Missing Records

[alan]

Hello everyone. I am new to this board. I was in the Army and worked as a Neuro-Psychiatric-Specialist from 1966 to Aug of 1968. I suffered from Mental Depression and Panic attacks. I worked on a combative psychiatric unit and we evaluated the men from Viet Nam, that is, whether they could return to Viet Nam or back to the States. I sarted to get very depressed and anxious. Not sleeping and even having suicidal thoughts.

I was very paranoid of the Psychiatrists and grew to fear them as they had the power to send you to Nam. As medics on the unit, you were rated for job performance, and if you were found to be performing poorly you most likely sent to Nam. This happened several times. I was called into the office 2 or 3 times regarding my behavior. I did what I could to not be taken off of the unti.

I was never told about service connection disability when I was discharged. Not until the year 2000 did I find out about it.

I am filing for Depression and Panic Disorder. The VA has refused to have one of their Pcychiatrists examin me. On May 23 of this year I met with the BVA for my hearing. The attorney from the BVA seemed sympathetic to my case. My VFW rep told her that I was to be evaluated by an independent Psychologist who would present to the VA an evaluation report. As of a week ago the report was sent to my representative and to the VA.

The purpose of the report was to offer a professional opinion which hopefully would help my case. The report was sympathetic for my case. He agreed with the condition of Depression, Panic attacks and Bi- Polar.

I understand that a variety of things could happen.

My question. Can an independent report help my case ? This has been a long long process and I know I am not done with it. Thank you for reading this.

Alan

[Guest anfrnkie]

Hello everyone. I am new to this board. I was in the Army and worked as a Neuro-Psychiatric-Specialist from 1966 to Aug of 1968. I suffered from Mental Depression and Panic attacks. I worked on a combative psychiatric unit and we evaluated the men from Viet Nam, that is, whether they could return to Viet Nam or back to the States. I sarted to get very depressed and anxious. Not sleeping and even having suicidal thoughts.

I was very paranoid of the Psychiatrists and grew to fear them as they had the power to send you to Nam. As medics on the unit, you were rated for job performance, and if you were found to be performing poorly you most likely sent to Nam. This happened several times. I was called into the office 2 or 3 times regarding my behavior. I did what I could to not be taken off of the unti.

I was never told about service connection disability when I was discharged. Not until the year 2000 did I find out about it.

I am filing for Depression and Panic Disorder. The VA has refused to have one of their Pcychiatrists examin me. On May 23 of this year I met with the BVA for my hearing. The attorney from the BVA seemed sympathetic to my case. My VFW rep told her that I was to be evaluated by an independent Psychologist who would present to the VA an evaluation report. As of a week ago the report was sent to my representative and to the VA.

The purpose of the report was to offer a professional opinion which hopefully would help my case. The report was sympathetic for my case. He agreed with the condition of Depression, Panic attacks and Bi- Polar.

I understand that a variety of things could happen.

My question. Can an independent report help my case ? This has been a long long process and I know I am not done with it. Thank you for reading this.

Alanallen i have posted a new 38 3;159 read everything under this there might be a way to connect something if i can be of help let me know

[Vike17]

Alan,

"My question. Can an independent report help my case?"

Yes, and many claims before VA are awaded because of a good Independent Medical Opinion. If you didn't have an IMO done before, then this is probably the main reason why your claim wasn't granted to begin with.

You should be receiving a decision in the very near future if you recently had your hearing with the BVA.

Vike 17

Edited July 29, 2006 by Vike17

[foreveryoung]

The VA has refused to have one of their Pcychiatrists examin me.

I have a feeling that once the VA reviews your private exam you will get your C&P from the VA.

Good Luck.

[mssoup1]

My husband had to go before the BVA on several of his claims. On some of them, the BVA remanded the claims back to the VARO and ordered a C & P exam to be performed before a decision could be made. The C & P exams were set up and the reports sent to the VARO. The VARO then decided his claims based on these C & P exams, along with any evidence which they currently had. We were successful in getting the claims approved. From the time we had the BVA hearing until my husband received a decision took approximately 1 1/2 years. But, then again, my husband had more than one claim in to be decided.

