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Kori Schulman: Good afternoon, and welcome to Tuesday Talks at
the White House.
November 11th is Veteran's Day, a day when the country comes
together to celebrate the men and women that have served in
the United States Armed Forces and today we are so thrilled to
have Tammy Duckworth with us.
Tammy is the Veteran Affairs Assistant Secretary For Public
And Intergovernmental Affairs.
To turn it over, I am going to turn it over to Tammy to give a
brief introduction.
But the way this is working you have been sending us your
questions on Facebook for the past couple of days.
There is a live chat that is happening right now.
If you go to WhiteHouse.gov/live,
you can click the link to jump into the chat.
Or I will be taking your questions live for Tammy.
To introduce myself.
I am Kori Schulman in the Department Of New Media.
And I am going to turn it over to Tammy for a brief
introduction before we jump into your questions.
Tammy Duckworth: All right.
Thanks, Kori.
Well, it is a real pleasure to be here.
Veterans Day is the 11th of November.
It is actually observed on 11-11-11, so the 11th hour of
the 11th day of the 11th month.
It comes from the armistice that ended World War I.
And it is actually a day for us to celebrate those who have served.
Sometimes people get Veterans Day confused with Memorial Day.
Memorial Day is a day that we celebrate and honor our fallen heros.
But Veterans Day is a day to go out and find those veterans that
you know and say thank you for your service and to observe them
and just observe the great sacrifices they have made for us.
Kori Schulman: Great, Thank you.
Without further adieu, we are going to jump right into your questions.
We have one that came in from Dwight Robinson.
And Dwight asks: What can be done to simplify the processing
of disability claims into broadened qualifications for claims?
For example, PTSD, unusual circumstance, PTSD claim pending.
Tammy Duckworth: Absolutely.
That is a really good question.
Because it is something that we are working on actively at VA
right now.
One of the big efforts that President Obama put into place
was in May of 2009.
And he charged both DOD and VA with creating a seemless
transition system, the virtual lifetime electronic records.
Where when you leave the military and you come to VA,
your records will transfer with you so we don't have to go back
and try to recover old records.
And that is going to cut down on the processing time tremendously.
Another thing you can do as a veteran yourself, within five
years of a deployment, come to VA and get into our system.
You can come at any time, you can get in, come for a physical,
you hurt your knee, you twisted your ankle while on deployment,
whatever it is.
Come in and get into the system as soon as you get out.
Because that really helps.
The final thing that you can do is if you can come to us say you
are retiring or actually separating from the military,
come within that first year.
So many of the illnesses and ailments are considered to be presumptive.
That means we assume that it is from your military service, if
you come to us within the first twelve months of being discharged.
If you wait beyond that, now you get into the process of having
to prove that this was caused by military service and not by
something else.
So timing is really important.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
The next question comes from Dave Equalitykasker (sic).
Dave writes: I am interested in hearing a progress report on the
defense and veterans brain injury center program and other
interdepartmental work between the Departments of Defense and
Veterans Affairs.
Tammy Duckworth: Absolutely.
We are working very hard on the brain injury issue.
And when you talk about brain injury, you will also have to
talk about post traumatic stress.
Because the symptoms of both can be very similar and sometimes
they mask each other.
A large percentage of our men and women coming home from Iraq
and Afghanistan have a mild or minor form of brain injury.
And many of them may also have some form of post traumatic stress.
And so if you don't get the proper diagnosis, sometimes you
can give medication for one that actually is counter indicative
for the other.
And we are working very closely with the Army, with all of DOD
actually on the brain injury process.
We are investing a lot of money into research for brain injury,
but we are also investing a lot into our post traumatic stress as well.
For example, one hundred percent of our veterans who come through
VA for care will be screened for both post traumatic stress and a
brain injury when you come in through your initial screening.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
Thank you.
For those of you who are just joining us, you can go to WhiteHouse.Gov/Live.
There is a link where you can jump into the Facebook chat that
is happening right now.
We are getting a lot of questions for Tammy live.
I am going to turn it over to a question that comes from Jessie Mag.
Jessie says: I am a Primary care physician at a rural VA.
How are we going to insure our vets in rural areas get
equivalent treatment to those in your large cities?
Tammy Duckworth: Well, the way the VA does that is through the
program called "Fee Basis."
And what Fee Basis does is that it allows our veterans who
are too far away from a VA medical center to go to their
local physician of choice.
And we will actually pay that physician to take care of our veterans.
For example, I get my artificial legs made at a private practitioner.
