Military TAP plagued by inconsistencies, indifference

Military TAP plagued by inconsistencies, indifference
February 6, 2011 posted by Chaplain Kathie
The DOD releases reports of what they’re doing as if it is all good but the truth is, it is not all good. There have been a lot of advances in the care of wounded servicemen and women. While that is true, the stories the veterans tell show that all is not well on the home front.
TAP has problems, Wounded Warriors Program (not to be confused with Wounded Warriors Project) has problems. Until these problems are fixed, we’ll keep losing more and more to suicide.

Program for departing service members plagued by inconsistencies, indifference
By Carl Prine
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 6, 2011
WASHINGTON — Launched during a time of peace to aid departing service members, the Transition Assistance Program is failing war veterans and their families, according to Pentagon reports obtained by the Tribune-Review.
Called “TAP,” it began in 1989 as a federal pilot program run by the Department of Defense, Labor Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs. For most of the 140,000 troops who annually must take the course, it’s three days of classes on topics ranging from the new GI Bill for college to special initiatives that help wounded personnel and their families.
Crisscrossing the U.S. and Europe, investigators from the Pentagon’s Office of Wounded Warrior Care and Transition Policy in Alexandria, Va., determined that TAP was plagued with “significant gaps in consistency of services” and “low” spousal participation, according to the files. The reports added that there was “little evidence” financial aid, relocation assistance or post-military education applications “are emphasized or provided” by TAP coordinators.
Reports state that TAP staffers often failed to help military spouses find off-base jobs and were “not well versed” in recovery care programs; TAP support for injured personnel and their families was “not readily apparent.”
The reports allege:

• Instructors at Italy’s Naval Air Station Signorella in late 2009 lacked the training and “established level of competency” to conduct counseling for personnel leaving the service.
• Sailors at Florida’s Naval Station Mayport slept through classes in late 2009 because they were forced to stand overnight watch, a problem of “mission win; Sailors lose.” At naval bases in southern Europe, sailors were forced to pay their own way to attend briefings.
• Military discharge counseling so bad at Naval Hospital Jacksonville in Florida that the “risks of violations of federal statute high.”
• A program at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina that exceeded classroom capacity for Marines, offered limited child care to spouses attending workshops and discharged reservists who weren’t receiving the courses that they needed.
• Questions about the program’s ability to “maintain enduring connection with National Guard or Reserve Community questionable; extent of proactive engagement could not be determined.”
for more go here
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/02/06/military-tap-plagued-by-inconsistencies-indifference/

Veterans, From the Frontlines to the Farm

From the Frontlines to the Farm
New York Times

“In the military, grunts are the guys who get dirty, do the work and are generally underappreciated,” said Colin Archipley, a decorated Marine Corps infantry sergeant turned organic farmer. “I think farmers are the same.”

Sgt. Matt Holzmann and Stephanie De Alba laying irrigation piping at Mr. Archipley's farm, Archi’s Acres, the site of a program that trains veterans and active-duty service members in organic farming.


Sergeant Holzmann, 33, a Marine, spent seven months in Afghanistan, where he did counterinsurgency work and tried to introduce aquaponics — a self-replenishing agricultural system to rural villages. Along with Combat Boots to Cowboy Boots, a new program for veterans at the University of Nebraska’s College of Technical Agriculture, and farming fellowships for wounded soldiers, the six-week course offered at Archi’s Acres is part of a nascent “veteran-centric” farming movement.

go here for great pictures and more stories
From the Frontlines to the Farm

Rick Scott's Tea-Party-backed proposed budget raises questions

First Bachmann comes out and says the veterans shouldn't be getting what they are getting and now Scott wants to take more away from more people. Do these people ever think about how they will hurt others? Do they care?

They claim they are about managing money but history proves that to not be true. Had they been right about the economy when the wealthy were getting subsidized tax breaks, we'd all be working and wealthy by now. The fact is we're all hurting and waiting for the jobs to trickle down so that we can see the fruits of their promises.

They complain about paying taxes but don't seem to mind paying them when wealthy people benefit from the tax breaks.

People of Florida get ready for more pain.

