House Panel Passes Bills Related To Veterans' Care; DOD Launches Mental Health Program

Main Category: Veterans / Ex-Servicemen
Also Included In: Mental Health
Article Date: 20 Jul 2007 - 11:00 PDT

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The House Veterans' Affairs Committee on Tuesday approved several measures that would expand benefits for veterans, CQ Today reports. Under one measure (HR 760), approved by voice vote, Congress would authorize about $1 billion over the next 10 years to provide benefits for Filipino veterans living in the U.S. and the Philippines. Filipino veterans who now are U.S. citizens would receive full pension, while those living in the Philippines would receive $6,000 to $8,400 based on marital status. Low-income widows would receive $3,600.

To fund the new benefits, the bill would repeal an existing law that gives extra pension benefits to injured or ill elderly veterans considered 60% disabled. The bill would increase that threshold to 100% and save $1 billion. The committee on Tuesday also approved several other measures:

• A bill (HR 23) that would extend pension benefits to merchant mariners. Under the measure, veterans who met the criteria for service in World War II would receive a tax-exempt benefit of $1,000 a month;
  
  
• A measure (HR 2623) that would bar the Department of Veterans Affairs from collecting copayments from veterans using VA services for hospice care;
  
  
• An omnibus measure (HR 2874) that would increase care for homeless and low-income veterans and would authorize a grant program for therapeutic re-adjustment counseling for veterans of conflicts after the 1991 Persian Gulf War;
  
  
• A bill (HR 1315) that would authorize up to $14,000 for family members to adapt their homes to be readily accessible for a disabled veteran living with them; and
  
  
• A substitute amendment that would extend from 90 days to 180 days the amount of time a new veteran is protected from mortgage foreclosure after returning from active duty (Lubbes, CQ Today, 7/17).
  

DOD Mental Health Education Program
The Army on Wednesday plans to begin an effort to educate every soldier about post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, the Washington Post reports (White, Washington Post, 7/18). Under the program, more than one million solders -- whether at home, deployed or overseas -- within 90 days will be educated via a "chain teach" program, in which the subject is taught to leaders, who teach it to subordinates, continuing the sessions down through the Army chain of command. Participants will be instructed in groups of about 40 people in a one-hour class on brain injuries and stress (AP/Arizona Daily Star, 7/18).

The Army also has developed a separate video for soldiers' families and materials for young children, which will be available at www.army.mil (Washington Post, 7/18). The program aims to reverse the stigma against mental health treatment by emphasizing that seeking help takes personal courage.

James Campbell, director of Army staff, said, "I'm not naïve ... there is a huge culture issue here," adding that soldiers often fear that they will be stigmatized by their peers for seeking help. He said, "If young soldiers see other soldiers and their leaders seeking help, then what we do -- and it's a slow process -- is we reduce an associated stigma" (AP/Arizona Daily Star, 7/18). Col. Elspeth Ritchie, the top psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general, said, "A marker of our success is if we get an increased referral rate. It's going to be a strain, and we're working as hard as we can." However, the program "will probably stretch Army resources; the service is already short about 270 mental health providers nationwide," the Post reports (Washington Post, 7/18).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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