VA Staffer To Testify Over PTSD E-Mail
Veterans Affairs Coordinator Suggested Staff "Refrain" From Diagnosing PTSD To Save Money
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The Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center in Temple, Texas is a full-service teaching hospital and the headquarters of the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System. (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
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(AP / CBS)
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Walter Reed Inquiry
Hearings held into scandal at Army's flagship hospital for treating wounded soldiers.
A Veterans Affairs clinic coordinator is to face questions from lawmakers keen to determine whether a controversial e-mail she sent was simply misguided advice from an individual, or part of a widespread effort by the VA to avoid paying veterans benefits for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
CBS News has learned that Norma J. Perez, the former coordinator of the PTSD program at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Temple, Texas, will go before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Wednesday morning in Washington.
On March 20, she sent an e-mail to the psychologists and social workers who were under her supervision at the VA's PTSD clinic in Temple. In it, Perez wrote: "Given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out."
She went on to recommend that clinicians instead "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."
"It is outrageous that the VA is calling on its employees to deliberately misdiagnose returning veterans in an effort to cut costs," said Melanie Sloan, the executive director of the Washington-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, which obtained and distributed the internal e-mail last month, along with the veterans lobbying group VoteVets.org. (Click here to see the email.)
As soon as the e-mail became public, VA Secretary James Peake blasted it, calling it "inappropriate."
In a statement, Peake said the e-mail was isolated and that the VA is "committed to absolute accuracy in a diagnosis and unwavering in providing any and all earned benefits."
The e-mail sparked furor among both Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders, who've pushed for an investigation.
Lawmakers want to make sure PTSD is being properly diagnosed at every VA facility - and ensure Perez was not taking direction from higher management. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama also weighed in, calling for the VA's inspector general to look into the issue.
Sen. Daniel Akaka, a Democrat from Hawaii and the Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, described the e-mail as, "disturbing and disappointing." He said he hoped Wednesday's hearing would provide more answers on, "how VA is dealing with PTSD," so that all veterans truly get the health care and benefits they need.
Perez, who is not a licensed psychologist, was recently reassigned and now works at the VA hospital in Austin, Texas, as a "Mental Health Integration Specialist."
She will testify alongside the VA's Under Secretary for Health, Dr. Michael Kussman, and Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of mental health. Earlier this year, several senators and congressmen called for Dr. Katz's resignation after internal e-mails showed he withheld critical information about veteran suicides from the public. Dr. Katz apologized for the e-mails. He continues to oversee mental health for the VA.
By Pia Malbran
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support our troops... right... maybe if the oil we were supposed to get from Iraq to pay for the war were available, we could afford to take care of our veterans. oops! wrong country, heh heh, oh well...
you know, i just thought of something... I think I know what the bush plan was. Iraq was just a staging area for invasions of Iran, Afganistan, name a country in the neighborhood, and the oil was going to finance it all... what a dumb f**k*ng plan!!
This country sends our soldiers into combat and then throws them away like used toilet papper. It is a crime.
VSO veterans'' reps are pros who know the law and the system inside out and will fight tooth and nail to get a veteran the treatment and benefits they deserve. Representation is free.
The people of the USA will in fact chit on you after you leave the military. They have chit on us Vietnam Vets for decades.
She went on to recommend that clinicians instead "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."
In a separate order, the Darth Bushit administration ordered its staffers to stop referring to the Iraq situation as a "war", and started insisting that it be called an "attitude adjustment", to avoid having to pay all those soldiers their GI benefits when they are discharged after 3-4 tours of duty in the "adjustment" zone.
Bu wait, listen to McSame brag about the surge, and how ONLY 19 soldiers were killed last month. ONLY 19! ONLY 19 young men and women DEAD, in their graves. ONLY 19 families destroyed. ONLY 19 unnecessary funerals.
McSame criticizes Obama for wanting to leave Iraq, that leaving would cause thousands of Iraqi deaths. But he fails to mention that he and the Criminal-In-Chief have already killed a million Iraqi civilians.
When, and only when there are NO fatalities in that he11 hole can anyone say that anything is working. Every soldier lost is an unnecessary tragedy.
Under McSame, we will be there forever, and the deaths will never end.
Prove you''re insane, vote for McCain.
