Happy Wednesday to all.  Hope everyone is well.  Blessings and prayers for our Troops and for their loved ones everywhere.

Godspeed………….Wayne

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VA News for Wednesday, February 3, 2010

1.      Walcoff: Vets Should Be Prepared For Claims Processing To Take Longer In 2011. The Army Times (2/3, Maze, 104K) reports, “The 2011 Veterans Affairs Department budget unveiled Monday by the White House includes what VA officials called an ‘unprecedented’ 27 percent funding increase for the Veterans Benefits Administration, some of which will be used to hire 4,000 permanent employees to process benefits claims.” However, in an “admission that comes as no surprise to few who have been watching VA struggle with a backlog of benefits claims, Michael Walcoff, VA’s acting undersecretary for benefits, said veterans should be prepared for the average claims processing time to be longer in fiscal 2011 than it is today.” But the Times did note that in a “statement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said there are long-term plans to harness technology to speed claims, such as establishing a paperless processing system and changing procedures to reduce steps as part of promised transformation.”

2.      Shinseki Part Of Winter Olympics Delegation. The AP (2/3) reports that Vice President Joe Biden, “along with his wife, Jill, and members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet,” including Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, “are heading to Vancouver next week” for the Winter Olympics, where they will “represent the United States at the opening and closing ceremonies, meetings” with US “athletes and other events.” The fourth item in “Digest” for the Washington Post (2/3) also covers this story.

3.      White House Interested In Colorado Program For Transitioning Combat Vets. On its website, KOAA-TV Colorado Springs, CO (2/2) said the Obama Administration “is taking a closer look at a Southern Colorado pilot program for combat soldiers transitioning to home life. A group from Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group just returned” from the White House, “where they were invited to tell President Obama’s Director of Veterans Affairs and Wounded Warrior Policy about the local Wounded Warrior Peer Support Program.”

4.      Shinseki’s Involvement In Effort To Update War Memorial At Duke Noted. The Chronicle (2/3, Koh), a daily student newspaper at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, profiles Duke graduate student Jeremy Block, “one of three finalists for graduate Young Trustee.” Block “said one of the most meaningful experiences he has had at Duke was his effort to update the war memorial next to the Chapel. The Chronicle notes that in October, US Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki, “Grad ‘76, came to rededicate the war memorial.”

5.      VA, DOD Ask For $2.8 Billion In Health Technology Funding. In continuing coverage, NextGov (2/3) reports, “The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have asked for $2.8 billion for health information technology for fiscal 2011, nearly 4 percent of the federal government’s entire IT budget. The spending reflects the scale of the health care systems the two departments operate and the importance that Defense and VA,” which “asked for $1.3 billion in fiscal 2011,” place “on relying on health IT to manage the care for the 15.5 million soldiers and veterans it serves.” Meanwhile, in an information box accompanying a story on negative congressional reaction to President Obama’s 2011 budget proposal, USA Today (2/2, Wolf, 2.11M) reports, “Working with the Defense Department, the VA is planning to develop a lifetime electronic medical record for all troops and veterans.”

6.      OPM Launching Veterans Employment Website. The second item in the “Sgt. Shaft” column for the Washington Times (2/3, Fales, 77K) says the US Office of Personnel Management “is launching FedsHireVets.gov, a critical component of President Obama’s veterans employment initiative.” The website “will become the main source for veterans employment information and resources for both veterans and hiring officials. This launch represents phase one of an ongoing effort to help the men and women who have served our country in the military and their families find employment in the federal civil service.”

7.      VA To Ask For Repayment Of Emergency GI Bill Checks. In continuing coverage, the Army Times (2/3, Maze, 104K) reports, “The Veterans Affairs Department is seeking to recoup $3,000 emergency payments sent last year to about 80,000 people whose Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits were delayed — including some active-duty members who were not supposed to get the checks.” The Times adds, “People who got the payments, considered by VA to be advance pay of benefits, will be contacted about repayment options, officials said.”

