How To Find Regulations From 1970S?

[bigred1]

I am looking for the regulations on how the VA was supposed to handle a claim for benefits in the 1970s. I have a family member who I am helping with his appeal. He submitted a claim after he was hospitalized in the mid 1970s after an attempted suicide for depression. He was denied based on lack of service connection. The hospitalization was about 5 years after his 2 year tour in Vietnam. The hospital records in the cfile state a sentence from the doctor that he was experiencing depression since his time in Vietnam.

Where can I find regs of how they should have handled his claim back then?

Should they have considered that statement?

He was in the hospital for about 2 months for depression.

Thank you for any advice!

[Vync]

Good question. I had trouble finding some of the policies used during the 1990's. I am about to help a friend who served in Vietnam and if you find out anything then it would be a big help to me, as well as others.

[FormerMember]

PTSD, as a defined illness, was not recognized until 1981 by VA. As such, any MDD you suffered prior to that was most often diagnosed as a personality disorder. Given that he was hospitalized for several months, this bodes well for a contention that it was an implied or "informal claim" and VA should have recognized it for that. If you were stark raving bugf***ky when you came back or required some downtime at a VAMC, chances are it was more than obsessive compulsive disorder or antisocial personality with passive aggressive tendencies. VA will fight you tooth and nail on it. When (and if) you win on appeal they'll give you a retrospective staged rating (Fenderson) and 0% you out to the present. It's a long hard road and one that will entail an attorney down the road. Letting a VSO drive this claim is not advised. Be prepared for over a decade of litigation. The nice thing is there will only be fits and spurts of legal filing interspersed with years of inaction. Plenty of time to remodel the kitchen and build a life size replica of the Eiffel Tower with matchsticks in your spare time.

[john999]

Asknod

If this vet had of had his breakdown within a year of discharge he probably would have been SC'ed for something. You are so right about the personality disorder jive. I did get SC in 1973 for schizophrenia and a personality disorder, of course. I did not have schizophrenia. I had dissociative disorder which is close to PTSD and has many of the same symptoms and causes. I was lucky to get any SC considering the way my claim was worked. The VA just excluded my private doctor's evidence and used the VA doctor's notes. During the Vietnam War and in the years before PTSD was recognized you had to be stark, raving mad at the time of discharge to get a high rating. Even then if you got better by the time you saw a VA shrink you would get "PD", social misfit, drunk, anti-social PD.

[bigred1]

The breakdown was about 5 years after his return home. He tried to committ suicide and was taken to the VA, was there for 2 months. While there he submitted a claim for nervous condition, but was denied stating "the service medical records are negative for anything referable to the currently claimed disabilities." and also states "veteran has submitted no medical evidence referable to either of the claimed conditions." and "Nervous and earache conditions--claimed by veteran not shown by the evidence of the record"

We just found additionaly records obtained by his persistence, not by the VA, from st. Louis. Found a form 10 7131 from the adjutication officer requesting a few things, like hospital summary and special report (not exactly sure what that is yet) I put a request into the VA for an explanation. But 20 days later, they denied his claim....clearly not enough time to receive the records from the VA Hospital. In the cfile there were 2 discharge summaries it looks like they got it about 5 or 6 months after they denied him. They didn't do anything to reopen the claim or to inform him of it or anything.

He did apply again in 1985 but he failed to show up to the medical exam (can that hurt us?)

He applied again in 2011, rated 30% for ptsd

Applied for increase, got 70% earlier this year.

We are trying to get TDIU (I think we will succeed on this soon) and Earlier effective date. Which I know is really difficult, but we are prepared to fight it.

Thanks for any insight or advice!

[Philip Rogers]

I think you can win but it'll be a long, long, road to get there. jmo

pr

[john999]

His hospitalization could be treated as an informal claim for benefits. I wonder if the VA did not commit some kind of CUE when they denied his orginal claim. I think you should hire a lawyer and let him review his entire C-File and medical records. Because their is some kind of chance at a earlier effective date, and TDIU, the lawyer might want to take the case since he gets 20% of any retro money. Phil and AskNod have both said it is a long road. It will be even longer without expert help. I have a CUE going back to my discharge rating and that was 1971. I have a lawyer working on it because it has been very frustrating as you can imagine. The VA broke every rule in the book on my original claim, but what did I know? As far as TDIU if he can't work due to SC condition that is definition of TDIU. Has he applied for SSDI?

John