I am hearing over and over again about the VA billing veterans for treatment and meds for PTSD Due to Military Sexual Trauma (PTSD/MST). Or worse yet, turning them away, claiming they have no one qualified to treat them.
THIS IS WRONG! BY LAW:
1. Once a veteran is diagnosed with PTSD/MST – he/she gets a lifetime of FREE mental health treatment, to include meds.
2. You do not have to have won a disability claim to get this benefit – ALL YOU NEED IS A DIAGNOSIS! Some vets get into treatment and never do file a claim for any number of reasons.
3. There is supposed to be an MST Coordinator at EVERY VA clinic
HERE ARE THE OFFICIAL REFERENCES TO THIS LAW. IF YOU RUN INTO A ROADBLOCK AT THE VA ON THIS, PRINT OUT THESE REFERENCES, THEN TAKE THEM TO THE PATIENT ADVOCATE AT YOUR NEAREST VA CLINIC. IF YOU STILL GET STONEWALLED - GO CONGRESSIONAL!
http://www.publiche alth.va.gov/ womenshealth/ trauma.asp
VA provides free, confidential counseling and treatment for mental and physical health conditions related to experiences of MST. You do not need to be service-connected and may be able to receive this benefit even if you are not eligible for other VA care. You do not need to have reported the incidents when they happened or have other documentation that they occurred. CLICK ON THE LINK FOR MORE DETAILS.
Pamplet to print out on this:
http://www.mentalhe alth.va.gov/ OEFOIF/files/ mst_info_ sheet_for_ veterans. pdf
To get help
- Speak with your existing VA health care provider
- Contact the MST Coordinator or the Women Veterans Program Manager at your local VA Medical Center
- Contact your local Vet Center
- Call 1-800-827-1000, VA's general benefit information hotline
Go to the VA Facility Locator to find your local VA Medical Center and local Vet Center.
Landmark Bill Bolsters Care for Female Veterans
By Laura Fitzpatrick Wednesday, May. 05, 2010
President Obama signs the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act at the White House
America's daughters have been serving in the U.S. military for centuries, and they're being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in unprecedented numbers. But back home, they're still not guaranteed that the bathrooms at veterans' health care centers will be stocked with tampons. The Government Accountability Office published an audit this spring that found some of 19 health care facilities it surveyed did not always have private bathing areas, even in mixed-gender units. Such lapses in women's health care are growing more painfully apparent as the number of females using the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system is projected to double in the next five years. But in a landmark step toward addressing their needs, President Obama on Wednesday afternoon signed a bill bolstering care for female veterans, which was part of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010.
(See pictures of the U.S. troops in Iraq.)
"Our obligations to our troops don't end on the battlefield," Obama said at the signing in the State Dining Room at the White House. "Just as we have a responsibility to train and equip them when we send them into harm's way, we have a responsibility to take care of them when they come home."
Among other measures, the legislation — which was passed with broad bipartisan support — requires the VA to train mental health professionals in caring for the 1 in 5 military women who have survived sexual trauma, which increases the risk of mental health issues like posttraumatic stress disorder by nearly 60%.
(See pictures of an Army town coping with PTSD.)
The bill also authorizes research on the effects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on women's physical, mental and reproductive health. U.S. soldiers have to carry a lot of heavy gear — duffel bags, bulletproof vests, thick boots — through Iraq's dry, 120-degree heat. A reluctance to add to the load by hauling water may lead more female soldiers to become dehydrated in the desert, according to Dr. Samina Iqbal, a member of the VA's national Women Veterans Health Strategic Health Care Group, who notes that some 34% of women return home with genitourinary issues — reproductive system disorders, urinary tract infections and the like — compared with just 8% of men.
The legislation also requires a comprehensive assessment of the unique barriers to care that women face. Veterans' advocates speculate that limited access to childcare and the perception that VA hospitals are geared toward old men are among the reasons that female veterans are less likely than males to use veterans' hospitals, even for such gender-neutral care as colon cancer screenings and flu shots.
(See the world's most influential people in the 2010 TIME 100.)
In addition to the bill's specific provisions, the legislation serves as a high-profile reminder that women fight and fall wounded overseas, and come home with scars that aren't always healed by a health care system that has roots dating back almost a century, to a time when service members were mostly men.
Advocates of the bill also note that it sends a message to female veterans that their needs are important to their country. When one of the bill's sponsors, Washington Senator Patty Murray, travels around her state holding veterans' roundtables, she often finds female veterans more reluctant than men to voice their health care concerns. "They wouldn't speak up," she tells TIME. "They'd wait until the end of the meeting and walk up to me and whisper, 'I need to tell you what happened to me.' " Getting Obama to sign the bill, she adds, "is a recognition of the service that women do and the needs that they have when they come home."
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