Some say that ” the signature wound” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is traumatic brain injury (TBI), and last Wednesday President Barack Obama took action to try to help veterans with that malady.
Obama signed legislation into law that is trying to improve the kind of care military veterans receive for TBI. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100506/A_NEWS/5060332/-1/a_news05
The bipatisan law seeks to develop guidelines for better treatment and rehabilitation of veterans with TBI, in that it establishes a panel that will determine what kind of job the Veterans Administration is doing when it cares for veterans with brain injury.
The panel will also make yearly recommendations for VA improvements and set up a TBI education and training program for VA professionals.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasonton, who has been working on the legislation since he went to Congress three years ago to represent California’s Stockton and San Joanquin County.
War-zone blasts, gunfire and shrapnel in Iraq and Afghanistan are driving up the number of brain injuries that soldiers are sustaining. In 2000, the number of those with TBI was 10,963. But back in December that number had more than doubled, jumping to 27,862, said the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.
