Thursday, May 26, 2011

Psychiatric service dog helps veteran with PTSD

‘She has my back …' Psychiatric service dog helps veteran with PTSD
Written by
LeAnne Rogers


Disabled with post-traumatic stress disorder after two tours of duty in Iraq, Terran Frye would feel his anxiety level increase when faced with a trip to the mall or other crowded places.

“When you've been in combat and dealing with crowds, then you come back to society, it's not an easy transition,” said Frye, who served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps. “It's hard trusting people. In a crowd, someone can come up behind you. There are so many people, you feel crowded in there.”

Now Frye is getting more comfortable in crowds and other places thanks to a four-legged friend, his service dog, Hershey.
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Psychiatric service dog helps veteran with PTSD

Pete Damon lost both arms in Iraq paints better than most can


Pete Damon, the artist click link to view more of his work
About Me
I am an artist and a severely wounded Iraq war veteran. In October of 2003 I lost parts of both my arms while serving in Iraq as a helicopter mechanic in the military. The accident killed my buddy, SPC. Paul J Bueche 19, of Daphne AL. Since then, art has become a huge source of therapy for me, both physically and mentally. Painting has given me a new perspective on life. I've made a promise to Paul to make the most of it. This website is dedicated to him.


" Tuesday Morning " 8x8 oil on canvasboard ( to be
auctioned for highest bid, proceeds will go to
Homes For Our Troops )
Winning bid : $1000
e-mail me at dannyowen03@yahoo.com to bid

VA fails to bill insurers when it should

When Obama was attacked for even thinking about the VA billing insurance companies for care, the media was all over him for even thinking about it but that was only because they didn't know it was already happening. Any care a veteran gets that is not tied to his claim or falls under inability to pay under "means testing" is supposed to be billed, either to the veteran or to an insurance company. The problem comes when insurance companies refuse to pay as in cases where the VA doctor may diagnose a condition tied to service but the claim has not been approved.

Private insurance companies usually do deny claims when a VA doctor says it is tied to service, especially in combat as in the cases of thousands of veterans with private insurance but denied claims. What happened to them was that while they visited private doctors, the mental health claims were covered but as soon as the VA doctor said it was because of Vietnam, they began to deny claims stating it was the responsibility of the government to provide care and no longer their responsibility. If a veteran was still able to work or had coverage with a spouse, once their insurance company turned down the claim the VA went after the veteran. One more thing that is not discussed is the VA has the ability to attach tax refunds to cover care.

Here is the flip side of this.
IG: VA fails to bill insurers when it should
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 26, 2011 12:27:14 EDT
The Veterans Affairs Department is losing more than $110 million a year by failing to bill third-party insurance companies for medical care, according to an inspector general report.

Blaming an ineffective medical billing process and a lack of a system to track fees, the VA is not billing private insurers for 46 percent of health care costs that they should be covering, according to Wednesday’s audit report from the VA inspector general that calls this a “missed opportunity” due largely to “ineffective and unreliable” practices.

“This is way too much money that is just being left on the table by VA,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairwoman.

“Especially now, when we have to fight for every dollar our veterans get, VA cannot allow insurance companies to walk away with taxpayer dollars that could go back to veterans care,” Murray said.

The VA inspector general found similar problems 2004 and 2008.

The report recommends an overhaul of billing practices, which the Veterans Health Administration agreed to do in an official response.

By law, VA is required to bill private health insurers for medical care, supplies and prescriptions related to treatment of conditions not related to a veteran’s service. Veterans receiving VA care are required to provide details about their private health insurance, including coverage under a spouse’s policy.
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VA fails to bill insurers when it should
This part is almost right.
Generally, veterans are not required to pay any balance uncovered by their insurance. Insurance payments may be used to offset the cost of any co-pay a veteran is charged by the VA.

When they have an approved claim but go for other care, the VA does bill the insurance company but does not go after the veteran for what is not paid, that is, as long as they have a rating high enough to provide it. (My husband is 100% but we also carry private health insurance, so anything not connected to his disability, they bill our insurance company.) If not, then they bill the veteran if their income is too high for free care. Now that they are talking about going after poor veterans without service connected claims, more veterans will be pushed out of care.

At least they are finally talking about what has been really going on instead of just letting people assume the veterans are given free care!

Help Available for Veterans in Joplin, Mo.

VA Announces Disaster Assistance After Tornado Outbreaks


Help Available for Veterans in Joplin, Mo.


