ptsd Required Ptsd Re-evaluations

[jessejames]

I read where the Vet's Commission has suggested a REQUIRED re-evaluation for PTSD every 2 years or whatever. Congress IS going to approve this it seems: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washin...s.aspx?id=75895

http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJAN08/nf012508-9.htm

"“A lot of veterans would view these reviews as an attempt to take away their benefits,” said Gerald Manar, deputy director of the VFW’s national veterans service.

Researching for the commission, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recommended case by case determinations of whether veterans need follow-up exams.

However, the benefits commission felt that required reevaluations for some types of disabilities, particularly mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, would ensure that those needing regular check-ups didn’t slip through the cracks, said retired Lt. Gen. James Scott."

This MAY sound good or ok to some, but how about those of us who are under regular treatment from VA Psychiatrists now and have tried ALL their medications and treatments, with the exception of Shock Therapy, which I hear they are considering now...you know like they did in the old days to those in Insane Asylums to calm them down. The Psychiatrist who I see EVERY 3 months at the VA is the same one who does C%P Evaluations at times. If someone has gotten 100% and dropped out of VA appointments for PTSD, then fine, re-evaluate them, but the only reason I can see for a Blanket re-evaluation is to TAKE AWAY Benefits, period...they have tried everything else to get them, so now they will finally remove some off VA Disability with Phomy Examinations created for one purpose! This makes me so mad, I couldn't sleep last night because of anxiety of not being able to work and no way to support my family if they do this to me. IF they do this, the Suicide rate among PTSD veterans will soar. Please write your Congressperson and demand a Case by Case Basis of PTSD re-evaluation if they must do this!

By the way, no where did I read about the Vet's Commission conclusion in their Study that Veterans Disability payments be raised immediately by 25%......WHY are they NOT pushing this??????????

[rentalguy1]

I apologize, Pete. It seemed as though Jazona was making a personal attack against anyone who agreed with the reevaluations. No one here is above reproach, or a reevaluation , for that matter. And with the line of thinking of the previous poster; no doctor, outside of one odiagnosed with PTSD, can make a determination on PTSD...that's just ludicrous. That's the kind of post you need to be moderating...IMHO.

[john999]

So if a vet over 55 is P&T for a mental condition he is going to be hauled in for a re-evaluation every two years? I was rated IU 6 years ago. What is the point of bringing me in for a re-evaluation? I am 58 now and could not find work to support myself under any conditions. Even if all my physical and mental problems went away I have lost the most productive years of my working life when I was making good money and I can't get those back. I am on SSDI. Is the VA going to decide I can work even if I am on SSDI and disability retirement from my civil service job? Who is going to be subject to these re-evaluations? Vets over 55 who have not worked in years are unemployable. Nobody will hire us except as bag boys at the grocery store and I could not even do that due to my feet being bad. I could not even be a greeter at Walmart or a security guard. For the older vets this will be a prescription for homelessness as it will for younger vets who are 100% or IU for PTSD or any mental condition. The veteran advocate groups should be opposing this with all their might.

If re-evaluated and found to be able to work what would we tell prospective employers about the last 10 years of our lives....Oh, I was mentally ill and could not work, but please ignore that fact and give me that 60,000 dollar a year job. Don't worry about the insurance liability because the VA will take good care of me.

[rentalguy1]

I'm having a hard time understanding the thought processes goin on here. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I read this:

"I have been SC'd for the last 10 years, at either the 100% schedular level, or IU, and have been unable to work because of it. I am now better (not cured), admittedly, and VA wants to reduce my comp to 70% (or lower). I am still unemployable, due to having been out of the work force with a mental illness for the last decade. I want the VA to continue to pay me due to this unemployability, even though I am no longer diabled to the point that I was before."

Am I reading the thoughts of all of you guys wrong? If that's the case, are you guys actually reading what you are saying? I know you guys better than this, as vets, and I know that can't be what you are thinking. I know you guys don't want a rating based upon not meeting the disability criteria.

Or are you actually worried that VA will drop you below the 100% level, even though you are actually still disabled at the 100% level? This is what I think you are all saying, even though it doesn't read that way. If that is the case, then what I mentioned earlier applies. You cannot roll over an take it. We will ALL have to stand together and make sure that this does not turn into a witch hunt. Although, I don't think that it will.

