Veterans News Bureau

WASHINGTON – Today, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced that the Department’s Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Task Force has completed the final draft of a comprehensive report that will redefine how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) addresses the concerns of Veterans who deployed during the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991.

“Our mission at VA is to be advocates for Veterans,” said Secretary Shinseki. “This report’s action plans provide a roadmap to transform the care and services we deliver to Gulf War Veterans. We must learn from the past and take the opportunity to anticipate the future needs of our Veterans.”

Notification of the draft written report will be published tomorrow in the Federal Register, and the draft written report identifies seven areas where VA will improve services for this group of Veterans.

Among these improvements, VA will reconnect with Veterans from the 1990 – 1991 Gulf War, strengthen the training of clinicians and claims processors, and reenergize its research effort. VA will also proactively strengthen partnerships and medical surveillance to address the potential health impacts on Veterans from the environmental exposures on today’s battlefields.

Earlier this month, VA published a proposed rule that will enable VA to grant service connection on a presumptive basis for nine specific infectious diseases associated with military service in Southwest Asia after August 2, 1990, or in Afghanistan on or after September 19, 2001. The proposed rule change was based on a recent Institute of Medicine review of the scientific literature, and is a part of VA’s on-going Gulf War studies. This rule, when implemented, will make it easier for Veterans to obtain disability compensation and related healthcare.

The mission of VA’s Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Task Force is to identify both gaps in services as well as opportunities to better serve Veterans of the Gulf War. Of the almost 700,000 service members who deployed to Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and Operation Desert Storm in 1991, more than 300,000 have filed disability claims and over 85 percent have been granted service connection for at least one condition.

The Chairman of the Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Task Force is John R. Gingrich, Chief of Staff at VA, a retired Army officer who also served during the Gulf War.

“Reaching out to Gulf War Veterans is not only essential to our transformation of VA, for many of us it is also personal,” said Gingrich. “Having commanded troops in the Gulf War, and then knowing that some of these brave men and women have fallen to mysterious illnesses has been both a frustrating and saddening experience. We now have an opportunity to do something about this situation — with this Task Force, I know that we will improve the care and services these Veterans have earned.”

VA’s Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Task Force recommendations build on the excellent work and findings of The Gulf War Veterans Illnesses Advisory Committee, VA Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses, the interagency Deployment Health Working Group, and other related sources. Some of the Task Force’s recommendations include:

* Improve data sharing with Department of Defense to notify Veterans of potential exposures, monitor their long-term health and inform them about decisions regarding additional follow up.
* Improve the delivery of benefits to Veterans with Gulf War-related disabilities by:
* Reviewing and, if necessary, updating regulations affecting Gulf War Veterans.
* Expanding training for VBA examiners on how to administer disability claims with multiple known toxin exposure incidents.
* Improve VA healthcare for Veterans through a new model of interdisciplinary health education and training.
* Increase number of long-term, Veteran-focused studies of Veterans to enhance the quality of care VA provides.
* Transition from reactive to proactive medical surveillance to help better manage Veterans’ potential hazardous exposures.
* Find new treatments for Gulf War Veterans through new research.
* Enhance outreach to provide information and guidance to Veterans about benefits and services available to them for injuries/illnesses associated with Gulf War service.

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The father of a Marine killed in Iraq whose funeral was picketed by anti-gay protesters told Fox News he will defy a court order and not pay the protesters’ appeal costs.

Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., told Fox News he does not intend to pay $16,510 to Fred Phelps, the leader of Kansas’ Westboro Baptist Church, which held protests at Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder’s funeral in 2006.

“I don’t think I’m going to be writing a check until I hear from the Supreme Court,” Snyder told Fox News on Tuesday. “I’m not about to pay them anything.”

The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ordered Snyder on Friday to pay Phelps. A two-page decision supplied by his attorneys offered no details on how the court came to its decision

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Kansas City, Mo, March 31, 2010– The national commander of the nation’s largest organization of combat veterans is furious about the recent Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Court decision ordering Albert Snyder, the father of a slain Marine to pay legal costs to the Westboro Baptist Church.

Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., led by Fred Phelps, has for years been taunting grieving mourners at military funerals nationwide. During the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder’s funeral in 2006, the anti-gay group praised the loss of the young Marine as well as other of the nation’s young servicemen and women, calling their deaths a by-product of a nation that tolerates homosexuality.

“This is a travesty at best and borders on the obscene, said VFW National Commander Thomas J. Tradewell Sr., of Sussex, Wis. “The irony in this whole situation is that the blood and sacrifice of our nation’s heroes have enabled this group to spread their message of hate. Yet, they celebrate when one of America’s best pays the ultimate sacrifice preserving that right of free speech,” the Vietnam veteran said.

“Mr. Snyder has already confronted the difficulties of burying his Marine son and then bringing a lawsuit against this group of hate-mongers. It is absolutely wrong for the court to order him to shoulder a financial burden on top of everything else. That is why VFW national headquarters will be making a donation to the fund that has been established to assist in paying the legal costs. Additionally, I am asking that each of the more than 1.5 million members of the VFW do what they can to assist Mr. Snyder, even taking the time to offer a him note of support and encouragement.”

A fund has been set up to help Mr. Snyder pay the court costs. None of the money will be for attorneys, who are graciously representing him pro bono.

To contribute, go to www.matthewsnyder.org, or send a check payable to “Al Snyder Fund” to: Barley Snyder LLC, 100 East Market Street, York, PA 17401.

