Va Revising Sexual Assault Claims Process

[carlie]

"VA revising sexual assault claims process

AirForceTimes.com

Rick Maze- Staff writer

Tuesday Oct 18, 2011 21:22:05 EDT

"Under pressure from Congress, the VA is trying to come up with a better way of handling disability claims from veterans who say they are suffering trauma

as a result of sexual assault or rapes suffered while in the military.

A key problem is how to handle claims when there may not be much evidence because sexual assault remains an underreported crime.

Veterans Affairs Department officials are working to improve the claims process for sexual assault victims while also making counseling available

to veterans who do not have and may not be seeking a disability rating for sexual trauma."

The complete article can be accessed here:

http://www.airforcet...process-101811/

[Wings]

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At least the claims issues are on the table for all to see and appreciate!

[john999]

MST seems endemic to military life for females. It is a scandal much like Jim Crow.

[onlyluvchi]

I was told that I had no proof of the two rapes that happened to me in 1976. Yet there is proof of a Air Force Cover up for the two men responsible for my MST and PTSD. I committed suicide as a resolve of this that same evening and was found three days later after being left to die by the second rapist in my apartment. I was denied this in my claim yet for years I have been treated for MST and PTSD for which the rating board said none of it was documented. In my military records it is found that they tried to say I was in three stations during this assault. I was granted an early out soon after this and both men were allowed to retire even through VA claimed they could not locate either. I paid people finder in 2001 to get the information for the where about of both men and wrote them asking that they write a letter telling the truth for their roles in my many years of suffering. I did not get a reply from either. I lived in fright and did not go out of my house for years with many attempts to end my life not knowing why. I did not get any help for this until 2001 from the mental health team here in Cleveland Ohio. I was granted fifty percent for Migrane headaches and 10% for Major Depression and told that I am Bi Polar with many other systoms. I have been waiting 3 years for a decision on a remand from BVA which was suppose to be expendited in 2008 and I still am waiting to hear of a rating from it. I am so upset with the process of claims where it takes years even after you get to step 6 of that process. And DAV in the Cleveland arear is one big joke veterans are treated without respect and never ar they there to answer questions. I Developed my own claim without their help until I was granted a hearing for my claim some what is the use of using them to represent me if I cannot get any answers after waiting so lone for one? Please women of MST and PTSD beware they do no take us seriously and each case is different but still boils down to we were raped not only by the men who do it but the Veterans Adminstration as well. Sandra Collins, USAF, Cleveland Ohio.

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At least the claims issues are on the table for all to see and appreciate!

[onlyluvchi]

Hi