it hasn't occurred to them that they should...it's as simple as that.

All of which brings us right back to some of our earlier debates about what's wrong with the system. It's not so much "broken" as way behind the times. The whole concept needs an "upgrade"...but no one has seriously considered doing so, beyond more or less cosmetic tweaks to it here and there. In many ways the VA is operating with antique procedures and structures, some of which seem to go all the way back to the Civil War!

Well. in our times, at least back to WWII. That's the crux of it all.

Okay...so how might this particular issue be fixed?

1) For the Armed Services part: These should be required to upgrade their part of the process by coming up with a new and common version of the old Dog Tags. That is, instead of metal, in the form of a miniature plastic "credit card" that could be swipable, just like with credit cards. This new plastic "Dog Tag" would have imbedded two strips. One for service record entries (from day one to discharge), and one for medical record entries(also, from day one till close out physical and discharge, including any annotations, evaluations, outcomes, etc.). The service member would have a personal pin code for access to it. Without it...no data accessible by anyone else, and only other option would be by some sort of signed release form by the service member. Lastly, as part of the discharging process, the Services would be required to provide a close-out counseling session, to include an information packet containing whatever current VA benefits and services that are available, plus, location, address, phone number of the nearest VA to the member's home town or place of discharge. Something along these lines would resolve the gap we were talking about.

2)For the VA's part: Should be required to produce these information packets for distribution to the Services. To further streamline the discharged veteran's connection with the VA, perhaps it should have a standardized corresponding incoming counseling process for each new troop that knocks on the door of one of its facilities. No matter where a veteran went, he'd be immediately referred to that "office". There, he'd register for his VA Card, and be assigned his primary doctor right off the bat...no delays at this point of the process. Strictly walk-in and wham bam...he's at the "intake" end of the funnel. Next, at his first appointment with his Doctor, he would present his plastic Dog Tag, the doctor would swipe his medical data into his own computer, the vet would enter his personal pin code to authorize/confirm it...now, his doctor would have all the medical EEI needed, for moving forward, to include that preliminary VA physical we mentioned before. The point of all this is that there would be no gap between the Services medical data/record, and what resulted from that initial VA physical. VA bureaucracy would have little or no wiggle room to screw around. Service provided medical facts about the veteran would be unimpeachable.

Well, that's what I think could fix things. It could be done very rapidly, and at relatively low cost besides, usuing existing technology, without overloading either the Services or the VA's budgets. A significant delaying factor would be eliminated, and backlogs of claims might become things of the past.

There are some related issues to all this, but this will do for now.

CENTURION

Post No. 13 - Re: Shrunken Heads

Reporting for Roll Call 16:50Hrs  6-14-13

Hi LT:

Yes, term limits are definitely something to push for, and, as you know, I've long been advocating a practical way to do it, without getting into a big fight over it with all those careerl incumbents cluttering up the Congress.But that's another subject to explore. Let's talk about "shrunken heads."

Per your comment my last post, apparently exiting service members are given a close out physical. Is that correct? If so, that's good. So now, as our cherry troop faces his PC doctor, who starts the process by asking him medical history questions. Your comment suggests that the doctor has absolutely no medical history info about the troop, even from his time in service. Correct? If not, how come? What do the troop and the doctor have to do to get that info? Apparently, as I understand it, the troop has to sign some sort of form "authorizing" the release of that info (Form No. 88 or 89?). So right there... is a delaying "land mine" Sure, demanding all sorts of exams, including a mental hygiene one, is fine, but shouldn't the troop's service medical history be included with all that?

Okay, so where and in what way does any-Advocate- fit into this process?

The picture I'm getting from all this, LT, is that, from the start, the process (whether for physical or mental matters) is focussed on crocheting procedures, not on expediting any outcome as much as possible.

CENTURION 

Post No. 12 - Getting Closer

Reporting for Roll Call 16:50 Hrs 6-12-13

Hi

First off...Re: Backlog Figure...that one million number was in various news outlets...not just the Net.

Well, we're getting closer to what I'm trying to get from all this...investigating the process...and doing a bit of "forensics" along the way. Your comment confirms things for me...you get fully checked out going into service...but nothing beyond a handshake when you leave it.  Frankly, it's not so much a case of indifference or considering any GI as nothing more than cannon fodder. It really is more of a matter of it being just an old practice...from way way back...which has more or less become a "normal" procedure (you might even say it's almost become...tradition).

