ptsd Reporters Looking For Veterans

[Tbird]

pass it on

1. Reporters Looking for Veterans

Veterans for Common SenseFrom: Paul Sullivan at Veterans for Common Sense

Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 6:15 PM

Subject: Reporters Looking for Veterans

Request for Veteran Interviews

Two reporters are seeking veterans and family members to interview about their problems dealing with military and VA healthcare.

If you want to volunteer in the next few days, please contact the reporter directly. Please limit your contact to one reporter. Please remember that you may be asked to document your honorable wartime military service (such as your DD214), or you may be asked very personal questions that may appear on TV or in a newspaper.

Here is a list of current press requests:

1. Kimberly Dozier, CBS National News, Washington, DC. If you believe you have PTSD but were discharged with a 'personality disorder,' especially if you earned medals and had a good record of service. You should also have clear records from highschool etc., before entering the military. E-Mail: KGD@cbsnews.com

2. Lynn Kellermann, WCBV-TV, ABC News, Boston. If you have PTSD and are having difficulty getting VA mental health appointments and/or VA disability benefits in the VT, NH, MA, RI, CT area. E-Mail: lkellermann@hearst.com

.

Sincerely,

Paul Sullivan

Executive Director

Veterans for Common Sense

[Jazona]

Oneshot,

VA employees make most often substantially more than the public at large. They have excellent health care plans (far better than what we have). They have retirement plans that is the envy of the public at large. If they have a problem with a veteran, they have their own little police force a mere second away that has no qualms about roughing up said veteran and hauling him away to the klink.

I could go through all of the life and health threatening errors VA employees have put me through in thirty five years of dealing with them but you would be reading this post for an hour, so I won't.

They are rude, demeaning, insensitive, rough, uncaring and, most importantly, dangerous. Many of them do not speak english well and don't care to learn to.

To put it simply, they make the big bucks, they can always do what they do the best, ignore us.

jaz

[john999]

Jazona

No question VA police believe they have the right to beat the %$#% out of any vet who gets out of line. It has happened at my VAMC pretty frequently. One crippled old man was beat to a pulp for driving too fast in the parking lot. I think our care is substandard at the VA. What can you expect when you deal with a system that is chronically underfunded? How many patients does your Primary Care doctor see in a day. How many meds do these doctors have to manage for even one patient? I like my Primary doctor but she is as busy as a one armed paperhanger.

If you identify yourself to some reporter where will that reporter be in 5 years when you are still dealing with the same old VA? Are they going to care if the good old boys decide to get even a few years from now? Maybe I am paranoid. The VA's institutional memory is short except if they label you a personality disorder then it lasts forever.

[Pete53]

The VA has plenty of bad apples but they also have dedicated and hard working people who care for Veterans. A couple of months ago I bought 3 cases of ensure at the VA PX and not only did they carry it out to my car they loaded it up and thanked me when I thanked them. They also were talking to each other about how a sick Vet was doing. I asked the lady who helped me how long she had worked for the VA and she told me three years.

I guess that my point is that if the VA is all that you have than be pleasant and when you have a complaint be civil and understand that the person you are dealing with is over managed and in many cases is bound by policies that is not of their doing. As my old shrink used to tell me that its not personal the VA does the same stuff to everyone.

[SLEDGE]

Hire a lawyer and let things happen if you are really fed up.

Talking to 'seeking fame and fortune through fleeting sensationalism' reporters will not get your bennies any faster, but it 'may' give the VA cause to re-evaluate whatever you have managed to receive so far.

When you show up on the VA radar you do not gain an advantage.

sledge

[Ron II]

Re: "If the VA is all that you have than be pleasant and when you have a complaint be civil and understand that the person you are dealing with is over managed and in many cases is bound by policies that is not of their doing."

That has been my experience with the Denver VA. I have had few of the problems cited by others here. I know those problems are real are remain at many sites, but I have heard the Denver VRO is one of the best...

[Ron II]

EDIT/CORRECTION:

"and remain"