Because, number one, when I first came into the VA, they did
not have services adequate enough to support my needs.
So I asked for it and was allowed to do that.
If you live in a very remote area, you can also if you want
to come to a VA center, you can actually apply for and get
refunded for your travel costs as well to come to VA.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
Thank you.
We have had a couple of questions come in on
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Alvin Charles asks: What is VA's sort of stance on the policy?
And Allen Fan had a similar question.
Can you speak a little to your take on Don't Ask, Don't Tell
and VA's stance on that.
Tammy Duckworth: Sure.
So there is a little bit of confusion, because Don't Ask,
Don't Tell is a DOD policy.
It is not a VA policy.
So we have no position on Don't Ask, Don't Tell as far as
military service.
You know, we don't deal with that.
I will tell you that VA does not discriminate when we treat our veterans.
We will take care of all qualified veterans, all those
who qualify for VA care regardless of their orientation.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Julia Sink.
She asks: Why are there homeless veterans and what being done
about it?
Tammy Duckworth: It is a really big problem.
There is 107,000 homeless veterans on the streets of this
nation any night of the week.
That number is down.
18 months ago when the President first announced and Secretary
Shin-seki came up with the five year plan to end homelessness
there were 131,000 homeless veterans on the streets.
We are down to 107,000.
We would like that number to be zero within five years.
And the goal in the homelessness program is to stop that downward spiral.
In fact, what happens is when somebody is homeless, a lot of
things have already failed.
Maybe they didn't get the medical care that they needed
for their post traumatic stress.
They could have began to self medicate with drugs and alcohol.
That leads to them losing a job.
Maybe they needed help keeping that job or finding a job.
They may have needed to be able to get training to get into schools.
There are a lot of things that have gone wrong when a veteran
finally ends up homeless.
What we are trying to do in VA in addition to increasing the
number of facilities where a veteran can move into
transitional and then permanent housing, is to stop that
downward spiral.
Stop that process where you are turning for help and you are not
getting it and one things just leads to another.
We are working as hard as we can.
We are down to 107,000.
We are hoping that number will be down even more in a few
months when we do another count.
But the goal is zero in five.
Because any time a veteran sleeps on the same streets that
he or she defended, we are all dishonored.
Kori Schulman: Just are there things people can do, ordinary people across the
country that can contribute to sort of the mission of Veterans
Affairs and particularly on Veterans Day?
Tammy Duckworth: That is a really good question.
So what everybody can do is, number one, you can thank a vet
for their service.
And not just the current generation.
Not just my generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
You know, a lot of people never thank the Vietnam veterans for
their service and their sacrifice.
But there are many things you can do in your communities.
You can number one, Learn By Heart, the counseling hot line
that we have, the mental health hot line, 1-800-273-talk.
And that way if you know of a veteran who maybe needs to have
counseling, they can actually call that 800 number 24 hours a
day and get help for mental stress.
You can if you are an employer, you can certainly help employ
all veterans, offer them jobs.
You can if you know somebody who is deployed, you can certainly
support their family members.
It is going to be winter, I am from Chicago.
I know there are a lot of folks in Chicago who will be worried
about who is helping my wife at home, you know, who is helping
to shovel the driveway.
And something as minor as that can make a really big difference.
Kori Schulman: Thank you.
So the next question comes from John Stephen Dwyer.
He asked: How will the VA handle the mental health needs of
veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan?
Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter has been very vocal in
her concern that mental health needs of these veterans are
under served.
Tammy Duckworth: Mental health needs of veterans is a really important issue.
And one of the things I mentioned earlier, we are doing
at VA is we are screening 100 percent of our Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans when they come through the doors of VA.
Even if you come in for a sprained ankle, your first time
through a VA facility, you will get screened for a traumatic
brain injury and post traumatic stress.
That is really critical, because many people don't even know that
they are suffering from post traumatic stress.
We are also expanding services across the country.
I talked about the mental health hotline.
We also have a chat room.
We developed a chat room because we realized that a lot of our
vets are still in the service.
They are still deployed.
They need to be able to talk to a counselor, even while they are
down range in Iraq or Afghanistan.
So we have the chat room.
It is a suicidepreventionlifeline.org
They can actually access that.
We made both available to family members, because a lot of times
the vets themselves are in denial.
They are not asking for help.
But it is mom, or dad, or wife, or husband, or a child that
actually sees the symptoms and needs help.
So they can call in as well.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
We have got -- this is more of a comment.
This is from Jim Starwitz.
