Let this be an addendum to the
blog Forum below on Senator Daniel
Akaka who just doesn't get it that
he is himself, at the root of all
evils inside this broken VA claims
system. The VA abuses medical patients,
the VSO's help the VA "process" the
abuse, and then Congress spends all
of it's time not comprehending what
is broken. It's a sad, sad state of
affairs. It can be said here now, that
the VA claims system is the cause of
Vet suicides. To those of you in this
weak population I say this: "the rest of us have survived this crisis for
some 50 years now, and you can too.
Don't give to the VA the privilege
of "winning" in your life. Stay around
and get the ultimate revenge by joining
the rest of us when you get home. They
can't keep you forever, and at some
point they will have to let you go.
We will all be here for you when you are."


From the Associated Press

September 11, 2008


Army looks for outside help to reduce suicides

By DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) -- The Army's top medical officer says commanders are looking to their counterparts in the Air Force and in civilian agencies for ways to cope with an alarming increase in suicides.

"We work real closely with the Veterans Administration, who have for many years taken the lead in this," Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "We've also looked across the services and at other models that have been more successful than our own."

The Army's suicide rate was 18.1 per 100,000 last year, the highest since the service started keeping records in 1980. It was 9.8 just five years earlier.

The U.S. civilian rate is 19.5 per 100,000.

Leading factors behind soldier suicides are troubled personal relationships; legal, financial and work problems; and repeated deployments and longer tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Army says.

Schoomaker said the Army has redoubled its prevention efforts and looked outside for new models, especially to the Air Force, which he said successfully encouraged support systems to reduce suicides.

The Army's program includes removing the stigma from asking for help, encouraging soldiers to look after each other and a campaign called ACE, for Ask, Care and Escort.

"We ask that people extend themselves to a fellow soldier or family member that may be suffering," Schoomaker said. "We ask that you make the effort to ask, 'Are you in trouble?'"

Offering care may be as simple as keeping a weapon out of a troubled soldier's reach, he said. Soldiers and families should then escort the soldier to a medical facility.

Schoomaker acknowledged that encouraging troubled soldiers to ask for help requires a cultural change.

"We are an Army that has historically been associated with strength and being impervious to threats to the human psyche and the body, and of course that's a myth," he said.

He hopes to use the Army's "warrior ethos" to get soldiers to look out for one another's mental health.

"It's an extension of our warrior ethos that no soldier is ever left behind," he said.

Schoomaker said the Army will analyze individual suicides and suicide attempts, police reports and incidents of misconduct as well as the overall numbers of suicides and attempts to see if the program is working.


__________________________________________
END of AP Release

REPLY:

My first thought is you may have the
wrong name of the act because when I
searched the congressional bills list
it was never found.
www.house.gov / www.senate.gov

Secondly you may be referring to a bill
that was submitted, but then never
passed in a floor vote.

Your VA treatment qualifying is determined
by period of service and income. Not all
veterans are treated in the same way
as their VA benefits at times, not always,
differ across service periods. You
have to go to a Veterans Service Officer
(VSO) at your nearest County Veterans
Agency and tell them you are having an
access problem to VAMC care and need
to find out what is causing it.

Mis Fraiser
Hello, I'm VERY NEW TO THIS FORUM AN AFTER READING ALMOST ALL OF WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN I THINK THAT YOU JUST MIGHT BE ABLE TO ANSWER MY QUESTION'S
I MANAGED TO GET RATED 100% JUST A FEW YEARS AGO, MY PROBLEM IS THAT IT'S A PSYCHOLOGICAL RATING
AND IT SEEMS THAT BEING RATED CRAZIER THAN A CRAP HOUSE RAT ALL MY HEALTH CARE AT THE VA HAS DISSAPEARED.
I DO HAVE SEVERE UNTREATED PTSD ALONG WITH SERIOUS PHYSICAL PROBLEMS, THESE PROBLEMS ARE KIDNEYS, KNEE AN LOWER BACK, all service conected.
I CAN'T SEEM TO GET INTO ANY CLINICS, KNOWING THAT MY PRIMARY CARE PERSON HAS BECOME MY PRIMARY PROBLEM, I HAVE FOUND THAT THE PUBLIC LAW 106 ( VETERANS MIILLENNIUM HEALTH CARE ACT ) HAS WORKED FAIRLY WELL FOR HEART ATTACKS AN BLEEDING KIDNEYS WHICH HAVE HAPPENED THIS AUG. & SEPT.
MY 100% CHECK IS NOT ENOUGH TO PURCHASE OUTSIDE HEALTH CARE WITH ALL THE PREXISTING CONDITIONS.
DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING MORE ABOUT THIS LAW (106). I have read as much as I can find, I'm thinking that there must be more or at least a loop hole that has not been found yet.
After being thrown out of the Denver VA because I was not having a heart attack, just a bleeding kidney, I did notice that there were a lot more pamphlets on the suicide subject, they appear to be concerned , as always, but we all know the truth of the matter which is simply put THEY CAUSE 90% of them. Vet's in my opinion should use any other help line, why give the VA more ammunition to use against us.
THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE FOR ANY INFO
NICK NACK