Over the last year, 19 veterans have committed suicide on a VA campus – a clear plea for much-needed improvements to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ mental health treatment facilities. Our heroic veterans and their families are begging the VA for help. But despite repeated promises of overhauls, we aren’t […]
Marking an enormous, long-overdue victory for Vietnam veterans, the Federal Circuit set precedent Tuesday in a decision that finally extends Agent Orange presumption to “blue water” Navy veterans. For over a decade, the VA has excluded these up to 90,000 Vietnam veterans from receiving disability benefits for Agent Orange exposure […]
Without VA benefits to cover proper therapy and treatment, veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are facing a future of personal and professional hardships. But just because the Department of Veterans’ Affairs has denied your PTSD claim doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. As a veterans’ disability lawyer, I’ve […]
Not every veteran who is exposed to traumatic events develops PTSD. Certain situations are more likely to cause PTSD than other situations. This is particularly true for soldiers who are asked to kill during service. It is unlikely that the readers of my blog have heard about the science of […]
In past scandals, we learned how VA employees manipulated data to suppress evidence of long wait times at VA hospitals and to ensure bonuses for themselves. In National Public Radio’s (NPR) latest report, we see VA officials acting to ensure that the status quo of low performance is maintained – […]
Throughout my lengthy career as a veterans’ disability benefits attorney, I have seen the VA deny many veterans service connection for chronic pain – simply because a doctor can’t identify the source of the pain. Even though these individuals were clearly suffering from pain, if doctors couldn’t establish a current […]
A recent investigation confirmed that Washington DC VA Medical Center officials knew about issues affecting patient health for years, yet did nothing. On Wednesday, the US Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) released a report detailing the DC VA facilities appalling conditions, citing a dangerous lack of supplies, wasted funds and […]
Chronic homelessness remains a significant problem for U.S. veterans, with an estimated 40,000 veterans included among the 553,000 Americans who have no place to call home. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH) has become one of the most successful tools in attacking the homeless […]
I recently developed a new strategy in my never-ending quest to obtain service connection for veterans suffering from severe psychiatric disabilities. In many cases there’s no evidence of in-service psychiatric problems and the diagnosis of a psychiatric disability occurs many years and sometimes decades after discharge from service. So how […]
I have long been interested in the association between mental disorders and various physical health problems. I’ve written extensively in the past on the issue of obesity and its correlation with people that suffer from PTSD. I’ve also seen research associating PTSD with lower rates of smoking cessation which in […]
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