The Department of Veterans Affairs has published a regulation which adds up to seven days of medical care for newborns delivered by female Veterans who are receiving VA maternity care benefits to the VA medical benefits package. The newborn care includes routine post-delivery care and any other service deemed medically necessary.
The effective date of the new benefit is Dec. 19, 2011, but it will apply retroactively to eligible Veterans who were provided newborn care on or after May 5, 2011.
VA has several initiatives to provide more women-specific health care within the VA system.
In the past, VA would pay for female Veterans to receive maternity care from civilian facilities and doctors. However, VA is attempting to provide more obstetric and gynecologist services in house.
To this end, a female Veteran in Utah recently gave birth after being the first VA patient to receive all her prenatal care from VA. Her baby was delivered in a civilian hospital, by her VA physician, as VA does not have the facilities for deliveries at their own medical centers.
Women Veterans who are interested in receiving health care at VA should contact the closest VA medical center and request to speak with the Women Veterans Program Manager.
The New York Times reported this week that a program based at the UCLA medical center is making great strides in undoing some of the most serious wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Established in 2007, Operation Mend is designed to give returning service members with severe facial injuries access to the nation’s top plastic and reconstructive surgeons and burn specialists.
The program, which works in tandem with the VA and the U.S. military, is aimed at providing disfigured Veterans with the type of reconstructive surgery traditionally deemed medically unnecessary by VA providers. This surgery, however, provides Veterans with a “cosmetic and emotional revival” aimed at restoring confidence and easing the adjustment to life at home.
Along with similar ventures such as the Center for the Intrepid and Fisher House, Operation Mend has been able to supplement the often over-extended VA and military healthcare systems.
General Peter Chiarelli has embraced such programs, to which VA doctors are normally hesitant to refer their patients.
“Our problems are so big, we have to reach out beyond ourselves,” he said.
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Thousands of spectators gathered in St. Louis Saturday to cheer on the Iraq War Veterans who marched in the city’s welcome home parade.
An estimated 100,000 people lined the mile-long route to show support for and thank the 600 Veterans who participated. Saturday’s parade was the first to take place in a major American city since the War in Iraq officially came to an end last month.
Although some, including military officials, felt that staging parades would be premature with American troops still fighting in Afghanistan, the event’s organizers, Tom Applebaum and Craig Schneider, felt it was time our troops received a proper welcome home.
“You know the greatest generation in World War II, they had the welcome homes, they had the big city parades, and although we’re not the greatest generation, we certainly pulled our weight,” Army Major Rick Radford told a local FOX affiliate. “And now we are getting a true welcome home from St. Louis.”
In addition to Iraq Veterans, family members of service members who were killed in action, marching bands and even the Budweiser Clydesdales took part in the parade.
While the parade’s organizers were happy with its success, they plan on continuing their efforts to help America’s Veterans.
The two friends hope to raise $7 million dollars by Super Bowl Sunday. Half of the money would go to The Mission Continues, a non-profit that seeks to encourage Veterans to take part in volunteer projects in their communities. The organization helped Applebaum and Schneider organize the event.
The rest of the money would be donated to The Welcome Home Foundation, which would distribute the money to Veterans service organizations across the nation.
The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses will be meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss proposed studies focusing on the illness.
The committee was created in Congress in 1998 with the goal of eventually improving the health of Veterans who served during the Gulf War.
As troops returned home at the end of the first Gulf War, many began developing health problems that did not fit any diagnosis. Some Veterans suffer from symptoms, such as fatigue, joint pain, headaches, respiratory disorders and gastrointestinal disorders. The cause of these symptoms is still unknown.
The meeting, which is open to the public, will take place in the Lafayette Building at 811 Vermont Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., in Room 1143. On January 31, the meeting will begin at 8 am and adjourn at 5 pm. On February 1, the meeting will be 8 am to 12:30 pm. There will be time set aside on both days for public comment.
For more information, please visit http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-17/pdf/2012-710.pdf
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During his State of the Union address to Congress, President Barack Obama lauded America's Veterans. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.
When President Barack Obama took to the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday night to deliver his annual State of the Union address, Paul Rieckhoff saw the moment as a unique opportunity for the Commander in Chief to set a new course for Veterans’ issues.
Rieckhoff, who served in Iraq and is the founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, was seated in the House gallery that night and recently offered his analysis of President Obama’s remarks to Time magazine.
In Rieckhoff’s opinion, the President earned high marks for his address, which marks the first State of the Union in eight years where there were no American boots on the ground inIraq.
“Last night,” he said, President Obama “really held us up as a model for our country. That’s very powerful.”