It seems that there are times that you seem to have to have an IMO to help with your claim, then other times, the C & P exam is good enough to rule in your favor. A lot has to do with who you get who performs the C & P exams. Some examiners are really good at wanting to go the extra mile to help out the veteran, then there are others who seem to do everything they can to help get your claim denied. These are the ones where you end up having to get an IMO in order to get the wording the VARO wants to approve a claim. But, again, in our case, even having a good IMO in your favor doesn't always get a claim approved either. The ideal situation is being able to get a good C & P examiner who will put the correct wording in their report that the VARO wants to hear. This pretty much gets your claim approved. But, again, finding that right examiner is the biggest problem.

On any C & P exam that my husband was given, we went to the VAMC a couple of weeks after the exam and got a copy of the C & P exam report. We live close to our local VAMC, so this was not a problem for us. I then read the report to see if it was adequate and accurate as far as I was concerned. On several of these exams the same examiner did the exam. One report he failed to write up at all and the other one was so inadequate and inaccurate that I immediately wrote a letter to the VARO and told them that both of the reports were inadequate and that we were requesting new exams with another examiner. He was given new exams. By getting copies of the exams ahead of time, we were able to not only request new exams based on the ones he had been given as inadequate, but also had time to get an IMO, if needed. This saved us time, since had we not worked his claim this way, my husband would have been denied based on inadequate exams and we would have had to file a NOD based on this. We caught the inadequte exams early before the VARO had a chance to deny the claim and saved time in having his claim decided.

I think that the BVA will probably remand your claim back to the VARO for a C & P exam, if the evidence shows that the VARO did not afford you one. If you do get an IMO, I would send the report directly to the BVA since your claim is with them pending their decision. You will need to waive your rights having the VARO look at it first, but in my opinion, that is okay. We sent in additional evidence we had while the claim was at the BVA and I sent a letter stating that my husband was waiving his right at having the VARO look at it first. Since the BVA was now the ones making the decision, I wanted to insure that they had all of the evidence available to them to make their decision. There was no reason to have the VARO look at this evidence first.

It takes more work, but I tried to work my husbands claims in such a way that I tried to stay one step ahead of the VARO when I could. Getting results of exams ahead of them making a decision allows you time to rebutt this information before the VARO can make a decision, therefore, saving you time on your claim. Sending information directly to the BVA, if your claim is at that level, saves time by not having to have this information routed through the VARO and then to the BVA. By that time, the BVA could have already made their decision.

I am not sure that any of what I just said would/could have an impact on anyone else, but it sure helped in my husbands case. Just thought I would pass this information on to anyone else that might find it helpful

mssoup1

[Berta]

mssoup- that was EXCELLENT advise-

and I like the part -staying ahead of them-

If a veteran can anticipate anything weak in their claim and combat that early on,

or anticipate what the denial could potentially be based on, they can be way ahead of the game in gathering evidence .

I think one problem with my claim is that- there is so MUCh medical evidence to support it-

so they just choose not to read any of it-

but still I do not regret what I did-

I focused solely on the initial denial and satisfied exactly what they needed under reasons and bases--2 years ago.

But so much medical evidence revealed itself since then-

you would think they would read the IMOs and then they could ignore the rest of it- but they haven't yet- well maybe they did-I got a Senate inquiry last week-on my claim.

Your great advise here is certainly going to help others out there in hyperspace!

PS- and yes C & P s and "expert" VA doc opinions can certainly often be knocked down if they go against the claim.

A vet can find holes in these opinions and even substantial medical information that makes them invalid.

[alan]

Alan,

"My question. Can an independent report help my case?"

Yes, and many claims before VA are awaded because of a good Independent Medical Opinion. If you didn't have an IMO done before, then this is probably the main reason why your claim wasn't granted to begin with.

You should be receiving a decision in the very near future if you recently had your hearing with the BVA.

Vike 17

Thanks for your information. The VA refused to have a VA psychiatrist examine me . Mental issues are a major part of my claim and I agree with you that they have denied my claim because I did now have a psych. evaluaation.

When I went to my hearing on May 23, the veteran's judge agreed with my VFW rep that we could have 2 months to have a report sent in to the RO. I was able to go to an independent psychologist for 6 different sessions.

I have issues that were not documented and I don't know why.That of course is why I needed an expert opinion on my time in the Army.

Alan