Cautious Optimism Meets New VA Rule to Help Veterans with PTSD
July 10, 2010 posted by Michael Leon · 3 Comments
Walter Williams is still fighting for his veteran's disability - Photo Aaron Glantz, New America Media
By Aaron Glantz (Bay Citizen / New America Media)
San Francisco, California – When Walter Williams came home from his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006, one of the first things he did was file a disability claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Four years later, the Menlo Park native is still fighting for his benefits.
He gets regular treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from a special PTSD clinic run by the VA, but the Veterans Benefits Administration, a different arm of the agency, denied Williams’ claim.
“They say it’s not combat related,” he said.
“It’s confusing,” Williams added, because he’s spent hours telling counselors at the VA’s PTSD clinic about the lasting psychological impact of being abandoned while on a convoy outside Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.
“There’s a misperception in the civilian sector because we’ve toted guns and done all these things that we shouldn’t be so sensitive,” he said. “But it’s different to be in a unit where you’re with a bunch of other soldiers who all have your back, and then to be out here alone.”
Williams story is hardly unique. But a new VA policy making it easier for veterans to apply for and receive PTSD benefits could help thousands of Bay Area soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan to ease their transition to civilian life.
The rule change, which the New York Times reports could take affect as early as Monday, would eliminate the need of returning soldiers diagnosed with PTSD to document specific events, called stressors, in order to receive disability compensation.
“VA’s claims processors have a hard time corroborating incidents during a deployment,” explained Paul Sullivan, who heads the organization Veterans for Common Sense, “but scientific research shows the deployment itself is the cause of increased risk for mental health conditions because harsh living conditions, the threat of death, roadside bombs, the shelling of bases every day are the major risk factors everyone experiences that can lead to PTSD.”
The new rules would require the VA to treat PTSD claims from returning veterans the same way it treats claims for Agent Orange poisoning for Vietnam veterans. It would presume that if a soldier has been deployed to the war zone and subsequently been diagnosed with PTSD, that he or she developed the condition as a result of war-time service.
To date, 150,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have gone to the VA to get treatment for PTSD, but only 75,000 have had a disability claim for PTSD approved.
The new rules would appear to immediately benefit at least 7,100, Northern California veterans, who, like Williams, have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan and been treated at a VA facility for PTSD or a related mental health condition, as well as tens of thousands of local Vietnam veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD but never received compensation.
A VA spokesperson refused to comment on the new policy until it is formally unveiled next week.
Long-time observers of the VA like Sullivan say veterans most likely to benefit are those who file fresh claims for compensation. It’s unclear what the effect would be for veterans like Williams, whose disability claim’s have been denied.
For his part, Williams, now 33, has learned how to manage his symptoms. He still gets panic attacks, but they have become less frequent. He’s also landed a job as an employment counselor at the veterans advocacy group Swords to Plowshares, which provides him with both money he needs to survive and the satisfaction that he is helping his fellow vets.
Still, he continues to fight for his benefits.
“I guess on their end it’s a monetary thing, but for me it’s more than that,” he said. “It’s about admitting that these things happen in war.”
This might be helpful for Vets filling a PTSD claim. ADVICE FROM PATIENCE MASON
FOR VETERANS WITH PTSD
I’m writing to give you encouragement about the struggle to get a VA rating for PTSD. I suggest writing out the claim in your own handwriting and taking it with you to the interview and giving it to the examiner. Tell him or her to attach to your claim. Keep a xerox copy. Do this every time you go for an interview and every time you appeal, which you will probably have to do because if you have ptsd they will try to give you the lowest rating they can get away with. You need to be persistent and to supply them with concrete (written) evidence for your claim. You will also need to do this every two years when they review your case.
What you have to have: A traumatic stressor: a-threat of death or bodily injury to yourself (ie. combat, friendly fire, being mortared or rocketed, wounded, captured, driving a truck on a mined road, flying in a helicopter that was shot at, jumping out of a helicopter into a hot LZ. I’m sure you have more than one. list them all); b-threat of death or bodily injury to someone you are close to (if you had a buddy who was wounded or lost squad members, family member) c-sudden loss of home or community (squad wiped out, hooch or hospital mortared, evacuated due to wounds, etc.) or d-seeing anyone who has recently been killed or injured (being a medic or nurse on a trauma ward, body bagging, seeing someone you didn’t know killed, seeing kids, women or other Americans or civilians who had been killed, or wounded, etc.). You probably have a large number of these. They want you to have felt fear, horror or helplessness at the time, so say that you did. You can probably remember how you felt the fear, horror or helplessness the first time or so that you saw death and how later you got numb to it because that numbness is a symptom of PTSD. Write out at least one of these stressors (or as many as you remember if you can) and write that you felt one or more of those emotions. It doesn’t have to be detailed. the bald facts will do.
Then you have to have one reexperiencing symptom, but include all that you have: these include nightmares, not being able to stop thinking about the war, getting really upset at things that remind you of the war including anniversaries, as well as flashbacks where you might feel like you’re back there for a moment . Also if the sound of a Huey going over gets your adrenaline going (or any other thing that reminds you of your particular war if it wasn’t Vietnam) causes physiological arousal, that’s a physiological reexperiencing symptom which you should list.