He says: Hope you mention VAntage blogs.VA.gov/VAntage
The new VA interactive blog, so the brothers and sisters know
there is -- know that there is a use, and check it out.
There is a press release yesterday.
Too bad we didn't have this technology in the last four decades.
Great job.
Can you speak a little bit to the new blog?
Tammy Duckworth: Sure.
I think that question was planted.
Kori Schulman: Do you know Jim Starwitz?
Tammy Duckworth: I don't know Jim, but what I am so proud of it.
So what I did when I came to VA 18 months ago when I was
appointed assistant secretary, Was I decided we needed to have
an office of new media.
And I went out and recruited and was able to convince
Brandon Freeman our Director Of New Media to come on board.
And he has really spear headed our new media efforts,
social media networking, all of those resources.
And Brandon went out and was able to recruit Alex Horton who
used to write the blog "Army Of Dude" if any of you read it.
I love the high-ku's.
Great blog.
And so we just launched after a lot of hard work the VA's very
first blog.
And please, all of you out there, come to the -- come to the blog.
We welcome submissions.
It is not going to be a page where we do VA propaganda.
It is going to be real discussions.
It is going to be part of our VA's continuing effort to really
listen to our vets and also taking criticism and trying to
fix them.
You know, that is one of the Hallmarks of President Obama and
this administration is that we are listening and we are
admitting our mistakes when we make them.
And we certainly are always trying to improve.
So please be part of the community and I really look
forward to these discussions.
Kori Schulman: Thanks.
If you are just joining us, go to WhiteHouse.gov/live.
There is a link to the Facebook live chat where a number of
questions are coming in for Tammy.
This one has just come in from Carol Ann Jacobson.
She writes: My husband is 100 percent disabled veteran.
Why aren't there more programs for wives of veterans?
Tammy Duckworth: So part of the issue -- number one, if your
husband is hundred percent disabled, Service Connected
Disabled Veterans, there are many benefits for the spouses.
There are educational programs that are available to you.
You can -- VA will pay for your education, so you can go out and
start a new career if that is what you need.
You can get health care through the VA if you are the spouse of
a hundred percent service connected disabled veterans.
So there are programs for our spouses.
At our vet centers we have counseling for all of our vets
and their family members as well.
You can come in for counseling.
But you are right, there needs to be more.
VA, we are mandated by Congress and there are public laws that
who we can serve and who we cannot serve.
We expand our benefits all the time.
But I do think that there is a need for more and you know
hopefully you will work with us and work with your members too
if you want to see our services expanded.
And that is one of those things that will have to be legislated.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
The next question is from Kevin Rolls.
He asks: What is up with the backlogs in the claims system,
especially the appeals department?
Tammy Duckworth: Sure.
We are working to fix that.
And if you have listened to me in the past even before I came
to the VA, you will know that I am one of the biggest critics on this.
VA has a really interesting situation.
On the one hand, we have the nation if not the world's best
electronic medical record system.
On the other hand, in our benefits administration, we are
completely paperbound.
When President Obama took office, when Secretary Shin-seki
took over, that system was paperbound.
Literally sheets of paper with people's records on them.
One of the things we can do to fix the backlog is to go to an
electronic system.
I will give you an example.
When I left Walter Reed Army Hospital with my DOD medical
records, I had to go to the VA to get signed in.
I had to wait three months for a medical exam.
I went into the medical exam.
The VA could not accept the DOD electronic records and I had to
strip down and prove that I was still an amputee.
It was humiliating and it was wrong.
And as part of the administration at VA, I am
making sure that never happens to another veteran.
So we are doing that through the ELR, Electronic lifetime Medical Records.
Electronic Lifetime Records.
We are doing that through the partnerships with DOD so you
only get one evaluation for your medical status when you leave
DOD and come to the VA.
And we are working as hard as we can to get rid of that backlog.
It is still there, it is smaller than it used to be.
But it is going to take awhile to work through it, and we have
hired thousands, literally thousands of additional staff to
work through that backlog.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Tim Mitchell.
He asks: How many disabled vets are getting care and why don't
we hear more about their success stories?
Tammy Duckworth: Well, here is the really interesting thing.
There are little over 23 million veterans in the United States.
But only 8 million have come to the VA and to get their benefits.
So one of the things you can help is spread the word.
A lot of veterans don't even think they are veterans.
I get a lot of female veterans who are veterans from peace time
era, who think you have to be a combat vet to be considered a veterans.
That is not true.
So there are a lot of myths out there about what benefits you
can get and What is and isn't available.