8.      Center VA Doctor Helped Create Spreads Awareness About Repetitive Head Injuries. The Boston Globe (2/2, Lazar, 325K) said the turnout of “200 parents, coaches, and students” at a forum in Wayland, Massachusetts, to hear Dr. Anna McKee speak “was a sign of the success of the nation’s first center to study chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Created by McKee,” who “has studied thousands of brains at the New England Veterans Administration brain bank she directs in Bedford,” and “three partners 17 months ago at Boston University Medical School, the center has quickly spread awareness about the dangers of repetitive head injuries, largely by targeting the National Football League.” But according to the Globe, McKee “and her colleagues think” CTE may be silently damaging the brains of athletes in other sports.

9.      VA Rapidly Expanding Its Medical Foster-Home Program. The St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press (1/31, Olson) said pairings between veterans and host families “are forming across the country” as the Department of Veterans Affairs “rapidly expands its medical foster-home program for veterans who need daily assistance but can still do plenty for themselves. The VA hospital at Fort Snelling has one of 24 active foster-home programs” in the US, and another “48 VA hospitals are creating them.” And, while the “foster-home program started as a solution for aging veterans,” homes are “also being readied for younger veterans in need of long-term care.”

10.    Iraq Vet Stresses Importance Of Clinic For Women At Lebanon VAMC. In continuing coverage, the Lebanon (PA) Daily News (2/3, Gillhoolley, 19K) reports, “As both a veteran of Iraq” and a Lebanon Veterans Affairs Medical Center “employee, Cleona resident Danielle Klinger understands the need for the new $2.5 million Women Veterans’ Health Clinic and renovated primary-care facility at the South Lebanon Township medical center. ‘I think it’s important for female veterans to have that place to come to where they feel that it’s their special area dedicated to them,’” Klinger “said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.”

11.    Through Nonprofit, Family Hopes To Assist Troubled Veterans. The State (2/3, Crumbo), a paper based in Columbia, South Carolina, reports, “In hopes they can prevent another veteran’s suicide” like the one that took their loved one, the family of deceased Iraq veteran Mills Bigham “recently founded Hidden Wounds, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Columbia.” Through “Hidden Wounds, the Bighams aim to provide temporary counseling and support to sufferers” of post-traumatic stress disorder, “depression and traumatic brain injury until they can enter the Veterans Affairs health care system. Temporary help is needed because the VA reports it has a six-month backlog in processing claims, the Bighams said.”

12.    Virginia Reaching Out To Vets With Behavioral-Health Problems. In continuing coverage, the AP (2/2) reported, “The Virginia Wounded Warrior Program is using a tiny budget to reach a big problem — veterans with behavioral-health problems, ranging from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder to traumatic brain injuries.” Veterans “don’t have to have endured combat experience to get help from the program, which is part of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services.” The AP noted, “More than 813,000 military veterans live in Virginia, including more than 38,000 veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.”

13.    Space Leased In Oregon For VBA. The Portland (OR) Business Journal (2/3, Culverwell) reports, “The federal government said Tuesday it will lease more than 70 percent of First & Main, a 16-story office tower under construction near the Hawthorne Bridge.” The General Services Administration (GSA) “confirmed Tuesday it signed four leases covering 250,000 square feet at First & Main, 100 S.W. Main St., from developer and owner Shorenstein Realty Services LP.” According to the Business Journal, the GSA “leased…85,785 square feet for the Veterans Benefits Administration for 10 years, with a five year renewal option.”

14.    Suicides Down “Dramatically” At Spokane VAMC. The Spokane (WA) Spokesman-Review (2/2, Graman) reported, “The number of suicides among veterans in the Spokane region dropped dramatically last year, according to newly released records” from the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Sharon Helman, the “former director of the Spokane VA, reported the drop” to US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), “who had requested information on veteran suicides and what was being done at Spokane VA to fill critical mental health care positions.” Helman “told Murray last month that Spokane VA had taken steps to fill vacancies.”