Anyway, as I've pointed out, maybe that entire entry/exit process needs to be re-thought. That is,, given the state of the art in technology, perhaps those old dog tags of ours, instead of just the bare bones data on them, why not make them similar to a -flash drive -. On entry into service, the EEI re: physical, mental, condition is put in it.During service, any further medical entries are added to it. When being discharged, a close out medical entry is made, with whatever appropriate notes re:any physical or other dings incurred while in service. Something along these lines. Hell, instead of metal, the new style dog tags could be made of -graphene- (thinner, and almost indestructable). Okay...something the powers that be should chew on. You may be right...they just might catch up and get into this 21st Century of ours.

Moving on: Now, we've brought our Cherry Troop up to the point to where he's gotten his VA card,he's gotten an Advocate (of sorts...sounds like a 50/50 proposition to me), a primary care doctor,and now a complete physical. Based on the results from that, this puts him on the "threshold" so to speak. What if one of the results comes back showing he has either a physical or emotional problem/condition to one degree or another. What happens next? It seems to me that at this point the question of "disability" should logically come up. Who initiates that? The doctor? He's the primary care medical professional, shouldn't his medical opinion have some weight? Here's where things seem to get fuzzy in the process...for me. Can you elucidate on how things happen at this point?More importantly...who starts the process going forward?

Here's the impression I have of what happens. If you recall, last year, there was a big hooha about the Oakland, CA  VA facility having some 34,000 disability claims backlog. That suggests to me that the problem begins at the "intake" end of the funnel, not somewhere further up the chain. That is, it sounds like there is a preliminary evaluation/determination process right there at that facility, so if a given facility (such as Oakland) is not able to do that process in a timely way, all those who are trying to work their claim through it, get jammed up. Whereas at some other facility somewhere, if they don't have that problem, things move better forward. In some places, it may even be worse ( remember that other case in SC...the dead weight of those files were a menace to the structural integrity of the facility). All of which suggests that the key first "obstacle" or "land mine" in the process is the state of any given VA facility's capacity to handle the volume of claims it is handling. 

Let's do a bit of "disection" here, and see what are the pieces involved.

CENTURION

Post 12 on ROLL CALL 6/11/13 1:51PM

We have come a long way in a short time on ROLL CALL, and we have overcome some bumps in the road, and now, it is safe to say it is an established venue for any Veteran of the United States military system to use to educate one on the rights and benefits he or she has upon the honorable discharge of said individual.  This is not a BLOG or a 'social media' site.  Only 3 Veterans are running this site, and our 'mission' is to make available one 'truthful' medium whereby a Veteran can assimilate data not available from any other source.  It is also somewhat entertaining.  A dialogue between two Army Armor Officers who both had 'tank' experience, one in the Korean Conflict, and the other in the Vietnam "Peace Action", who have been Veteran Advocates for decades, coming together here, to question and answer each other in such a way as to share with others important facts as to how to get what you fought for in your service to this great nation.

I have a friend who is a few years older than I am, who is a retired police officer in the Sacramento area, a teacher, and a world traveler.  He is in my LRRP Network, and we meet several times a week at a local Starbucks here in Elk Grove, and 'shoot the bull'.  The other day, he questioned me about '...where did you get the figure of one million back logged claims pending at the VA?'.  I told him from the Internet.  He then asked me if I believe everything I read from the Internet?  I said, 'no'.  Then he stated that if he relays what I'm posting here and elsewhere about the million number of back logged claims, then he would be violating his principles of being truthful.  I then told him I have asked my doctors, CalVet consular and my 'shrink' about this number, and they all verified it.  Needless to say, I do not want any 'bad numbers' on this ROLL CALL, nor do I want to be spreading anything that is not the truth.

So, from the get-go, I have been directing Dan Da Man who is our 3rd Man here and my trusted web designer for most of my career and a fellow Vietnam Veteran who served with me in my outfit in Vietnam to place 'links' on this site.  Just today, I had him place a very important link that gives you the 'benefits' to an honorably discharged Veteran in every State in America.  These are 'facts'.  And, if you visit the links here, you will know the 'truths' we are discussing here are 'real' and are not 'rumors'.  So, if you in fact are a Cherry Troop and have been recently discharged from your service, or if you are about to be honorably discharged, this site is dedicated to you.  If in fact, you are a World War II Veteran, and you are interested in receiving some benefit for your honorable service, then this is also your site to gather needed facts.  

It is my mission here on ROLL CALL to entertain the reader in a way that makes him curious to see just what rights and benefits he has for serving our great Nation.  Be this as it may, I do hope the reader will benefit from this site.  And remember, I am here, as your Veteran Advocate to answer each and every question you may have, or to give me some specific information I can share with all here.  

LT Bobby Ross