Experts, Advocacy Groups, Officials: VA Disability System Fixable

Moving a Nation to Care -Ilona Meagher
http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/2008/02/experts-advocacy-groups-officials-va.html

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Experts, Advocacy Groups, Officials: VA
Disability System Fixable

From Navy Times:

PART 1
Medical experts, advocacy groups and Veterans Affairs Department
officials say VA’s disability rating schedule needs to be updated —
continually — but they denied the system is so bad that it needs
to be dumped completely.

A Tuesday hearing of the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee
on disability assistance and memorial affairs also focused on studies
conducted over the past year that point toward needed
improvements not only in the ratings schedule, but in VA’s disability
retirement system itself.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., chairman of the subcommittee, said the VA
needs to remove “archaic” criteria from the rating schedule; update
psychiatric criteria to better reflect symptoms of troops diagnosed
with post-traumatic stress disorder; find out why so many veterans
with PTSD have been rated fully disabled; and update neurological
criteria to include new research on traumatic brain injuries.

“The VA needs the right tools to do the right thing,” Hall said. The VA
argued that it is already doing the right thing and has been updating
the rating schedule, though officials acknowledged they could do better.

From 1990 through 2007, VA had updated 47 percent of the ratings
schedule, but 35 percent of the codes had not been touched
since 1945. However, VA said it updated the codes for TBI--
(traumatic brain injuries) in January and is working on an
update for PTSD.
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The VA has set up a 24-hour suicide hotline round-the-clock
access to mental health professionals.
The number is 1-800-273-TALK.
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To learn more about PTSD--visit the
National Center for PTSD website.
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Flashback, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide,
and the Lessions of WAR by: Penny Coleman

I Can Still Hear Thier Cries, Even In My Sleep
...A Journey Into PTSD By: E. Everett McFall
Both Books are Available on Amazon.com
TBI, Part 1 Posted by E. Everett McFall at 12:35 AM