Despite uproar, officials say all well at WTU

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 23, 2008 22:14:04 EST

At a recent gathering in a small auditorium at Fort Lee, Va., wounded soldiers listened as everyone in their chain of command up to a full colonel reassured them that life in the post’s Warrior Transition Unit remained good.

Capt. David Payne, their company commander, reminded them that Fort Lee had ranked in the top five of 35 WTUs for 15 straight months, according to monthly online polls. The barracks are "rated the top in the Army." Three members of the cadre are former wounded soldiers themselves.

Lt. Col. Robert Lather told them the hospital is being revamped, with more space dedicated to active-duty soldiers so they don’t have to wait in long lines with troops going through Advanced Individual Training.

"Your mission is to heal," said Col. Donna Diamond, head of Fort Lee’s Kenner Army Health Clinic. "We’re here to make sure your needs are addressed."

In the back of the room, Sgt. Loyd Sawyer shook his head.

"We’re having another dog-and-pony show," he said.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/12/military_lee_warriortransition_122308w/

‘Sentinels of Freedom’ Scholarships Help Wounded Veterans

By Sharon Foster
Dec. 3, 2008

Thanks to a recommendation from the Army Wounded Warrior Program at Fort Riley, Kan., retired Army Sgt. Victor Thibeault of San Ramon, Calif., will study general education with the help of a “Sentinels of Freedom” scholarship that also benefits his family.

“The Sentinels of Freedom scholarship has helped me to secure gainful employment [and] a rent-free living space and a minivan for my family, not to mention the unwavering support of the local community,” Thibeault said.

The Sentinels of Freedom Scholarship Foundation provides four-year “life scholarships” to help severely wounded veterans become self-sufficient.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=52157

National Resource Directory Helps Wounded Warriors

By Jamie Findlater
Nov. 26, 2008

A Web-based network of support for wounded warriors, veterans and their families, as well as the families of the fallen, has sprung from a collaborative effort by the departments of Defense, Labor and Veterans Affairs.

The National Resource Directory will include information on care coordinators, health care providers and support partners, Dr. Lynda Davis, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, said during an “ASY Live” interview today on BlogTalkRadio.com.

“Working with wounded ill and injured servicemembers and their families, there [are] many resources and individuals available to help them,” Davis said. “We needed one source that can tell us where everyone in the country is who wants to help our wounded warriors and their families.”

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=52108

Warrior Care: Army Chief Partners with Civilian Medical Community

By D. Myles Cullen
Nov. 26, 2008

As part of November’s Defense Department focus on warrior care, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. and key members of his medical team met this week with independent experts in psychology, mental health and resiliency training.

The experts included former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona, former President of the American Psychological Association Dr. Marty Seligman, U.S. Military Academy professor Dr. Michael Matthews, and Dr. Larry Dewey, chief of psychiatry at the Boise, Idaho, Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Casey told the panel that he invited them to Washington to discuss innovative approaches in support of resilience and comprehensive fitness training for an Army stretched and stressed by the increasing demands of an era of persistent conflict.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=52103

Medical officer tapped for third star

Staff report
Posted : Thursday Oct 30, 2008 6:52:17 EDT

President Bush has tapped Rear Adm. John Mateczun for a third star while serving as commander, Joint Task Force National Capitol Region Medical, Washington D.C. Mateczun also is a member of the congressionally directed task force on the future of the military health system and has served as the medical adviser to the Joint Chiefs.

Prior to his long Navy career, Mateczun was an enlisted soldier. He was honorably discharged after receiving the Bronze Star Medal in Vietnam. His other awards include the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Legion of Merit with two Gold Stars, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with Gold Star, Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/10/navy_flagofficer_102908w/

New hospital for military dogs opened

By Michelle Roberts - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Oct 22, 2008 6:07:12

SAN ANTONIO — A new $15 million veterinary hospital, complete with operating rooms and intensive care, officially opened here Tuesday, offering an advanced facility to treat military dogs that find bombs and aid patrols on the warfront.

Dogs working for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration, are trained at Lackland Air Force Base to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines. Some 2,500 are currently working with military units.

Like soldiers and Marines on the battlefront, military dogs suffer war wounds and routine health issues that need to be treated to ensure they can continue working.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_veterinary_hospital_102108/

DoD to hold family support summit Oct. 20

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer

Posted : Friday Oct 17, 2008 6:24:35 EDT

Troops and family members are invited to join a live Oct. 20 Pentagon webcast of a summit meeting that will explore the best ways to support families of service members who are killed, seriously wounded or who become ill or injured, as well as a new plan for coordinating treatment between local, state and federal agencies.

