Veteran gets foster home instead of nursing home

Why didn't anyone think of this before? This is such a great idea when you consider there are people in this country taking in homeless dogs. The dogs are cared for until someone adopts them by their foster families. When we were looking for a dog, Save-a-life gave us the option of being a foster family or adopting. We fell in love with our dog, so right away, we adopted him. We were ready to do whatever it took to give him a good home. Veterans in this country have not been so lucky.

Many veterans have no family to help take care of them or even visit them in a nursing home. Doing something like this is an outstanding idea! There was something like this after WWII. My husband's uncle was on a ship that was sunk. He was in the ocean for a few days. When he came home he was sent to live on a farm with a couple dedicated to taking care of veterans. They lived there, were cared about and given something to do with their days. While it gave him a better quality of life even with what was called "Shell-shock" it can only work better now because there is a lot more knowledge of what needs to be done.

Local Veteran is First to Receive One-of-a-Kind Care
Local Veteran is First to Receive One-of-a-Kind Care
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21 2011 18:22 KYLE WARNKE
Kenneth Gaddis is a Korean War veteran who recently found himself a new home, thanks to the help of the V.A. Medical Center of Dublin.
The V.A. Center started a program to put veterans into a foster home instead of a nursing home. The focus is to give veterans one-on-one care in a person's house, rather than being just another patient in a nursing home.
Kenneth Gaddis is the first middle Georgian to take advantage of this program.
Gaddis' foster 'family', is Lisa Akins. She helps by helping Gaddis make his bed, cook his food, and take him to the store.
But Kenneth says he likes helping Lisa around the house, doing things just like he did when he was younger.
"Yeah, I like to help her if I can," Gaddis says. "Do things that I used to...help bring in the groceries, something like that."
But the V.A. Center needs more help from families for more veterans. According to a V.A. Center spokesman, veterans who are in the foster care program see better health results, because they typically get more attention and exercise.
And Lisa says Kenneth is not a patient, he's a part of the family.
"We just hang out as a family," she says. "He goes out with the family and hangs out with us. Like he's a part of the family."
If you are interested in becoming a foster family for a local veteran, or would like more information about the program, you can click here

The Heart-Ship of Loving Veterans with PTSD

It isn't hard to believe that Lily Casura has become an outstanding hero on PTSD. When I think of all the years we've talked and shared, it is hard to remember all the conversations but this one stood out in my mind as well as Lily's. We were talking about the kind of heartache she was heading into working with veterans trying to heal PTSD. First I told her that it was not impossible, but it was almost impossible to get through to them in the beginning. Then I told her that listening to their stories or reading their emails would break her heart but soon she'd see how great these men and women are.

To imagine that depth of pain comes with a person still willing to do it all over again no matter how much they suffered after is a testament to their character. They do not worry as much about themselves as they worry about their families and what this is all doing to them. They tell stories of how they ended up divorced or how they believe they are heading to it. They don't want to hurt anyone and they don't want to hurt anymore. Lily gets it.

Last week she did a post for Valentines Day. I've been out of my mind with classes and trying to keep up but this semester brings killer classes like typography and screenwriting taking up way too many hours a day. I have time to breathe now that several projects due tomorrow are done and wanted to post what she wrote. When she wrote heart-ship, it went right to the point of what love does when it is anything but normal to most, but normal to the world we live in with PTSD getting in the middle.

February 15, 2011

The Heart-Ship of Loving Veterans with PTSD
by
Lily Casura
Valentine's Day -- and coming up next week, five years of writing this site -- are making me think about holding the space of loving veterans with PTSD in my heart, and the "heart-ship" sometimes of doing so.

I was warned early on about this, by none other than Kathie Costos, who I esteem highly to this day. A few years into it, she wrote me in response to some problem I was bringing up, "I told you in the beginning when we first started corresponding that they would break your heart while you did this thankless job but the rewards would be worth millions for your heart. I told you they were magnificent! I am so happy they are starting to tell you how much you mean to them. That's really wonderful and even more important they are opening up. That is a big compliment to your work. They have a hard time opening up to anyone."

Well, open up they have...especially in a forum linked to this, which is the Healing Combat Trauma site on Facebook, and all the different relationships that have come out of that.
read more here
The Heart-Ship of Loving Veterans with PTSD

After Dave Duerson Death Ruled Suicide, Brain To Go To Research

Dave Duerson Death Ruled Suicide, Donating Brain For Concussion Research
DAVE SKRETTA 02/20/11

NEW YORK — The family of former Bears safety Dave Duerson has agreed to donate his brain for research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition linked to athletes who have sustained repeated concussions.

Chris Nowinski at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine told The Associated Press he was contacted by a representative of the NFL Players Association on Friday, then worked with a representative of Duerson's family.

"I can confirm that Mr. Duerson's family has agreed to donate his brain to the CSTE at BU School of Medicine," Nowinski said in an e-mail.

Duerson died Thursday in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. The Miami-Dade medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, Miami-Dade police spokesman Roy Rutland said Sunday. He confirmed that a gun was used but did not specify where Duerson shot himself.

It's unclear why Duerson killed himself, although his company had been forced into receivership several years ago and he had lost his home to foreclosure, former Bears coach Mike Ditka told the AP in a phone interview Sunday.

"I knew he had some problems, I knew he lost the business, I knew all that," said Ditka, whose Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund works to help provide for retired players, which includes funding research into health-related issues such as brain injuries.
read more here
After Suicide, Bears Star's Brain Donated For Concussion Research

Fort Lauderdale police need help after homeless man set on fire

Florida Homeless Man Set on Fire During Fight
Published February 19, 2011
FoxNews.com

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Police in Florida are searching for a man they say set another man on fire during a fight Friday.

Fort Lauderdale police said 58-year-old John Gibbons set 51-year-old William Stouffer on fire early Friday morning while the two were fighting behind a Burger King restaurant.

Stouffer was doused with some kind of accelerant before the other man lit him on fire, Detective Travis Mandell said.

Stouffer's girlfriend told local station WSVN that the men are homeless and both lived in tents near the Burger King.

"All of a sudden, poof, a big ball of fire, and here's Bill screaming like in a big ball of flames," she said.

Stouffer was hospitalized in Miami in critical condition. Police are searching for the man who attacked him.

Police are asking anyone with information on Gibbons's whereabouts to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Read more:
Florida Homeless Man Set on Fire During Fight

Sally Satel, Something evil this way comes

Sally Satel, Something evil this way comes
February 19, 2011 posted by Chaplain Kathie · Leave a Comment (Edit)
Sally Satel is still at it with the support from American Enterprise Institute. For years she’s been trying to say that PTSD is nothing more than veterans looking for an easy ride. She hasn’t changed and her claims remain that taking care of veterans with PTSD is a waste of money.

PRESS RELEASES
Veterans: What’s Wrong with Current Treatments?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 18, 2011
As the White House proposes a $7.2 billion allocation in its 2012 budget to fund research and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military veterans, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholar and psychiatrist Sally Satel explains the number of problems with current PTSD treatments and proposes methods to optimize the use of PTSD funding.
Among Satel’s key points:
A “culture of clinical diagnosis” allows mental health examiners to diagnose a veteran’s level of disability before veterans have even begun rehab. This convinces the patient that future health is unattainable, and gives individual veterans dismal prospects for meaningful recovery even before a course of therapy.
Disability benefits themselves can sometimes cause inadvertent damage by incentivizing unemployment and dependency and discouraging veterans from returning to the civilian workforce.
Collaboration between the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) needs to improve. The VBA often aims to maximize veteran benefits while giving no attention to improving clinical treatment, while the VHA often focuses solely on treatment without properly assisting veterans with financial hardships.
Sally Satel can be reached at ssatel@aei.org (202.862.7154) or through her assistant at wistar.wilson@aei.org (202.862.4876). For all other media inquiries, please contact Hampton Foushee at hampton.foushee@aei.org (202.862.5806).
AEI’s in-house ReadyCam TV studio–for live and taped interviews–can be booked through VideoLink at 617.340.4300.

Another load of scholarly wisdom shoveled out on veteran’s heads. Guess she never met the veterans waiting for month after month, even years, to have a claim approved only to discover that a disability worthy of 100% will only receive 50% or less making them file an appeal and fight for the rest. This is not even addressing the fact that until they receive the disability rating, there is no income for them to live off of if they cannot work. This the case of PTSD, veterans usually cannot work because of the medications, flashbacks and nightmares and all around reduced quality of life.
read more here
Sally Satel, Something evil this way comes

Female Sgt. told by Chaplain, rape must have been God's will

This so called "chaplain" told a woman that being raped must have been God's will and then told her to go to church more! No person in their right mind would suggest such a thing. Being a victim of a crime is not God's will. How could a Chaplain say such a deplorable thing? Yet this is going on all the time when soldiers turn to Chaplains for spiritual help. Being a member of the "wrong" denomination, or no affiliation at all, will bring condemnation from some Chaplains as they tell the soldier they are going to hell unless they covert. Now we hear that a female soldier is told it was God's will because she didn't go to church enough?

