Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country

Find out What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Winter Sports Clinic A “Life-Changing Experience” For Many Vets.
2. New Rule Proposed For Vets Exposed To Agent Orange.
3. Lawmakers To Ask For Moratorium On Roseburg VA Service Reductions.
4. Study: VA Cannot Determine Cost Of Caring For Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.
5. Oregon, Portland VA “Responding Aggressively” To Returning Vet’s Needs.
6. Defense Department To Test Effectiveness Of Hyperbaric Chambers As TBI Treatment.
7. Senior Citizens Greeting Veterans On Way Home From War.
8. Judge Allows New Orleans Hospital Projects To Move Forward.
9. Ribbon Cut On VA National Information Technology Training Academy.
10. VA Researcher Leads Study On Caring For Elderly.

Have You Heard
Formerly homeless Veteran, Jeffery Anderson has stabilized home and family thanks to his new job at the Waco, Texas, VA Regional Office. In response to Secretary Shinseki’s charge to end homelessness among Veterans within five years, the Waco VA Regional Office began a Homeless Veterans Hiring Initiative. Director Carl Lowe said “Getting a homeless Veteran into housing is highly valuable. But if the Veteran doesn’t have a job, then he or she won’t have the means to get permanent housing.” Army Veteran Jeffery Anderson had served two tours in Iraq. His nine months as a homeless veteran began when his wife Adrienne suffered severe medical problems while pregnant with their fourth child. He applied for many jobs but no interviews resulted and he and his family lost their home. Now that he’s employed at the Waco VARO, he’s making progress on repaying his family’s medical bills. Lowe says his Regional Office’s Homeless Veterans Hiring Initiative is a win-win situation for Veterans and for the Waco VARO. “These formerly homeless Veterans truly appreciate the opportunity to work. They arrive promptly every day, and they’re among the most productive employees we have.”

1.      Winter Sports Clinic A “Life-Changing Experience” For Many Vets. The Aspen (CO) Times (4/1, Gudim) reports, “The annual National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, now under way at Snowmass, is more than just a gathering of veterans” and it is “more than just a week of snow sports. It is, for many of the more than 400 participants, a life-changing experience.
Olympians Joining Clinic Participants On Slopes. The AP (4/1), notes that Olympic gold medalist Bode Miller “was in Snowmass, Colo., on Wednesday to take part in a winter sports clinic for disabled veterans, joining them on the slope and offering up tips.”

The KUSA-TV Denver (3/31) website reported, “Olympians like Casey Puckett, Bode Miller and Andy Finch will be carving turns right along side the nearly 400 men and women at this year’s 24th annual National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic.” Miller said, “These guys are out there trying to dig it out and trying to charge and that’s what makes you good at skiing and it carries over at other aspects in your life.”
The American Forces Press Service (4/1, Haynes) discusses the clinic with 2010 Vancouver Paralympic Games athlete Sean Halsted, who after attending the clinic “realized he had a passion for adaptive Nordic skiing versus the adaptive Alpine skiing he was doing before.”

2.      New Rule Proposed For Vets Exposed To Agent Orange. KOLO-TV Reno, NV (3/31, 5:34 p.m. PT) broadcast, “For decades, Vietnam vets have been unable to receive treatment for conditions believed to be related to Agent Orange exposure. Well, that may be about to change,” because Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has “proposed a new rule: Vets with B-cell leukemia, Parkinson’s, and heart disease will now only have to show they have the condition and that they served in Vietnam in order to receive care.

3.      Lawmakers To Ask For Moratorium On Roseburg VA Service Reductions. The Roseburg (OR) News-Review (4/1, Korengel, 18K), “More than 200 people crammed into the Roseburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center auditorium Tuesday to hear about the future of VA health care in southwest Oregon and northwest California.”

4.      Study: VA Cannot Determine Cost Of Caring For Iraq, Afghanistan Vets. USA Today (4/1, Zoroya, 2.11M) reports, “The Department of Veterans Affairs has no way of determining long-range health care costs for the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal study on the wars’ impact released Wednesday shows.” Conducted by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the study says “VA does not have the personnel, the funding or the mandate from Congress to produce broad forecasts,” although Victoria Cassano, “who is managing” VA’s response to the study, “said some 30-year projections on benefits and veteran populations are possible.”

IOM Says “Too Little Is Known” About Long-Term Care For Brain Injured Vets. In a report run by at least 190 news publications, the AP (4/1, Hefling) notes, “Too little is known about how to care long-term for veterans with a traumatic brain injury, the most common injury among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the Institute of Medicine said Wednesday.” However, the IOM, which “urged the Veterans Affairs Department to conduct research into developing protocols for caring for these veterans” as they get older, “praised the VA’s work to establish rehabilitation services for those with traumatic brain injury in the initial months or years after they are wounded.” Overall, the IOM, which also “urged Congress to direct the VA to produce more detailed annual projections of the needs of veterans” and their families, “said…the VA and Defense Department should better coordinate services available to veterans” and hire more mental health professionals. HealthDay (4/1, Reinberg), which publishes a similar story, notes that the IOM is an “independent advisory arm of the National Academy of Sciences.”

5.      Oregon, Portland VA “Responding Aggressively” To Returning Vet’s Needs. The Oregonian (4/1, Sullivan, 276K

6.      Defense Department To Test Effectiveness Of Hyperbaric Chambers As TBI Treatment. USA Today (4/1, 2.11M)

7.      Senior Citizens Greeting Veterans On Way Home From War. ABC World News (3/31, story 11, 2:10, Sawyer, 8.2M)

8.      Judge Allows New Orleans Hospital Projects To Move Forward. AP (4/1, Burdeau)

9.      Ribbon Cut On VA National Information Technology Training Academy. The Martinsburg (WV) Journal (4/1, McVey, 17K)

10.    VA Researcher Leads Study On Caring For Elderly. The AP (4/1)

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