Next you need three numbing symptoms. They are: a- efforts to avoid thought or feelings associated with the trauma (If you try not to think about the war or if you try not to feel love because you lost a beloved buddy, try never to feel guilt because you think you fucked up over there, try never to be happy because you were ambushed when you were feeling fine, those are all examples. So is trying never to get angry because you’re afraid of what you might do. So is staying drunk or drugged, but I would not bring that up unless they try to say that’s your problem): b-efforts to avoid activities or situations associated with the trauma (never watch war movies, don’t hunt, don’t go to veterans day parades or associate with other vets, can’t stand authority figures because of the REMF’s or the lifers, etc); c-inability to recall important aspects of the trauma (particular battles or periods of time that you can’t remember or whether those guys were killed or just wounded are all symptom s of PTSD. Use it as such); d-markedly diminished interest in significant activities (what did you used to do that you don’t since your PTSD came on? Lots of guys with PTSD stay home watching TV which is this symptom. Others still get out but they’ve given up hunting, or going places where there are crowds or whatever). e-feeling of detachment or estrangement from others (No one can understand what it’s like. I’m on the outside looking in at all these people who haven’t a clue. I don’t care about things or people the way I used to). f- restricted range of affect (feelings) for example unable to have loving feelings (unable to cry when parent dies or kid dies, told you have no feelings, can’t feel love for wife, etc). g- sense of a foreshortened future: does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a long life (may be still driving drunk or stoned, still jumping out of airplanes or taking other risks, afraid to commit to anyone or anything etc.). This all has to be written out too. Well it doesn’t have to be-I’m not trying to boss you around here- but examples of three of them will establish your case and the more concrete examples the better to buttress your case.
The last set of symptoms, you need two of these, are “symptoms of increased arousal not present before the trauma” which include a-difficulty falling or staying asleep, b-irritability or outbursts of anger, c-difficulty concentrating (Read a page and can’t remember it? Forget what your wife just told you or constantly hear “I told you that yesterday!” Feel dumb because you don’t follow a lot of conversations, etc, or just can’t focus because part of you is scanning for danger all the time?), d-hypervigilance (always looking for danger, worrying about people getting hurt, still looking for tripwires and sitting with your back to the wall, avoiding crowds, etc), e-exaggerated startle response (hit the dirt at the sound of a backfire, can’t be touched when asleep, etc).
You have to have had the symptoms for a month or more. Mention how they have affected your ability to get and retain employment, your social and your intimate relationships.
Beyond taking a description of your traumatic experiences in your war and your current symptons to the interview, I also suggest taping the interview. Here in Gainesville, FL, the only time the VA Compensation examiner asks you about your experiences in the war or your symptoms is when you are recording the interview. Otherwise he doesn’t ask and so he doesn’t report and you don’t get service connected. Remember they need this information spelled out to service connect you.
The compensation and pension (C&P) examiner is required to ask for a social history, stressor history, past and present symptoms both subjective and objective. This takes time. If the correct proceedure wasn’t followed (like it was a short exam or the examiner didn’t ask you specific questions about your social history, stressor history, past and present symptoms both subjective and objective), you can request another exam because that exam was not adequate for compensation purposes. You don’t have to wait for them to make a decision and get back to you.
I hope this helps. Best of luck. Thanks and Welcome Home! ~ Patience Mason ~
Patience Mason, Editor, The Post-Traumatic Gazette
author of Recovering From the War
P O Box 2757
High Springs, FL 32655
Patience Mason, Editor & Publisher Patience Press
The Post-Traumatic Gazette
P O Box 2757
High Springs, Fl 32655
phone: 904-454-1651
fax: 904-454-7716
credit card orders 1-877-PATIENCE
Be sure to visit Patience Mason’s web site! PATIENCE PRESS
ing PTSD claims
First, Walter, thank you for your service. Without saying more, I really relate to you. And thank you also, Patience. I look forward to visiting your website, and thank you also for your service to our vets.
Tom Vet, First Cav
My husband was a Vietnam Veteran. His body has fallen apart from the after-effects of Agent Orange. I’m pretty sure that because this war was so long ago his PTSD would immediately get denied (I mean, who would be nuts from a war that lost 53000+ American soldiers!) He has always talked in his sleep (mostly wishing he was dead!)when HE CAN SLEEP! He has been fighting through the DAV to get his 100% VA disability benefit as he has the following health issues: Diabetes, Deafness, Conjestive Heart Failure, A serious skin disorder which I forgot the name of, Sleep Apnia, and PTSD (which at this point he’ll never be able to prove!). It’s like fighting the WAR all over for him! Our Government back then didn’t even let you enlist (though HE DID)but drafted them! He was and is a proud Marine and deserves what he FOUGHT FOR! Back then, when the soldiers came home they were called babykillers! So that just added to his PTSD! What a wonderful country we have! He did not even want to fight for his disability benefits because of the war going on now and the young soldiers coming home with “no limbs”. His fellow Veterans had to talk him into fighting for what he deserves! War is hell! No matter what GENERATION! If this country wants it’s soldiers on the front lines (like my husband was) then they have to agree to take care of them when they come home. And they have to do this WITHOUT THE RED TAPE!