Military chaplain: Soldier’s rape ‘must have been God’s will’

By Sahil Kapur
Friday, February 18th, 2011
WASHINGTON – A lawsuit targeting the Pentagon contains an astonishing anecdote about a retired Sergeant's experience after being sexually assaulted by a colleague during a deployment to Afghanistan.

The lawsuit, available here (PDF), was filed by 17 military women against Secretaries of Defense Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld in Virginia. It assails "the military's repeated failures to take action in rape cases created a culture where violence against women was tolerated, violating the plaintiffs' Constitutional rights."

Sergeant Rebekah Havrilla alleges in the complaint that in 2006, after her military supervisor repeatedly sexually harassed her, she was raped by a colleague she was working with at the time.

"He pulled her into his bed, held her down, and raped her. He also photographed the rape," it reads. Havrilla reported the incident within a month.

In February 2009, she reported for active duty training and, upon seeing her rapist, went into shock.

"She immediately sought the assistance of the military chaplain," the lawsuit reads. "When SGT Havrilla met with the military chaplain, he told her that 'it must have been God's will for her to be raped' and recommended that she attend church more frequently."

The complains adds that "SGT Havrilla suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic depression."
read more here
Soldier’s rape must have been God’s will

Suicidal thoughts plague returned veterans

Denial will not save their lives, marriages or relationships with their kids. Denial is just as deadly when families refuse to understand what PTSD is.

After years of writing on PTSD I had a hard time understanding why spouses of Afghanistan and Iraq troops did not ask questions or show any interest in learning what they needed to know. My answer came from a young wife. She said that while her husband was gone, she had enough to worry about. She had to take care of everything at home alone along with worrying about the car pulling up in the driveway to tell her that her husband was not coming home. She didn't want to have to worry about something that may not happen.

A wound by bullet or bomb in war, may or may not happen. The car with the Chaplain inside may or may not come. The tasks that have to be done and kids that need care, still all need to be taken care of even when they come home. The need to understand what PTSD is ahead of time goes a long way toward getting help right away instead of wondering what came home and blaming them for what is happening inside of them.

Families can either make their negative feelings stronger and feed the turmoil or they can ease their minds and help them heal. It all depends on what they know just as much as how much they care.

Why wait to regret what they did not do? A Vietnam veteran's wife called me the other day. They had been married for 40 years but with retirement, mild PTSD got worse. Recently she became aware of what PTSD is and now lives with the regret of the turmoil in her home and what it all did to her kids growing up. I told her that she did the best she could with what she knew and now has the chance to do better. I reminded her that when our husbands came home, there was nothing for us to help us help them. Then I told her that even knowing what PTSD was and knowing what to do as much as I knew what not to do, it was almost impossible to keep my family together. To hold a family together for 40 years knowing nothing is remarkable.

With all the information available today, knowing spouses want to remain uninformed is heartbreaking. Most of what they have ahead of them can be wonderful if they learn now just as much as if their spouse gets help now instead of years later, it can be a great future. The problem is time is being wasted while PTSD takes a stronger hold and negative emotions are fed.

If they learn now, love still lives later.

War’s other casualty: Suicidal thoughts plague returned veterans
BY BERNARD A. LUBELL
FEB 17, 2011
Suicide among veterans is not a simple discussion. With veterans making more than half the calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline since 2007, does the adage of the “ultimate sacrifice” need to be revisited?

More than 134,000 people made calls to the lifeline last year. Of those callers, 61 percent identified themselves as veterans, while 7 percent identified themselves as a friend or family of a veteran.

This means that nearly three-fourths of calls made to the lifeline were related to veterans’ issues.

“What we don’t really know is the relationship between the people who are really going to kill themselves and the population who calls,” said Dr. Dean Krahn, chief of the mental health service line at the VA in Madison, Wis.

The relationship may not be known, but the need is salient.

The Department of Veteran Affairs partnered with the lifeline in 2007 to provide these services for veterans. By dialing “1” after calling 1-800-273-TALK, veterans are routed to a lifeline that caters to their specific needs.

But the lifeline was only established in 2004, a few decades after Steve Nelson and others like him returned home from Vietnam.

For 35 years, Nelson never spoke about his war experiences. Instead, he found solace with drugs and alcohol to dull the memories magnified by his Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
read more here
Suicidal thoughts plague returned veterans

PTSD "Everything starts to be a trigger."

Some great things come out in this report. First, Vietnam veterans are getting help, even after all these years. Then they are trying to help the newer veterans. Families are stepping up too. Given the fact that older veterans and their families have been there, done that, with basically nothing to lean on, they want to make it easier for the newer families. That's why I do what I do. Back when I started dealing with all of this, there was nothing for me. I was working "without a net" under me or around me the way we have the cyber world at our fingertips ready willing and able to offer the support along with information we hunger for. Wives like me were feeling as if we were totally alone to figure this out all by ourselves. We did. We went through hell to get to the point where we knew enough and most of us remember those dark days. We want to make sure that if we can help avoid extra heartache for newer families, we're there.

For veterans with PTSD, "everything can be a trigger" but when families are aware of what is behind all of it, we can make sure the safety is on. We can either add to the turmoil or we can calm their souls if we are aware.

Vietnam Veteran gets help with PTSD after 40 years of suffering
by Jessica Harthorn
Posted: 02.16.2011 at 11:02 PM

CLIO -- After the Civil War the term "Soldier's Heart" was given to soldiers who suffered intense anxiety because of their experiences.

Today it’s called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Medical experts say hormones released because of stress actually help burn in memories, making it easier for PTSD patients to recall the negative images.

NBC25 found out how its affecting our local soldiers and ways families can spot it.

The cost of PTSD is great. Veterans often lose their families, their jobs, and even their minds.

I talked with one vet who's been living with the disorder for more than 40 years.

Since 1967 Mike Dickinson has suffered intense nightmares.

“You wake up sweating and kicking and trying to get away, and I hit my wife accidently,” said Mike Dickinson, a Vietnam Veteran.

As a Vietnam veteran, Dickinson witnessed many horrific events and thought his anxiety was normal.

“It's one of those man up things you know, nah I’m all right…I found out I wasn’t,” said Dickinson.

Recently Dickinson was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, something clinical social workers say plague 8% of combat soldiers.

“Everything starts to be a trigger, it reminds you of something that was done, or related to something that was done, so you try to avoid that trigger, so you stay away from things and people,” said Robin Fenlon, a clinical social worker.
read more here
Vietnam Veteran gets help with PTSD

Soldier finds mental health stigma still alive in Guard

Soldier finds mental health stigma still alive in Guard
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 15, 2011 18:01:39 EST
First Lt. Steve Philpot received the phone call every married soldier dreads on deployment.

“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t sit by the phone and hope you’re alive. When you get home, get your stuff and get out,” the 28-year-old National Guardsmen heard his ex-wife tell him on the phone in Afghanistan.

Philpot hoped when he came home for his mid-deployment rest and recuperation leave in January 2010 that she would change her mind once she saw him.

She didn’t.

This was a miserable deja vu for Philpot, whose first wife cheated on him while he was away at Officer Training School in 2008. He had yet to turn 27, and the Oklahoma National Guardsman was already twice divorced. This one hurt more, though.

“I couldn’t believe I was going through this again. I hit rock bottom and I knew I needed help,” Philpot said.

The soldier contacted his unit’s rear detachment, which sent a chaplain to his home.

Thus began the long road from soldier needing counseling to Army outcast. Philpot still can’t believe that reaching out for help has further complicated his life.

Philpot is frustrated with the Guard. So frustrated, he regrets asking for help.

“Since I’ve asked the Army for help, I’ve been treated like garbage, like a third-rate soldier,” he said. “I got help at Fort Sill, but coming back to the National Guard it has been nothing but ‘you are a piece of garbage,’” Philpot said.

The Army has gone to great lengths to try to remove the stigma that comes with reporting depression and suicidal thoughts. But Philpot and other soldiers said that while the Army has stood up a suicide prevention task force and instituted programs to deal with depression, more work needs to be done when the soldier leaves a hospital or counselor’s office.
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Soldier finds mental health stigma still alive in Guard

ACLU Wants Probe Into West Los Angeles Veterans’ Facility

ACLU Wants Probe Into West Los Angeles Veterans’ Facility
February 16, 2011 5:10 AM


(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union says the federal government isn’t doing enough to help Los Angeles military veterans.
The ACLU wrote Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, the U.S. Department of Justice and California Attorney General Kamala Harris asking for an investigation into the VA’s stewardship of its sprawling West Los Angeles property.
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ACLU Wants Probe Into West Los Angeles Veterans’ Facility

Photographer embedded with US soldiers severely wounded by bomb

Blast photographer wounds 'severe'
(UKPA) – 5 hours ago
The family of a London photographer blown up by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan have said in a statement that his injuries are "severe and complex".
Giles Duley, 39, underwent multiple amputations after the blast in Kandahar on Monday last week, before being flown back to the UK.
He had been embedded with US troops when he was critically injured by an improvised explosive device.
He was brought back to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for further surgery, and was said to be in a stable condition on Saturday.
read more here

Blast photographer wounds severe

Psychiatric Center patients warned of hepatitis risk

Patients treated at Rockland Psychiatric Center warned of hepatitis risk
BY JANE LERNER • JLERNER@LOHUD.COM • FEBRUARY 16, 2011

ORANGEBURG — At least one patient contracted hepatitis B at Rockland Psychiatric Center and state officials are testing hundreds more to see if anyone else was infected, possibly through the use of a blood-sample lancing device.

