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SIERRA VISTA — The whole nation has to be part of helping returning wounded veterans and their families, a trio of Congress members said Tuesday.
Doing a takeoff on it takes a village to raise a child, the three Democrats noted the responsibility of ensuring people reach out to veterans goes from the national government down to local communities.
During a video teleconference that joined people in Sierra Vista and Tucson with Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said the major concern for her and her colleagues — who are members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee — is the tremendous amount of military members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with the war’s “hallmark of TBI (traumatic brain injury) and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).”
Although not a member of the committee — Giffords, whose district includes Cochise County — works closely with the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. She is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
  
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With her Tuesday, was the chairman of the committee, U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the committee chair, and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Health Subcommittee.
Michaud said TBI and PTSD “affects more than just veterans, it affects families.”
When it comes to brain injuries, Congress has directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to set up five special centers in the nation.
But, what is equally important is having sufficient health care providers in the rural areas of the nation, to help National Guard and Reservists who return from combat and return to civilian life needing medical assistance, he said.
To that end Congress has instructed the VA to create an office of rural health, Michaud said.
And, the instructions came with money as an additional $17 billion has been provided, he and the other said.
Local veteran Tom Dingwall said, “Congressmen, it’s very important to get the services where they are needed.”
And, when it comes to Arizona, the rural areas need the most help, he added.
Michaud agreed, noting the VA and the Department of Defense need to do more together when it comes to treating the medical problems of those currently serving in the war on terrorism, with the military ensuring the hand-off to the VA “is a seamless transition.”
But Luella Emmons, a veterans benefits counselor for the Arizona Department of Veterans Services, said he has seen that there still are problems in the two agencies working together to the detriment of service members and in some cases even though the VA has been told to accept veterans, that occasionally doesn’t happen.
That led a person in Tucson, who was taking part in the video teleconference with other residents of the Pima County area to question Emmons’ statement.
The unidentified woman, who works for the VA Medical Center in Tucson said that does not happen.
Later Emmons, who works out of the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery, said she has been told by veterans that in the past they have been denied access.
The VAMC woman in Tucson said she would look into the situation to ensure no such problem exists.
Michaud said he has made a number of trips to Iraq and Afghanistan and will be returning to those countries in early August to see how the process works at the beginning of the medical issues.
Giffords said Congress has turned things around when it comes to taking care of wounded veterans.
But the problem is many people have little connection to the military today, she said, noting during World War II, one out of every 10 American citizens were in the military and today the number is one out of every 300.
During the slightly more than one-hour video teleconference the members of Congress had to leave to vote on the House floor and then they would return.
Filling in were staff members who answered questions from the Sierra Vista and Tucson audiences, which number about 30 total.
Cathy Wiblemo, the staff director for Michaud’s subcommittee, said efforts are being made to ensure the Defense Department and VA officials work together.
Once the care provided by the Defense Department ends it is important for the VA to not just be ready to pick up treatment and help but to be involved before the transfer of a case, said Wiblemo, who is a veteran.
Coming to the event, after voting, just after Giffords and Michaud left to cast their votes, was Filner.
Apologizing for the tag team aspect of the video teleconferencing, the Californian congressman said while the United States is trying to win the war in Iraq, the VA is responsible for veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and other conflicts.
“There is tremendous pressure on the VA,” he said.
Speaking of the Vietnam veterans, Filner, who said he opposed that war also, apologized to the veterans of that conflict saying, “I think we made a mistake, confusing the war with the warrior.”
That error has impacted Vietnam veterans greatly with more than half the homeless in America, veterans of the Vietnam War, he said.
He also noted that there are more suicides among Vietnam veterans than any war.
“It (the war) was terrible, terrible to veterans,” Filner said.
The VA has to accept Agent Orange claims without hesitation, he said, and it doesn’t matter if the person who served “was boots on the ground, on the blue seas off Vietnam or in the blue skies over Vietnam,” he said.
And, when it comes to the current war, more has to be done to identify and treat TBI and PTSD and that means the Defense Department and VA have to be more in tune to the needs of those serving and to future veterans, the California congressman said.
“There are too many who think VA means veterans’ adversaries instead of veterans’ advocates,” Filner said.
Calling on all of America to step up to help, the congressman noted that too often once a person leaves the military they don’t think they will receive and help veterans are due.
There’s too much of a backlog in processing disability claims, which Filner estimates to be between 600,000 and 700,000.
Congress and VA leaders believe more rural outreach centers are need, such as the one in Sierra Vista, to help veterans, he said.
Showing his age difference, Filner said, “We can’t lose these children, these young men and women.”
Sierra Vista Mayor Bob Stain said Arizona Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano is attempting to bring together a consortium of different groups to reach out to veterans.
Just recently the governor hosted a round table in Phoenix at which 120 people attended trying to find solutions to help returning veterans from the war zones.
By then Giffords and Michaud had returned from voting and Giffords noted that Arizona has 600,000 veterans.
Filner said while in the past when a war concluded help for veterans was put on the back burner, he and others in Congress do not intend for that to occur ever again.
But, he did admit that if it hadn’t been for news accounts abut the problems at the Army’s Walter Reed Medical Center outlined in the media about terrible health treatment conditions, Congress may have not come forward demanding better care for veterans and serving military members.
Wiblemo promised that congressional committees will be looking into problems associated with a drug given to military members to stop smoking, which has been tied to an increase in suicides, along with looking into allegations that service members are being put on medications to treat anxiety and being returned to combat.
For Filner the bottom line when it comes to members of the military and veterans, and both group’s families, “They will get the love, care and dignity they deserve.”
Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
service connected vet wrote on Jun 26, 2008 1:51 AM: