Jim Fausone
Veterans Disability Lawyer

With millions of veterans and thousands of backlogged claims, VA is challenged by the mountain of paper that it handles yearly. If you ever get behind the door of the VARO, the piles of paper in the cubicles and on the floor would surprise you. From helping hundreds of veterans, we know that sometimes VA simply cannot even find your file. They don’t know what city it is in or what floor it’s on. The answer is to use technology that is readily available to tame the flood. The Secretary of the VA has proposed a fully paperless claim system by 2015.

Compensation and benefit claims pending at VA, as of January 23, 2012 totaled 852,127 and 65 percent of them — 557,460 — had been filed by veterans more than 125 days ago, which means they are in “backlog” status.

Over the last year VA processed almost a million claims, but more than 1.3 million new claims were filed — some seeking compensation for the first time but most seeking an upgrade to current disability ratings. The number of veterans filing claims annually has more than doubled since 2000.

To read about VA’s congressional testimony about the challenges and solutions:

http://www.jdnews.com/articles/paperless-99942-secretary-achieve.html

American war veterans still are not able to get the mental health care they need and a U.S. Senate committee has taken the Department of Veterans Affairs to task a second time to find out why.

The VA has gone to great lengths to encourage veterans to seek mental health care to treat post traumatic stress disorder and other combat-related conditions. Since there are thousands of service men and women coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan over then next year, the VA is likely to see an even steeper hike in the number of veterans seeking mental health care.

The Senate’s Committee on Veterans’ Affairs held two hearings last year to investigate why veterans often have to wait far longer than the agency’s maximum of two weeks to be seen by a mental health care professional.

An executive with the Wounded Warrior Project testified that the VA is so understaffed and unprepared for the veterans who need mental health care, it is like watching someone treat an amputation with a band-aid.

In a November committee hearing, Senators heard from professionals within the VA as well as veterans’ advocacy groups who testified that the wait times have not shortened since the issue was brought to the committee in July.

Committee members explored many of the issues that hurt the VA’s ability to deliver appropriate mental health care to veterans. Mental health care carries a stigma among many in the military. It has historically been difficult to get veterans to seek this type of care, so the issue of wait times can compound the difficulty. The committee also explored issues with the number of health care professionals available to treat the veterans at each center and the hours that those doctors can keep in order to be available at the times that the veterans need the care.

Officials from within the VA testified that the agency has the right policies in place, but there is an implementation problem. Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W. Va., said he felt like the Office of Management and Budget was restricting what the VA witnesses could say in their testimony. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said he thinks the VA’s focus on process instead of outcome restricts the agency’s ability to serve veterans.

The Committee’s chairwoman Patty Murray said mental health care is an area where the VA cannot afford to fail.

“Especially at a time when we are seeing record suicides among our veterans – we need to meet the veteran’s desire for care with the immediate assurance that it will be provided – and provided quickly,” she told the committee.

A qualified attorney can help veterans make sure they get the proper mental health care from the VA.

James G. Fausone is a Veterans disability lawyer and Veterans attorney with Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC. Learn more at http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com.

Our veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are coming home and looking for work. There is probably no better solution to the difficulty of reintegration into civilian life than having a good job. Everyone has a different definition of good job. Some look at the pay or the benefits or the type of work, or being indoor or outdoor or the hours. I believe military men and women make great employees. They bring maturity, experience and understanding the mission. By and large they are not whiners about trivial matters. Veterans have experienced real hardships and the little things don’t matter. But the reintegration challenge is not a one size fits all. Some vets have never been on a job interview or drafted a resume. We can all help veterans looking for work by advising and networking with them. The Stars and Stripes recently reported on getting hired. You may want to pass this along to a comrade in need.

http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/get-hired

A Chicago doctor has made advances in a revolutionary treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but the Army has told him he has to do more thorough research before the U.S. government will help fund the treatment’s clinical trial.