The day-long meeting of roughly 300 family members and participants from U.S. partner organizations and agencies, headlined as “Consistent Best Practices for Support of Families of Fallen and Wounded, Ill and Injured Service Members,” will be split into two sessions.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/10/military_familysummit_pentagon_101508w/

Mullen: PTSD screenings for all returnees

By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today
Posted : Monday Oct 13, 2008 12:24:14 EDT

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s top uniformed officer is calling for all returning combat troops, from privates to generals, to undergo screening for post-traumatic stress with a mental health professional, a move aimed at stemming an epidemic of psychological issues among veterans.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there’s a reluctance to acknowledge psychological problems for fear of showing weakness. Troops now fill out questionnaires after combat tours that help determine whether they have suffered psychological damage. They’re examined by medical professionals for physical injuries, but not by mental health experts.

"I’m at a point where I believe we have to give a [mental health] screening to everybody to help remove the stigma of raising your hand," Mullen said. "Leaders must lead on this issue or it will affect us dramatically down the road."

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/10/gns_ptsdscreening_101308/

VA quadruples payments to vets with brain injuries

By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press
September 23, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is more than quadrupling monthly payments to some veterans suffering brain injuries, as the number of such war wounds mounts from the roadside bombings of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new compensation is based on the assessment that even some troops who have the mildest form of traumatic brain injury could end up with chronic headaches, memory loss, anxiety or other symptoms that will hurt their chances of getting a job or job advancement - thus reducing their lifetime earnings by 40 percent.

In a regulation announced Tuesday by the Veterans Affairs Department, officials changed the way they evaluate the injuries. They now judge a person to be 40 percent disabled in such cases rather than 10 percent. The old lower rating was set by a 1961 regulation.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0908/092308ap2.htm

Seeking Mental Health Help Shows Courage, Officials Say

By Christie Vanover
Sept. 8, 2008

The Army is a team that embraces the Warrior Ethos by never accepting defeat and never quitting.

But what happens when someone is pressured by the daily grind, life at home or financial burden? What happens when they believe admitting their problems contradicts the ethos by which they live?

“It’s hard for [people] to ask for help,” said Chris Staker, U.S. Army Garrison Benelux health promotion coordinator. “Even though we try hard, we haven’t erased the stigma of seeking help.”

Because of this and other concerns felt throughout the service, Lt. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, Army deputy chief of staff for personnel, is stressing that seeking help is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of courage and strength.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=51070

Scientists, Battlefield Medics Share Ideas

By Sarah Maxwell
August 19, 2008

Scientists and battlefield medical clinicians shared their knowledge and experiences to advance medicine during the military’s premier trauma care conference here.

The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s annual Advanced Technology Applications for Combat Casualty Care Conference was held Aug. 11 to 15.

What evolved from a disjointed vendor-oriented conference more than 10 years ago with just a couple hundred participants is now an extremely relevant knowledge exchange that has the ability to improve military medicine, said Army Col. Bob Vandre, a former MRMC Combat Casualty Care Program director who organized the conference for more than 1,100 attendees.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50869

Behavioral Health Conference Looks for Best Ways to Help Veterans

By Samantha L. Quigley
August 12, 2008

Behavioral health issues affecting veterans returning from deployment took center stage yesterday during the first day of a three-day conference in Bethesda, Md.

In collaboration with the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is hosting “Paving the Road Home: The National Behavioral Health Conference and Policy Academy on Returning Veterans and Their Families.”

“This … conference and policy academy is really designed, overall, to help states and territories and the District of Columbia think about new approaches, particularly approaches that blend expertise and resources from multiple contributors,” said Kathryn Power, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services. “It’s going to provide framework to consider different approaches, dialogue with colleagues, and work toward a unified plan that they can take to their states to ensure that veterans have the [mental health] services they need and want.”

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50782

Older Vets Offer Encouragement, Example for Newly Wounded Troops

By Donna Miles
July 29, 2008

Recently wounded combat troops are here getting advice and encouragement from those who understand best what they’re up against: other disabled veterans who have learned to live with their disabilities.

Veterans of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including five current patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, are among about 500 participants in the 28th National Veterans Wheelchair Games.

The event is cosponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Paralyzed Veterans of America, and is open to all veterans with spinal cord injuries, amputations and other conditions that impair mobility.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50625

More injured vets could get insurance payouts

By Rick Maze
Friday Jul 18, 2008

More than 1,600 severely disabled veterans could receive retroactive traumatic injury insurance payments as a result of a newly released review of how benefits have been paid under the 3½-year-old supplemental benefits program.

The payments, ranging between $25,000 and $100,000, could be paid as early as this fall as a result of discussions between the Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs the program, and doctors who are treating severely wounded combat veterans. The average retroactive payment would be $32,000, according to the review, dated July 2008.

About 4,400 people have received traumatic injury insurance payments since the program was created in 2005. The estimated 1,640 people who would receive retroactive benefits as a result of the review include some who did not previously qualify and some who received payments but would now get more, according to VA officials.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/07/military_traumaticinjury_insurance_071708w/

Military assault victims face tough recovery

By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jul 22, 2008 10:59:27 EDT

YORK, Pa. — It took Diane Pickel Plappert six months to tell a counselor that she had been raped while on duty in Iraq. While time passed, the former Navy nurse disconnected from her children and her life slowly unraveled.

