What's New
| Presdent Obama Donated $250,000 of Nobel Prize Money to Fisher House |
March 11, 2010, Washington, DC (New York Times) - President Obama made good on his promise to give his $1.4 million Nobel Prize money to charity, releasing the names on Thursday of the organizations that will benefit. |
| Read more... |
| Dr. Haley at UTSW Presents Compelling Brain Images Showing Gulf War Illness |
VCS Asks VA: Since UTSW Research Remains Vital to Understanding Gulf War Illness, Then Why Did a Handful of VA Staff in Washington Impede UTSW Contract and Then End Funding for UTSW? March 9, 2010, Salt Lake City, Utah (Science News) - Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images – various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements – that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome. |
| Read more... |
| March 9 VCS Weekly Update |
This week’s VCS update keeps you in the loop with news on issues you care about. One good change – our weekly news updates won’t ask you for money. Instead, our news updates point you to news articles at our web site. We hope you will read them and share the important facts with your friends. This week's update includes news about VA and suicides, VCS on CNN, our VCS FOIA campaign, VA automating Agent Orange claims, a waterboarding torture video, and Gulf War veterans' benefits. |
| Read more... |
| Federal Court Keeps Torture Lawsuit Against Rumsfeld Alive |
What's Waterboarding? Watch Video of Torture March 5, 2010, Chicago, Illinois (Associated Press) - A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm. [Rumsfeld served at the Pentagon under former President George W. Bush.] |
| Read more... |
| Reducing Suicides: VA Adopts Policy on Emergency Care for Mental Health Patients |
This Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive provides policy to ensure the provision of safe and secure mental health services during all hours of operation for Emergency Departments (EDs) and Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) in VHA |
| Read more... |
|
Tragic Shooting at Fort Hood, Texas
Written by Denise Gamino
Thursday, 05 November 2009 20:30
|
|
|
|
|
Veterans group was pushing lawmakers for more mental health counselors for soldiers November 5, 2009 (Austin American-Statesman) Just as the tragedy was unfolding at Fort Hood, officials from a veterans group based in Austin were meeting in Washington with the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee to plead for more mental health counselors for U.S. soldiers coming home from war. “I’m very upset. I’m at the point of tears,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, who lives in Austin. “We warned the military about this. We warned the military about the need to increase the number of mental health care providers. We warned the military about lowering recruiting standards, about the medical exams for soldiers coming back from the war and needing mental health care and brain injury exams.” “We have been working tirelessly to try to prevent this from happening,” he said. “This is so horrible. This is a tragedy.” The Senate staff meeting was not interrupted with the news from Fort Hood, Sullivan said. Rather, he learned of the mass shootings when he stepped into the corridor after the meeting and saw 13 messages on his phone. During the meeting on Capitol Hill, Veterans for Common Sense and Swords to Plowshares, based in San Francisco, noted that the military suicide rate for 2009 is on track to set a record. “This is going to be a major trauma for veterans, reminding them of the war,” he said. “We encourage them, if they are experiencing difficulty, to seek care at the V.A.” He urged anyone traumatized to call the U.S. military’s suicide prevention hotline, (800) 342-9647, or the national suicide prevention line at (800) 273-8255. “We hope that the military leadership takes this incident very seriously and increases access to mental health care. There are community groups that are offering to help fill the gap because the miitary lacks enough doctors to provide care." |