Dr. Eugene Lipov believes PTSD can be treated by injecting an anesthetic into a grouping of neck nerves called the stellate ganglion. This procedure has been used for years to treat pain, but Lipov, an anesthesiologist, has had early success treating the stress, anxiety and “fight-or-flight” response that often accompanies PTSD, according to Stars and Stripes Magazine online.

PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder that often strikes members of the military who have been exposed to traumatic and horrific events. The Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes PTSD as a serious challenge facing many of the soldiers coming home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as veterans of 20^th century wars who have been suffering from the PTSD silently for years.

Lipov believes that the shot to the back of the neck can effectively reset the nervous system that may have been set off kilter by traumatic events experienced at war.

Now that Lipov has FDA approval, a clinical trial is the next step but the doctor is struggling to get government funding for the trial.

In September, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command turned down Lipov’s proposed $1.6 million clinical trial saying it was too ambitious and expensive for an untested concept and they were not convinced of the neurobiological explanations Lipov gave for why it works, according to Stars and Stripes.

The proposal’s review team acknowledged the treatment “…could lead to important innovations in the medical treatment of PTSD,” if a trial was successful, but has serious concerns about Lipov’s work.

Lipov has shown success in treating more than a dozen patients but the review team wanted a study with control groups.

The Army would like to explore Lipov’s treatment, according to Fort Detrick’s director of operational medicine research program Col. Carl Castro. The military spends more than $30 million a year researching PTSD. “[He] needs to do a scientifically rigorous study, and that way if he gets promising results, we can be confident in doing a much larger clinical trial,” Castro said.

Lipov told Stars and Stripes he is giving up on the Pentagon helping fund his research. He recently got a $100,000 grant to do a small study with a control group from the state of Illinois. About 20 veterans near Chicago signed up for the study last summer.

James G. Fausone is a Veterans disability lawyer and Veterans attorney with Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC. Learn more at http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com.

By Chandra Briggs

In 1982, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) completed construction of The Wall and now the VVMF is working again to complete another mission by building The Education Center. We’ve been asked to help create awareness and to get the word out about the National Call for Photos campaign.  The VVMF is trying to collect a photograph for each of the more than 58,000 men and women whose names are inscribed on The Wall. The VVMF is hoping the pictures that are collected will help to educate our children and grandchildren about the Vietnam War. The pictures will be used to help bring The Wall to life for all future generations by telling the story of the Vietnam War through the personal stories of those whose names appear on it.

 Please visit http://www.vvmf.org/pafwan to see the many ways you can help.

With ground-breaking for the Education Center set for November 11, 2012; funds are still needed for completion.  You can donate by texting WALL to 20222 to make a $10 donation to VVMF.

To learn more or to contact a Veterans disability lawyer, Veterans disability attorney, Veterans lawyer, or Veterans attorney call 1.800.693.4800 or visit Legalhelpforveterans.com

By Jim Fausone
Veteran Disability Lawyer

When you are sick and no one knows why it is frustrating.  If you are a veteran and believe that the undiagnosed illness is service related the frustration is heightened by VA’s refusal to grant disability compensation.

Veterans of the Persian Gulf War with undiagnosed illnesses have an additional five years to qualify for benefits from the VA. “Not all the wounds of war are fully understood,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “When there is uncertainty about the connection between a medical problem and military service, Veterans are entitled to the benefit of the doubt.” A recent change in VA regulations affects Veterans of the conflict in Southwest Asia.  Many have attributed a range of undiagnosed or poorly understood medical problems to their military services.  Chemical weapons, environmental hazards and vaccinations are among the possible causes.  At issue is the eligibility of Veterans to claim VA disability compensation based upon those undiagnosed illnesses, and the ability of survivors to qualify for VA’s Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.

Under long-standing VA rules, any undiagnosed illnesses used to establish eligibility for VA benefits must become apparent by Dec. 31, 2011.  The new change pushes the date back to Dec. 31, 2016.

http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2239

To learn more or to contact a Veterans disability lawyer, Veterans disability attorney, Veterans lawyer, or Veterans attorney call 1.800.693.4800 or visit Legalhelpforveterans.com