FW: VVA Web Weekly - What's New on vva.org: August 15, 2014

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Subject: VVA Web Weekly - What's New on vva.org: August 15, 2014
From: webmaster@vva.org
To: vva17nv@outlook.com
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 16:33:17 +0000

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In This Issue August 15, 2014 Vietnam War Veterans Who Suffer From "Agent Orange" Raise Awareness PTSD Found to Still Persist Among Vietnam Vets VVA Letter to VA Employees Alabama VA Finds More Unread Patient X-rays Commission to Review VA Scheduling Practices NH Starts Vets' Court Walsh Drops Out from MT Senate Race Suicude Prevention Hotline Agent Orange ADVERTISEMENT Support Senate Bill S.2738 and H.R. 4816 Click Here For More Info & To Take Action Click Here To Ask Your Representative to support H.R. 4816 The Toxic Exposure Research and Military Family Support Act of 2014 Vietnam War Veterans Who Suffer From "Agent Orange" Raise Awareness KWCH TV in WICHITA, Kansas, is one of the many media outlets that covered the August 7 Faces of Agent Orange Town Hall meeting held in conjunction with VVA's National Leadership & Education Conference: Hundreds of war veterans talked about "Agent Orange" at a meeting in Wichita. They wanted to know what was being done about it. The chemical was used during the Vietnam War to clear the jungle. Now, veterans are saying it has not only affected their mental, physical, and emotional health, but also their families. The reason so many veterans were there is to raise awareness of "Agent Orange" and file a claim. Read More More Research Needed on Progeny of Vets Exposed to Toxins In an August 12 Army Times article by Patricia Kime, several U.S. senators say more research is needed on the health of the children and grandchildren of troops exposed to environmental pollution and chemicals while they served in the military.  Read more As Reported by The New York Times PTSD Found to Still Persist Among Vietnam Vets In an August 7 New York Times article, reporter Ben Carey details some of the findings from the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study (i.e., the NVVLS, follow up to the historic National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study from the 1980's). Read more here NOTE: Dr. Bill Schlenger, one of the study's principal investigators, addressed the VVA National Leadership & Education Conference in Wichita on August 6, 2014. Letter From John Rowan VVA Letter to VA Employees -from an August 10 letter to VA employee representative Alma Lee from VVA National President John Rowan:  Every day, there are thousands of dedicated VA employees who work their hearts out to provide high-quality medical care to veterans at VA Medical Centers across our nation, and they do provide such care to hundreds of thousands of veterans every day. This is true, no matter how much they may be punished for doing the right thing and, all too often, are punished for being honest people of integrity. The managers and supervisors who take such reprisal actions need to be summarily fired. Similarly, there are thousands of VA employees who work hard every day to assist veterans with their claims for compensation and pension, or to assist veterans with home-loan guarantees, or GI Bill educational assistance, or VA Vocational Rehabilitation benefits, or work hard to assist veterans' families with a dignified and  proper burial for their veteran. Our job at the Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) is to help the new leadership at VA get rid of the relatively few employees, particularly in the management ranks, who have proven themselves unworthy. These and other actions will be necessary in order to restore confidence of veterans and their families in the VA, as well as the public. Our aim is to fix the VA and to make it again possible for the good VA employees to have justifiable pride in their organization. VA needs leadership at every level that is worthy of leading their many dedicated employees. —John Rowan, VVA National President As Reported by USA Today Alabama VA Finds More Unread Patient X-rays In an August 12 article appearing in USA Today by Montgomery Advertiser reporter Kala Katchmar, a review of the imaging system at the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System prompted by 900 lost X-rays revealed there were an additional 1,146 unread patient exams going back to 2011. Read more As Reported on Military.com Commission to Review VA Scheduling Practices In an August 9 Military.com news article by Bryant Jordan, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald announced that an independent organization will review patient scheduling processes for all VA medical facilities in the country. Read more ADVERTISEMENT As Reported by Washington Times NH Starts Vets' Court In an AP article published in the August 7 Washington Times, Lynne Tuohy reported on New Hampshire's first criminal court docket dedicated to veterans with mental health and substance-abuse issues. Read more As Reported by The Washington Post Walsh Drops Out from MT Senate Race According to an AP report in the The Washington Post on August 7, U.S. Senator John Walsh (D-MT) dropped his election campaign amid allegations he plagiarized large portions of a 2007 research project, leaving fellow Democrats to scramble for a replacement with the election less than three months away. Read article here Suicide Hotline Most suicides are preventable. Both depression and anxiety carry a high risk of suicide. But early diagnosis and intervention with appropriate treatment are the first steps in feeling better. If you're feeling alone and depressed, don't hesitate to call the Crisis Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 and press 1.

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