PTSD Claim

[Phil73]

I'm hoping someone could help me with this question. I have two different PTSD events that occurred during my service. One was combat related and the other was non-combat. Do I need to file two different claims or should I just file one and submit my evidence with nexus?

Thanks

[Tbird]

Just 1 claim for the ptsd. 

[Phil73]

Since I only have the 1 claim right now, do I just need to submit another lay statement and a statement in support of claim for the combat event?

[Berta]

If you have the CAR,CIB, or PH on your DD 214, the VA will almost always concede the stressor that you describe to them.

 

If you do not have these decorations on your DD 214 ,they will need to verify your stressor.

 

Give as many details, to time and place as possible when you describe the stressor. 

 

Sometimes a vet like you has non combat and combat stressors. You only need one verified and sometimes it helps if you can determine the easiest stressor they can verify.

 

If you feel your DD 214 does not show all of your decorations, awards etc, you can get a DD215 prepared with a DD 149.

 

The DD 149 form is available here under a search. Just put Not Applicable to the Injustice part and tell them you just want to make sure your DD 214 is correct or that you should have a DD 215.

 

These are the 2010 PTSD regulations that the VA will use to process your claim.

 

https://community.hadit.com/topic/78757-2010-ptsd-regulations/

 

My husband was Combat, Vietnam 65-66. He had many combat stressors but the ones that bothered him the most were due to non combat incidents.

He revealed one non combat stressor to a VA employee , (1983)while he was waiting for the VAMC police to arrest him ( they didn't arrest him)-and a man started talking to him about Vietnam and he revealed a stressor. The man said then, I am the director of this VAMC, and I also was at the scene you just described, because I am not only a Vietnam vet like you, I was called to the scene because I am a psychologist and many of the Marines needed help dealing with what they had to do that day.

No one knew of what happened unless they were there. The VAMC director prepared a buddy statement for him, they filed a claim for 

PTSD ( they called it anxiety disorder in those days and had just started to determine what PTSD was), and a few months later he got service connected for PTSD. He didn't even now what PTSD was and they told him to go to a vet center quite near where he lived. They had diagnosed him before he left the VAMC.

 

Since then he had to list the stressors month by month for the PTSD Inhouse program. But he only had needed the above stressor,which had been verified  and all of them could have been verified via Morning reports, etc etc, and he sent them proof of two more of them anyhow...which they never acknowledged.

The monthly stressor list was just for the Inhouse Program.

 

I have an article here available under a search called Defining a stressor.

 

If you receive SSDI solely for PTSD make sure the Va knows that.

 

SSDI determinations are a independent medical opinion.

 

 

 

 

[Phil73]

Thanks Berta. I have already submitted the non combat claim for PTSD. The second claim is actually due to fear of hostile military, and I have the stressors to list in my lay statement if needed. If the VA denies my non combat claim for PTSD, should I then submit another claim for the second event?

[Berta]

I feel you should send them a 21-4138, as additional information, for your PTSD claim  and advise them of the combat stressors, with any possible evidence you have.

That is a claim that puts you into the criteria of the 2010 regulations.

I can tell you have read the regulations. Thank you for doing that.

The 2010 regulations were developed to make it easier for combat veterans to prove their stressors.

When the VA gives you a C & P exam I think the combat related stressor(s) would be the ones the VA examiner would need to know about.

You can certainly mention the non combat stressor as well, at the C & P exam.

 

[Berta]

Sometimes I wonder if the Vet reps out there are fully  aware of the 2010 PTSD regulations, and if a veteran is not aware of them, they could easily be denied right off the bat:

"Effective July 13, 2010, the regulations governing adjudication of service connection for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were liberalized, in certain circumstances, with respect to the evidentiary standard for establishing the required in-service stressor. For cases pending before VA as of that date, if a stressor claimed by a veteran is related to the Veteran's fear of hostile military or terrorist activity and a VA psychiatrist or psychologist, or a psychiatrist or psychologist with whom VA has contracted, confirms that the claimed stressor is adequate to support a diagnosis of PTSD and that the Veteran's symptoms are related to the claimed stressor, in the absence of clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, and provided the claimed stressor is consistent with the places, types, and circumstances of the Veteran's service, the Veteran's lay testimony alone may establish the occurrence of the claimed in-service stressor. For purposes of this paragraph, "fear of hostile military or terrorist activity" means that a veteran experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or circumstance that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of the Veteran or others, such as from an actual or potential improvised explosive device; vehicle-imbedded explosive device; incoming artillery, rocket, or mortar fire; grenade; small arms fire, including suspected sniper fire; or attack upon friendly military aircraft, and the Veteran's response to the event or circumstance involved a psychological or psycho-physiological state of fear, helplessness, or horror. 38 C.F.R. § 3.304 (f)(3); see 75 Fed. Reg. 39843 (July 13, 2010)."

https://www.va.gov/vetapp15/Files6/1547678.txt

As the regulations say- if the stressor is consistent with places and times of the veteran's service, the VA might not even have to verify the stressor, and will accept the veteran's lay statement on the stressor.

But I feel any details and even proof of the stressor, with the lay statement , enhances the VA's ability to concede the stressor without a lot of time wasted, trying to get JSRRC to verify it.JSRRC was as affected by the Covid crisis as the VA was. Everything is taking longer than it used to.

"fear of hostile military or terrorist activity" is a key component to the regulations.