15.    Mobile Vet Center To Visit Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press (2/3, South) notes that on Friday, a “mobile vet center — one of two in Tennessee — will be in Chattanooga. This is the first visit for one of the units to Chattanooga, said Michael Bearden, team leader at the Chattanooga Vet Center.” The mobile vet center “is stationed in Johnson City, Tenn.”

16.    VA Using Technology To Give Veterans Active Role In Their Health Care. Military Medical Technology (2/3, Prawdzik) reports, “As an indication of how broadly the Department of Veterans Affairs seeks to share information,” the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System “recently had a homeless veteran on ‘national call’ so he could share with others how he uses My HealtheVet. The myhealth.va.gov Website is available to active-duty military personnel and veterans, their families and caregivers as a repository of health information and an electronic personal health record that allows veterans an active role in their health care.” Similar innovations in use or being considered by VA, including technology from TeleHealth Services, GetWellNetwork, and CliniComp, “also provide an abundance of information to patients and caregivers from a slightly different angle.”

17.    Stimulus Funds Renovation Work At VA Hospital. On its website, WBFO-FM Buffalo, NY (2/3, Kryszak) said the fifth floor surgical ward and the ninth floor inpatient ward at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Buffalo “are getting a makeover thanks to $7 million of federal stimulus funds.” The “two wards will be completed by April. Work on two additional wards is planned to begin this summer.”

18.    Atlanta VAMC Coordinating Arrival Of Patients From Haiti. The AP (2/3, Walker) reports, “Military officials say a group of injured patients from earthquake-ravaged Haiti will be flown into Dobbins Air Force Base on the way to Atlanta-area hospitals Tuesday night.” Jim Weslowski, a Dobbins spokesman, “says details are still sketchy on the last-minute fly in, which he says is being coordinated” by the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/3, 292K) also covers this story.

19.    Canandaigua VAMC Honoring Hospitalized Vets. The Canandaigua (NY) Daily Messenger (2/2, Sherwood) reported, “The annual National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans marks a week of special events Feb. 8 through Feb. 14″ at the Canandaigua Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The Daily Messenger noted that events scheduled for the week include a “Valentine distribution by local students” this Friday.

20.    VA Hospital Hosting Arts Festival. On its website, KREX-TV Grand Junction, CO (2/2, Dzenitis) said the Veterans Affairs hospital in Grand Junction “is hosting its 13th annual Veterans Creative Arts Festival.” The “festival is part of a large nationwide event, and winners will go on to compete against other veterans across the country.” The KKTV-TV Grand Junction, CO (2/2) website also covered this story.

21.    Volunteer Inspires Newspaper Project At VA Clinic. The lead item in “Around Town” for the Canton (OH) Repository (2/3, Sautters) says the “giving spirit” of Jean Boylan, a deceased Veterans Affairs volunteer, inspired her friend, Kay Duplin “to provide three daily complimentary copies of The Repository in her friend’s memory” at the Canton VA Clinic. The “idea was supported by Legion Cmdr. Gene Saeger”, and at a Veterans Day dinner “in November, she asked for financial support from the audience,” which, according to Duplin, gave “enough money…to begin a one year subscription of three daily copies delivered to the VA.”

22.    Memorial A Birthday Wish For Last Living WWI Vet. In continuing coverage, the AP (2/3) reports Fran Buckles, “America’s last surviving World War I veteran,” marked his 109th birthday “Monday with family and close friends, noting that he has much to be thankful for.” Buckles “has a birthday wish that he’s waiting for Congress to do something about — he wants to see the dedication of a World War I memorial” in Washington, DC.

23.    Improve Quality Of Life To Reduce Army Suicides. A letter to the editor of USA Today (2/3, 2.11M).

24.    Praise For Volunteers. A letter to the editor of USA Today (2/3, 2.11M).

25.    Troops Underappreciated. A letter to the editor of USA Today (2/3, 2.11M).

26.    College District Seeks Disabled Vet Business Groups. The KPBS-FM San Diego, CA (2/2, Joyce) website.

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