WASHINGTON (May 26, 2011)- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
announced today that special disaster assistance may be available to
Veterans with VA-guaranteed home loans who have been affected by recent
tornados in Missouri.

"We will to do everything we can to help Veterans and their families get
through this difficult time," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki. "We urge Veterans to use VA resources available to help them
recover from this disaster."

VA strongly encourages mortgage companies not to initiate any new
foreclosures in the disaster areas for a period of 90 days. The agency
also encourages mortgage companies that service VA-guaranteed home loans
to extend every possible forbearance to borrowers who are in distress
through no fault of their own. This includes suspension of reporting to
credit bureaus and waiving late charges for affected borrowers.

Veterans should contact their insurance company as soon as possible to
file claims for losses. At the same time, they need to contact their
mortgage companies to let them know their circumstances.

Veterans should also start the FEMA disaster application process as soon
as possible by calling 1-800-621-3362. Low interest loans, cash grants,
and housing assistance may be available from agencies associated with
the disaster recovery effort.

VA has information available on its web site
(www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans) that provides basic guidance on options
veterans should consider following a major disaster. Veterans may also
contact their nearest VA Regional Loan Center at 1-877-827-3702.

For updated information on eligible counties, visit the "Are you a
disaster survivor?" section on the FEMA website at
http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm.

WITN should be ashamed of report on "Preventing Suicides In The USMC"

The ad on the video for this report lasted 9 seconds and the report lasted 33 seconds. 33 seconds? Is that all this report was worth?

Preventing Suicides In The USMC
Marines and Sailors from Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point heard from speakers Wednesday about how to face personal issues after war.
Posted: 9:35 PM May 25, 2011
Reporter: Dave Jordan

Marines and Sailors from Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point heard from speakers Wednesday about how to face personal issues after war.

The program, "Heroes and Healthy Families," featured speakers on topics like substance abuse, post traumatic stress and suicide.

Organizers say that 97-percent of the service members that sit through the program say it's helpful.

In 2011 there have been 66 suspected suicide attempts and 10 suspected suicides in the United States Marine Corps.

Preventing Suicides In The USMC
Don't bother looking for more on this report but there is the link to the video. My rule is to always post just a paragraph or two to honor the work of the reporter and take you to the article so they get credit for the work they do. We need reporters covering all of these stories so if we do not go to the links, the producers and editors won't know they matter. In this case, the coverage was so lacking, what you see above is the whole thing. That's it!

WITN producers did the Marines and their families a huge injustice on this. Why did they bother to send a reporter at all to cover this? How can a story talking about the heartbreak of 10 families of the suspected suicides and 66 Marines suffering so much they tried to end their own lives end up being so unworthy of a full report?

Long Island Power Authority charged money to honor fallen soldier?

New York Utility Charged for Hanging Flags From Its Poles at Memorial for Slain Soldier
By MARK REEVES
May 26, 2011

The folks on Shelter Island, N.Y., were furious after they held a memorial parade to honor Lt. Joseph Theinert, a town resident who was killed in Afghanistan. The service included having members of Theinert's old unit march along a flag draped street that was named after Theinert.

Then they got the bill. The Long Island Power Authority charged them for hanging the American flags from its utility poles.

The resulting outcry has prompted a change of heart from the embarassed power company and LIPA CEO Michael Hervey is offering to personally pay for the flags. The tab only comes to $23.75 to put flags on 19 LIPA poles, but it wasn't the cost that left some folks sizzling like a summer barbecue.

"It was outrageous," County Legislator Ed Romaine told ABC News. "How do you charge for putting up American flags? LIPA didn't even put up the flags. The American Legion did. To do something patriotic and get charged for it was ridiculous."
read more here
New York Utility Charged for Hanging Flags

Team Rubicon making a difference for all

When you take a bunch of veterans, many like Clay Hunt trying to carry on with PTSD eating them alive, put them to work for others, it is the best medicine. Doing for others feeds the gift they were born with. There is not a selfish bone in their body. They have to be unselfish to be willing to serve in the military and be willing to die in the process. Clay's death after combat by suicide was a very hard story to post on because he had done everything experts say needs to be done to heal.


After the shock of his death subsided it occurred to me, and many more, that getting involved with Team Rubicon may have added to his days on earth because he was giving so much back to others. Volunteer work for these veterans is a blessing to them giving them an emotional jolt but it also wears on their souls being exposed to more and more suffering.