The best thing to do is go to the VA medical center, go to VA
regional office, or to a veterans service organization
and fill in the forms and put in for your benefits.
A lot of veterans get care.
I think that more veterans get care than people realize and
most veterans are very happy with the care that they have received.
I will tell you, we have been rated as the best medical care
system in the country time and again.
Our hospitals are always in the top, you know, one hundred top
hospitals in the country rated by organizations like US News
and World Report.
Third party, unbiased third parties.
So those that are in the system and know about it and are taking
advantage of it are very happy.
Unfortunately, there are going to be problems.
Any big system, there are going to be problems and sometimes
those are the most sensational lists, and those are what you
hear about, when there are literally millions of veterans
getting great care and are very happy with the care they receive.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
Robin Shoteck has a follow-up to a question you answered earlier.
Thanks for the information about the backlog.
But what recommendations do you have to help veterans speed up
the process in rating their disability claims?
Is there anything that they can do?
Tammy Duckworth: There is a lot you can do and some of the things
you can do, start with what you do even before you
leave the service.
Any time you have an injury or you know an illness or something
like that, make sure it is recorded.
If you blew out a knee on an air assault mission, if you forget
to wear your hearing protection on the range and you have a
ringing in your ears, anything like that, go to your commanding
officer, go to your platoon sergeant, your squad leader and
get either a line of duty form filled out or even just a
memorandum for record.
Make sure these things are in your military record, so that
when you come to VA you have evidence that you suffered these things.
I will give you an example of the Vietnam Veterans.
We are right now still dealing with Vietnam Veterans who are
trying to prove they were in a certain location when something
happened 40 years later.
And they are trying to find an old platoon sergeant from 45 years ago.
So you can start by maintaining your own records and making sure
that -- don't try to be -- you know, don't try to be too macho.
If you have a torn ligament, make sure it is noted in your records.
And don't just try to as we say in the Army, don't try to man up
and fight through it.
Make sure it is in your records.
Other thing you can do which we highly recommend vets do, is go
to a veterans service officer.
And there are many veterans service officers who are free of
charge, so every State has a Department Of Veterans Affairs.
These are State employees, they will help you fill out the forms.
They know how to fill out the forms properly.
They know what you may or may not qualify for and many of them
are qualified by VA to expedite your packets.
You can go to Veterans Service organizations like the American
Legion, Purple Heart, Am Vet, any of those and they also have
service officers.
Don't try to submit your claims on your own.
You can try, but it is going to take longer.
Get someone who has done hundreds of them and that will
help your case get through faster.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
If you are just joining us, go to WhiteHouse.gov/live.
There is a link to join the live chat on Facebook where you can
submit your question for Tammy.
I am scanning.
We have a lot of good questions coming in.
Next one comes from David Adams.
He asks: What guarantee do you have to help disabled veterans
get the jobs we deserve, so we won't be turned away and have to
drive thousands of miles to go to these jobs?
This is coming from a 25 year veteran with back problems.
Tammy Duckworth: Sure.
So there is no guarantee that anybody can give a disabled
veteran to say that I can make a private company hire you.
I will tell you that if you apply for employment with either
federal or State government, that both have veterans preference.
So that you will be guaranteed to get a higher ranking -- you
will get extra I think in some cases I think it is ten points,
five points veterans preference and ten points for service
connected disabled veteran and that will put you ahead of other
people in competition for a particular job.
You can certainly come to VA.
We have an assistance program that will help you apply for and
get federal jobs that will help you with your resume', will help
you fill in the application and all of that types of things.
You can find that through our VA web page, VA.gov
Just ask, search on veterans federal employment, and you will
get to that office.
So you know there is a couple of things you can do.
Apply for those federal and State jobs.
Make sure that your training is up to date.
If you need any training vocational rehabilitation, you
want to go back to school, come to VA, we will help you find a
way to be able to afford the training you need.
So that your skills are current and marketable.
Kori Schulman: Thanks.
The next question comes from Ira Carstomontira (sic).
I would like to ask why we are not more helpful to the veterans
or retired veterans, they get shuffled a lot, and I was under
the impression that they were not eligible for VA hospitals
but they were eligible at the base hospitals.
Tammy Duckworth: Okay.
That is a mistaken impression, all service connected veterans
are eligible to come to VA for care.
And that is if you have a disability that comes from your
military service.
You are also, we have What is called a priority 8 veterans.
Those veterans, Secretary Shin-seki just opened enrollment
back to them.
