Reporting to ROLL CALL 8/16/13 8:32AM
OK, Captain!
Per your comments and questions on Post 4, I'm going to put this one out 'short & sweet'. When the Cherry Troop or the older Veteran seeks an advocate, he/she needs to select him based on his own needs. Like finding a wife for a man, or a husband for a woman, this choice is a personal one, and a very important one. So, do it carefully. I know there are millions of Veterans who do not use the VA as their medical caregiver. That is their choice, too. Many of these millions consider the VA to be a 'hand out' or they think of we who use it as 'government tit suckers'. Once again, that's their choice to think as they may. But, here's the bottom line: Every Veteran has 'earned' his VA benefits. The government is not 'giving' them to them. They fought for them if they were in combat. And, it is my belief that if they did experience any combat in any form, they have the Black Snake coiled within their soul upon their return to 'home'. As such, they need to get with the "shrink" at the mental health section of the VA and get their war time experiences down on paper. If they choose not to do so, then again, that is their choice.
Now, I'm a Veteran Advocate. My advice is for any Veteran who has experienced combat to file for a claim due to PTSD. Filing that claim is as easy as filling in a credit card application. And that's the pure and simple of it. FILE! DO IT!
LT
Reporting for Roll Call – 15:10 Hrs -8-20-13
ReplyDeleteHi LT:
Re: Your Post No. 5
1) Okay, Cherry Troop has to make a careful choice for an Advocate. How does he do that? He hasn’t a clue about who any of these might be, or what their level of expertise in dealing with VA Claims Adjusters might be. Sure, instinct plays a certain role in making this kind of choice for a “relationship”…which it will obviously have to be because of the long time frame involved with the claims process. So, where does he go and who does he see to get started with that?
2) For a lot of older veterans from long past eras, their service experiences have become “ancient history”. Regardless of what they might have experienced, both good and bad, and for the most part, all of that is now part of the scrapbook of their memories about those events. They’ve moved on with their lives, to careers of one kind or another, married, raised kids, become grandparents, etc. Now, as “retirees” with Social Insecurity and Medi-kinda-Care, the VA’s medical services benefits that they “earned” from that service may or may not be convenient, or even relevant(especially until Congress gets off its collective asses and allows them to use their Medicare..which they’re paying for anyway..as reimbursement to the VA, just as it does to any other medical service provider. Keep in mind, if you’re a Cat C card holder, those services are not really “free”.) As to the “loser” perspective, if it exists among them, it’s only with a very, very, few.
3) Now, all that aside, for the sake of this exercise, let’s say Cherry Troop has gotten his advocate, prepared supporting docs. and filled out his claim form. Question: Where is the Claims Adjuster who’ll go over it? At the local VA facility? Or somewhere else? Lastly, what sort of time frame can Cherry Troop expect before he gets some kind of reaction to his filed claim?
CENTURION