Nightmare eases for vets with new rules on post-traumatic stress disorder

[Pirate Smile]

This will help all vets but especially Vietnam vets and women. Every President since Vietnam could have done this but nobody else did.

Nightmare eases for vets with new rules on post-traumatic stress disorder
By LEE HILL KAVANAUGH
The Kansas City Star


The mortars rain down toward him in the dead of night. Orange red flashes, shrapnel slicing the dark.
In sweat-drenched nightmares and flashbacks, Hector “Rock” Lujan sees it all, again. Sees himself reaching for his Army buddy, feels the cloying stickiness. A flare sizzles from a circling C-130, illuminates a skull half gone …
A woman gently interrupts. Where in Vietnam?
Somewhere in the country, the homeless veteran, 65, says with a shrug. Can’t remember, more than 30 years ago.
Without a verifiable location, the woman knows, the veteran’s post-traumatic stress disorder claim to the Department of Veterans Affairs is likely to be denied. And on Thursday, it was.
But today it might not be.

The VA is announcing the easing of requiring exact details of PTSD “stressors” — the specific traumatic events from the horrors of war, a change President Barack Obama calls long overdue.
"I don’t think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and online address.

-snip-
In the past, a veteran filing a claim had to name an exact location and time when the stressor occurred. But often, memories were blurred and records lost. Without specifics, trying to find military documents to prove specific incidents is time-consuming and sometimes nearly impossible.
But today, under new filing rules, compensation will be granted if veterans can simply show that they were in a war zone and that their job was consistent with the events said to be causing their health problems.

Proof of being under fire or seeing violent death, for example, will not be needed, a boon to women in the military. Not assigned to combat roles in Iraq or Afghanistan, they still often are subjected to traumatic experiences in their duties, from military policing to helicopter piloting.
While VA officials declined to discuss the new requirements until their official posting today, Sandy Davenport at the VA regional office in St. Louis said: “But I can tell you this: Veteran cases are being tracked, and they will be re-notified if their claim could be accepted this week based on the new rules.”

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/11/2076737/new-rules-go-into-effect-today.html#ixzz0tRMUR8e9

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. It's about time.

I'm really glad to see this...

Recommended.

[Pirate Smile]

2. kick

[eilen]

3. I think that is great

of course, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. How about preventing further PTSD and ending the wars?