It was closed during the Bush Administration, but Secretary
Shin-seki reopened up enrollment for those veterans.
And those are veterans that served, but who don't have a
service connected disability.
But -- and also make too much money to traditionally have been
able to be qualified for VA care.
We have reopened Priority 8, so even those veterans can come to
us for care.
So it is not so much that we don't care for veterans.
A lot of veterans don't come.
The DOD component is maybe where you are getting a little confused.
And that is in order to continue to receive care from a DOD
facility, you have to be military retiree.
And not all veterans are military retirees.
You only did four years of service and you left, that is
not a retirement.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
Next question, this comes from Robert Shostack.
He said: Over the summer there was news about implementing new
regulations concerning PTSD claims.
What were these new regulations and how will this impact future
PTSD claims?
Tammy Duckworth: Sure.
So what the regulation you are talking about is I think it is
in the student public comment period, something that the DOD proposed.
And it basically is a presumptive ruling.
That means that if you were in theater in Iraq, in Afghanistan,
in Kuwait, if you are in theater in the Middle East and you come
home and you were diagnosed with post traumatic stress, we will
presume that your post traumatic stress is caused by your deployment.
You don't actually have to prove as you used to have to do that
you were in a actual fire fight, that you saw something
traumatic, which is the way it had been previously.
So this new ruling is something that is in the comment period
right now I believe.
I have to check and see if it is out.
Last I checked it was still in the public comment period, where
we will presume that if you are diagnosed with post traumatic
stress and you were just in theater you didn't -- you left
the perimeter of your base.
But if you are found to have post traumatic stress, we will
presume it is from your military service and your deployment.
So that is alluring of the requirement of proof.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
The next question comes from Brian Hawthorn.
Tammy, thanks for all you do for our nation's heros.
Tammy Duckworth: Okay.
That one is planted.
Hi, Brian.
Kori Schulman: So Brian asks: Can you talk a little bit about
outreach to student veterans?
What is the VA doing to support our vets using the GI bill who
are struggling in school?
Tammy Duckworth: Sure, absolutely.
And Brian is with the Student Veterans Of America which is a
great organization really supporting and helping our
student veterans become successful as they go back to school.
VA is doing quite a few things through the GI Bill, which is
the largest expansion of VA benefits in over thirty years.
We are looking within the GI Bill itself, the post 911 GI Bill.
When it was implemented, there were some loopholes.
There were some things we overlooked when legislatures put
the law through that overlooked a few things.
For example, the Montgomery GI Bill used to pay for technical training.
But Post 911 doesn't pay for all technical training.
If you are at an on line university, like me I take all
of my courses -- I went back to school and decided to get a
degree and I am using my post 911 GI Bill.
I am getting my education through an online university.
What the post 911 GI Bill doesn't pay per diem, it doesn't
pay for housing if you go to online school.
You still got to live, you have still got to pay your rent.
But you are not getting that money.
Like if you were to go to traditional bricks and mortars school.
So one of the things that we are doing is we are trying to fix
these issues and having partners like the Student Veterans Of
America who are helping us work with legislatures who can fix
the law, so all veterans can actually get the benefits, be
able to afford to go to school, and be able to be successful is
really important.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
Thank you.
This is our last question.
This comes from Lynn Tamaro.
She asks: What is being done to help women vets who have MST and
didn't report it and have no way to prove it in order to be able
to claim PTSD MSD?
It is almost always denied and it is not fair.
We need more help for women vets.
Tammy Duckworth: Sure.
So what she is talking about is military sexual trauma.
And they say that nine out of ten women in the military who
experience military sexual trauma never reported it.
I have not verified those figures, but that is a common
figure that is out there.
So what we are doing is two things.
One, you can get care, you can go to any vet center and you can
get in and get counseling, which is really what you need first
and foremost.
And then let's deal with the problem of verifying.
One of the things the VA will acknowledge and accept is if you
can get letters from your previous commanders and your
previous platoon sergeants and chain of commander to say, yes,
this person actually experienced this, and then that is something
we will accept as proof.
It is case by case.
It has to be reviewed.
But the most critical thing is that you need to get treatment
for that, and that treatment is available at VA.
We have the counseling programs that are in existence now.
Kori Schulman: Okay.
Thank you so much, Tammy, for joining us.
For those of you that joined us late, the complete video will be
posted on WhiteHouse.gov shortly, so be sure to visit WhiteHouse.gov.
For more information on Veterans Day and the new blog that we
were talking about earlier, go to VA.gov
and check it out.
Thanks very much.