Rick Scott's Tea-Party-backed proposed budget raises questions as it slashes Florida funding


BY MARC CAPUTO

HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU

Calling for billions in tax and spending cuts, Gov. Rick Scott will unveil a budget Monday that's as much a policy roadmap as it is a sweeping political statement.
Even Scott's venue for rolling out the budget drips with political symbolism -- a tea party rally he helped establish in the small rural town of Eustis where activists will also celebrate a Florida court ruling against President Obama's health plan.
Scott's first proposed budget is his best chance to make good on his campaign promise to run government like an efficient business. It also sets the tone of his relationship with the Legislature, which has to turn his plans into a balanced budget.
The $5 billion question:
Is Scott's budget realistic?
Legislative leaders aren't sure, noting that next year's budget faces a shortfall of at least $3 billion and Scott proposes to make the hole even bigger by insisting on $2 billion more in tax cuts. They want Scott to explain how much more they'll cut from schools, prisons, roads, courts, environmental programs, libraries, parks and health care.
``This is a political bombshell,'' said Glenn Robertson, former budget director for governors Bob Graham and Bob Martinez, respectively a Democrat and Republican. ``The key thing is how seriously he's taken.''
``He'll probably get a lot of applause in Eustis. But the Legislature wants details, specifics. What has to be considered is how much the governor respects the process and the political implications of what he's asking,'' Robertson said.
Never before has the Republican-led Legislature cut $5 billion in one session. Over the past five years, though, lawmakers have trimmed a total of about $5 billion from one part of the budget, the general-revenue section, which accounts for most major government services.


Read more:
Rick Scott's Tea-Party-backed proposed budget

20,000 service members, vets lost homes in 2010

20,000 service members, vets lost homes in 2010
Foreclosure rate in zip codes near military bases increased 32 percent
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Feb 3, 2011 22:24:48 EST
More than 20,000 veterans, active-duty troops and reservists who took out special government-backed mortgages lost their homes last year — the highest number since 2003.

The rate of foreclosure filings in 2010 among 163 zip codes located near military bases rose 32 percent over 2008, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure research firm. This compares with a 2010 increase in foreclosure filings nationally of 23 percent over 2008.

The housing crisis has hit military families particularly hard in part because of transfers and the loss of civilian jobs left behind by reservists.

About 12,000 military families applied to the Pentagon’s expanded Homeowners Assistance Program. It makes up most of the difference in price for service members who must transfer and sell their homes for less than they owe, or buys their houses outright.

“Our demand, in terms of (military) families coming to us for assistance, went up 19 percent in 2010 over the previous year,” says Bill Nelson, executive director of USA Cares, a charity that provides financial assistance to Iraq and Afghanistan war-era troops.
read more here
20,000 service members, vets lost homes in 2010

But that isn't the only bad news for veterans

Unemployment for young vets jumps to 15 percent
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 4, 2011 10:25:57 EST
The unemployment rate for veterans took an unexpected jump in January — even as the overall unemployment rate fell.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the national unemployment rate dropped 0.4 percentage point, to a new level of 9.0, but the rate for veterans climbed to 9.9 percent, up from 8.3 percent the previous month.

For Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans, the unemployment rate for January was 15.2 percent. This is a sharp increase from 9.4 percent in November and 11.7 percent in December, a clear trend of a worsening job market for younger veterans, many of them combat veterans.

“This should be a wakeup call for America,” said Paul Rieckoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans of America. “We have a definite employment problem and it is getting worse.”

Labor Department statistics for January show that 15.5 percent of male veterans and 13.5 percent of female veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan era are looking for work and cannot find it. But Rieckoff said IAVA polling shows the true unemployment rate for young veterans is 20 percent or higher.
read more here
Unemployment for young vets jumps to 15 percent

Bachmann backs off pay cuts for disabled vets

Bachmann backs off pay cuts for disabled vets
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 4, 2011 15:29:44 EST
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., sought Friday to quell a controversy over her budget-cutting plans, dropping a proposal that would have cut compensation for some disabled veterans by $12,000 a year or more.

Bachmann, who heads the tea party caucus in the House of Representatives, said she remains dedicated to cutting federal spending, and has not backed off the idea of freezing veterans health care funding.


But her list of ways to cut $400 billion from the federal budget no longer includes a proposal that would have reduced disability compensation by the amount received in Social Security Disability Income for the 153,000 severely disabled and unemployed veterans eligible for both benefits.

