wablackwell

Thank you silent uproar, Andyman and Broncovet. I have not used it yet, but I know I need to at times. I will see if this helps. Thanks, Bill.

Hello Everybody, First of all, I want to apologize if I posted this topic in the wrong place. Just was not sure where to go with it. Has anybody used the VA crisis line before? Do they take VA notes of the call and put it into your VA medical records? I guess that does not really matter I am just curious. I am often attempted to call the hot-line when I am full of anxiety and depression(like all the time) but I feel embarrass to call a complete stranger and sob to them of my problems. If anybody has some input in using this service I would like to know. Thanks Bill

My guess is that the decision has been made and they closed your claim. You should get a claim letter from the VA soon, But you can kind of tell what happened if you go to ebennies and check your current disabilities. If you were award a new disability or an increase on a current disability it should show up their. If you do not see any changes then your claim was probably disapprove. I hope this helps, Bill

I am not sure for your request. I requested my military records from them and it took a total of five months for me to get them. Hope this helps. Bill

Remember the VA is here for you, you are not here for the VA. This is your claim and you have the right to check on it as many times as you want if your not satisfy with the answers you are getting. Besides I think the internet service rep and the rater/reviewer are two different people any how. I think it will not affect negatively on your claim. Good luck.

Silverdollar22 that is they way I understand it too. I think they still owe deckie69 some back pay.

Silent Uproar I would like to tell you about my experience. I too work for the Federal government and also been an inpatient at the Waco VA hospital. I have been working as an armed Security Guard for the last 7 years after I retired from the military. My PTSD steady got worse so they had to pull me from my position, assigned me to temporary duties for a year while I was being evaluated. MY work put me on adminstrative leave while I was at the in patient in Waco. So I stilled got paid and did not have to worry about the money. I do not know if your employer would do that for you, but the rational was the treatment was for me to get better for me to go back to work. Unfortunately I have been given my memorandum for removal from government service and I now only have about three weeks left before I am unemployed. If you file for Federal Disability retirement you can choose to keep your health insurance for your family. If you need more information on the FERS disability retirement please let me know. As far as the inpatient at waco I went from 20 Sept 2015 to 12 Nov 2015. They put us in groups of 10 called cohorts and I stayed with the same group during the entire treatment. They design to make the program very relaxing as my longest day was only until about 2:00PM. You even could leave the hospital every day and go in to town as long as I was back by 9:00 PM. And week end passes were authorized Friday to Sunday. I met a lot of good people and I did feel better at the end of the treatment. They also brought in organization Like the Wounded Warrior Program to help us with our claims or question. .Unfortunately even though I felt better it did not last and now I feel just as bad or worse. I still recommend getting help.As far as temporary 100%rating you can not apply for that until you reach 21 days or after and yes you can apply for other disabilities at the same time. You will also get travel pay and since I live In El Paso My was around $500. As far as getting a 100% rating while working I would not think so, but I do have other veterans at my work that are rated 70% for PTSD. Since I knew I might be loosing my job I put in an intent to file. I fully submit my claim was unemployed. I hope you get the care you need and get better. You will have a hard time maintaining employment if you do not take care of your health. I wish you good luck.

At a minimum you should do an intent to file. You want to get that clock started you can get a bigger pay out in the long run. I wish you good luck on your claim. Bill

Sorry Scott, I am out of Ideas, Maybe another forum member might have a suggestion. Any way I hope It come in the mail soon, We all know how slow the VA can be.

Here I took a screen shot what Silverdallar22 and I are talking about. Look at the disability image and under profile you see 3 down disabilities, click on it, if you have any disabilities you will get a screen like my on the image ds2. I hope this helps and good luck. If nothing is their then you probably were denied on your claim, if so do not give up. Appeal it. Bill

Also you can check your disabilities and the new on will show up if approved with the current rating percentage or current disability will show the new rating if you requested for an increase.

