Heightened awareness has led to more veterans seeking care and benefits from the VA, much to the consternation of Dr, Satel and the Bush administration who appear to retain a special animus for Vietnam-era vets seeking benefits:
“(I)t's … very likely that some of the veteran baby boomers who have filed claims in recent years did so not out of medical need but out of a desire for financial security in their retirement years. Indeed, 40 percent of last year's claimants had been out of the military for 35 to 49 years.
“(I)t's … very likely that some of the veteran baby boomers who have filed claims in recent years did so not out of medical need but out of a desire for financial security in their retirement years. Indeed, 40 percent of last year's claimants had been out of the military for 35 to 49 years.
”In any case, the rush of applications for long-term disability entitlements reflects the extent to which the culture of the Department of Veterans Affairs since Vietnam has become fixated on post-traumatic stress disorder.
“The inspector general's office found that for one-quarter of Vietnam veterans claiming post-traumatic stress, the department could not confirm any incidents of traumatic stress. A study in a leading psychiatric journal last year could not verify such history in 59 percent.
“ ... With a new generation of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Veterans Affairs Department needs to look at post-traumatic stress disorder in a new way: the department must regard it as an acute but treatable condition. Only in rare instances should veterans be eligible for lifetime disability; and perhaps there should be a deadline of years after service by which claims must be submitted.
- Dr. Sally Satel, New York Times op ed (March 1, 2006)
And sneering in the Wall Street Journal (May 2, 2003), Dr. Satel writes:
- “At first PTSD could be diagnosed only in the context of mortal threats. Gradually, however, trauma was defined downward. By the time the manual was updated in 1994, one could qualify for PTSD simply by learning of the death of a loved one or watching the 9/11 terrorist attacks on television.”
Satel also writes in the Weekly Standard and is widely quoted in the mainstream media, and has been published widely including her books One Nation Under Therapy and PC, M.D. How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine.
Keith Roberts’ battle with the VA could not have been timed worse for him.
But veterans’ groups have also elevated their criticism of the VA’s treatment of PTSD-related benefits process.
“So the brave men and women who have served in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are honest enough to put themselves in danger in the defense of the United States, yet their sworn personal hearing testimony concerning the stressors they experienced in Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq is not. Something is seriously wrong here,” writes the Paralyzed Veterans of America in their Service Officers Appeals Report (SOAR, 2004, Volume 8, Number 4).
But the AEI’s Dr. Satel’s ethos has permeated the VA under Nicholson.
In August 2005, the VA announced plans to review 72,000 PTSD cases with a 100 percent disability rating like Roberts’.
But a torrent of criticism by veteran’s groups and Democrats forced the administration to back down.
On August 10, 2005 Sen. Barrack Obama blasted the administration in a letter to VA Secretary Nicholson.
“In order to truly create fairness in the claims system, the VA should concentrate its efforts on reviewing denials of PTSD claims,” said Obama. “Without accessing why some PTSD claims are denied, it will be impossible to fully understand how the VA’s PTSD rating system can be improved.
“The process of gathering evidence to prove PTSD disability is extremely time-consuming,” said Obama. “It requires the compilation of medical records, military service records, and testimonies from other veterans who can attest to a person’s combat exposure. I cannot fathom why the VA would require veterans to go through this emotionally painful process a second time.”
Said Deloris Roberts, “The process itself took a huge toll on us. But to get arrested and imprisoned?”
“ ... With a new generation of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Veterans Affairs Department needs to look at post-traumatic stress disorder in a new way: the department must regard it as an acute but treatable condition. Only in rare instances should veterans be eligible for lifetime disability; and perhaps there should be a deadline of years after service by which claims must be submitted.
- Dr. Sally Satel, New York Times op ed (March 1, 2006)
And sneering in the Wall Street Journal (May 2, 2003), Dr. Satel writes:
- “At first PTSD could be diagnosed only in the context of mortal threats. Gradually, however, trauma was defined downward. By the time the manual was updated in 1994, one could qualify for PTSD simply by learning of the death of a loved one or watching the 9/11 terrorist attacks on television.”
Satel also writes in the Weekly Standard and is widely quoted in the mainstream media, and has been published widely including her books One Nation Under Therapy and PC, M.D. How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine.
Keith Roberts’ battle with the VA could not have been timed worse for him.
But veterans’ groups have also elevated their criticism of the VA’s treatment of PTSD-related benefits process.
“So the brave men and women who have served in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are honest enough to put themselves in danger in the defense of the United States, yet their sworn personal hearing testimony concerning the stressors they experienced in Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq is not. Something is seriously wrong here,” writes the Paralyzed Veterans of America in their Service Officers Appeals Report (SOAR, 2004, Volume 8, Number 4).
But the AEI’s Dr. Satel’s ethos has permeated the VA under Nicholson.
In August 2005, the VA announced plans to review 72,000 PTSD cases with a 100 percent disability rating like Roberts’.
But a torrent of criticism by veteran’s groups and Democrats forced the administration to back down.
On August 10, 2005 Sen. Barrack Obama blasted the administration in a letter to VA Secretary Nicholson.
“In order to truly create fairness in the claims system, the VA should concentrate its efforts on reviewing denials of PTSD claims,” said Obama. “Without accessing why some PTSD claims are denied, it will be impossible to fully understand how the VA’s PTSD rating system can be improved.
“The process of gathering evidence to prove PTSD disability is extremely time-consuming,” said Obama. “It requires the compilation of medical records, military service records, and testimonies from other veterans who can attest to a person’s combat exposure. I cannot fathom why the VA would require veterans to go through this emotionally painful process a second time.”
Said Deloris Roberts, “The process itself took a huge toll on us. But to get arrested and imprisoned?”
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