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Archive for December, 2011
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Thousands of veterans with disabilities continue to take their own lives, even with the implementation of suicide prevention programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). According to an article in Stars and Stripes, the problem seems to be getting the veterans into the programs in the first place.
During recent testimony, multiple veterans groups spoke about the VA’s suicide prevention efforts as being “marginally effective” in preventing the “epidemic of suicides” among veterans.
The problem is that veterans are unaware of how to even locate necessary VA services or apply for their earned benefits. Even when they do find VA help, many veterans find the frustration in actually “accessing these services” too much to handle. On average over the last fiscal year, 950 veterans already enrolled in VA health care programs attempted suicide every month, and almost 800 succeeded, according to the VA.
There have also been complaints about wait times at VA health clinics for those seeking help with mental health issues. Senators told the VA those wait times “may be jeopardizing the health of an entire generation of veterans.”
The VA, however, claims it’s “making progress” and cited to the number of calls made to its suicide prevention hotline and the number of suicides that have been prevented through those efforts. Those efforts are limited, however. As one lawmaker pointed out, it isn’t the soldier that will reach out for help, but the soldier’s family. Those people need to be targeted by prevention efforts as well.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs, Suicide-Prevention Programs, veterans suicide
Posted in General, VA News, Veterans' Resources | No Comments »
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
According to an article NJ.com, Leonard McQuown is walking across the county to “spread awareness” about the large number of veterans with disabilities as well as those veterans unable to find employment. He has hopes at the end of his journey he will form a non-profit, the Veterans Miracle Network, to provide help to any veteran in need.
McQuown has taken the first steps in what will amount to a 15,000 mile journey, which he will complete on foot to raise awareness for disabled veterans. His first stop was ground zero where the mother of a fallen soldier gave McQuown her son’s dog tags to wear along his journey and he recently walked through the state of New Jersey. He plans to head south to complete the 48 more states he has left, so as to avoid the oncoming weather.
Over the next 5 years McQuown will visit every capital in the continental United States. So far, he has been taking shelter at firehouses along the way, where he has been provided meals and companionship.
Upon leaving his military service, McQuown moved around the country and worked various jobs in multiple states. He was always in search of solid employment and stability. Being from a military family, however, it just isn’t in him to stay in one place for too long.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Veterans disability, Veterans Employment, Veterans Groups
Posted in Disabled Veterans, General, Vet Groups & Networking | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
According to an article in ABC2News, many U.S. veterans are finding a new healing process through guitar music.
Guitar For Vets is a program focused on helping veterans with disabilities and depleted spirits. It is one of the newest alternative therapy programs for veterans who feel they have nothing more to live for and are having a hard time battling their depressing emotions. Guitar For Vets uses music to put across the message that healing is possible.
Over 1200 veterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers have been reached by the nationwide program. Music allows people to connect, which is why it is such a useful tool in therapy. It is also trans-generational, so regardless of factors such as age, gender, or economic status, it is something with which everyone can identify on some level.
For many participants in the alternative therapy program, guitars allow them to release many inner feelings, demons, and otherwise unspeakable emotions. Participants find playing their guitars through the rough times in their lives helps them survive, and prevents them from using other methods of handling those raw emotions, such as possibly drug and alcohol abuse.
The program also allows participants to build their self-esteem while giving them something to focus on aside from their problems. Shifting that focus is what is so inherently vital to many veterans’ recoveries.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Alternative Therapy, Guitars For Vets, U.S. veterans
Posted in General, Vet Groups & Networking, Veterans' Resources | No Comments »
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
According to an article on EmaxHealth.com, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is working to better understand how the brain works when U.S. veterans return home suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or a traumatic brain injury (TBI) so as to develop better and more effective treatments.
In order to better study the brain, the VA is implementing the use of magnetoencephalography (MEG), which is high-tech imaging that displays the brains acitivty.
Researchers will test veterans who have multiple levels of impairment from PTSD and those who do not suffer from PTSD at all. The MEG technology will allow researchers to look into different and specific areas of a person’s brain and hopefully determine the “dysfunctional areas” caused by PTSD and/or TBIs.
Researchers are hoping to discover abnormalities in the brain’s function in selected patients. Should that happen, better PTSD and/or TBI treatments will likely closely follow, which is imperative considering the flood of patients the VA is going to be responsible for treating over the coming years.
The study is very timely as there is already an existing “well-defined pool of patients” who have already been evaluated, tested, and determined to have PTSD and/or TBIs.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Veterans disability
Posted in Disabled Veterans, General, VA News, Veterans' Disability | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
According to an article in The St. Petersburg Times, Edgar Freyre is a veteran with disabilities who filed his first claim for a disability pension in 1967 and has been fighting for that pension ever since. His most recent hurdle has been yet another delay in processing his claim because Freyre submitted a document written in Spanish.
The document in question wasn’t even necessary for the processing of his claim. Instead, it was a history of the unit he served with, which was an “all-Puerto Rican” unit, but one that was “decimated in the Korean War.” Freyre is bilingual and never considered the language of the document an issue.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), however, did see it as an issue as it took 6 months for the VA to transfer Freyre’s case from its current location, at the Board of Veterans Appeals in Washington, D.C., to a regional office in St. Petersburg, and back again to D.C. Freyre was told by the Appeals court that the claim is being transferred in order to be translated.
Freyre called the VA multiple times, as did his attorney; all to no avail. It wasn’t until the middle of November that the VA said the document had been translated but that the delay wasn’t due to translation issues, but rather to the disability backlog.
In the meantime, Freyre keeps fighting for his disability rights while he continues to battle serious health conditions that he has been dealing with since the 1950s.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Disability Backlog, Veterans disability, veterans disability claims
Posted in Disabled Veterans, General, Veterans' Disability | No Comments »
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) testified at a recent hearing and stated immediate action must be taken to correct current deficiencies in the Department of Veterans Affairs health care provided to U.S. veterans suffering from mental health conditions, according to an article in Market Watch.
The WWP testified the VA isn’t meeting its goals in providing mental health care to veterans in need, based on a recent WWP survey. Out of the survey’s respondents who sought mental health care from the VA, 2 in 5 found that care was “difficult” to receive. Approximately 40% of respondents stated because of that difficulty they never received treatment.
According to the WWP testimony, the VA must correct their actions immediately. Their survey found multiple common issues across different VA locations, which are interfering with effective mental health care, such as:
- not staffing enough mental health providers;
- not being able to see the same therapist twice;
- inflexible scheduling to accommodate veterans’ work schedules; and
- remote locations of VA clinics.
In order to provide efficient mental health care, the WWP suggests the VA must:
- “better utilize” the veteran centers around the country, which includes providing them with more resources;
- implement a better peer-to-peer support system; and
- pay for private-sector care if the VA is unable to provide the necessary care within a reasonable amount of time.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Mental Health Care, Senate Committee On Veterans Affairs, U.S. veterans, VA health care, Veterans disability, Wounded Warrior Project (WWP)
Posted in Disabled Veterans, General, Veterans' Disability | 1 Comment »
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