VA could have saved, in 2004, about $1.4 billion over 5 years

Most people assume since the men and women veterans in this country, served this one country, their care as veterans would be the same regardless of where they live. It is appalling when they find out this assumption is totally wrong.

If you live in an area of the country, like Boston, there are many facilities to go to including clinics, but if you live in the Orlando area, the only place to go is the VA Clinic in Winter Park. If you need to have surgery along with many other procedures, you have to travel to Tampa. There is a hospital being built in Lake Nona. The ground breaking was in October of 2008 but the hospital won't be open until 2012. (If you're guessing it was because it was an election year, you guessed right.) If you live in rural area of the country, then your services are even harder to get to.

That's the biggest problem of all. When they are in the military, they are assigned to various bases and they receive the same kind of care no matter where they are from. All of them are treated equally until they leave the military. Then it does depend on where they live. Their claims are processed depending on where they live with some parts of the country harder to have claims approved and the rating decisions are different. Some parts of the country are more able to treat PTSD than others are just as some are better equipped to take care of serious illnesses better than others. Then you have to add in the communities as well. When the VA can't take care of all the needs of the veterans, most of the time they rely on the facilities in the area to take care of what is needed. Some communities are better than others.

Just as this report points out, some VA's do their own thing when it comes to being able to make purchases, leaving some of us scratching our heads wondering why they are not all the same no matter where they happen to be.

Clear Need for Procurement Reform at VA

House Committee Taking Steps to Fight Fraud, Abuse and Waste
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2009

Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, the House Veterans’ Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, led by Chairman Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), conducted a hearing to examine the processes and needs of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) acquisition system and procurement structure. The Subcommittee reviewed recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) and VA Inspector General (IG) reports that detail unfairness and inefficiency in VA contracting.

“We all know that the acquisition system within the Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to develop a process that is both transparent and fiscally responsible,” said Chairman Mitchell. “Our hearing will hopefully determine the extent of the reform needed in order to ensure that the acquisition process within the VA is one that is fair, fiscally responsible, and effective. And, most importantly, serves veterans.”

Reports indicate that VA does not consistently acquire the best available price at a detriment to the taxpayers and veterans for several reasons. Most notably, most medical centers have negotiated and purchased medical healthcare services through contracts that individual VA medical centers have negotiated. This erodes the federal government’s leverage of its tremendous buying power. A 2004 GAO report stated that though VA had implemented policies and procedures that required medical centers to purchase medical products and services through VA’s contract programs, a VA IG report found that the medical centers continued to make many less cost efficient purchases from local suppliers. The VA IG estimated that, with improved procurement practices at medical centers, VA could have saved, in 2004, about $1.4 billion over 5 years.
read more here
Clear Need for Procurement Reform at VA

Man taken into custody after threats at VA Hospital

Man threatening himself, others, taken into custody

By CHRIS LEONARD

Staff Writer

WOOSTER -- A man outside of a mental health clinic who threatened suicide and said he would shoot police officers if he saw them was arrested without incident Monday morning.

Police officers were called to the 120 block of Walnut Street after receiving a call at 8:44 a.m. from the Veterans Affairs Mental Health Clinic in Mansfield notifying them there was a male outside its Wooster office threatening to commit suicide with a gun.

"He made a comment if he saw any police officers, he would shoot them," Chief Steve Glick said.
read more here
http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4741439

Army tries to train soldiers on how to be mentally, emotionally tough

They will never get it~

Barbara Ehrenreich pointed out that the message the troops are getting is that if they end up with PTSD, it's their fault. This has been my biggest problem with the latest programs the DOD has come out with for this reason alone. It's not that the programs are bad, they just start badly.

The message the soldiers and especially the Marines are getting is they are responsible to "train their brains" like they train their bodies and if they don't then whatever happens is their fault. Whatever the programs have to say after that point, it's too late. The message has already been delivered and they shut off anything else.

When a big tough ex-Marine cries on a Chaplain's shoulder and apologizes because "he's a Marine" we have a huge problem.

The other issue is that they are still misunderstanding what courage and compassion are. They think if they have compassion, they cannot be courageous. Please tell me what good it does to care and have no courage? What good would it do to see a kid in the middle of the street without having the courage to rush out and save her? What good would it do to want to serve in the military, training to do it, being able to accept the fact you could die doing it but have no compassion? You'd be a machine ready to gun down anything that moves and not feel anything. You would also end up being the type of person no one touches in regular life either. There is a type of compassion that requires courage and this type goes into the military, into law enforcement, into fire departments and enter into other jobs where they are emergency responders. Their ability to feel is the basis of why they do what they do but they couldn't do it without courage.