When they show up to do this kind of work, there needs to be more emotional support for them just as with other emergency responders. Crisis intervention teams need to be ready and able to help them after especially when they are already carrying the burden of combat inside. Team Rubicon's efforts are spot on considering veterans volunteering are happier than an isolated veteran but there is only so much they can do. If you are trained in Crisis Intervention, please be there for them so more like Clay Hunt will be here tomorrow.

Team Rubicon
Mission Statement
Team Rubicon bridges the critical time gap between large humanitarian disasters and conventional aid response. We provide vanguard medical care by fielding small, self-sustaining, mobile teams of specially skilled first-responders. To deploy rapidly, we rely heavily on a horizontal command structure, social networking technology, and the employment of local nationals.

Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms

Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms? Well it depends on what is in the mail. A box of favorite snacks, a loving letter about how much they are missed and drawings from their kids could remind them they are loved and someone back home is thinking about them. Then again, there is another kind of mail. Dear John letters, mail from neighbors telling them there is a strange car parked in the driveway all night long, a stranger has been cutting their lawn or complaints by the spouse back home about how they are never around will leave a very bad taste in their mouth. The types of mail they can get could either help or hurt but we should be wondering what the hell this study was even done for. It is all common sense, which apparently, the military is lacking.

Study: Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms
May 25, 2011
Military.com|by Amy Bushatz


The more mail a happily married Soldier receives downrange, the less likely he is to have PTSD issues when he comes home -- but frequent mail for unhappily married Soldiers can result in stronger symptoms, a new study says.
While frequent mail from home works as stress relief for happily married Soldiers, it likely causes unhappily married Soldiers additional stress, the study's authors said.
"What we believe is that the communication is acting as support for the [Soldier]," said Sarah Carter, the report's primary author. "It may be that for those that aren't as satisfied, it's just not offering the same extent of support that those that are very satisfied are getting from that communication."
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Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms

It said that "symptoms" of PTSD are lessened but not the rate of PTSD, but again, this would fall under common sense. When they have supportive people standing behind them it makes living with PTSD a bit easier to cope with. When they are alone, it is harder. It makes the need to isolate excusable, which is a common desire for combat veterans but supports the notion no one will ever understand them. For the lonely deployed, no news is not good news for them.

GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq

GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq
May 26, 2011
Associated Press
FORT STEWART, Ga. -- An Army sergeant was found guilty on Wednesday of two counts of premeditated murder in the 2008 slayings of his squad leader and another U.S. Soldier at a patrol base in Iraq, but he was spared the death penalty when the military jury didn't return a unanimous verdict.

Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich now faces a sentence of life in prison, either with or without the possibility of parole. The death penalty is an option in a court-martial only when there's a unanimous guilty verdict for premeditated murder. The 12-member jury at Fort Stewart did not report exactly how it was split when it announced its verdict.

Bozicevich, 41, admitted during the trial that he shot Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley Durbin at a patrol base outside Baghdad on Sept. 14, 2008, after they criticized him for making mistakes in an unforgiving war zone. But he testified that he only opened fire because the two Soldiers aimed rifles at his head and threatened to kill him if he didn't sign off on their written reports about him.

Prosecutors insisted that he grabbed his gun in anger after the men wounded his pride, when Dawson decided to strip the Soldier of his leadership role of a four-man squad because of a series of battlefield blunders. Prosecutor Maj. Scott Ford told jurors Tuesday that Bozicevich snapped after that "final blow to his ego."
read more here
GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

VA crisis hotline takes record number of calls, no one asks why?

Will anyone else ever ask why so many reach the point they have to call in the first place? With all the programs and money invested in helping them when they come home, the numbers go up instead of down. What is going on here? More calls to the suicide prevention hotline and more deaths. Any reporters bothering to check into why this is all happening?

VA crisis hotline takes record number of calls
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 25, 2011 12:01:23 EDT
The Veterans Affairs Department’s Veterans Crisis Line received 14,000 calls in April, the highest monthly volume ever recorded for the four-year-old suicide prevention program.

“Every day last month, more than 400 calls were received,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee chairwoman who disclosed the call volume during a Wednesday hearing. “While it is heartening to know that these calls for help are being answered, it is a sad sign of desperation and difficulties our veterans face that there are so many in need of a lifeline.”

The hotline, established in 2007, is a suicide prevention and crisis counseling program available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The number is 800-273-8255.

Antonette Zeiss, VA’s chief mental health officer, said that since the 2007 launch, the call center has received more than 400,000 calls, referred 55,000 veterans to local suicide prevention coordinators for same-day or next-day help and initiated 15,000 “rescues” of callers near suicide.
read more here
VA crisis hotline takes record number of calls