Bachmann came up with the list of possible cuts as part of her opposition to raising the $14.3 trillion cap on government borrowing, an issue Congress will face later this year.
read more here
Bachmann backs off pay cuts for disabled vets

Homeless Veteran will have to go

Homeless Veteran will have to go


By Karen Cohilas

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - A homeless veteran, living under a bridge, has now been evicted from his make-shift home. We brought you a story with Army Veteran Colin Bailey last week. He lives underneath the bridge at the bypass and Slappey Boulevard in Albany.

Thursday, law enforcement hauled away his trash and also told him they'll be back for the rest of his belongings if he doesn't leave soon.

When people saw Bailey's belongings being hauled away, they contacted us at the station. I sat down with Bailey under the bridge this morning. We talked about his life on the streets and the news he got today wasn't all bad. @

"I don't care what corner of this town I come in, try to stay in, I get runoff."

Where else have you been that you got runoff? "Everywhere. Abandoned houses, old cars, abandoned buildings. I'm trying to survive. Trying to survive. Stay away from people."
read more here
Homeless Veteran will have to go

Vets4Warriors offers help to Fort Hood soldiers

Published: Wednesday, February 02, 2011
By Seth Augenstein/The Star-Ledger
After returning home from Iraq in 1992, John Lurker struggled to restart a normal life.

The Desert Storm Army veteran changed jobs frequently. He had marriage troubles and eventually divorced. He especially had problems dealing with conflict, he said, refusing to yield to other people even when he knew he was on the wrong side of an argument.

"There was no empathy. No sympathy. It was only ‘preservation mode,’" he said.

At his lowest point last year, feeling distressed and out of sorts, he called the "Vet2Vet" helpline, run by UMDNJ, where he was directed to seek to professional help and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome.

With the benefit of professional help, the Hackettstown man’s life started to improve, he said.
But it all began with the helpline.

Soldiers on active duty will now have the the chance to get the same type of help.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which runs the 5-year-old Vet2Vet program with the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, is offering a new "Vets4Warriors" helpline to the soldiers of Fort Hood in Texas, the most populous Army base in the nation.

As of Tuesday, the Vets4Warriors program is now providing 24-hour help to the roughly 50,000 soldiers who are stationed at Fort Hood. Whether it’s depression, thoughts of suicide, alcohol problems or just advice about how to navigate the military echelons, the veterans staffing the phone lines are listening and offering advice.

The helpline becomes available after a spate of suicides at Fort Hood. The number of soldiers who committed suicide doubled to 22 in 2010, according to the Army. It was the most suicides on an Army base since at least 2003, despite the fact that there are about 150 behavioral health workers on staff at the base, according to Army officials. On one September weekend alone last year, there were four suicides, according to Christopher Kosseff, the president and CEO of UMDNJ’s University Behavioral HealthCare, which administers the call center.
read more here
UMDNJ offers help to Fort Hood Soldiers

Army producing another new suicide-prevention video

Army producing new suicide-prevention video
Jan 27, 2011

By Laura M. Levering (Northwest Guardian)

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (Jan. 27, 2011) -- A steady rise in the number of Soldiers who contemplate or commit suicide each year keeps the Army Suicide Prevention Program and behavioral health personnel striving for new ways to save lives.

The program's latest initiative, "Shoulder to Shoulder: Resiliency of the Army Family," is the third in a series of videos created for suicide awareness and prevention training at installations Armywide.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord was one of two installations selected for filming the 20-minute video.

A series of focus groups and interviews were conducted prior to filming "Shoulder to Shoulder," none of which was scripted. The video uses real people with real stories, in hopes of giving suicide a "face" viewers will identify with.

One focus group of leaders met in the "studio," a converted World War II barracks on Lewis North where the video was taped, to target ongoing Army initiatives and future direction of JBLM suicide prevention efforts.

The group included Walter Morales, program manager of DA Suicide Prevention and vice chief of staff, Health Promotion and Risk Reduction Task Force, Dr. Michelle Freedman, chief of Family and Child Services, Mark Brown, JBLM director of Human Resources, Sandi Vest of Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Proponency, Sam Smith, director of the Airman and Family Readiness Center, Patsy George, chief of Casualty Assistance and Robert Antry, chief of Military Personnel Division.