So what the military gets wrong is trying to get them to kill off the best part about them instead of honoring it. They could work with the servicemen and women on that basis and I'm sure they would find they would get a lot more to understand what PTSD is and get them help right off the bat heading off PTSD, but that would be asking too much. After all, it's what the rest of the people in this country get when a traumatic event hits them and crisis teams rush in but that must be just too coddling for the military. Try telling that to some of the police officers and firefighters after the Twin Towers came down they were too soft to not need help. I bet they'd get a good laugh out of that one. Yes, crisis teams went in to help them heal right after the towers fell and as they were digging up the bodies of their buddies from the rubble.

Whenever you read reports about what the military is trying to do, what you see is the suicide and attempted suicide rate go up, not down. You see the divorce rate go up and then you wonder what they really know about PTSD because I have yet to hear a report they have been clued in that PTSD is a wound and strikes the compassionate because they walk away with their own pain and the pain of others. The military should know the root of PTSD if they ever plan on really addressing it instead of trying to kill it. They can heal it if they understand it and they can keep servicemen and women from dropping out when they want to stay in. These men and women can be healed even if they cannot be cured but they can also come out on the other side better than they were before the event itself.

Army trains soldiers on how to be mentally, emotionally tough
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, January 3, 2010
A class full of battle-hardened sergeants in combat boots, being taught by a bunch of loafer-clad professors. The subject, more or less: how to be happier.

“It was awkward at first,” said Sgt. 1st Class Michael Bradley, of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany. “The first day, there were people who claimed it was touchy-feely.”

But as the 10 days of master resiliency training continued, those feelings faded, said Bradley, who was among the first group of NCOs to go through the first-of-its kind Army psychological course.

“A lot of people said, ‘I wish they’d had this when I came in the Army,’ ” he said. “‘I’d still be married only one time.’ ’’

The Army’s not in the marriage-counseling business, but it does try to keep soldiers alive — and failed relationships are a significant factor in the record suicide rates in the past several years. Additionally, up to 30 percent of troops are beset with PTSD and depression as soldiers have made repeated trips to war zones.

But social critics, such as Barbara Ehrenreich, who wrote The New York Times best-seller “Nickel and Dimed,” say that what Seligman markets in his books and classes is, like positive thinking in general, “snake oil” with numerous downsides.

In her book “Brightsided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America,” Ehrenreich argues that positive thinking and too much optimism lead to disasters like the Iraq war and the financial meltdown. She also says the emphasis on optimism means victims end up being blamed for their own misfortunes: they weren’t positive enough.

“If optimism is the key … and if you can achieve an optimistic outlook through the discipline of positive thinking, then there is no excuse for failure,” she writes. “The flip side of positivity is thus a harsh insistence on personal responsibility: If your business fails or your job is eliminated, it must be because you didn’t try hard enough, didn’t believe firmly enough in the inevitability of your success … to be disappointed, resentful, or downcast is to be a ‘victim’ and a ‘whiner.’ 

read more here

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66991

Guard killed, marshal injured in Las Vegas courthouse shooting

Guard killed, marshal injured in Las Vegas courthouse shooting
January 4, 2010 4:26 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Marshals say they don't know motive for shooting
Witness says he heard 30 to 40 gunshots
Suspect shot and killed, official says
No one else was in courthouse lobby during incident
(CNN) -- A man dressed in black walked into the lobby of a federal courthouse in Las Vegas, Nevada, pulled a shotgun from underneath his jacket and opened fire Monday, killing a court security officer and injuring a deputy U.S. marshal, an FBI spokesman said.

Seven marshals and security officers returned fire as they pursued the man into the street, FBI spokesman Joseph Dickey said. One witness described the volley of gunshots as "surreal," and another, who captured the firefight on video, said it was "unbelievable."

The suspect was shot by marshals and killed.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/04/las.vegas.shooting/index.html

Deployments take toll on children of soldiers

Deployments take toll on children of soldiers

By Preston Sparks - The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle via AP
Posted : Monday Jan 4, 2010 7:47:48 EST

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Marcus Carr is the first to admit it can be a bit depressing.

Both of his parents are deployed overseas in the military — his mom in Iraq, his dad in Korea. Marcus’ parents are divorced, and while his mom is away he has been living with his stepfather in Augusta, helping out with extra chores such as washing dishes, caring for the dog and helping his half-brother with his studies.

“It’s kind of depressing,” he said recently, reflecting on how as a high school senior he has achieved certain milestones that his parents have been unable to enjoy with him. “It really takes a toll on me.”

So does, Marcus added, having to move six times because of military reassignments.

“Friends, it was always hard to make because you were only there for a little time,” he said, adding that he has also had problems with records transfers, sometimes losing credit for classes.

Marcus is among the thousands of children who must cope with the sacrifices that come from having a parent in the military. And amid prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a new study suggests deployments are having an effect on military children.
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Deployments take toll on children of soldiers