The state Department of Health issued an advisory Tuesday so anyone who was treated at the hospital at the same time as the patient who contracted the disease would get tested.

All 229 people who might have been exposed to blood-borne diseases while they were at the state-run psychiatric center have been identified and contacted, said Jill Daniels, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Mental Health.

Blood tests are being done on those people to see if they were infected with hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV while they were at the Rockland hospital. No other cases have been identified yet, Daniels said.

The Rockland Psychiatric Center advisory was the second time in a week that the state warned patients who had been treated at a hospital that they might have contracted a blood-borne disease.

Patients treated at a pain management clinic run by South Nassau Communities Hospital on Long Island were warned that they might have been exposed to hepatitis C.
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Psychiatric Center warned of hepatitis risk

Three Florida doctors and 18 others charged with Medicare scam

3 doctors, 18 others charged in Fla. Medicare scam
By KELLI KENNEDY - Feb 15, 2011 5:25 PM ET
By The Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — Three doctors and 18 other people were charged Tuesday with billing Medicare for roughly $200 million in bogus mental health services for patients suffering from Alzheimer's and severe dementia.

Prosecutors allege American Therapeutic Corp. and its sister companies faked medication and care charts and paid the owners of assisted living facilities and halfway houses to bring patients to their seven mental health centers for therapy sessions that were never held.

Some patients also cashed in on the scheme by providing their Medicare numbers, while others were "not coherent enough" to demand kickbacks, according to the investigation by the U.S. departments of Justice and Health and Human Services.
read more here
Medicare scaml

UK Army major fired soldiers by email

Fox apologises to soldiers given redundancy by e-mail

Defence Secretary Liam Fox has apologised to 38 soldiers who heard that they were being made redundant by e-mail, including one who is currently serving on the front line in Afghanistan.
Dr Fox said the situation was "completely unacceptable", and also told MPs he regretted the way trainee RAF pilots had discovered they were to lose their jobs.
Having been summoned to the despatch box to answer an urgent question in the Commons from shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy on 15 February 2011, Dr Fox said: "As a result of the Strategic Defence and Security Review and the Comprehensive Spending Review, it has sadly been necessary to plan for redundancies in both the civil service and armed forces.
"At all times this should be done with sensitivity to individuals concerned and with an understanding of the impact this will have on them and their families."
read more here
Fox apologises to soldiers given redundancy by e-mail

Army major who fired soldiers by email 'deeply regrets' what he did
By IAN DRURY, NICK FAGGE and DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 9:24 AM on 16th February 2011
The army major who sacked 38 long-serving soldiers by e-mail forcing a humiliating government apology 'deeply regrets' what he did, it was claimed today.
Career manager Andy Simpson sent the message out to men who had each completed 22 years of duty, sparking outrage from Downing Street.
One victim of the spending cuts – a sergeant major in the Royal Tank Regiment – was on the frontline in Afghanistan when he heard the news.


Read more:

Army major who fired soldiers by email

Veterans Say Rape Cases Mishandled

Rape is a crime. Simple. So why is it there are some believing they are above the law? Why would anyone in the military not be able to honor the law? This is the part we all need to face. They believe they can ignore it.

This attitude not only insults females in the military, it insults every female veteran slapping their service with a less than worthy middle finger. It insults every woman in this country especially women seeking protection and justice from a rapists.

Veterans Say Rape Cases Mishandled
February 15, 2011 posted by Veterans Today
WASHINGTON – A group of U.S. veterans who say they were raped and abused by their comrades want to force the Pentagon to change how it handles such cases.

More than a dozen female and two male current or former service members say servicemen get away with rape and other sexual abuse and victims are too often ordered to continue to serve alongside those they say attacked them.

Kori Cioca, 25, of Wilmington, Ohio, speaks about how she was raped while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard

In a federal class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday that names Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, they want an objective third party to handle such complaints because individual commanders have too much say in how allegations are handled.

The alleged attackers in the lawsuit include an Army criminal investigator and an Army National Guard commander. The abuse alleged ranges from obscene verbal abuse to gang rape.

In one incident, an Army Reservist says two male colleagues raped her in Iraq and videotaped the attack. She complained to authorities after the men circulated the video to colleagues. Despite being bruised from her shoulders to elbows from being held down, she says charges weren’t filed because the commander determined she “did not act like a rape victim” and “did not struggle enough” and authorities said they didn’t want to delay the scheduled return of the alleged attackers to the United States.

“The problem of rape in the military is not only service members getting raped, but it’s the entire way that the military as a whole is dealing with it,” said Panayiota Bertzikis, who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit and claims she was raped in 2006. “From survivors having to be involuntarily discharged from service, the constant verbal abuse, once a survivor does come forward your entire unit is known to turn their back on you. The entire culture needs to be changed.”

Although The Associated Press normally does not identify the victims of sexual assault, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit have publicly discussed the cases.

Bertzikis, 29, of Somerville, Mass., now is executive director of the Military Rape Crisis Center. She says she was raped by a Coast Guard shipmate while out on a social hike with him in Burlington, Vt. Bertzikis complained to her commanding officer, but she said authorities did not take substantial steps to investigate the matter. Instead, she said, they forced her to live on the same floor as the man she had accused and tolerated others calling her a “liar” and “whore.”
read more here
Veterans Say Rape Cases Mishandled

And then we have this study.

Trauma increases risks for alcohol problems in women
February 14, 2011
By Jim Dryden

Young women who have experienced traumatic events are more likely to become alcohol dependent than those who have not, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Midwest Alcoholism Research Center (MARC), which is housed in the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine.

The MARC involves collaborations among Washington University alcoholism researchers and scientists at the University of Iowa, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Health Care System, Arizona State University and Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia.

The center is preparing to host the 11th Annual Guze Symposium on Alcoholism, which this year will focus on Trauma and Alcoholism, Findings from studies published in the journals Psychological Medicine and the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs suggest that trauma is an important risk factor for alcohol problems in women.
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Trauma increases risks for alcohol problems in women

They prepare for the fact there will be traumatic events when they deploy but what they are not prepared for is being attacked by their own and then betrayed.

Women go into the military as they have since the beginning of this country, legally or disguising themselves and they will keep going into the military with the same patriotic tug of the heart as males. They will deploy into combat zones and while they are technically not supposed to be in combat roles, they are. With the kind of warfare going on as terrorist tactics remove safe zones, combat comes to them.

Why do they serve? Because they love this country and the rights that are supposed to be protected for all citizens but as they are risking their lives they discover they are sub-citizen to their commanders in the military. Rape is a crime. If these same commanders had a wife, sister or daughter raped by someone in the military or in civilian life, they would not be able to put the rapist criminal above them. So how do these same people justify it when it is a servicewoman under their command?

Homeless veteran Charles Lee Cummings was not alone

Homeless veteran gets final salute at Plant City funeral
By GEORGE H. NEWMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 11, 2011

PLANT CITY - A homeless Air Force veteran who served in the Vietnam era had no family or friends at his funeral service.

But in the end, Charles Lee Cummings was not alone.

The staff at Wells Memorial Funeral Home, veterans and others paid a final tribute Thursday to Cummings, who was 68 when he died at Community Care Center.

MacDill Air Force Base provided an honor guard; the Rev. Jim Brady, pastor at East Thonotosassa Baptist Church, delivered the eulogy.

"While one might state that Charles has no family here, I beg to differ," Brady said.

"The family of God is here today. And there are also representatives of Charles' military family. It is often said that a soldier never dies alone. For within his spirit is fixed the memory of times shared with those who, then and now, wear the same uniform as he once proudly wore."

The staff at Wells Memorial, led by Manager Verna McKelvin, made sure that Cummings did not die a forgotten man.

About 30 people – many of them veterans - attended the funeral service for Cummings, who was buried later that day in Bushnell's Florida National Cemetery.

Not much is known about Cummings, who died Dec. 9. He had no home address, and attempts to contact relatives by Wells employees and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office failed.

Cummings was born in Union City, Tenn., and served in the Air Force from 1960 to 1968. Through contacts with veterans agencies McKelvin was able to determine that Cummings was honorably discharged. This was enough to allow a military funeral and burial in a military cemetery.
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Homeless veteran gets final salute at Plant City funeral

More on forgotten veterans funerals

Homeless Vets on the Road to Proper Burials
Updated: Monday, 14 Feb 2011, 7:48 PM EST
Published : Monday, 14 Feb 2011, 7:48 PM EST

By BILL GALLAGHER
WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com

ROCHESTER, Mich. (WJBK) - The remains of four homeless veterans were kept at the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office. No relatives had claimed the bodies.