Morales said that coming to JBLM gave him a large pool of Soldiers to meet with from the thousands who have deployed and returned. He also said that while the majority of the video features Soldiers, his intent is to take feedback from the general population - to include family members and Department of the Army civilians - to produce training tools for suicide prevention.
read more here
Army producing new suicide-prevention video

Numbers on PTSD and TBI expected to increase

It isn't a secret because it has happened after every war. The difference is this time, there are some people talking about it before it happens.

"Jan. 1, some 63 percent of the more than 9,000 Army Wounded Warrior Program Soldiers were diagnosed with behavioral health injuries -- 47 percent had PTSD, 16 percent Traumatic Brain Injury."

Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli also addressed the increase in the Guards and Reserves.


Chiarelli expects increase in behavioral health needs
Feb 2, 2011

By J.D. Leipold
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Feb. 1, 2011) -- The Army's vice chief of staff said with the drawdown in Iraq and eventually in Afghanistan, the country could expect to see an increase in the number of Soldiers suffering from depression, anxiety, Traumatic Brain Injury and post-traumatic stress.

Speaking at the opening of the Reserve Officer Association's National Security Symposium Jan. 30, Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli praised the reserve component for being "truly remarkable" in what he called a nearly decade-long era of "persistent engagement," and added that the health and well-being of U.S. forces was absolutely critical to the security of the nation.

"Soldiers and their families are under tremendous stress and strain, physically and emotionally," he said. "Unfortunately, and I've said this often over the last couple of years, I do think it's going to continue to get harder, at least for a little while longer before it gets easy."

Of particular concern to Chiarelli were the physically hidden or unseen wounds -- Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Citing the Army Wounded Warrior Program population, he said as of Jan. 1, some 63 percent of the more than 9,000 Army Wounded Warrior Program Soldiers were diagnosed with behavioral health injuries -- 47 percent had PTSD, 16 percent Traumatic Brain Injury.
read more here
Chiarelli expects increase in behavioral health needs

Soldier stationed at Fort Campbell took his own life at 23

Suicides up in area
February 3, 2011 - By BRAD BAUER Special to The News and Sentinel

MARIETTA - The last time Marietta resident Andrew Russell spoke to his younger brother, Travis A. Thomas, was to tell him he'd become an uncle.

On Jan. 10, Thomas, a 23-year-old soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., took his own life.

"He sounded happy and really proud," said Russell, 25, of the conversation telling Thomas about the birth of Russell's son. "That's why I think this was more of an accident. I think he went a little too far with the alcohol. He was too excited about my son to want to do this."

Although Thomas' suicide did not take place in Marietta, local law enforcement has responded to at least four suicide attempts in January.

There were 13 suicide attempts reported to the Washington County Sheriff's Office in all of 2010. Police say there are probably more attempts that are not reported, or deaths that are never determined.
read more here
Suicides up in area

Homeless Veteran turns his life around

Homeless Veteran turns his life around
By: Sherrie Johnson
BALTIMORE - Air Force Veteran Oliver Avery, III has struggled for 30 years with alcohol. He was divorced twice, homeless, desperate and ready for a change.

With the help of the VA Medical Center, Avery turned his life around. He was selected to attend the Veterans Affairs year long Leadership Development Institute. It's a program designed to enhance the leadership skills of people for higher level positions.
read more here
Homeless Veteran turns his life around

Veteran's Wall Vandalized With "Kill Them All"

This happened last week but I have not been able to find any follow up stories on this.

Veteran's Wall Vandalized With "Kill Them All"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A tribute to fallen American heroes from the First Coast was vandalized sometime over the past few days, and was discovered on Friday evening.

A Jacksonville Sheriff's Office police report said an EverBank Field Security guard noticed the graffiti Friday on the Veteran's Memorial Wall in downtown Jacksonville.
read more here
Veteran's Wall Vandalized

Florida Grandfather Reclaims His Identity After 17 Years

Fla. Grandfather Reclaims His Identity After 17 Years
Larry Smith Served Time in Jail for a Crime Committed by Alleged Identity Thief
BY JESSICA HOPPER
Feb. 3, 2011
A homeless man who allegedly stole the identity of a Florida grandfather who spent time in jail for a crime he did not commit will be arraigned today on multiple counts that include identity theft and welfare fraud, police said.