Did some research and found the following information. I going to post it for those who are also interested in this topic What is a Permanent & Total rating? In the language of your VA, the word permanent does not mean that your benefit is permanent! To have a 100% P & T rating only implies that your dependents are eligible for benefits like DEA & CHAMPVA. Your rating is NOT protected! There is but one way to achieve a "protected" rating...you must hold it uninterrupted for 20 years. Until you've held the rating for 20 years VA may contact you at any time to evaluate (and lower) your rating. How do you know if your rating is temporary or permanent? You go to your original award letter and look for the secret codes VA likes to use to confuse you. If your award letter says "No future exams are scheduled..." that means that your rating is permanent. If you see "Eligibility to dependents Chapter 35 DEA / CHAMPVA are established", your rating is permanent. Those phrases may differ from one VA Regional Office (VARO) to the next but there should be something similar on your award letter. If you see "Future exams are scheduled" or similar, or no reference at all to future exams or other dependents benefits, your award is probably temporary. VA establishes the rating as permanent when there is little chance that the condition will improve. VA makes a lot of mistakes when establishing the permanence of a rating. It's up to you to know what to do...nobody will do this for you. As a rule, most mental health conditions and cancers will be temporary ratings. A veteran must hold a 100% permanent rating for 10 years, uninterrupted, for his/her family to be eligible to apply for DIC benefits should the veteran die of anything other than a service connected condition

Thanks, This gives me a better understanding of this topic.

Hello, I know that being P&T is a good thing, but I was told that the VA Still reduce your 100% rating. How does being P&T protect you from future reduce benefits and what are its limitations? What is the difference from being 100% P&T schedular compare to TDIU P&T? Are they equivalent? I am Just trying to educate my self on the claims process any input would be appreciated. Thanks Bill

Congratulations. It is nice to receive good news.

Thanks for the help, so what protection does P&T give you and is the same if you are TDIU P&T or Schedular P&T.

Hi guys. This is just Scenario but could happen to me depending on my claims outlook. Ok here is the question. If you are TDIU and then get approved SSDI for a service connected disability will that help your TDIU go to TDIU P&T. And if you can get TDIU P&T does that mean the VA can never reduce your benefits. Thank you for your time and input. Bill

That is very strange, I would go my VA clinic's records department and have them print out every thing with in a week tolerance of the date you saw the Neurologist. After that I lost for suggestions, Good luck

I glad I can help. I really hope you can get into it and improve things up with your family.

You have to be refered by your counselor, psychologist, or psychiatrist, They will do an application for you, if it gets approved it takes a couple of months to get in. I would just ask that you heard about this program and you think it would do you a lot of good if you can go. You will meet a lot of good people their that is going through the same problems. Like I said they try to make it a stress free environment. I hope you can get in.

Yes. you can see all your VA medical records including doctor notes. I even pulled up my C&P exams there. You just have to hit the blue button and click on what you want to see and put in the dates of the time frame you want to look up. It is really a cool feature in myvet.

This is just a though, But have you considered asking your counselor to enroll you in the residential PTSD program. This will give you the help you need and also I was told that after the program you should at least qualify at the 50% rating. I went last September at the Waco VA hospital. It is a 10 week program which I recommend. They tried to make it relaxing or stress free and since you are a in patient over 26 days you will qualify for a temporary 100%rating while in the program. I got a lot of time off, you are allow to leave the hospital and take week end passes. This program is at different locations through out the country. I wouldn.t mind going back plus it did help and I met a lot of cool people from their 20's to 70's. This program will get the help you need and also bump up your rating. well just a thought.

Are Asking if you should put in for an increase or you did put in for an increase? I think you should put in for increase if you haven't. If you have if your symptoms are getting more severe they should increase your rating. Have you been getting therapy, if so check out your doctors notes and see if their is any thing in there to support your claim. Wish you good luck with this, Bill

I agree with you and that why I put the big word if, I am luckier than most since I am retired from the army and can use a private doctor through and have my insurance pay for it. Each session with my doctor cost me $25 for the co-pay. But my psychiatrist charges me $30 to write a nexus or fill out any forms. I offer to pay my psychologist but he refuses to take my money and he does it for free. I know this put a lot of veterans in a bind when they have to depend on The VA system to only have them refuse to help you with you claim. I think it is still worth mentioning just in case the Veteran does have that option.

I agree with OEF21B. If you can go to a private doctor your chances of getting a nexus letter and a DBQ will be a lot better. I would definitely go for it. Good Luck!