Through the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Program, an effort began to have them buried at the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly.

John Desmond, the manger of the Pixley Funeral Home in Rochester, offered to donate coffins and burial preparations. However, his efforts were initially thwarted because he didn't have the Social Security numbers of the homeless vets.

After our story aired, there was an uproar and outpouring of offers to help.
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Homeless Vets on the Road to Proper Burials

Unemployed veterans, congress wants your resumes

Vets can put resumes into Congressional Record
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 14, 2011 15:41:57 EST
An Illinois congressman is promising out-of-work veterans the opportunity to have their resumes published in the Congressional Record, the official record of debate and proceedings for the House and Senate.

He is promising attention, but not jobs.

“Sending me your resume will not get you a job, but it can help force Washington to end the unemployment problem once and for all,” said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who launched his effort last week.

Jackson spokesman Andrew Wilson confirmed Monday that the congressman’s intent is to put the resumes into the Congressional Record “in addition to using the stories in floor remarks, speeches, etc.”

The first four people to take him up on the offer are a retired Navy telecommunications expert from San Diego, a former Army supply officer from Burbank, Calif., a retired Air Force technical sergeant from Snow Hill, N.C., and a former Navy radioman from Bradford, Pa.

Their resumes appear in the Feb. 10 Congressional Record as part of Jackson’s effort to call attention to the plight of veterans who are having problems finding work.

“Service to our nation is an honorable profession, and we should honor that service by seeing that every veteran has a job when their service is over,” Jackson said.

“When you risk your life for your country, we should make sure you have a life when you return,” he said. “No veteran should be left questioning how they will feed their family, wondering about their self worth or fretting about their financial future.”

Jackson said veterans who want their resumes published in the Congressional Record should e-mail them to
resumesfromveterans@mail.house.gov
read more here
Vets can put resumes into Congressional Record

Vietnam Vet receives Silver Star 40 years late

Veteran Receives Medals After 40 Years
Updated: Sunday, 13 Feb 2011, 5:42 PM MST
Published : Sunday, 13 Feb 2011, 5:42 PM MST

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - From the War Room -- the Army honors several soldiers in Scottsdale on Sunday, one of whom has been waiting more than 40 years for several medals from the Vietnam War.

Luis Molinar accepted awards for his bravery in Vietnam.

“I’m a little overwhelmed. I’m emotional and happy this is happening,” Molinar said.

It was a recognition that had been long overdue.

“To me, this is a closure, a closure of many years in the military and being shot down twice and receiving these awards and recognition,” Molinar said.

On Sunday, Molinar received his Purple Hearts and Silver Star.

“It was a matter of time. I knew this would come, but I wasn't expecting it,” he said.

A pilot during the Vietnam War, Molinar is credited with getting his helicopter back in the air after it was shot down.
read more here
Veteran Receives Medals After 40 Years

Will GOP Congress honor VA funding?

We saw veterans suffering and ignored while the GOP held the most seats in congress before but now there are more Tea Party folks like Bachmann not caring about what veterans need. We all know about the backlog of claims and the need to take care of veterans with the usual wounds along with illnesses, the aging population, increase of Agent Orange illnesses topped of with PTSD and TBI. With all of this, when the need is so great, will they honor veterans with their votes or will they betray them with their lip service?

VA Announces Budget Request for 2012

Shinseki Pledges to Continue to be "Good Steward" of Resources

WASHINGTON (Feb. 14, 2011) - In announcing the proposed budget for the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) during the next fiscal year,
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki emphasized "making every
dollar" count in the $132 billion budget proposal for VA.

"We will continue to wisely use the funds that Congress appropriates for
us to further improve the quality of life for Veterans and their
families through the efficiency of our operations," said Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki

"In the current constrained fiscal environment, every dollar counts,"
Shinseki added. "We have put into place management systems and
initiatives to maximize efficiency and effectiveness, and to eliminate
waste."

The budget request for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 must be
approved by Congress before taking effect.



Health Care

The budget request seeks nearly $51 billion for medical care. It would
provide care to more than 6.2 million patients, including nearly 540,000
Veterans of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The budget request also includes almost $1 billion for a contingency
fund and $1.2 billion of operational improvements to manage the
appropriated funds in a fiscally responsible manner.

Major health care provisions include:

* $6.2 billion for mental health programs, including $68
million directly for suicide prevention;

* $344 million to activate newly constructed medical
facilities;

* $208 million to implement new benefits for Veterans'
caregivers;

* Nearly $509 million for research; and

Shinseki noted the department has created "a portfolio of initiatives"
to improve the quality of VA care while making it easier for patients to
access services. Primary care providers will put more emphasis upon
disease prevention and healthy living. New technology - securing
e-mails, social networking and telehealth - will be harnessed to meet
the evolving needs of patients.

For example, in 2010, a daily average of more than 31,000 patients took
advantage of VA's telehome health care. The budget proposal will allow
more than 50,000 people daily to use this innovative, at-home care.

Among the department's operational improvements is a provision that
calls for VA to implement Medicare's standard payment rates, a measure
that will free $315 million for other health care needs.



Benefits

The proposed budget for the new fiscal year includes more than $70
billion in "mandatory" benefits programs, a category consisting mostly
of VA disability compensation and pension payments.

Shinseki reaffirmed his commitment to "break the back of the backlog" of
claims from Veterans for disability compensation and pensions. VA's
goal is to provide Veterans with decisions on their claims within 125
days at a 98 percent accuracy rate by 2015.

Various initiatives support continued redesign of VA's business
processes and development of a paperless claims system to improve the
efficiency of VA's handling of applications for compensation and
pensions. Among the major projects is one to provide Veterans with
streamlined forms to present to non-VA physicians who are evaluating
Veterans for disability benefits, while another new program allows
online application for claims related to exposure to Agent Orange.



Homelessness Prevention

The funding request includes nearly $940 million for specific programs
to prevent and reduce homelessness among Veterans and their families.
This funding is a 17 percent increase over the current budget of nearly
$800 million.

"Homelessness is both a housing and a health care issue," Shinseki said.
"Our 2012 budget plan supports a comprehensive approach to eliminating
Veterans' homelessness by making key investments in homeless and mental
health programs."



Education and Training

The requested budget for "mandatory" benefits programs includes nearly
$11.5 billion for VA education, training, vocational rehabilitation and
employment programs, including educational benefit programs VA
administers for the Department of Defense. Approximately 925,000 people
will receive benefits under these programs. Nearly three-quarters of
the funds will go to recipients of the new Post-9/11 GI Bill.

The budget proposal continues development of an automated Post-9/11 GI
Bill claims processing system that will speed tuition and housing
payments to eligible Veterans.



Information Technology

VA will seek nearly $3.2 billion for the new fiscal year to operate and
maintain its information technology (IT).

"IT is the key to bringing VA into the 21st century," Shinseki said. "It
allows for the efficient delivery of health care and benefits."

A recent independent study found that VA invested $4 billion in medical
IT from 1997 to 2007, which generated $7 billion in savings, mostly from
the elimination of duplicate medical tests and the reduction of medical
errors.

VA has a major role in the development of the "virtual lifetime
electronic record" as part of an inter-agency federal initiative to
provide complete and portable electronic health records for service
members, Veterans, other family members and, eventually, all Americans.


Through a disciplined approach to IT projects, VA transformed its
software development processes, meeting product delivery schedules over
80 percent of the time.

VA is consolidating its IT requirements into 15 major contracts, which
will lower costs and increase oversight and accountability. Seven of
the 15 contracts are set-aside for Veteran-owned businesses, and four of
those seven are reserved for small businesses owned by service-disabled
Veterans.



Construction

Nearly $590 million in major construction is included within next year's
budget request.

"This reflects the department's continued commitment to provide quality
health care and benefits through improving its facilities to be modern,
safe and secure for Veterans," Shinseki said.

The funding proposal provides for the continuation of seven ongoing
construction projects at health care facilities - New Orleans; Denver;
San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Louis; Palo Alto, Calif.; Bay Pines, Fla.,
and Seattle - plus new projects in Reno, Nev.; Los Angeles and San
Francisco.

Also in the budget request is $550 million for minor construction for
such purposes as seismic corrections, improvements for patient safety,
and enhancements for access and patient privacy.

Additionally, the spending proposal includes funds for a gravesite
expansion project at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in
Hawaii.



National Cemeteries

VA is seeking more than $250 million next year for the operation and
maintenance of its 131 national cemeteries.

The department expects to inter about 115,000 people next year at its
national cemeteries. Nearly 90 percent of the U.S. population is within
75 miles of a VA-run national cemetery or a state-run Veterans cemetery.

For the fourth consecutive time in 10 years, VA's system of national
cemeteries has bested the nation's top corporations and other federal
agencies in a prestigious, independent survey of customer satisfaction.

The fiscal year 2012 budget plan includes $46 million to fund creation
and improvement of state Veterans cemeteries and tribal government
Veterans cemeteries.

Further information about VA's budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 is
available on the Internet at www.va.gov/budget/products.asp.

