What is a "Disabled Veteran?" What does that mean?
No.
Yeah. One of the physicians providing testimony was founder and CEO of some private company that does hyperbaric oxygen therapy for 'PTSD and TBI.' Should write his name down...I'm sure it will be on a big fat govt contract soon.
Only semi related, but a Michigan psychologist (or at least she claimed to be) was just arrested after the death of a child due to a hyperbaric chamber explosion at a facility she owned. **Edited to add: the treatment was for Autism**
I am shocked. No way anyone could've seen this coming...
Disabled doesn’t mean you can’t work, either in or out of the VA. The only system where that applies is social security (and the niche of Individual Unemployability within the VA).
What does disabled (as in 100% disabled) actually mean in the context of veteran disability, then?
Some person in the comments got down voted for suggesting that if you are in therapy for 9 yrs, the treatment may not be effective and perhaps you should see someone else.
You actually can fly while taking SSRIs, you just essentially have to be cleared. It's not necessarily easy, but it's very possible.
It does work that way. I do these evaluations.
FAA evals, are pretty strict. Now whether the anyone is communicating the clearance process and how long it takes to get clearance is separate issue.
Apparently there was a scandal a few years back where the AMEs were just taking applicants for medical clearance at their word and not doing any follow-up with records, so now people in other roles can ask for proof of what the applicant disclosed if they have concerns or doubts.
Just read the pdf of the now public RIF for VA staff memo. Got to the end of the first paragraph just to notice that--despite all of that there edumacation and credentialses they must have leveraged to author the memo--the distinction between proper use of the word 'effect' and 'affect' somehow escaped all of them in their zeal to improve the quality of services at VA:
I hope they literally mean that they will just be pretending to execute an RIF ('affecting' one) vs. actually executing/implementing ('effecting') one.
I was part of these evaluations during one of my practicum placements and hope to do them in the future. The inconsistencies were prevalent and people often self-reported things that the FAA does not take kindly to yet it comes out during our evaluation. On the flip side, we saw far too many people that had to go through the entire process just because somewhere in their record 20 years ago they mentioned to a medical provider they were sad because their wife passed away but they are otherwise totally fine.
Link to the memo?
I hate that.I did that thing where you sign off on the order and accidentally sign off the (unfinished) progress note draft
Our Service Chief sent us an email ('Summary of VHA Memoranda Distributed by Operations [BoogaBooga!] (3.10.25)') with an internal to VA link. Really no specific info yet, just looked like more of an announcement memo dated Mar 4th. They're letting the peons view it now in a spirit of transparency I suppose.
The brief ones were nice. I never got a chance to do a deep dive on the development of the CogScreen, but some of the scores and ranges it produces are...unique to say the least. My memory was that it was quite sensitive and sometimes people did fine on the full testing when they spiked on the CogScreen.
That is correct, at least that's what the law says. From Wikipedia: "The amount of compensation provided—both cash payments and VA-sponsored services—is based on the veteran's 'average impairment in earnings capacity'."
If it isn't--in fact--reflective of actual disability or loss of earnings then why can't we, as a society, simply talk openly and honestly about that fact as adults and, I dunno, change the legal framework to one of, "If you're one of America's millions of veterans who needs some much-needed financial help (regardless of actual disability from health conditions associated with your military service), the taxpayers are more than happy to just give you a Stipend of Appreciation for the rest of your lives?" It would save a TREMENDOUS amount of money and resources wasted on the ridiculous cat-and-mouse games of the current system. We can't just have adult conversations about this and make a decision as a society? Do we have to continue to pretend that it's about actual disability and lost wages even though, in practice, it really isn't? A lot of veterans and their families are confused about this (and who could blame them?).
I don't think that psychologists (or others) who haven't spent a considerable amount of time providing DIRECT daily health service delivery (especially mental health services) to veteran populations in the past 10-20 years have any comprehension of just how pervasive and costly these issues are, in reality. Admitting the reality of their existence would be such political/PR suicide that I am beginning to think that these systems are going to have to collapse under the weight of these problems (and the derivative problems) before anyone in a position of authority will ever acknowledge them.
Because I would bet most taxpayers are not willing to do this. When manufacturing closed down in the rust belt, disability claims spiked significantly. The truth is that a lot people in this country are surviving off of handouts due to high level economic choices.
I mean, I'd argue that--at the end of the day--the taxpayers have the right to decide the issue (whether I would agree with what they ultimately decide or not).
So...someone (presumably) from their chain of command/admin in their organization is asking them to...what...log into their own eOPF account, look up their most recent SF-50 document, download it as a .pdf file and then reply to their email with that .pdf file as an attachment?
Not quite attaching a PDF it was asking them to validate that the information in blocks 23, 24, 26, 31, and 34 is accurate. Presumably because those blocks contain the factors used for RIF.
It's not like they are advocating to inject bleach or something....
