Shinseki, Gates Address Unprecedented Forum

VA, DoD Host National Mental Health Summit

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) are hosting a first-of-its-kind national summit to address the mental health care needs of America’s military personnel, families and Veterans, harnessing the programs, resources and expertise of both departments to deal with the aftermath of the battlefield.

“This is about doing what is best for those who serve this country and using every federal, state and community asset to do it,” said Secretary Shinseki. “We’re proud of the people and the organizations who have stepped up today to make sure everyone who fought for this country gets a fighting chance for a sound mind and an independent life.”

The summit, which opened today at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., invited mental health experts from both departments, Congress, the president’s cabinet and more than 57 non-government organizations to discuss an innovative, wide-ranging public health model for enhancing mental health for returning service members, Veterans, and their families.

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VA operates the largest mental health program in the nation. VA has bolstered its mental health capacity to serve combat Veterans by adding thousands of new professionals to its rolls in the last four years. The department also has established a suicide prevention hotline (1-800-273-TALK) and Web site available for online chat at Suicide Prevention Lifeline-Veterans....>>>

Gates: Injured troops face too much red tape

Calls their paperwork 'frustrating, adversarial, and unnecessarily complex

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that troops injured in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to face too many bureaucratic hurdles.

Paperwork alone for them can be "frustrating, adversarial, and unnecessarily complex," Gates said.

Gates spoke at a mental health summit with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. By appearing publicly together, they sought to reinforce their commitment to tackling veterans' health issues and the stigma associated with seeking mental health care.

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Shinseki said veterans from the recent wars are coming homes with "invisible wounds" that are just as debilitating as physical traumas sustained on the battlefield.

"Who's vulnerable? Everyone," Shinseki said. "Warriors suffer emotional injuries as much as they do physical ones."...>>>

The Secretary and the Veterans

If Shinseki and his agency can accomplish that, it would be an enormous boon to those veterans who struggle to see therapists, nurses and doctors while satisfying the multiple recordkeepers who stand along the way. It's a huge and worthwhile endeavor, and a big step forward from the benign neglect that seemed to characterize the handling of veterans issues by the previous administration.

It's a huge and worthwhile endeavor, and a big step forward from the benign neglect that seemed to characterize the handling of veterans issues by the previous administration.

And not just the previous admin. but the Congresses as well, controlled by those who still call themselves "Strong on National Defense" as they rubber stamped everything wanted by the admin. and did nothing themselves, narry a thought as they beat the drums of war!! And since the new administration came in have played obstructionist, not only to funding and needs but also to Veterans Administration Appointee's, holding up those much needed appointments for no reason while we still have soldiers in harms way in those two theaters they cheered on and rubber stamped everything for, everything but what was really needed!

VA Secretary Shinseki, speaking in Portland, vows government will 'do better'

"We must do better," Secretary Eric Shinseki told standing-room-only crowds at two appearances in Portland. The Obama appointee said that within 60 days, he will act on a July report linking Agent Orange to Parkinson's and heart diseases. He also outlined plans to bring millions more veterans into the VA system, cut the six-month delay for disability claims and, in admittedly one of the most ambitious undertakings discussed by the agency, end homelessness for veterans.

"We are going to take 131,000 veterans off the street in the next five years," he told the Blinded Veterans Association. "Unless I put an ambitious target on the table, I don't know how we'll start."...........