VA flood of about 200,000 Agent Orange-related claims

VA set to reverse claims backlog by 2012
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 14, 2011 9:46:51 EST

This will happen once a temporary flood of about 200,000 Agent Orange-related claims — the result of a recent change in rules — works its way through the system, which could be as early as September.

Veterans Affairs Department officials say they can now see an end to the long nightmare of an ever-growing mountain of disability and compensation claims that has long infuriated veterans and their families.

By 2012, they expect dramatic improvements in both the speed and accuracy of claims processing.

But progress is difficult to discern now, at a time when VA has more than 783,000 pending claims — about 44 percent of them pending for more than 125 days. The total is up by 20,000 since the start of this year.

But VA’s acting undersecretary for benefits and chief information officer were both optimistic in a Feb. 8 interview that a mixture of automation initiatives, improved claims management processes and attitude adjustments among VA workers will turn the tide.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/02/military-va-claims-backlog-021411w/

Veterans for Common Sense Lawsuit on Veteran Suicide on KGO/ABC

VCS Lawsuit on Veteran Suicide on KGO/ABC
Written by Dan Noyes
Saturday, 12 February 2011 10:44

Two Part KGO News Investigation Reveals VA Turned Away Suicidal Veteran in California in 2010

Part One: Veteran's suicide reveals problems in VA system
February 8, 2011, San Francisco, California (KGO ABC 7 News) - Three hundred thousand of the military veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to a recent study. But many are not getting the care they need and the results can be tragic.

New data shows that veterans are more than twice as likely as other Californians to commit suicide.

William Hamilton enlisted in the Army at 19 and served two tours in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. His mother Diane says he loved the discipline and camaraderie.

"Every time he came back the commander said he did such a wonderful job," she said. Hamilton was guarding a rooftop in Mosul in 2005 with his best friend Christopher Pusateri when insurgents attacked.

"His best friend was killed, his very best friend, and I remember the day he called me, and he said, 'Mom,' it was his second tour and he says, 'Mom, I've never been in battle without him,'" Diane Hamilton said.


Back at Fort Bragg, Hamilton was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He got a general discharge from the Army, but his problems got worse. He developed an eating disorder and started taking drugs.

"He was tormented by it; when he first came home he didn't sleep, I could hear him crying at night," Diane Hamilton said.

Doctors at the VA hospital diagnosed Hamilton with schizoaffective disorder and he was hospitalized nine times at the Palo Alto VA's psychiatric ward, often for weeks at a time.

That is what his parents thought was going to happen last May when his father called local sheriff's to take Hamilton in on a 51-50 involuntary psychiatric hold. Staff at the Calaveras County hospital, where Hamilton was taken, wrote that he was "delusional" having "hallucinations...speaking of demon women and flashes of light." They attempted to contact the Palo Alto VA, but were told "they do not start transfers this late in the day."

Veterans' rights advocate Amy Fairweather says that is not acceptable.

"If a vet is in that kind of need of care 24-7, we've got to get it to them," Fairweather said. "The idea that after 4:20 in the afternoon you will not accept transfers of our soldiers who have been deployed repeatedly is absurd. It's absolutely absurd."

Hospital staff attempted admits at three VA hospitals before they finally found Hamilton a bed at David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. His parents say they asked the hospital to extend Hamilton's stay to two weeks, as the Palo Alto VA had done at least four times before. But the hospital discharged Hamilton after just three days.

"That's the last time I saw him," Diane Hamilton said.

That night, Hamilton stepped in front of a train in Salida. The coroner's report says he died instantly.
read more here
VCS Lawsuit on Veteran Suicide on KGO ABC

Spice and K2 a problem for the Marines?

Marine Corps bans service members from six businesses
Posted: February 11, 2011 - 9:59am
By Bluffton Today
BEAUFORT - Local Marine Corps and Navy commanders have designated six local businesses off-limits for selling a product that is like synthetic marijuana, the Marine Crops said Friday.

"The substances, known by many different names including Spice and K2, are prohibited due to their ability to induce intoxication, excitement or stupefaction," a release said. "All Marines and sailors are prohibited from possessing, purchasing, using, selling, distributing or introducing onto military installations these same substances."

The fake weed is legal in South Carolina.
read more here
Marine Corps bans service members from six businesses

B.C. judge stays charges against soldier suffering from PTSD

B.C. judge stays charges against soldier suffering from PTSD


By Jennifer Saltman, Postmedia News


VANCOUVER — A former soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder will avoid spending as much as three years in jail after a B.C. judge stayed weapons charges against the Afghanistan war veteran Friday.

Yan Joseph Marcel Berube, a former corporal with Princess Patricia's Light Infantry, was charged with uttering threats and weapons-related charges in connection with two incidents in May 2010 after his military medals were reportedly stolen.

In one incident, a man called the RCMP to report that Berube had threatened to kill him and made threats against his family over the loss of his medals. One day later, police heard from a psychologist who was working with Berube after a Veterans Affairs nurse went to the man's home and found him with a gun, as he talked about shooting himself.

When police arrived at Berube's home, he surrendered.

Berube suffers from PTSD, likely because of a 2002 friendly fire incident that saw four Canadian soldiers killed, including Berube's best friend, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer.



Read more:
B.C. judge stays charges against soldier suffering from PTSD

Gear that protects troops also injures them

Weight of War: Gear that protects troops also injures them
Military studies acknowledge that combat soldiers are carrying too much weight — often more than 100 pounds. These loads have contributed to soaring numbers of injuries, and higher costs in disability payments.
By Hal Bernton



Before venturing out on patrol in Iraq, Spc. Joseph Chroniger would wrap his upper body in armor, then sling on a vest and pack that contained batteries for his radio, water, food, flashlight, ammunition and other gear. With his M4 rifle, the whole get-up weighed 70 to 80 pounds — and left him aching.

His body hurt the most when his squad came under attack and he tried to run or dive on the ground. His neck and shoulders would burn as if on fire.

Since returning to Western Washington 2 1/2 years ago, Chroniger has been diagnosed with bone spurs in the vertebrae of his neck caused by a degenerative arthritic condition. Sometimes, the pain is intense, and he dreads getting out of bed in the morning.

"This is ridiculous," Chroniger said. "I'm only 25 years old. Arthritis is supposed to happen when you get old. What's it going to be like when I'm 50 or 60?"

Chroniger's injury is a symptom of the overloaded U.S. combat forces that have served in the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
read more here
Gear that protects troops also injures them

A combat veteran's struggle of the soul

A combat veteran's struggle of the soul

STEVE LOPEZ

Greg Valentini served in Afghanistan and Iraq, returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder. With the help of Volunteers of America, he's taking classes, trying to stay off drugs and keep on the right path.

Greg Valentini's room in Hollywood is bigger than a jail cell, but not by much. It's a home, though, and better than lockup.

"I'm sick of going to jail," he says, telling me he can't even remember how many times he's been arrested since his second tour with the Army ended in 2004.

Valentini is a tall, bulky man of 33, a die-hard Clippers fan who's fidgety as a kid. While seated on a chair, his feet tap, his weight shifts. It's as if he might run, or as if there's something in him that can't be quieted.

There's a lot of that weightless stirring in the converted church where Valentini lives, a place of recovery for nearly 40 men who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Having survived war, they came home and discovered they couldn't handle peace. Some ended up homeless, others landed in jail, and now they're trying to make sense of their lives in a residential program run by Volunteers of America.
read more here
A combat veteran's struggle of the soul

Fort Stewart soldier drowns in on-base pond

Stewart soldier drowns in on-base pond
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Feb 13, 2011 11:59:12 EST
FORT STEWART, Ga. — A Fort Stewart soldier drowned Saturday in a recreational pond at the base.

WTOC-TV reported that emergency workers went to the scene after getting a call from fishermen who saw the soldier fall into the water. A rescue attempt was unsuccessful.

Military authorities did not release the soldier's name on Sunday.

The incident is under investigation.
Stewart soldier drowns in on-base pond

Fort Lewis ‘stress relief dogs’ are bound for Iraq

Lewis ‘stress relief dogs’ are bound for Iraq
By Adam Ashton - The (Tacoma, Wash.) News Tribune via AP
Posted : Saturday Feb 12, 2011 12:35:16 EST
TACOMA, Wash. — As far as retrievers go, Zack is exceptionally impervious to distraction.

He calmly walked at his handler’s side through a training ground at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Friday while automatic weapons and cannons fired in the background.

He greeted teams of camouflaged soldiers and offered his golden head for petting.

Zack is one of two dogs preparing for a mission in Iraq with a medical company charged with providing stress relief for deployed soldiers. The canines’ job is to draw out soldiers who normally would avoid a therapist or to just give someone a break from thinking about a long tour in the desert.

Soldiers are “built to be strong, so we go to them,” said Capt. Andrea Lohmann, who’s deploying with about 50 members of the 98th Medical Company and bringing a stress-relief black Labrador named Butch.

Zack and Butch will be the seventh and eighth stress-relief dogs provided to the Army for combat deployments since 2007 from VetDogs, a New York-based nonprofit that also gives specially trained canines to disabled veterans.

