{"id":741,"date":"2010-07-18T13:04:03","date_gmt":"2010-07-18T19:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/?p=741"},"modified":"2010-07-18T13:04:03","modified_gmt":"2010-07-18T19:04:03","slug":"new-jersey-mother-whose-veteran-son-killed-himself-outlines-what-va-must-do-to-end-suicides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/new-jersey-mother-whose-veteran-son-killed-himself-outlines-what-va-must-do-to-end-suicides.html","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Mother, Whose Veteran Son Killed Himself, Outlines What VA Must Do To End Suicides"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

<\/a><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0Last week\u00a0 a New Jersey woman named Linda Bean trekked to the nation’s capitol to testify about her son’s suicide two years ago. Army Sgt. Coleman Bean, 26,\u00a0killed himself after coming back to the states following two tours of duty in Iraq.<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0Bean puts the blame for her son’s death squarely on\u00a0the Department of Veterans Affairs.\u00a0The VA is not accommodating to vets, she charged, endlessly delaying appointments with her own son, for example.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Bean\u00a0was brief, but powerful, in her five minutes of testimony last Wednesday to the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, getting a standing ovation, according to The Star-Ledger of Newark.<\/p>\r\n

http:\/\/www.nj.com\/news\/index.ssf\/2010\/07\/nj_mother_of_veteran_who_kille.html<\/a><\/p>\r\n

“There are veterans who will tell you that they have had to scrap and right for every VA service they’ve received,” Bean told the subcommittee, The Ledger reported.<\/p>\r\n

She also spoke of the difficulties of using the VA’s website to garner information and get help.<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0I’ve been following the\u00a0topic of soldier suicides because of the enormous number of American troops who are coming\u00a0home from Iraq and Afghanistan with<\/a> brain injury, “shell shock”\u00a0 if you will.\u00a0 Our soldiers are not just suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, they are suffering from brain injury — subtle or traumatic — and one of its\u00a0typical after effects,\u00a0depression.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

You might not think to link brain injury and depression, but I can tell you that many of my brain-injury clients become\u00a0clinically depressed. So suicide is always a concern of mine.\u00a0And the VA has been aware of the suicide issue with veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, and been trying to address it, as long ago as 2007.<\/p>\r\n

http:\/\/veterans.house.gov\/Media\/File\/110\/12-12-07fc\/12-12-07fcqfrvaresponse.htm<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Right now veterans and service members comprise about 20 percent of the 30,000 U.S. suicides each year, The Ledger reported, citing\u00a0VA statistics. That translated to 334 active-duty service members killing themselves last year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Bean’s son committed suicide two years ago, and in all fairness to the\u00a0VA , it\u00a0really has\u00a0stepped up its\u00a0assistance\u00a0to\u00a0vets since then.\u00a0As part of an improved outreach program, the VA established\u00a0a suicide hotline for soldiers.\u00a0That 800-number has fielded\u00a0more than 300,000 phone calls and saved 10,000, The Ledger reported.<\/p>\r\n

And the VA just last weak eased its requirements for veterans to received disability payments for PTSD.\u00a0We will be blogging more about that topic soon.<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0But even as the military has tried to help returning veterans, it seems that those efforts are failing. The suicides continue, and some of the Army\u00a0programs meant to help veterans have come under fire.<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0For example,\u00a0The New York Times recently did an expose of the Army’s Warrior Transition Battalian units, which were set up stateside to help veterans who had suffered serious physical and psychological damage in combat.<\/p>\r\n

https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/army-trauma-units-are-%e2%80%98worse-than-iraq%e2%80%99-one-solider-charges.html?preview=true&preview_id=386&preview_nonce=2862b2d308<\/a><\/p>\r\n

The Times reported that the veterans in these units are essentially being warehoused, not getting counseling and being tormented by those who\u00a0watch over them.\u00a0One vet called the transition units worse than Iraq.\u00a0That doesn’t sound like a set-up that will make a veteran happy to be home. It sounds like a situation that might make a veteran\u00a0put a gun to his or her head.<\/p>\r\n

And the military\u00a0appears\u00a0to be putting its head in the sand in terms of determining which\u00a0returning\u00a0veterans sustained brain damage during their tours of duty.\u00a0U.S. Today\u00a0recently reported that the military has failed to comply with a directive that they test soldiers before and after they are in combat for brain injury.<\/p>\r\n

https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/611.html<\/a><\/p>\r\n

If the military knows a soldier has\u00a0brain injury, it can give him or her psychological\u00a0help, or medications,\u00a0to ensure he or she don’t get depressed and take their own lives.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Bean made some sound recommendations to the VA, including suggesting that it establish a group of veterans within the agency\u00a0to help those just coming home\u00a0navigate the system’s\u00a0bureaucracy and red tape. And these veterans can act as a support group for returning troops trying to acclimate themselves to life in the states again.<\/p>\r\n

She also recommended that the VA work more closely with\u00a0civilian counseling organizations. But the VA doesn’t seem very interested in working with people outside the agency.<\/p>\r\n

For example,\u00a0the new VA guidelines for PTSD disability\u00a0mandate that a military doctor, not a civilan physician, certify that a veteran qualifies for benefits.\u00a0Veterans’ group have criticized that provision in the new disability directive.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/veterans-not-satisfied-with-new-regulation-on-ptsd-and-collecting-disability-benefits.html?preview=true&preview_id=734&preview_nonce=4b79cc5dc8<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Last week\u00a0 a New Jersey woman named Linda Bean trekked to the nation’s capitol to testify about her son’s suicide two years ago. Army Sgt. Coleman Bean, 26,\u00a0killed himself after coming back to the states following two tours of duty in Iraq. \u00a0Bean puts the blame for her son’s death squarely on\u00a0the Department of Veterans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[666,97,667,669,668],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-military-and-brain-damage","tag-military-suicides","tag-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-and-veterans","tag-suicides-and-afghan-veterans","tag-suicides-and-iraq-veterans"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Jersey Mother, Whose Veteran Son Killed Himself, Outlines What VA Must Do To End Suicides - Brain Injury Lawyer Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/new-jersey-mother-whose-veteran-son-killed-himself-outlines-what-va-must-do-to-end-suicides.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Jersey Mother, Whose Veteran Son Killed Himself, Outlines What VA Must Do To End Suicides - Brain Injury Lawyer Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0Last week\u00a0 a New Jersey woman named Linda Bean trekked to the nation’s capitol to testify about her son’s suicide two years ago. 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