This is the most alarming sentence in this whole article. How is this lady and staff under her involved in giving out any diagnosis? This is a complete fraud.
Posted by omnibus66
omnibus66 like all Democrats is a Liar. McCain said that if the Anti-War Anti-Military Democrat Controlled Congress does not fully fund the War then, The Military would be force to cut Enlistments or Cut Veterans Benefits.
mccain would not sign the bi-partisan GI bill Senator Webb introduced giving our Soldiers the opportunity te get a fully funded college education at a State University because it would REDUCE RETENTION IN THE MILITARY. not a lie at all but the gospel TRUTH.as probably the most prominent veteran in the country today mccain should be ASHAMED of himself for turning his back on the very Soldiers he claims to support.mccain has the same philosopy as bush use em and then forget em.
I have friends who work at this VA and am told that it is a corrupt system where the higher-ups hire friends/family to promote their views and to protect themselves. The subordinates hold on to their jobs in whatever manner they can.
Washington can have as many hearings as it wants to, the truth is nothing will change under the current leadership. Has no one asked why Perez is still working for the VA and why? Someone is protecting her and so it stands to reason that she was directed by higher ups to diagnose less PTSD cases.
A culture of you cover for me and I''ll cover for you. You deny for me and I will promote you to GS15 or promote you and send you to Austin (everyone aspires to go there) exists at this VA. So how can things change when some (higher ups) subscribe to a corrupt code of conduct and it is embraced as the established code of conduct by everyonelse who are more concerned about paying bills and taking care of their families than providing the best care to veterans.
Military people, if you have PTSD, get yourself to a VA Vet Center. Also, file your claim with the VA, thorough a local vet rep. The laws are on the books to compensate you for this. Still on active duty? Be sure you get the Combat Action Badge or Combat Action Ribbon (Marine). Stay in touch with your buddies. You folks can help each other corroborate incidents that brought on PTSD. Check out the articles on PTSD at veteransforcommon sense.org. Google PTSD,Doug Nelson.
Military people should seek treatment for PTSD while in service. Don''t worry about a career. If they hold PTSD against you, they don''t deserve you.
Once you are out of the military, THEN get help from a Vet Center and local state or county vet rep.
Posted by demslie at 09:09 AM : Jun 03, 2008
Admittedly Dems did vote for the vast number of lies told by Bush--hopefully, once Obama is settled in office and correct all the injustice done by those lies---perhaps then, we can work on putting our country hack in shape---but thanks demslie for noticing many Dems did vote for the Bush lies---at least you''re admitting they were actually lies.
The only thing that confuses me about this story is why this woman felt it necessary to openly state what she should have known was already a well-known and widely used method. Any other in her position would have been smart enough to know that this goes without saying at the VA.
Posted by Petesis at 12:58 PM : Jun 03, 2008
Are you an authority on the subject or a VA official? How do you know she is right? How do you know some will "work through it"?
This is just more neocon improvidence and hypocrisy. "we support our troops, but only when it''s politically expedient. Otherwise, they need to quietly disappear."
How disgusting.
Are you so hostile that you cannot understand that some DO work through it? Do a little research before you jump up everyone''s rear end, Sparky. It''s a terrible situation, and any sane person of course wants our soldiers and their families to be taken care of. There''s no call for you to lash out at anyone else expressing an opinion (and a calm, collected, non-agressive opinion, at that.) Sheesh.
Posted by Abigail70 at 02:11 PM : Jun 03, 2008
Nothing in that post was presented as opinion. It was presented as fact: "She is right." I was countering with an opinion.
The fact is, America has grown tired of the "special olympics" standards this government is held to, while everyone else is expected to have some form of personal responsibility. You can make all the excuses for them you wish. I choose to point out the hypocrisy and cowardice of the Bush government and their apologists like yourself.
Does this kind of talk bother you? Rather market the war differently?
Hey neo cons you ever wonder why you lost power for 40 years it was because of Senator MaCarthy. That was for only a Senator, what do you think the price will be for a whole congress and Administration?
God they are dumber than dirt to belive that the swing voters will forgive them. Our parents didn''t forgive them what makes you think we will.