The animals are “icebreakers” for the therapists and psychiatrists who walk through bases and check in on soldiers. People who’ve worked with the pets say the sight of a wagging tail can lift a soldier’s spirits.
read more here
Lewis stress relief dogs are bound for Iraq

The Army denied Spc. Brandon Barrett a military funeral

The Army denied Spc. Brandon Barrett a military funeral
February 13, 2011 posted by Chaplain Kathie

“The Army denied Spc. Brandon Barrett a military funeral.” Why? Is it because he had a shootout with police or because what they did not do could have prevented it? That is the question an investigation seeks to understand.

After he was killed by police, after there was nothing left to be done for him, that is when his family learned how much what he witnessed did to him. What if they knew all along? What if they knew how to help him or at least understood how much pain he was in, would things have ended differently?
There is a family left behind with so many questions they may never find the answers to. There is a police officer dealing with being shot and other officers involved trying to understand why it ever reached that point.

Army says Afghan losses affected Lewis-McChord soldier killed by police
An Army investigation has found that a Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier who was killed when he opened fire on police in Utah last year was deeply affected by his deployment to Afghanistan.
By The Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. — An Army investigation has found that a Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier who was killed when he opened fire on police in Utah last year was deeply affected by his deployment to Afghanistan.
Spc. Brandon Barrett deserted his unit, suffered an apparent mental breakdown and died in a shootout with Salt Lake City police on Aug. 27. A police officer was wounded.

read more here
The Army denied Spc. Brandon Barrett a military funeral

Powerful Drug Cocktails Have Deadly Results For Some Troops

For Some Troops, Powerful Drug Cocktails Have Deadly Results

Psychiatrists still do not have good medications for the social withdrawal, nightmares and irritability that often accompany post-traumatic stress, so they mix and match drugs, trying to relieve symptoms.

This article was reported by James Dao, Benedict Carey and Dan Frosch and written by Mr. Dao.


In his last months alive, Senior Airman Anthony Mena rarely left home without a backpack filled with medications.

He returned from his second deployment to Iraq complaining of back pain, insomnia, anxiety and nightmares. Doctors diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder and prescribed powerful cocktails of psychiatric drugs and narcotics.

Yet his pain only deepened, as did his depression. “I have almost given up hope,” he told a doctor in 2008, medical records show. “I should have died in Iraq.”

Airman Mena died instead in his Albuquerque apartment, on July 21, 2009, five months after leaving the Air Force on a medical discharge. A toxicologist found eight prescription medications in his blood, including three antidepressants, a sedative, a sleeping pill and two potent painkillers.

Yet his death was no suicide, the medical examiner concluded. What killed Airman Mena was not an overdose of any one drug, but the interaction of many. He was 23.

After a decade of treating thousands of wounded troops, the military’s medical system is awash in prescription drugs — and the results have sometimes been deadly.

By some estimates, well over 300,000 troops have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan with P.T.S.D., depression, traumatic brain injury or some combination of those. The Pentagon has looked to pharmacology to treat those complex problems, following the lead of civilian medicine. As a result, psychiatric drugs have been used more widely across the military than in any previous war.

But those medications, along with narcotic painkillers, are being increasingly linked to a rising tide of other problems, among them drug dependency, suicide and fatal accidents — sometimes from the interaction of the drugs themselves. An Army report on suicide released last year documented the problem, saying one-third of the force was on at least one prescription medication.

“Prescription drug use is on the rise,” the report said, noting that medications were involved in one-third of the record 162 suicides by active-duty soldiers in 2009. An additional 101 soldiers died accidentally from the toxic mixing of prescription drugs from 2006 to 2009.

On Jan. 29, 2008, Corporal Endicott was found dead in his room at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he had checked himself in for anger management after another car accident. He was 26.


A toxicologist detected at least nine prescription drugs in his system, including five different benzodiazepines, drugs used to reduce anxiety or improve sleep. Small amounts of marijuana and methadone — a narcotic that is particularly dangerous when mixed with benzodiazepines — were also found in his body.


His death prompted Marine Corps officials at Bethesda and Walter Reed Army Medical Center to initiate new procedures to keep Marines from inappropriately mixing medications, including assigning case managers to oversee patients, records show.


Whether Corporal Endicott used methadone to get high or to relieve pain remains unclear. The Marine Corps concluded that his death was not due to misconduct.


“He survived over there,” his father said. “Coming home and dying in a hospital? It’s a disgrace.”

read more here
Powerful Drug Cocktails Have Deadly Results

Army told units to destroy Gulf War troops records

Army told units to destroy Gulf War troops records
February 12, 2011 posted by Chaplain Kathie
Gulf War veterans came home ill but no one knew why. The American people, thinking it was such a fast war, there would be hardly no new casualties to worry about or take care of. Hard to believe it has been 20 years but even harder to believe is that these veterans are still trying to have their claims approved for what their service did to them.
Impossible to believe is that the Army ordered units to destroy their records. Now we know how bad it has been for these veterans to have their claims approved and why it has been impossible, but we also now know that the DOD has admitted what they were exposed to.
The Defense Department did send a letter telling the same soldier that he and others in his unit were in an area where exposure to nerve agents saran and cycolosarin was possible, but they should not worry about any side effects.
“So we all got exposed to nerve agent as well, and according to the military, that is never going to affect us,” he said. “They just wanted to advise us that we’ve been exposed.”
Rep. C.W. Young, R-Fla., says he did not know of the Army’s letter until now. His office asking the Defense Department to look into the matter.
Here is a good place to start to understand what this is all about.
PBS Gulf War Syndrome
So they did their duty as yellow ribbons and support the troops were covering almost every business and flags were waving from most homes. Hey, they won and that was all we needed to know. It was over so fast that the images of bodies on the side of the road were replaced by Iraqis surrendering to US forces because they knew they would be treated better than Saddam would have treated them. After all, they lost.
Yet when our own POW’s filed a law suit against Saddam, the Bush Administration blocked it.

House Allows Gulf War POWs to Sue Iraq Over Torture
This is how it started
RETURNED PRISONERS OF WAR
FROM GULF WAR I –1991
NAME SERVICE DATE OF CAPTURE CARRIED AS RELEASE DATE
Acree, Clifford M. USMC Jan.18, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Andrews, William USAF — MIA 03/05/91
Berryman, Michael C. USMC — MIA 03/05/91
Cornum, Rhonda USA — * 03/05/91
Dunlap, Troy USA — * 03/05/91
Eberly, David W. USAF Jan. 17, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Fox, Jeffrey USAF Feb. 19, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Griffith, Thomas E. Jr. USAF Jan. 17, 1991 POW 03/04/91
Hunter, Guy L. Jr. USMC Jan. 18, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Lockett, David USA Jan. 20, 1991 MIA 03/04/91
Roberts, Harry M. USAF Jan. – 1991 POW 03/05/91
Rathbun-Nealy, Melissa USA Jan. 30, 1991 MIA 03/04/91
Slade, Lawrence R. USN Jan. 21, 19915,3 POW 03/04/91
Small, Joseph USMC Feb. 25, 1991 MIA 03/05/91
Sanborn, Russell A.C. USMC Feb. 09, 1991 MIA 03/05/91
Stamaris, Daniel USA — * 03/05/91
Storr, Richard Dale USAF — MIA 03/05/91
Sweet, Robert J. USAF Feb. – , 1991 MIA 03/05/91
Tice, Jeffrey Scott USAF Jan. -, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Wetzel, Robert USN Jan. 17, 1991 MIA 03/04/91
Zaun, Jeffrey Norton USN Jan. 17, 1991 POW 03/04/91

Archive for Tuesday, February 15, 2005
White House Turns Tables on Former American POWs
By David G. Savage
February 15, 2005 in print edition A-1
The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist.
The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The rationale: Today’s Iraqis are good guys, and they need the money.

click links for more

Navy Vet gets claims letter addressed to another veteran

Navy vet worries Bay Pines 'typo' confuses him with another veteran

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Monday, February 7, 2011
ST. PETERSBURG — Navy veteran Thomas Calahan never claimed he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

And a doctor has never diagnosed him with PTSD, either.

After all, Calahan did not experienced the crucible of combat.

So it was with some surprise that Calahan, 60, recently opened a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs and read that the VA wanted to discuss a medical claim he had filed.

It wanted to discuss his PTSD.

Then Calahan noticed the name atop the letter. It wasn't his.

In what Calahan said may be an odd breach of patient privacy, the St. Petersburg man thinks the VA mistakenly sent him information on another veteran's PTSD.

And he wonders if that man, in turn, got medical information about Calahan.

VA officials say that did not happen and patient privacy was not violated.

The letter was intended for Calahan, even if he does not have PTSD, the VA says.

"That doesn't make sense to me," Calahan said. "Why can't they keep this stuff straight?"

Critics have hammered the VA over breaches of patient privacy through the years, from boxes of records found on street curbs to stolen computers with data on millions of veterans.

Veterans file a million medical claims a year nationally.

