Veterans' Health

CT Vets, Blumenthal Lobby For Health Study Of Descendants Of Veterans Exposed To Toxins

By |

Veterans’ exposure to toxic chemicals may harm their families’ health for generations, causing cancer, birth defects and other medical problems, according to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. He is co-sponsoring legislation to require that veterans be informed of their exposure to toxic substances and to establish a research center focusing on the illnesses of exposed veterans’ descendants. Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said that “the dimensions of the problem are unknown at this point” because no one has collected data on it. But, he added, “we know the toxic exposure is there. Science indicates it can cause genetic effects.” He cited brain and blood cancers as potential repercussions.

Veterans' Health

VA Jail Release Program Provides Veterans With Housing, Health Care

By |

A month before he left prison, Jeffrey Murdock, a veteran who suffers from depression and multiple sclerosis, thought his future would entail living as a patient in a state mental hospital. But Murdock’s outlook changed drastically after a Veterans Health Administration social worker met with him while he was still in prison, assessed him and arranged for him to receive an apartment, food, clothing and medical care upon his release. Murdock, 55, is one of 50 incarcerated veterans who have been have been helped since June by the VA jail release program, according to Michele Roberts, the social worker who runs it. Assistance includes housing, medical care, medications, and substance abuse treatment, all of which have helped the veterans avoid situations that put them at risk for re-arrest. Just two are back in jail and a third left the program, Roberts said.

Veterans' Health

Troubled Veterans Get Treatment, Not Jail

By |

Two programs that connect arrested veterans to treatment – rather than jail – report that many are getting their lives back on track. Some 81 percent of veterans in the program run by the Veterans Health Administration have not been arrested again. And one run by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services shows a 36 percent drop in illegal drug use among its veterans and a 44 percent decrease in symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “So many people are getting what they really need, which is treatment and not incarceration,” said Laurie Harkness, the VA program director. “It’s making such a difference in so many veterans’ lives.”

The programs, designed to help veterans with mental health and substance abuse problems, operate in courts statewide, where social workers reach out to arrested veterans to let them know about treatment options for PTSD, anger management, and addictions, among other illnesses.

Veterans' Health

Vietnam Vet Hopeful New Pentagon Guidelines Help Him And Others Gain Benefits

By |

Conley Monk, a Vietnam War veteran who has been fighting for decades to have his military discharge status upgraded, expressed hope Friday that new Pentagon guidelines will help him and other Vietnam Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder finally get federal benefits. PTSD was not designated as a medical condition until 1980. Some 70,000 Vietnam veterans who suffered from undiagnosed PTSD were given less-than-honorable discharges for their behaviors and many were denied medical, educational and other federal benefits and had trouble securing employment. “I’m a fighter. I won’t quit,” said Monk, who left the military in 1971.

I-Team In-Depth

Years Home, Female Iraq Vets Endure The Wounds Of War

By |

It’s been nine years since Eunice Ramirez served in Iraq, but she still suffers from war wounds – post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, respiratory problems and frequent crying triggered by her memories. Suzanna Smaldone, who also returned home from Iraq in 2005, lives in constant pain and can’t bring herself to talk about her war injuries. Cheryl Eberg, home from Iraq for seven years, counsels other veterans, but their war stories can trigger her own mental health issues. Though it’s not unusual for veterans of both sexes to struggle for years with war injuries when they return home, officials say that women veterans have their own unique challenges, which can make their transition to civilian life particularly hard. “The trauma and complexity of these injuries and disabilities far outweigh anything we can comprehend in the civilian world,” said Linda Schwartz, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs.

Environmental Health

DeLauro Tells USDA: Remove Tainted Poultry From Stores

By |

US Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro today introduced legislation to guarantee that contaminated meat, poultry and egg products are taken off the market. The 3rd District Democrat said that the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has failed to recall some tainted food because it claims it doesn’t have the authority to do so under current law. “We need federal agencies that will protect public health, not bend to the threats of deep-pocketed food producers seeking to escape regulation,” DeLauro said, in a statement with Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, a New York Democrat, who is the bill’s co-sponsor. They pointed out that the USDA failed to recall chicken produced by California-based Foster Farms, despite a salmonella outbreak over the past year that got more than 600 people sick and resulted in some 240 hospitalizations. This is double the amount of hospitalizations in a typical salmonella outbreak, according to DeLauro, a member of the House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee.

Veterans' Health

To Improve Patient Care, CT Hospitals Will Ask: Are You A Veteran?

By |

Connecticut hospitals will be required to ask all patients if they are veterans, under a new state law that takes effect Oct. 1. The law is part of a nationwide effort conceived by the State Veterans Affairs Commissioner Linda Schwartz to make private health providers aware that they are treating veterans, since most veterans don’t go to federal Veterans Health Administration facilities. The goal is to improve veterans’ diagnoses and health care because military experiences are linked to certain illnesses, she said. Schwartz said veterans don’t always know about health risks connected to their military service and that health providers need to become educated about them.

Veterans' Health

Deported Army Vet Seeks Pardon, Humanitarian Parole

By |

An Army veteran deported to Italy nearly years two ago is attempting to return to his Connecticut family by seeking a pardon for drug and larceny convictions and a humanitarian parole that would let him go home for a year. Arnold Giammarco, a former Army sergeant who served in the military as a legal noncitizen, had lived in the United States for 53 years before his deportation in November 2012. The deportation action came years after he had been convicted and served time in jail. Giammarco had turned his life around by giving up drugs, marrying, becoming a father, and holding down a job. His wife and family have been fighting for his return.

Veterans' Health

Lawsuit: VA Discriminates Against Veterans With Sexual Trauma

By |

Two national veterans’ advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, saying it discriminates against victims of military sexual trauma who are seeking VA disability benefits. The suit was brought by Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA). They want the VA to change what they consider to be burdensome regulations governing claims for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that are based on rape, sexual assault, or sexual harassment. They cite substantial gaps between benefit approvals for these claims compared to higher approvals for other PTSD claims.

The Yale Law School Veterans Legal Clinic is representing the plaintiffs and filed the suit in federal court in Washington, D.C.

The plaintiffs are asking that the rules conform to those governing PTSD claims based on combat trauma, Prisoner of War status, and fear of hostile military or terrorist activity, which are less stringent than those based on Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and are also situations that pose difficulty in obtaining corroboratory evidence. “The VA knows the current process makes veterans who’ve been harmed by military sexual harassment and assault jump through more hoops than other PTSD claimants,” said Anu Bhagwati, SWAN executive director and a former Marine Corps captain.

Veterans' Health

Nurses’ Training To Focus On Health Care For Vets

By |

To address what it calls an “urgent need” for better health care for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, a foundation has awarded grants to four Connecticut nursing schools for scholarships designed to improve the care. The University of Connecticut and Fairfield, Quinnipiac, and Yale Universities are among 57 schools in the country given grants by the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare. Scholarships will be provided to doctoral nursing students who will study and research deployed veterans’ health problems. The goal is that after the students graduate, they will treat veterans and their families, and also teach nursing students in academic and clinical settings about veterans’ health issues. Darlene Curley, executive director of the Jonas Center, noted that many returning veterans are dealing with amputations, head injuries, PTSD, and brain injuries, which don’t have “short term cures. These are lifelong injuries and nurses are going to be caring for them throughout their lifetimes.