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Posted by makemyday2da at 04:38 PM : Jun 03, 2008
Yes. And the Department of Veterans Affairs denial of their conditions helps contribute to any suicidal tendencies. The pathetic and often disengenous way the way the VA has handled PTSD and other veteran''s health care matters borders on being criminal. At a minimum the leaders of the Department of Veterans Affairs should be forced to resign. Unfortunately, these leaders and the ones who would replace them are politically appointed and their agenda is often at odds with the support they are supposed to by law provide to veterans.
This Dr. is not a quack and I cannot tell you how many parents were so relieved to meet him that afternoon and hear what he had to say...the coolest thing of all is there is no prescription medicine needed-just oxygen...Good luck to everyone reading this and may this horrible thing called war soon end. God bless our military men and women.
The DVA is now doing to the current U.S.combat veterans what they did and still are doing to Vietnam veterans and vets of other conflicts. After granting medical and other benefits from 1991 - 2002 to all Vietnam veterans suffering from diseases associated with Agent Orange exposure after passage of the Agent Orange Act of 1991, in 2002 the DVA announced 11 years after the fact that they interpreted the AO Act''''s "service in Vietnam" requirement to mean having had "boots on the ground". Then in 2002, they proceeded to retroactively reverse their decisions of the 11 previous years and denied medical and other benefits to U.S. Navy Vietnam veterans who had these very same AO related conditions and whose ships came to within "spitting distance" of the Vietnam coastline while conducting naval gunfire support and other operations or while anchored in Vietnam harbors. And the DVA''''s decision was not based on any scientific evidence. In fact, they conveniently ignored scientific evidence that the Australian govt conducted that showed that their sailors had an equal or greater incidence of certain AO related diseases that their ground troops. For more info on the betrayal of U.S veterans by the DVA, please go to www.bluewaternavy.org and/or vnvetsblogspot.com.
They will wait for you vets to die off before any problem is admitted or addressed.
This makes me Glad I never served. However, the Marine bases in Jacksonville, NC I was born and grew up knew it''s water supply was contamimated with Dry Cleaning Chemicals. They said and did Nothing until the 80''s when they could not deny they were always aware of the chemicals and these were known carcinogens. The only action was trying to contact those who lived there in the 60s'' and may have been harmed by miscarrages, cancer etc..
Dad sprayed Agent Orange and has Skin, bladder and Prostate cancer among others.
It has taken the VA and Governnmet 40 years to admit there was any problem. I see no improvement.
the best of good byes Frank Bowers.
The contaminated wells were shut down in February 1985, but the Marine Corps did not inform all of the exposed residents until they were forced to in the passing of the Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Amendment beginning in 2007. Starting in 1999, the ATSDR contacted the parents of 12,598 eligible children, or 80 percent of the estimated total, who lived at the Marine base between 1968 and 1985, for a study determining the rate of specific birth defects and childhood cancers.
So far, the ATSDR found at least 100 babies exposed in utero to the contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune that suffered from birth defects and cancer, including 29 cases of leukemia or lymphoma and 42 cases of a cleft lip or palate.
Marines living in Jacksonville, NC between 1957 and 1985 need to read this: http://www.local6.com/spotlight/16457727/detail.html
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by impeach_w
June 4, 2008 3:14 PM PDT
- It''s the same story: The VA won''t do anything for about 40 years. When they do, it will have a different name with different diagnostic critera. This is nothing new. There has been PTSD since the start of War. With each war the name is changed: shell shock, battle fatigue, combat fatigue, PTSD.
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See all 44 CommentsThey will wait for you vets to die off before any problem is admitted or addressed.
This makes me Glad I never served. However, the Marine bases in Jacksonville, NC I was born and grew up knew it''s water supply was contamimated with Dry Cleaning Chemicals. They said and did Nothing until the decades later when they could not deny they were aware of the chemicals and these were known carcinogens. The only action was trying to contact those who lived there in the from ''68 on and may have been harmed by miscarrages, cancer etc.. NOTE the EXPOSURE STARTED IN ''57 SEEE BELOW!
Dad sprayed Agent Orange from a CH-46 and has Skin, bladder and Prostate cancer among others and a never treated PTSD.
It has taken the VA and Governnmet 40 years to admit there was any problem. I see no improvement. SEE BELOW!