Joseph Kidd is accused of stealing Larry Smith's identity for 17 years, also costing Smith access to his medical benefits. The other charges against Kidd are giving false information to a police officer and grand theft of services.

In 1993, Kidd was arrested and fingerprinted in California for an unspecified, nonviolent crime as "Lawrence E. Smith," beginning a nightmare for the real Lawrence E. Smith, who lives in Lehigh Acres, Fla.

Investigators say they have discovered that Kidd had a birth certificate, a marriage license and even a driver's license with Larry Smith's name on it. He married a woman in 2007 allegedly using the alias.

Amid the confusion, the real Larry Smith has been wrongly ticketed for driving a purple Camaro too fast in 2001, billed $300,000 by Medicare and almost had his driver's license revoked for offenses he didn't commit.


"I spent eight days in jail in 2006 and my wife was on the phone 24-7 saying that it's not me," Smith said. "She sent paycheck stubs from where I was working when these crimes occurred to prove it wasn't me."
read more here
Fla. Grandfather Reclaims His Identity After 17 Years

VA Awards include Orlando VA's Tim Liezert

VA Announces Awards for

Clinical Simulation Training, Education and Research

Innovations Result in Better Clinical and Customer Service Training

WASHINGTON (Feb. 3, 2011)- Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
employees Dr. David M. Gaba and Timothy W. Liezert were recently named
the first-ever recipients of the Under Secretary for Health's Awards for
Excellence in Clinical Simulation Training, Education and Research.

"This award honors individuals who have made a national impact through
the direct provision of innovative clinical simulation training,
education and research in VA," said VA Under Secretary for Health Dr.
Robert A. Petzel. "Dr. Gaba's influence on the skills of clinical staff
throughout VA has benefited the millions of Veterans cared for in our
health care system."

Petzel presented each with the award at the International Meeting of
Simulation in Healthcare in New Orleans on Jan. 24.

Gaba describes simulation as a technique - not a technology - to replace
or amplify real experiences with guided experiences that evoke or
replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive
manner.

Simulated learning enhances patient safety by ensuring clinicians
receive experience on virtual "patients" to improve procedural
performance. It also improves team functioning through training
scenarios in emergency rooms, operating rooms and intensive care units
where entire medical teams need to act seamlessly under tremendous
pressure. Recordings of simulated scenarios allow teams to review how
they work together and assess how they might improve their performance.

Dr. Gaba was recognized with the 2011 Excellence in Clinical Simulation
Training, Education and Research Practice Award for his numerous
contributions to the field of clinical simulation over the past two
decades. He created the first modern mannequin-based fully interactive
simulator, which has since been commercialized and, along with his
curricula, is in use in thousands of simulation training and education
programs around the world. He has also conducted ground-breaking
research in Crisis Resource Management (CRM) in clinical care settings
and has designed CRM-oriented simulation instructor training designed to
improve patient safety outcomes.

Gaba is staff anesthesiologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System,
Calif., and Associate Dean for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning
and Director of the Center for Immersive and Simulation Based Learning
(CISL) at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. He is
also editor-in-chief of "Simulation in Healthcare," the official journal
of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.

In receiving the 2011 Clinical Simulation Training, Education and
Research Executive Leadership Award, Liezert was recognized for his role
in championing clinical simulation practice at the Orlando VA Medical
Center (VAMC), and in support of VA efforts to establish its Simulation
Learning Education and Research Network (SimLEARN) as a program of
peerless excellence. An active contributor to the vibrant and
nationally renowned Orlando simulation community, he has established
strong relationships with simulation leaders in industry, government and
academia that are greatly benefiting VA clinical simulation programs.

Committed to simulation excellence in clinical and non-clinical
settings, Liezert has applied simulation methodologies to customer
service training. "Tim Liezert is truly a model leader for VA in the
arena of clinical simulation," said Petzel. "His tireless efforts to
lead the way in establishing simulation as a learning modality for
health care education and training is significant, and is duly
recognized by this award." Liezert is director of the Orlando VA Medical
Center, Fla.

The strategy of VA's SimLEARN program is to improve clinical outcomes
for America's Veterans by providing a safe and supportive environment in
which practitioners master skills, practice protocols, learn
system-based practices, apply critical decision making and promote
communication and interpersonal skills. To learn more about the
SimLEARN program, visit www.simlearn.va.gov.