Welcome to Chaos, General Shinseki

A Report from the Field

Should this war continue any length of time, in the great summing up those whose , dear ones have been sacrificed by maladministration in this important branch of the army will be justified in their resentment, and the taxpayer doubly taxed to support our pension burdens. VETERAN. New York, May 27, 1898.

Published: September 6, 1898 Copyright © The New York Times

I am uniquely positioned to address both military healthcare and veterans healthcare and services. A patient at Walter Reed Army Hospital, I am constantly seeking to educate and assist veterans and returning military concerning access to benefits and opportunities. The news is not good.

The unknown veteran above was warning of civilianizing the military medical establishment. A lesson we learned well at great price. During this Iraq War, the Walter Reed military healthcare team did something the Department of Defense unsuccessfully tried to do since the Korean War. They reduced wounded deaths from 25% to 15%. In actual lives, this major success means well over 3,000 of our wounded soldiers did not become Killed In Action (KIA). However, the carnage of war makes casualties of us all. I first noticed the increasing numbers of local deaths due to military action. Then I noticed the financial and legal troubles mounting among our local young men and women who served in these wars. I became involved assisting them on an individual basis until I became known as a "veteran guy". I even accepted a position as county director of veterans affairs for a time. I found the situation to be FAR worse than expected.

Just yesterday, a young soldier discharged after two tours in Iraq, said he was finished dealing with the VA. His not unusual complaint was that he was grilled and treated like he was trying to get something for nothing. He will not pursue his claim any further. This veteran's claim involved PTSD, back injury and shrapnel damage. He has at least two purple hearts. Somehow the VA has gone from a supporting veterans to blocking veterans. Their on line fact sheet clearly does not first address caring for those who served; rather is clear it is a distributor or provider. Care is only mentioned well down the sheet.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was established on March 15, 1989, succeeding the Veterans Administration. It is responsible for providing federal benefits to veterans and their families. Headed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, VA is the second-largest of the 15 Cabinet departments and operates nationwide programs for health care, financial assistance and burial benefits. Fact Sheet: Facts About the Department of Veterans Affairs November 2008

Perhaps this is the exact problem. Somehow caring for the veteran and his family is lost as it is in the mission statement. Many current executives at both the national and regional levels appear to have neither the will nor the courage to fight the fight for our veterans. Or perhaps they are just worn out from trying? Perhaps they provided more with less for so long that they now feel that they are being asked to do everything with nothing? Why? The answer is to save money to fight Bush's Iraq War and for tax cuts for the well off trickle down that never did trickle down. All this causes even some veterans to see VA benefits as welfare rather than what they really are: earned benefits from a grateful nation and a direct cost of war.

The military family, composed of active, reserve, retired, veterans and their families, gives much to the United States. The requirements to restore the military and to care for "those who have borne the battle" are immense. The sea of incompetence and sheer malice left behind by the Bush Regime creates numerous challenges and opportunities. As General Shinseki's 54-page disclosure so clearly demonstrates, the general "gets it" and is rightly open to new ways of operating the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Payments to veterans and their families offer an immediate and continuing boost to the local economy and benefit men and women who were, and are, assets to their nation and community. In addition, many veterans remain deeply involved in their communities, veteran education and business development assistance not only immediately benefit the economy but provide our proven men and women with the tools and abilities to lead their community and nation into the future.

General Shinseki deserves quick Senate approval; veterans desperately need him.

Comments

[catuskoti]

Thanks, Hal, for reminding us all of the stakes!

[jimpwhite]

Aloha Friends:

I just want to take a few minutes to say mahalo to Gen. James Peake, MD (Ret) ,as the outgoing VA secretary for accepting the helm at the VA when you did. You had your hands filled! I think you've accomplished more that you realize for the good of the veteran,s' widow's and orphens of our nation. I think the ball is passing into a next step of a process that will bring about the needed transformation of the VA health-Care system into a world-class model we out here in the field belief is possible. Gen. Shinseki, there are around 10-million priority 8 veterans who now need you to hear them. Many have lost their jobs that keep them out of the VA in the first place due to the income level practice. The Sub-Catorgities are best looked at in 4,4 or 2,2,4 which equals" 8" . However in my personal opinion there is only "1" priority catagory..­..."vetera­n family". The VA serves 6-million vets, in 153 hospitals, 3- million are over age 65. My global wishes to all veterans and families in this a most historic transition. Go get them General Shinseki..."We've Got Your Back"!

[tompoe]

According to vetsfirst.org, the VA policies are expressed in their total disability based on individual unemployability, or TDIU process. Imagine a homeless veteran, one of an acknowledged 250,000 sleeping on our streets on any given night. Of those, how many do you suppose is able to hold down a job? Quite a few, I suspect, but they need help.