But, Rieckhoff maintained, there remain several key issues unaddressed by the speech, most notably the new GI Bill, unemployment, women’s issues and the ongoing crisis of Veteran suicides. What is more, “We’re looking for private partnerships, non-profit partnerships, that can complement or augment what’s happening in Washington. The VA is not the only solution to these problems, and we have to get people thinking outside the box a little bit more.”
St. Louis is set to be the first city to hold a parade to welcome our service members who served in Iraq home.
The parade, which starts at noon, will take place on Jan. 28. The mile-long route will start at Kiener Plaza and end at Union Station. The organizers have also set up a Veterans Resource Village inside Union Station. The resource center will be open from 11 am to 5 pm.
“We encourage St. Louis to turn out in droves in the same way we turned out for the World Series Champion Cardinals Victory Parade,” event organizer Craig Schneider said. “We understand this is quite an undertaking, but the entire St. Louis community, including our youngest residents, are coming together to help make this parade an amazing success.”
Veterans who are interested in walking in the parade can find an application at the organization’s website. There is also additional information available at the event’s Facebook page.
It has long been tradition for troops coming home from war to be greeted with parades in the nation’s major cities. But troops who returned home from Iraq just before Christmas weren’t met with ticker tape and cheering crowds. At the moment, the governments of major American cities like New York City and Washington, D.C., have no plans to stage parades as they have in the past.
While some, citing the fact that troops are still fighting in Afghanistan, think such a welcome home celebration would be premature, in St. Louis, our troops will be receiving the welcome home they deserve.
Schneider discussed the parade and why he started the grassroots effort on the Rachel Maddow Show.
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A new study found that female American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been involved in more combat than in prior wars and have the same post-traumatic stress disorder rate as men.
Researchers from the University of California San Francisco found that women are more likely to report depression symptoms, while men are more likely to have post-deployment drinking problems.
The Journal of Psychiatric Research reported that 12 percent of women and 1 percent of men reported military sexual trauma, which is shown to be strongly associated with PTSD and depression in both women and men.
These findings have important implications for the Veterans Affairs Department’s healthcare system, according to lead study author, Shira Maguen.
“If women are indeed being exposed to combat stressors at a higher rate than in prior eras, we have to be prepared to provide the services they need, and take into account the impact that these stressors can have on their mental health functioning,” she said in a university news release.
The U.S. military sprayed an estimated 19 million gallons of herbicides on the jungles of South Vietnam. The herbicide's toxic chemicals have since wreaked havoc on the health of Veterans who were exposed to them during service. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
The Department of Veterans Affairs recently expanded its list of ships whose crews were potentially exposed to herbicides while stationed in Vietnam.
This could make it easier for some so-called Blue Water Navy Veterans (former service members who served on ships that were stationed in Vietnam’s coastal waters) to receive disability compensation for Agent-Orange-related conditions.
Under current VA regulations, Vietnam Veterans are presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides (meaning that they do not have to prove they were exposed to the chemicals) if they had boots on the ground in Vietnam, served on ships that were stationed on the nation’s inland waterways (Brown Water Veterans) or can prove that they went ashore during service.
For Blue Water Veterans, most of whom are not presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange, they must provide explicit proof that they came into contact with the toxic herbicide in order to be eligible for disability compensation from the VA.
has been introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate; the bill would ease the restrictions for Blue Water Veterans. If the bills are passed, Veterans who served in Vietnam’s territorial seas would also be presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange. Both bills are still currently being reviewed in committee.
For an updated list of the ships, please visit http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/shiplist/list.asp
President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress for the 2011 State of the Union. A bipartisan group of lawmakers have invited Veterans to attend this year's speech in person. Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers are encouraging their colleagues to follow their example and invite a Veteran to attend Tuesday’s State of the Union speech.
“In the 112th Congress, we might be divided on many issues, but we find common ground in the fulfillment of our nation’s obligation to our service members and their families,” Rep. Marcia Fudge said in a statement. “This is a small gesture that only begins to show my gratitude to those who have honorably served our country. This invitation gives them the opportunity to hear from our Commander in Chief about his vision for our nation, a nation they risked their lives to protect.”
The Ohio Democrat has invited Marine Sergeant Joseph Collins, an unemployed Veteran of the Iraq War.
According to Fudge’s office, 22 members of Congress are also inviting Veterans as their guests.
Hopefully, this is a sign that lawmakers plan on addressing the needs of our nation’s Veterans. This issue is especially pressing with the end of the Iraq War and the Department of Defense’s plans to cut the size of the military.
Although the new session of Congress has just started, Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has already introduced a new bill that, if passed, would focus on Veteran employment. H.R. 3438 would require the Department of Defense to reward at least 3 percent of its contracts to businesses that are owned by Veterans with service-connected disabilities.