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WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will invite women Veterans and their advocates to a forum in July to discuss the quality of VA health care, the provision of benefits for women, and ways to improve access to the care and benefits for women Veterans.

“This forum will continue our identification of how best to serve this growing population of Veterans through our quality health care, benefits for service-connected disabilities, mental health services, or supporting their community, said Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric K. Shinseki. “We must constantly reevaluate and solicit input on our performance as measured against the needs of our women Veterans.” This forum will build on the momentum from 2008 quadrennial National Summit on Women’s Veterans’ Issues and expand the dialogue necessary to enhance VA’s benefits and services available to women Veterans. The one day forum will not only help VA learn more from women Veterans who depend on VA for care, but will also develop tool kits for strengthening women Veteran networks through work with local VA facilities.

VA has undertaken major initiatives to transform the department to meet the unique health care needs of women Veterans and provide the best quality care at every VA medical center. In addition, the agency is working to shorten the delays for claims processing, improve access to VA health services for minority and rural Veterans, end Veteran homelessness, and ease the transition back to civilian life.

Health care improvements include comprehensive primary care and specialized medical care at every VA medical center, enhanced mental health care specifically for women Veterans, staffing every VA medical center with a women Veterans program manager, a mini-residency on women’s health for primary care physicians, and a multi-faceted research program on women’s health.

The Department’s 2011 budget provides $217.6 million to meet the gender-specific health care needs of women Veterans, an increase of $18.6 million (or more than 9 percent) over the 2010 level.

VA’s 2011 budget proposal will enable the establishment of a peer call center and social networking site for women combat Veterans. This call center would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

There are about 1.8 million women Veterans among the nation’s total of 23 million living Veterans. VA estimates women Veterans will comprise 10.5 percent of the Veteran population by 2020.

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WASHINGTON — Looking decades ahead, the Institute of Medicine is urging the Veterans Affairs Department to begin planning now for the long-term health care needs of the estimated 1.9 million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Specifically, the institute says in a report released Wednesday, not enough is known about what works best in the long term to treat veterans with traumatic brain injuries, often caused by roadside bombs.

While a multitude of public and private programs are available to help the men and women who have served in the recent conflicts, there is little coordination and sparse information about which ones are effective, the report said.

A 16-member panel coordinated by the Institute of Medicine instigated the review of the readjustment needs of troops, veterans and their families at the request of Congress. The institute is part of the National Academies, an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.

The report urged Congress to direct the VA to produce more detailed annual projections of the needs of veterans and their families, so more thorough planning can be done to prepare for an uptick in disability claims and health needs in the decades ahead as the veterans age.

Based on a review of disability claims from past wars, the report says the number of disability claims from recent veterans should peak around 2040.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – When Paul Culkin came home to New Mexico after serving with an Army bomb squad in Iraq, he tried counseling and medications offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs to cope with his post traumatic stress disorder.

Nothing worked very well. Then he found a new alternative: marijuana.

New Mexico is the only state that explicitly allows people with PTSD to smoke pot under its medical marijuana law — an issue that is getting attention around the country at a time when traumatized vets are coming home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in large numbers.

New Mexico’s medical marijuana law has created a conundrum for the Veterans Affairs, which does not allow its doctors to prescribe pot because the drug is illegal in the eyes of the federal government. So, patients like Culkin must seek out an endorsement from a private doctor.

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Joe Salas was sentenced Monday for his role in the theft of over $120,000 from the organization.

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The Department of Veterans Affairs is launching a comprehensive study of women veterans who served in the military during the Vietnam War to explore the effects of their military service upon their mental and physical health. The study, which begins in November and lasts more than four years, will contact approximately 10,000 women, and information will gathered by a mail survey, a telephone interview and a review of medical records for a selected sample of women.

As women Vietnam veterans approach their mid-60s, it is important to understand the impact of wartime deployment on health and mental outcomes nearly 40 years later. The study will assess the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental and physical health conditions for women Vietnam veterans, and explore the relationship between PTSD and other conditions.

VA will study female Vietnam veterans who may have had direct exposure to traumatic events, and, for the first time, study those who served in facilities near Vietnam and in the United States. These women may have had similar, but less direct, exposures. Both women veterans who receive their health care from VA and those who receive health care from other providers will be contacted to determine the prevalence of a variety of health conditions.

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A Tennessee American Legion Post and Vietnam Veterans of America group are try to recoup their losses after being targeted by a scam artist.

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The Defense Department hopes to find a better treatment for the 100,000 troops who have been diagnosed with mild Traumatic Brain Injury since 2003, and it’s looking at hyperbaric chambers — often used in cases of carbon monoxide poisoning — for the answer.

Although there have been studies looking at the impact these pressurized oxygen chambers have on TBI patients, none have been able to definitively answer whether hyperbaric oxygen can reduce or eliminate chronic symptoms of TBI such as headaches, memory loss and mood swings. A new clinical trial, which is expected to begin in January 2011, is designed to do just that.

The study, conducted by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, in Virginia, and the Army Research and Materiel Command, in Maryland, is expected to run for at least 18 months. It will include about 300 participants, mostly soldiers and Marines, and will build upon other ongoing studies on TBI treatment, said Col. Richard Ricciardi, director of the research evaluation and quality assurance and surveillance directorate at DCoE.

Five sites will participate in the study: Fort Carson, Colo.; Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; Brooks City-Base, Texas; and possibly Fort Hood, Texas, although negotiations are still ongoing there, Ricciardi said.

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