Carolyn Schapper says she was harassed in Iraq by a fellow Army National Guard soldier to the extent that she began changing clothes in the shower for fear he’d barge into her room unannounced — as he already had on several occasions.

Even as women distinguish themselves in battle alongside men, they’re fighting off sexual assault and harassment. It’s not a new consequence of war. But the sheer number of women serving today — more than 190,000 so far in Iraq and Afghanistan — is forcing the military and Department of Veterans Affairs to more aggressively address it.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/07/ap_sexualassault_072108/

Pilot program may overhaul treatment of veterans

By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., National Journal

The influx of wounded troops from Afghanistan and Iraq has burst the seams of the military health care system. The much-publicized scandal in 2007 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which kick-started reforms, has proved to be only the tip of a large and ugly iceberg.

The problem is not just about organizations and processes, but about mind-sets. Although most people in the Defense Department go above and beyond to take care of their wounded, others can still lapse into an attitude of "shut up, shape up, and soldier on"--especially toward those troops who suffer subtle but deeply disabling mental problems rather than obvious physical wounds. Yet it is precisely the hard-to-diagnosis cases of post-traumatic stress disorder and "mild" traumatic brain injury that have become the distinctive injuries of this war.

This fall, however, the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs will decide whether to expand a pilot program that has the potential to dramatically change the treatment of those disabled in the line of duty. Started in November and currently limited to the Washington metropolitan area, the program takes aim at a bureaucratic redundancy that has long bedeviled injured troops leaving the armed forces.

This is the double take in which--before discharge--the Army, Navy, or Air Force first conducts an exit exam of a departing service member to assess any conditions that might trigger military disability benefits, and then--after discharge--the VA conducts its own entry exam of the same individual for the same conditions to determine eligibility for VA benefits.

Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=40506&dcn=e_gvet

Panel votes to allow veterans to seek care closer to home

By Elaine S. Povich, CongressDaily

A pilot program approved by the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday may make it easier for veterans who live far away from the nearest hospital to receive the care they need. The bill would allow some veterans who live more than 60 miles away from a VA hospital to receive services at a local health facility.

"I'm glad to see we are inching our way forward for our veterans from rural areas," said Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan.

Several members of the committee pointed out the difficulty rural veterans have in reaching health care, whether they live on farms or in other remote areas.

Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=40492&dcn=e_gvet

House panel basses bill aiding severely disabled veterans

From CongressDaily

The House Veterans' Affairs Health Subcommittee Thursday approved by voice vote a measure that would protect the most severely disabled veterans from making insurance co-payments.

Noting 25,000 "catastrophically disabled" veterans would be affected, bill sponsor, Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-La., said oftentimes the most disabled veterans are "some of the poorest of the poor." The bill would prohibit the collection of co-payments for hospital or nursing home care from catastrophically disabled veterans and even those with disabilities that are not service-connected.

Cazayoux said the category "catastrophically disabled" would cover veterans who are paralyzed and have other neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease. "At a time when the veteran is in need of specialized assistance to regain some independence and quality of life, the financial burden of medical bills should be lifted," said Paralyzed Veterans of America

Legislative Director Carl Blake at a June 26 Health Subcommittee hearing. Blake also said other factors, such as essential medicines and equipment that is needed for disabled veterans, placed an increased financial strain on the more severely disabled veterans.

Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=40431&dcn=e_gvet <http://get.govexec-media.com/portal/wts/ccmcfOaCqRaqkCEawywEbtgfn0e>

Surgical teams bring care closer to front

By Chris Amos - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 1, 2008 8:43:32 EDT

More and more surgical units — doctors, nurses and corpsmen — will be deploying to the front lines in the coming months after trials showed dramatic decreases in combat deaths since the units were first fielded four years ago, according to the Navy’s top doctor.

Since the Korean War, the Navy has not normally placed doctors in front-line units. Instead, corpsmen have stabilized troops, who were then evacuated to mobile hospitals farther from the action to receive care from physicians.

That system, based on getting patients to a trauma surgeon within the "golden hour," led to dramatic decreases in mortality within a generation. Shock-trauma platoons on the front lines are the next step in the evolution of military trauma care, said Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Adam Robinson.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/06/navy_shocktrauma_063008w/

DoD approves new social networking Web site

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jun 20, 2008 8:11:32 EDT

A new social networking Web site has been approved by Pentagon officials to help service members and their families and friends stay in touch.

Families can get their own sites for free, and keep them as long as the sponsor is on active duty. The nonprofit network, Websites for Heroes, is funded by donations from individuals and corporations.

The network is secure, password-protected and requires little bandwidth. Last year, when officials blocked access to some popular social networking sites like MySpace and YouTube on Defense Department computers, they cited the need to guarantee bandwidth availability for mission-critical functions.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/06/military_socialnetworking_website_061908w/