When I first started this VA journey, I thought that VA was out to do anything to lower my claim, or deny me from the getgo. But the more research I have done, the more I see that that isn't true. In my own personal case, and in nearly everyone that I have researched here on hadit, from the BVA, or from the CAVC, the vet dropped the ball themselves. Again, getting and keeping a rating from VA is akin to having a job. You have to stay on top of the rules, regs, codes, fast letters, training letters, changes to the manuals, etc. When you file, or are notified that VA wants to reevealuate you, you cannot go into it with a ho-hum attititude. You have to gather all of your evidence, and go get new evidence. Hopefully, you have already been doing this all along in preparation for this day. Then you have to present all of your evidence to VA in order to refute any evidence that they have.

In short, they seem to play by the rules that are set out for them. The vet NEEDS to know those rules, so that they can play by them, too. They are not out to get you, but if you screw up and do not do your part in the process, they have no choice but to deny/reduce/drop you. I know a lot of you will disagree with this, but we make this whole dance a lot tougher than it actually is in our own minds, when it is as simple as treating it as a job. If we all do our work, we will come out ahead.

[timetowinarace]

I agree with Jazona. Examiners and raters made a mess of my claims for years.

Also the difference with evaluating a physical condition and mental conditions are not compareable. A person with a physical condition can refuse to do something that causes undo pain. For me, just going to an evaluation causes me undo anxiaty and since I have a somatiform dissorder with the anxiaty, I feel it as actuall physical pain. Only I cannot refuse to go through this pain.

And our memories seem short. It was only a couple years ago that congress had to stop manditory re-evaluations of 100% PTSD Vets. One Vet commited suicide when he recieved notice in the mail of his appointment for re-evaluation. It caused a great deal of problems with hundreds of others untill the evaluations were stopped early.

The thing some do not seem to understand is this is a great stress issue with those of us that have these conditions, and for many it is great stress that caused the conditions to begin with. What do you think is goning to happen? The same thing that would happen the the physically disabled if thier conditions were stressed. More pain. I don't see how that is considered fair.

Time

[Testvet]

"When I first started this VA journey, I thought that VA was out to do anything to lower my claim, or deny me from the getgo. But the more research I have done, the more I see that that isn't true. In my own personal case, and in nearly everyone that I have researched here on hadit, from the BVA, or from the CAVC, the vet dropped the ball themselves. Again, getting and keeping a rating from VA is akin to having a job. You have to stay on top of the rules, regs, codes, fast letters, training letters, changes to the manuals, etc. When you file, or are notified that VA wants to reevealuate you, you cannot go into it with a ho-hum attititude. You have to gather all of your evidence, and go get new evidence. Hopefully, you have already been doing this all along in preparation for this day. Then you have to present all of your evidence to VA in order to refute any evidence that they have.

In short, they seem to play by the rules that are set out for them. The vet NEEDS to know those rules, so that they can play by them, too. They are not out to get you, but if you screw up and do not do your part in the process, they have no choice but to deny/reduce/drop you. I know a lot of you will disagree with this, but we make this whole dance a lot tougher than it actually is in our own minds, when it is as simple as treating it as a job. If we all do our work, we will come out ahead."

In many cases the VA is playing games with the process, if you haven't seen this yet you are not seeing it thru clear glasses, many RO's refuse to address all the evidence and issues, some people have no problems with the system and a few have nothing but problems with the system this is not as cut and dried as you make it out regulations be damned we have all seen the RO screw and deny vets and put the claims file on the merry go round where you appeal to BVA they remand it to the RO and they play it again there is no reason some of these claims take 5-15 years to resolve it is NOT the veterans fault it is the system the VA has created to save "paying out your tax dollars" the VA is not a "non adversarial process" as it is advertised.

Edited January 26, 2008 by Testvet

[Jazona]

I apoligize. I should not have worded my post so strongly. I certainly didn't intend this to become so advesarial. I do, however disagree with rentalguy. They are "out to get us". We 100% disabled on the roles now make a juicy target for the beancounters that wish to put some of the new Vets on. How to change this situation? Change the RULES! "Hey you old Vet, you're not P&T anymore, we're going to reevaluate you year after next and Hee Hee isn't it a miricle, you're cured!!!"

I disgree that this won't turn into a witch hunt, I believe it will. PTSD is an esay target. All a Contractor quack has to do is say..."You don't have PTSD". PooF! You're cured!Won't matter that I have thirty years of VA health records to the contrary...it's all subjective evidence. How many years will it take for me to overcome this thirty minute diagnosis?

As a taxpayer, you are a good shepard our our tax dollars (I did pay into the system for twenty three years) so perhaps you might say a few words about how much money the VA wastes handing down bogus claim denials, losing records, ignoring the law and remanding claims that should have been granted by the RO.

The argument might hold water if the VA and our government operated within the law. It doesn't, or there would be no need for Hadit.

jaz

Edited January 26, 2008 by Jazona