Vets Take Another Hit!

“Kicking them when they’re down!”

Vets take another hit! In article after article, I have tried to show how our Veterans lack the protection they need, and when inevitably they are wounded, many have lost certain of their benefits invoking unnecessary hardship on the veterans and their families.

. Now! The PBS Series, has recently probed into new areas that are particularly disturbing and further describe the continuing pattern of abuse and neglect for our nation’s heroes!.....

Using the inductive process, Now!’s host, David Brancaccio, begins the program with the interview of one vet who had recently returned from Iraq to re-start his former life but discovered that after a tour in Iraq he could not perform his trucking job. He kept seeing terrorist bombers behind every traffic jam and snipers behind every speeding car. Eventually, he lost his job and is now trying to get by on the kindness of his friends until his disability check comes in.

According to the doctors, what he was suffering from was a form of Post-traumatic Stress syndrome, a condition typically either misdiagnosed, ignored or not addressed by the VA and the military. This example was used to demonstrate that if there has been any preoccupation, it has been with obvious physical injuries at the expense of mental disabilities which may be just as severe or worse in terms of its longer term implications. Unfortunately, the VA has failed to consign this problem the priority consideration it needs; nor provided the budgeting that accurate diagnosis and treatment mandate.

More widespread that previously acknowledged, NOW! extrapolated from the particular case to describe a recent Senate hearing where the Secretary of Veteran Affairs was being asked to explain why he couldn’t account for the budget allocated to the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress and why there was so little recognition for this problem that seems to have been virtually ignored by government.

As a result of the hearings and the Secretary’s failure to explain the government’s failure in this regard, an additional 200 million dollars was requested by his department for the express purpose of diagnosing and treating this and related mental disorders stemming from the war.. Meanwhile at the local level, treatment programs, instead of being expanded, were found to have been cut back to accommodate budget shortages. Even physicians who had suggested increasing the number of treatment visits for certain patients deemed especially deserving, often found that their patients were being denied even the minimum number of treatments normally prescribed. The budget cutbacks have simply exacerbated the problems for Veterans suffering from these and related ailments. .

The reason seemed to have to due with the fact that the new funding was meant to treat some 22,000 plus Veterans diagnosed to be suffering from the malady whereas the reality was that those diagnosed to be suffering Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome as a result of the War in Iraq actually topped 95,000.

As long as we fail to address the real challenges facing our veterans, it seems hypocritical for our government to continue ask them to continue to sacrifice for our country.

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon
The Blue Blog Will Blow You Away! http://lesaaron.blogspot.com

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