"In the rush to process a huge backlog of claims, VA does make mistakes in claim decisions and other areas of veterans' claims," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, an advocacy group.

His group has urged the VA to hire more employees to handle the high volume of claims.
read more here
Navy vet worries

Ronell Bradley, Wounded Iraq Veteran, Gets New Home

Ronell Bradley, Wounded Iraq Veteran, Gets New Home
Written by
Nate Stewart
Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Ronell Bradley lost his legs in Iraq. Now hundreds of volunteers are working to build a new home that will meet his needs.

On Peninsula Drive in Northeast Columbia Friday, it looked more like an episode of "Extreme Home Makeover" than a construction site. From professional contractors to your average Joe volunteer, cars lined the street to build a home for Bradley, who in 2005 was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

"It actually pierced the vehicle, blew off both legs and kept going out the other side," said Bradley.

Bradley and his wife soon after applied for help with Homes for Troops, a non-profit that builds specially adapted homes for wounded veterans free of charge.
read more here
Wounded Iraq Veteran Gets New Home

Clergy no longer deaf, dumb and blind to veterans

Clergy no longer deaf, dumb and blind to veterans
February 12, 2011 posted by Chaplain Kathie

Living in Florida, knowing this state has over a million veterans and at least one church on every major street, I thought getting the clergy involved in helping veterans would be easy. I was totally wrong. A couple of years ago, I visited over 20 churches in the Orlando area. I was armed with over 20 years of information from research and living with it. I knew how churches work along with what their mission is supposed to be because I worked for a church as administrator of Christian Education. Each year for Memorial Day and Veterans Day, there are special services honoring the men and women serving this nation. Weekly prayers are offered up for all the troops. This is why I was so stunned and disheartened discovering only one out of the twenty churches responded after my visit. The pastor happened to be a veteran and a chaplain. He agreed more had to be done to help veterans in our own community. He couldn’t get involved here because he was transferring to another state. It was almost as if they have been deaf to the cries for help from their own communities.

Tracking PTSD across the country there will be a report of churches getting involved, which means they are paying attention refusing to remain uninformed. These churches are no longer denying how trauma, especially combat trauma, eats away at the soul from the simple fact PTSD is an attack against the emotional part of the brain. God is always involved in trauma. People survive it then wonder if God saved them or put them in the middle of it to suffer. Soldiers always seem to wonder where God was when this happened or that happened because they saw the worst that one human can do to another. Children used as shields, bombs blowing up women and children along with old men and the friend here one minute, killed the next one. After this they wonder how God could allow all of this to happen. Where was he? Then they question the existence of God Himself.

Most people do not have a nurtured relationship with God. They get their cues from their parents first and then whatever church their family attends. Too many have never gone to church, so their knowledge of God begins pure and simple as it develops from life. Others are subjected to sermons on how much God will punish them if they do something wrong instead of how much God loved them and they could be forgiven because of Christ paying the debt. It is easy for them to have their limited faith pulled away from them leaving them to believe they are not only totally alone but condemned to suffer.

I have no tolerance when it comes to military proselytizing. To hear a Chaplain has told a grieving soldier he is going to hell because he is not a member of the right denomination should have all of us understand how much harm is being done while they are on active duty. It leaves them with nowhere to turn topped off with being shoved away from the spiritual help they wanted.
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Clergy no longer deaf, dumb and blind to veterans

Iraq Veteran with PTSD finds understanding from police officers

We can talk all we want about readjustment but until the general public takes an interest in helping them, it won't happen. In this case, this veteran found police officers and a stranger treating him with care after he had a bad reaction to the rest of the crowd at the bar.

Thanks to cops for understanding
Bryan Blevins
Posted: 02/11/2011 01:23:57 AM MST

I am a 22-year Army veteran of both National Guard and active duty who has served in Germany, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait. I am now disabled. I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and I tore my knee while on a mission in Iraq. I often feel regret over the loss of my comrades in arms.

On the night of Friday, Sept. 17, 2010, I went out to a local club to try and fit back in with society. I felt as if my military experience was being scoffed at so I just wanted to be left alone. Unfortunately, I was trying to be alone in a crowd and no one else realized what was going on. I was trying to control my emotions, but that didn't happen. I ended up becoming irrational and started hitting the wall outside. At this point Sgt. Monfils, Farmington Police Department, was making his rounds when he saw me being ignorant. I would like to recognize (and) thank him and his fellow officers for their professionalism, coolness, patience and understanding in dealing with me.

Another person I would like to acknowledge and thank is Joe, a patron of the club. He learned that I was a veteran and wanted to thank me for my service. He then unfortunately became the unintended victim of my aggressive words. Joe went out of his way to console me. He stayed by my side, worked with the police and watched out for me making sure I would not hurt myself or others. I appreciate Joe for being there. After all he didn't know me, except as a community member...another patron at the bar. Yet, he took it upon himself to get involved and see it to the end.
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Thanks to cops for understanding

VA gives $7.5 million to the U.S. Olympic Committee?

Good idea? Maybe but when you consider how many charities are already doing sports programs, this does not make much sense. How many times have you read on this blog about programs doing exactly the same thing the Olympic Committee wants to do? For these charities, $7.5 million would go a long way since they already have established programs.

Sports Programs for Disabled Veterans Expanding


VA Awards $7.5 Million to U.S. Olympic Committee for Therapeutic Competitive Events




WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is awarding two
grants totaling $7.5 million to the U.S. Olympic Committee to enhance
recreation and sporting activities for disabled Veterans and disabled
members of the Armed Forces.

"Many of our Veterans have experienced traumatic injuries while at the
peak of their physical conditioning," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Eric K. Shinseki. "Our partnership with the U.S. Olympic Committee will
aid in their recovery by allowing them to engage in therapeutic sporting
events and competition right in their own communities."

Additionally, Christopher J. Nowak has been selected to be the director
of the VA Paralympics Program Office.

Under terms of the grant agreements, funding will be provided to the
Olympic Committee's member organizations, Paralympic sports clubs and
Veteran and military organizations nationwide to implement
community-based, physical activity programs for disabled Veterans and
disabled members of the Armed Forces. Disabled Veterans can locate
adaptive sporting events in their communities by visiting the U.S.
Paralympics Web site: www.usparalympics.org.

Public Law 110-389 authorized VA to award grants to the U.S. Olympic
Committee to plan, manage and implement an adaptive sports program.

"This support from Veterans Affairs will have far reaching impact in
communities around the country," said Charlie Huebner, chief of U.S.
Paralympics. "We know that sports and physical activity can have a
transformative effect on those with a physical disability."

"These funds will help our community partners to expand and provide
greater access to sports programs for injured Veterans, disabled members
of the Armed Forces and all living in their local area with a physical
disability," Huebner added.

Since 1999, Nowak has served as a prosthetics manager for VA
Healthcare Veterans Integrated Service Network 4, which includes
Pennsylvania, Delaware and parts of West Virginia, New Jersey and New
York. A 17-year veteran of VA, he directs a $92-million budget and all
prosthetics operations for 10 VA medical centers.

Nowak joined the Marine Corps 1983. His military career ended in 1987,
when the then-infantry squad leader lost his right leg to friendly fire
during a routine training exercise. He is a champion of sports
rehabilitation for wounded soldiers and Veterans. He has developed and
co-chaired "First Swing" and "Next Step" golf clinics for amputee
Veterans and is a former member of the USA Amputee Hockey Team.

Mubarak leaves office will US news report other things now?

While we may be happy for the people of Egypt on this day they earned a future of true democracy, the US media has been forgetting about news right here in this country.

Egypt unrest: Mubarak has resigned, VP says

Soldiers watch impassively as protesters flow into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday morning.
February 11th, 2011
11:01 AM ET



The latest developments, as confirmed by CNN, on the uprising in Egypt. Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Egypt's major cities for two weeks to demand an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. Check out our full coverage and the latest tweets from CNN correspondents on the ground.

[Update 6:01 p.m. in Cairo, 11:01 a.m. ET] President Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the presidency of Egypt, Vice President Omar Suleiman said.
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Mubarak has resigned,

Cable news stations have focused on all of this while ignoring everything happening here. Stories like the VA hospital being built in Lake Nona Florida being surrounded by federal agents, arrests of illegal aliens and steel made in China instead of US steel being used, was not an issue important enough for then to cover. Now maybe they will have some time to report on what is happening here or at least change their claim of being national news into international news.

Admiral Mike Mullen talks about homeless veterans

Conversations at the Capitol
Top military officer discusses wide range of issues at Chambersburg theater

By KATE S. ALEXANDER
kate.alexander@herald-mail.com
9:41 p.m. EST, February 10, 2011


If not for family, Retired U.S. Army Spc. Gabriel Fauntleroy would be homeless, he said.

Last year Fauntleroy, who lives in Fayetteville, was medically retired from the U.S. Army after he broke his back while serving in Afghanistan in 2006.

Fauntleroy twirled a cane in his left hand as he told of his meager, barely $1,200 monthly retirement subsidy and how a beleaguered bureaucratic process has kept him waiting for disability from Veterans Affairs (VA).

