VA questioned on mental health care progress despite hiring, funding
By LEO SHANE III
Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — Despite more money and more staff to tackle the problem, veterans aren’t seeing enough progress toward getting mental health care, the chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee said Wednesday.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said the extra funding and effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs seems to be going toward more bureaucracy and not better care for veterans. That’s particularly concerning with the wave of Iraq and Afghanistan servicemembers expected to reach the department in coming years.
“The true measure of success with respect to mental health care is not how many people are hired but how many people are helped,” he told VA officials during a hearing Wednesday. “It has become painfully clear to me that the VA is focused more on its process and not its outcomes.”
The comments came during a hearing examining recent struggles of the department. Veterans Health Administration Undersecretary for Health Robert Petzel countered that the department is on the right path, but acknowledged they still have a daunting task ahead.
Veterans Affairs officials have seen a steady rise in the number of veterans seeking mental health care in recent years, from about 927,000 cases in fiscal 2006 to more than 1.3 million in fiscal 2012.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
1.3 million veterans sought help for mental healthcare in 2012
What they are doing is not the same at every VA. Some actually think outside the "box" and use help available to them in the communities. Others, well, they just take orders and let that be the end of it. If you want to fix the problem with veterans needing "mental healthcare" first stop playing games with the words since almost all of them have some level of combat connected issues. Next, stop using medication as the answer to all. They are being numbed and not healed. Make sure families are included. So much is being done across the country but isn't happening in every part of the country.
DOD announces the "Distinguished Warfare Medal"
DOD announces the "Distinguished Warfare Medal"
By Jennifer Harper
The Washington Times
Drone pilots, heads up.
A new award becomes available, Defense Dept. officials say, in a few months. That would be the Distinguished Warfare Medal, meant to provide DOD-wide recognition for “extraordinary achievement, not involving acts of valor in combat, directly impacting combat operations of other military operations,” according to a memo from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday. The new “DWM” ranks below the Distinguished Flying Cross, but above the Bronze Star.
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By Jennifer Harper
The Washington Times
Drone pilots, heads up.
A new award becomes available, Defense Dept. officials say, in a few months. That would be the Distinguished Warfare Medal, meant to provide DOD-wide recognition for “extraordinary achievement, not involving acts of valor in combat, directly impacting combat operations of other military operations,” according to a memo from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday. The new “DWM” ranks below the Distinguished Flying Cross, but above the Bronze Star.
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Fort Hood Shooting victims "betrayed"
Fort Hood Hero Says President Obama 'Betrayed' Her, Other Victims
ABC Nightline
By NED BERKOWITZ and BRIAN ROSS
Feb. 12, 2013
"Betrayed is a good word," former Sgt. Munley told ABC News in a tearful interview to be broadcast tonight on "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."
"Not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of," she said. "In fact they've been neglected."
There was no immediate comment from the White House about Munley's allegations.
Thirteen people were killed, including a pregnant soldier, and 32 others shot in the November 2009 rampage by the accused shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, who now awaits a military trial on charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder.
Tonight's broadcast report also includes dramatic new video, obtained by ABC News, taken in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, capturing the chaos and terror of the day.
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ABC Nightline
By NED BERKOWITZ and BRIAN ROSS
Feb. 12, 2013
Some of the victims "had to find civilian doctors to get proper medical treatment" and the military has not assigned liaison officers to help them coordinate their recovery, said the group's lawyer, Reed Rubinstein.Three years after the White House arranged a hero's welcome at the State of the Union address for the Fort Hood police sergeant and her partner who stopped the deadly shooting there, Kimberly Munley says President Obama broke the promise he made to her that the victims would be well taken care of.
"There's a substantial number of very serious, crippling cases of post-traumatic stress disorder exacerbated, frankly, by what the Army and the Defense Department did in this case," said Rubinstein. "We have a couple of cases in which the soldiers' command accused the soldiers of malingering, and would say things to them that Fort Hood really wasn't so bad, it wasn't combat."
"Betrayed is a good word," former Sgt. Munley told ABC News in a tearful interview to be broadcast tonight on "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."
"Not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of," she said. "In fact they've been neglected."
There was no immediate comment from the White House about Munley's allegations.
Thirteen people were killed, including a pregnant soldier, and 32 others shot in the November 2009 rampage by the accused shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, who now awaits a military trial on charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder.
Tonight's broadcast report also includes dramatic new video, obtained by ABC News, taken in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, capturing the chaos and terror of the day.
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Army brass to go to Fla. while budget cuts loom
Army brass to go to Fla. while budget cuts loom
By Tom Vanden Brook
USA Today
Posted : Monday Feb 11, 2013
WASHINGTON — Top Army brass have been cleared to attend a conference in Fort Lauderdale this month despite orders to curtail such events in light of the looming federal budget crisis unless they are “mission-critical,” according to memos obtained by USA Today.
The conference held annually by the Association of the U.S. Army combines a defense-contractor trade show with seminars for soldiers. It will take place Feb. 20-22, a little more than a week before the military faces what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has called cuts to the Pentagon budget that could render the U.S. armed forces a “second-rate power.”
Those reductions are being triggered in part by “sequestration,” which includes a $500 billion cut to military spending over a decade if Congress and the White House can’t reach a deal on the federal deficit by March 1.
Army Secretary John McHugh approved the attendance of 76 Army personnel at the conference, according to a memo. The cost to the Army: $157,966, down 95 percent for last year’s total of nearly $3 million. In 2012, 576 soldiers and civilian employees traveled to Florida for the conference.
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By Tom Vanden Brook
USA Today
Posted : Monday Feb 11, 2013
WASHINGTON — Top Army brass have been cleared to attend a conference in Fort Lauderdale this month despite orders to curtail such events in light of the looming federal budget crisis unless they are “mission-critical,” according to memos obtained by USA Today.
The conference held annually by the Association of the U.S. Army combines a defense-contractor trade show with seminars for soldiers. It will take place Feb. 20-22, a little more than a week before the military faces what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has called cuts to the Pentagon budget that could render the U.S. armed forces a “second-rate power.”
Those reductions are being triggered in part by “sequestration,” which includes a $500 billion cut to military spending over a decade if Congress and the White House can’t reach a deal on the federal deficit by March 1.
Army Secretary John McHugh approved the attendance of 76 Army personnel at the conference, according to a memo. The cost to the Army: $157,966, down 95 percent for last year’s total of nearly $3 million. In 2012, 576 soldiers and civilian employees traveled to Florida for the conference.
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Chaplain casualty-care video game draws fire
Oh my God how much more are they going to keep getting wrong? They are right here in Orlando on top of everything else!
Chaplain casualty-care video game draws fire
By Michael Peck
Posted : Wednesday Feb 13, 2013
An Army computer game to train military chaplains may bring judicial rather than divine intervention. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is vowing to stop the project, and possibly file a lawsuit in federal court.
The simulation, tentatively named Spiritual Triage, is being created for the Army’s Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson, S.C., but the school doesn’t want it.
“The school still hasn’t made any requests for the simulation, nor does it intend to at this point,” said spokeswoman Julia Simpkins.
Spiritual Triage is beginning development at the Army’s Simulation and Training Technology Center, which awarded the contract to Orlando, Fla.-based Engineering and Computer Simulations. Scheduled to be completed by September, Spiritual Triage is intended to expose chaplains and chaplain assistants to stressful situations such as ministering to dying soldiers.
“Non-player characters are used to elicit feelings and conditions that one may encounter, such as fear of death and dying, faith, guilt, separation, despair, grief, as well as physical trauma such as pain, burns, amputations, and disfigurement, to name only a few,” according to the ECS website.
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