VA Backlog: Massive Stress Screw Job for War Veterans

By PB Rose

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My fellow veterans, I am sorry for being away from you for so long.  But thanks to the overwhelming incompetence of the VA Appeals and Claims department, I have been busily photographing and posting my beloved collection on Ebay. I need the money. The credit cards are maxed out from paying for almost everything to keep me and my family afloat.

Secretary Shinseki uses every media opportunity to say that he has cut the backlog of “claims” that are two years or younger.  And this is where it is deceiving.  The VA has reduced the number of “claims” not those on appeal.  Get it?  It’s another wonderful way that the VA puts the screws to us.

Because of my PTSD, memory loss, migraines, IBS and numerous health issues, my spouse has had to quit work to care of me and our child.  A huge loss of income, insurance and other things that go along with a job.  My spouse has become my caretaker and I am no longer an equal partner in this relationship.  All of my hopes and dreams are gone because of this damned PTSD.  You would think that the VA would get this and step up and get a move on concerning the Appeals cases.

I think the public should know about the backlog of appeals that sit on multiple somebodies’ desk.  Why is it that the Department of Social Security can receive a claim and adjudicate it within 6 months and it can take the VA up to whenever they please?   Why is it the VA needs more information within 30 days but you will not hear back from them for years?  On a previous claim, the VA took over 9 years to make its decision. Were they waiting for me to die?  You know the old axiom: “Deny. Deny.  Until they all die.”

I have filed for Aid and Attendance. If I were an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran, I could apply and receive all sorts of care.  Such as Public Law 111-163 Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 that Obama signed into law.

But I am not.  I am a Desert Storm/Shield era veteran.  So the only help for me is an antiquated law that was written in 1944 called Aid and Attendance.  This law was written at a time when things such as Military Sexual Trauma, PTSD, TBI’s, were not discussed by anyone.  This law was written to help those veterans who were permanently disabled from wounds received in combat.  FDR and his staff wanted to help returning soldiers re-assimilate into civilian life.  Hence the GI Bill was born.  Educate them and put them in a nice house and forget about them.

And now, Viet Nam era veterans and ODS veterans are aging to a point that we need assistance to help us manage our service connected wounds/injuries, memory loss and other illnesses.  What are we supposed to do?  Become homeless?  Be a burden to our family and friends?  And just what should our families do when they have reached their limit and need care?  Suffer in silence? Our children waiting for the time when the parent in question has gotten their medication dosage correct or dies before they can say they have a semblance of normalcy?

Before they will not be afraid to have friends over because the parent might have an episode and they have to explain that the parent is a veteran with issues. Which makes them weird and the isolation and alienation begins.  Where is their help?  And how do we help them?

As a parent, I have seen my own child go from being a normal 14 year old teenager to my caretaker when I have been triggered, have a memory loss, get lost in going to frequented places or not go to any new place without my spouse coming with us.  What kind of life is that for a child to grown up with?

So now I wait for some sort of decision from the Board of Veteran’s Appeals.  Go ahead and celebrate your reduction in claims, Secretary Shinseki.  I will be here drowning in debt and watching my child and spouse drown with me.