Forced to make frequent trips between Chambersburg, Pa. and the Martinsburg, W.Va. VA Hospital for therapy and treatment of his injury, he said he has to rely on his family's charity just to survive.

"Honestly, right now, without my in-laws, we'd be homeless," he said. "With $1,200 a month to live on, a wife and two kids, I mean, there is just no way I could do it."

Fauntleroy was one of the many faces that filled the Capitol Theatre Thursday to listen to Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Like many people, Fauntleroy was hoping for some answers from Mullen.

"I was hoping to get some kind of clarification, some kind of answer on why it is taking so long to get my VA percentages finalized," he said. "It's been four months."

In his opening address to the nearly packed house, Mullen spoke of the problem of homeless veterans.

"When these wars started in 2003, as a Vietnam vet, one of the things I worried about the most was generating another generation of homeless vets," Mullen said. "While I live in a very nice set of quarters in Washington (D.C.), not a stone's throw away from me I can see my peers from Vietnam who are still sleeping on the street. We can't do that again in our country."

Fauntleroy's father-in-law, Retired Marine Col. George Germann, asked Mullen what the military is doing to address the bureaucracy that has continually pushed veterans like his son-in-law onto the edge of homelessness.
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Conversations at the Capitol

The Battle to Heal: Combating PTSD

The Battle to Heal: Combating PTSD
By Megan Strader
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
8:49 p.m. CST, February 10, 2011

(WICHITA, Kan.) -
As father and son, Zach and Dennis Matthews share a lot of similarities. From their striking resemblance, to many of the choices they made in their lives.

"Every generation my family has served, so it was a lot to do with pride," explains Dennis.

Zach adds, "After high school it just seemed like the right thing to do so I signed up and went in."

Both entered the military, both were sent to war, both came back changed men.

"You can react to it getting angry, you can react to it with just a feeling of complete hopelessness," Zach tells Eyewitness News.

His dad adds, "most of us came home and alcohol and drugs were a real good friend of ours."

"I had a complete breakdown and my buddy's that I served with ended up helping me and getting me the help that I needed," said Zach.

"I was fortunate that I had a very close friend that took me up to the Topeka V.A. and opened the door and dropped me off. I still had a bottle of vodka in my hand, that's how bad I was," said Dennis.

Both were diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Dennis, years after he returned from Vietnam. Zach, just a year before being deployed to Iraq for a second time.

"I didn't know how it would effect me - if it would make it worse if it would make it better. I didn't know exactly what was going to happen."

Research shows that nearly 30% of all combat veterans will suffer from PTSD - a figure that's been pretty steady throughout most of our country's major wars.
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The Battle to Heal Combating PTSD

Troops near burn pits to get masks, respirators

Troops near burn pits to get masks, respirators
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 10, 2011 16:51:02 EST
Under pressure from Congress, the Defense Department is moving toward short-term and long-term protections against the risks posed by open-air burn pits that have been used to dispose of garbage in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Protective equipment such as respirators and gas masks are expected to be made available to deployed troops near the burn pits, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen pledged in a letter to two U.S. senators dated Monday. He said a policy on how to promote the use of protective equipment should be ready within 60 days.

For the long term, the U.S. Central Command is buying and installing about 200 solid-waste incinerators that will be used in Afghanistan, Mullen said in the letter to Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

The pits have been used to burn a wide variety of potentially toxic products, including industrial and medical waste, paint thinner and other solvents, batteries and plastic. Schumer and Nelson wrote to the Defense Department in early January after the death of Army Sgt. William McKenna, who had a rare form of lymphoma that the Veterans Affairs Department determined was connected to his exposure to burn pit fumes in Iraq.
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Troops near burn pits to get masks, respirators

Monsignor in charge of investigating clergy abuse charges, among several charged

Three Philadelphia priests, teacher charged with sexually abusing boys
By Sarah Hoye, CNN

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (CNN) - Three Philadelphia priests and a parochial school teacher were charged Thursday with raping and assaulting boys in their care, while an official with the Philadelphia Archdiocese was accused of allowing the abusive priests to have access to children, the city's district attorney's office said.

Edward Avery, 68, and Charles Engelhardt, 64, were charged with allegedly assaulting a 10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Parish from 1998 to 1999. Bernard Shero, 48, a teacher in the school, is charged with allegedly assaulting the same boy there in 2000, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said at a Thursday press conference.

James Brennan, another priest, is accused of assaulting a different boy, a 14-year-old, in 1996.

Monsignor William Lynn, who served as the Secretary for Clergy for the under former Philadelphia Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua, was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the alleged assaults, Williams said.

From 1992 until 2004, Lynn was responsible for investigating reports that priests had sexually abused children, the district attorney's office said.

The grand jury found that Lynn, 60, endangered children, including the alleged victims of those charged Thursday, by knowingly allowing dangerous priests to continue in the ministry in roles in which they had access to children.
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Three Philadelphia priests, teacher charged

136,334 veterans spent at least one night in a homeless shelter

Military veterans more likely to be homeless
More than 75,000 needed shelter in single-night survey
By William M. Welch - USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Feb 9, 2011 21:27:51 EST
Military veterans are much more likely to be homeless than other Americans, according to the government’s first in-depth study of homelessness among former servicemembers.

About 16 percent of homeless adults in a one-night survey in January 2009 were veterans, though vets make up only 10 percent of the adult population.

More than 75,000 veterans were living on the streets or in a temporary shelter that night. In that year, 136,334 veterans spent at least one night in a homeless shelter — a count that did not include homeless veterans living on the streets.

The urgency of the problem is growing as more people return from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study found 11,300 younger veterans, 18 to 30, were in shelters at some point during 2009. Virtually all served in Iraq or Afghanistan, said Mark Johnston, deputy assistant secretary for special needs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.


“It’s an absolute shame,” he said.
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Military veterans more likely to be homeless


VA-HUD Issue First-Ever Report on Homeless Veterans

February 11, 2011


Assessment Key to Preventing and Ending Homelessness

WASHINGTON – For the first time, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development today published the most authoritative analysis of the extent and nature of homelessness among Veterans. According to HUD and VA’s assessment, nearly 76,000 Veterans were homeless on a given night in 2009 while roughly 136,000 Veterans spent at least one night in a shelter during that year.

This unprecedented assessment is based on an annual report HUD provides to Congress and explores in greater depth the demographics of Veterans who are homeless, how the number of Veterans compare to others who are homeless, and how Veterans access and use the nation’s homeless response system. HUD’s report, Veteran Homelessness: A Supplement to the 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, examines the data in the department’s annual report to Congress in-depth.

“With our federal, state and community partners working together, more Veterans are moving into safe housing,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “But we’re not done yet. Providing assistance in mental health, substance abuse treatment, education and employment goes hand-in-hand with preventive steps and permanent supportive housing. We continue to work towards our goal of finding every Veteran safe housing and access to needed services.”

Last June, President Obama announced the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness, including a focus on homeless Veterans. The report, Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, puts the country on a path to end Veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015; and to ending homelessness among children, family, and youth by 2020. Read more about the Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness in America.





Key Findings of

Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness



Ø More than 3,000 cities and counties reported 75,609 homeless Veterans on a single night in January of 2009; 57 percent were staying in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program while the remaining 43 percent were unsheltered. Veterans represent approximately 12 percent of all homeless persons counted nationwide during the 2009 ‘point-in-time snapshot.’



Ø During a 12-month period in 2009, an estimated 136,000 Veterans—or about 1 in every 168 Veterans—spent at least one night in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program. The vast majority of sheltered homeless Veterans (96 percent) experienced homelessness alone while a much smaller share (four percent) was part of a family. Sheltered homeless Veterans are most often individual white men between the ages of 31 and 50 and living with a disability.



Ø Low-income Veterans are twice as likely to become homeless compared to all low-income adults. HUD and VA also examined the likelihood of becoming homeless among American Veterans with particular demographic characteristics. In 2009, twice as many poor Hispanic Veterans used a shelter at some point during the year compared with poor non-Hispanic Veterans. African American Veterans in poverty had similar rates of homelessness.



Ø Most Veterans who used emergency shelter stayed for only brief periods. One-third stayed in shelter for less than one week; 61 percent used a shelter for less than one month; and 84% stayed for less than three months. The report also concluded that Veterans remained in shelters longer than did non-Veterans. In 2009, the median length of stay for Veterans who were alone was 21 days in an emergency shelter and 117 days in transitional housing. By contrast, non-veteran individuals stayed in an emergency shelter for 17 days and 106 days in transitional housing.



Ø Nearly half of homeless Veterans were located in California, Texas, New York and Florida while only 28 percent of all Veterans were located in those same four States.



Ø The report studied the path homeless Veterans take into the shelter system and found most Veterans come from another homeless location and few entered the shelter system from their own housing or from housing provided by family or friends.



Ø Sheltered homeless Veterans are far more likely to be alone rather than part of a family household; 96 percent of Veterans are individuals compared to 63 percent in the overall homeless population.

For more information on VA’s efforts to end homelessness among Veterans, visit VA’s Web page at www.va.gov/homelessness.