Now, if Shinseki wanted to, all he would need do is to make sure the TDIU program was executed at the highest priority, and every one of those 250,000 veterans would move to a small VA pension that takes them off the streets, into the VA system, and gets them the help they need. So, why won't that happen?

Please visit vetsfirst.org, and click on the link to compensati­on/pension page. Then, get as outraged as I am.

[jimpwhite]

Aloha Tompoe: The VBA in Hawaii has a "triage process" for homeless veterans regarding their claims. The VA-staff member who handles their claim is a Medal of Honor winner! I'm not sure about others regions of the VBA-but Hawaii is looking at ways to get the Vet either SSI-or Pension within 90 days to assist!. The one-missing element in Washington, DC is a joint Social Security/VBA task force process. Social Security wants it's own "means test" and makes the Homeless Veteran go through "their" hoops even after the VA Doc has deemed the vet disabled. This has taken months in some extreme cases. The hardest part is a home for the vet who has walked the walk from being homeless and is ready to get a place! The VA's/VASH program has no rider for the "rent deposit" process. So VA/VASH will pay 70% of the rent, but the vet can't get the apartment cause we don't have the mattching deposits to move in!!! Aand landlords want their deposits! Lots of work to do...Global Mahalo's

[RWBneck]

Accountability at every level of the VA is the answer. It's hopeful news that General Shinseki "gets it". Thank you for this article, Mr. Donahue. I'd given up...again. I think I'll start by finding that disclosure. Former PN2,USN 100% S/C

[jimpwhite]

Aloha Hal As a veteran, widow or orphen and you use the VA health-care services, you're most likely NOT a millionare. Yet 40% of the Doctors in private practice who serve millionares "interned at a VA Facility"! Today ,medical students "avoid "the VA as a teaching facility. Its not the medicine, its the patient factor. I think the last report said each VA Doctor has 350 patients per. At the VA here in Hawaii I was informed the ratio is 1200 patients to one MD. Who has time to "practice manners", when cell-phones and computers and texting are always going on from exam room to exam room!! In Hawaii a law had to be made to inform folks not to drive & text...at the same time? Yielding concept .We need a US Courthouse so Judge Greene can close the backlog in veterans claims & appeals. We need to earn back respect from our widows & orphens, our veterans.. The General has 15 mandated advisory committees-take the politics out of it and put new policy thinking ideas in its place. Lots of great ideas out here developed to give back the VA its Nobel Award feeling! Un-relenting Service is ,manners -cubed. Cubed math says the equation trickles-up, trickles- down and it trickles- across all VA/VBA protocols ! Keeping the physical & mental health of the patient foremost in the equation. In medical-school "history books" it was called," bed-side manners".
Global Mahalos' to all...

[larrytheb]

Yeah-yeah-yeah - everyonecomplains about the weather and about the VA - but we do nothing but complain - Is anyone listening? As a twice combat wounded, two-war veteran I gotta say that I'm in my 6th or 7th year trying to increase by PTSD compensation - Right you are - the VA makes you feel as if you are trying to get over on them - the continual grilling is apalling - I, however, will NOT surrender to their bureaucracy but I intend to continue the fight -

[Hal Donahue - Huffpost Blogger]

Larry keep fighting. If we do "nothing" now, there is only us to blame. BUT please do remember an agency this size will take time to reform. The difference may well be with the economy crashed, we can be an excellent catalyst for the economic turnaround.

[slarabee]

I certainly think that the incoming administration will do everything they can to fix this injustice. It goes without saying that it should be of highest priority.
It is of the utmost importance that all of our veterans are treated with dignity, respect and receive the best care that this country can provide. I for one don't care what it costs.

[rabrophy]

I am a disabled Vietnam veteran and worked briefly for the V.A.
The short answer is the V.A. a total train wreck. The only thing that will work is to tear the whole thing up and start new. but with all the other disasters of the Bush years going up in flames I'm sure the Vets will be screwed

[Hal Donahue - Huffpost Blogger]

rabrophy, I really believe that you are wrong this time. It will not be overnight but I truly do have hope that it will be... If the VA must be torn down so be it but I have met more than a few folks in the VA trenches who are really, really trying. That was why I made the comment about "doing everything with nothing". I agree experience says we are truly screwed; but this time I am not so certain

[schatsie]

As a sister of an Agent Orange soldier and the mother of a son who has been to Iraq and I have visited Walter Reed, I can only wonder at the rationale for closing this hospital under BRAC.. Is this true and if so, it is a travesty. I am so sorry for the 500,000 iraq war veterans who have been denied care by the VA, this is nuts...