OPERATION FOOTPRINT

FROM:  U.S. AIR FORCE AIR NATIONAL GUARD
Members of the military participating in the Innovative Readiness Training mission Operation Footprint partnered with other local agencies such as Veterans Administration, Southwest Indian Foundation, Navajo Housing Authority, to dedicate the 200th home built to a local Navajo family in Gallup, N.M., Aug. 16, 2012. IRT mission Operation Footprint is an Air National Guard led IRT multiservice mission comprised of active duty, reserve, and National Guard members from Army, Navy and Air Force components focusing on deployment and real-world readiness training preparing for wartime missions in a joint-service environment while simultaneously providing free civil engineering services to the community. (National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Melissa E. Chatham/RELEASED)

VETERAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FALLING

FROM:  U.S. VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
Post-9/11 Veteran Unemployment Rate Still Falling; At 9.2 Percent
May 4, 2012 by Brandon Friedman
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Veteran unemployment data for the month of April. The unemployment rate for one closely watched group, Iraq and Afghanistan-era Veterans (or Gulf War II-era Veterans), fell more than a full percentage point to 9.2 percent.

While much work remains to be done, since January 2012, post-9/11 Veterans have experienced the lowest unemployment rate in any combined four-month period since 2008. Additionally, the trend over the past 28 months—since January 2010—remains downward for America’s most recent Veterans.

Tracking Veteran unemployment is notoriously difficult, and we often see significant swings from one month to the next—which is why looking at the long-term trend is critically important. While we’re heartened that the unemployment rate among younger Veterans has fallen over the long term, it is still too high as long as thousands of returning Veterans still can’t find meaningful work.

If anything, today’s positive figure reminds us that there’s still much work to be done. VA, in conjunction with the White House and our private sector partners, remains committed to ensuring that the unemployment rate for all Veterans continues its downward path.

VA ARTICLE ON MENTAL HEALTH WAIT TIMES

FROM:  U.S. VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
On VA’s Mental Health Wait Times
April 24, 2012 by Alex Horton
When Brian Chevalier was killed in an explosion during a complex ambush, our platoon didn’t take it as an exception to otherwise professional soldiering, or as a mistake that could be corrected on the spot. Chevy’s death was a failure on our part, despite our training, our weapons, and our vigilance. It didn’t matter that the triggerman was hidden from view, or the massive bomb was concealed under concrete. We let him down, and he’s not here because we didn’t keep him safe.

Just like physical trauma, psychological trauma can occur in a matter of seconds, but the consequences are felt for a lifetime. We arm troops for conflict—we teach them to shoot, move as a team, and patch each other up—but there is no equivalent steeling once they become civilians. Part of that is the complex nature of mental health; you can protect flesh and organs with armor, but what can shield the mind from the horrors of war?

After more than a decade of conflict, the rising demand for mental health services—coupled with the tragedy of Veteran suicides—has shown we must do more. Just like our platoon couldn’t save Chevy, we fail when a Veteran turns to suicide instead of help, or leaves a VA facility because no appointments are available, or when the culture and language of the military creates a divide between clinicians and Veterans.

VA has taken steps to treat all aspects of the problem—from nightmares to short tempers to suicide—by increasing its mental health budget in the last three years by 39 percent. Additionally, the Department announced the hiring of an additional 1,900 mental health staffers across the country—an increase of nearly 10 percent. The boost will bring in what Vets need—over 1,600 nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists, as well as 300 support staff to assist in the heavy lift. This is one boost in an ongoing assessment of all VA mental health operations that has been underway since 2011.

That would go far to ease what a recent VA Inspector General report identified as a major issue: Veterans are not being seen for mental health appointments as quickly as had been reported.

According to the investigation, the Veterans Health Administration met its goal of fully evaluating patients within 14 days only about 49 percent of the time. The remaining 51 percent waited an average of 50 days for full evaluations (though situations considered mental health emergencies are handled differently). For follow-up treatments, the report indicated an appointment is scheduled within 14 days about 88 percent of the time. When seconds and minutes count—as they do in combat—VA did not meet its own standard.
Many Veterans seek basic mental health care each day. That’s why the staff increase isn’t meant to simply prevent suicides before they happen. It’s about providing increased availability of appointments and resources. But more fundamentally, it helps VA build a community of care that includes trained mental health clinicians, peer support specialists, outreach workers, group support and more to promote the wellness of Veterans. It’s that kind of deep community involvement in mental health treatment—much like a military unit—that we hope improves lives.

When a Veteran calls and says he or she needs help, and we say the first available appointment is several weeks away, we have failed that Veteran by our own standard. It’s past time to say we will fix the problem, or that solutions are on the horizon. The best we can do now is to honor the living and the dead by being advocates and taking the failures we accumulate not as statistics, but scars. It should grind us up; eat at us and shock us. It should drive us. We must face the idea that thousands of returned Veterans need assistance every single day. Then we must look forward, anticipate their needs, and do better. Each of us owes that much to the Vet out there, in a dark place, looking to us to help heal the trauma inflicted on our behalf.

Chevy is not coming back. The failure to protect him haunts the men of second platoon, whose men can never say, “We’ll work to prevent this from happening in the future.” Like in war, future responses don’t make up for past failures. There are still men and women coming home healthy on the outside but eventually succumbing to mental wounds sustained in combat. Chevy’s death made us look sharper, shoot straighter, and move quicker. It’s our memory of failure that helped us protect each other’s life.

VA WORKS TO END VETERAN HOMELESSNESS

FROM AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

VA Makes Progress on Pledge to End Veteran Homelessness

By Donna Miles
WASHINGTON, April 3, 2012 - The Veterans Affairs Department is making progress on its pledge to end homelessness among veterans, with a focus on getting all homeless veterans off the streets by 2015, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki told American Forces Press Service.

Shinseki joined President Barack Obama in announcing the plan in November 2009, proclaiming that no veteran should ever have to be living on the streets.

VA is working toward that goal, Shinseki told Congress last month, reporting that the number of homeless veterans on a given night dropped from 76,300 in 2010 to about 67,500 in 2011. The next goal, he said, is to drive those numbers down to 35,000 by the end of fiscal 2013, and ultimately, to zero.

As Shinseki set out to transform VA after arriving in 2009, he made the homeless issue a top priority in getting to the bottom of what he viewed as an institutional problem.

"Homelessness among veterans was a demonstration to me that we didn't have all our programs knitted together," he said. "As good as we thought we were doing in health care and other benefits, ... we had people who were slipping through the gaps in our programs -- most visibly, the homeless."

Getting homeless veterans off the streets, particularly within such a tight timeline, would be the driving force in creating positive change throughout VA, he explained.

"If you say you are going to end homelessness, then you have to be good at everything else," he said. "If you declare to end it, you have to figure out all the pieces that contribute to it so you can begin solving the pieces in order for the whole to be solved."

That, he said, requires making sure VA is addressing the root causes behind homelessness.

It means more than simply getting veterans into school; it means making sure they graduate, he explained. It's not just sending them for vocational training; it's ensuring they finish the training and are postured to land a job.

"That's how you beat homelessness," Shinseki said. "It's not the front door. It's the back door. What did they gain out of the program?"

To support this effort, VA's budget request for fiscal 2013 includes nearly $1.4 billion for programs designed to prevent or end homelessness among veterans. This represents a 33 percent increase, or $333 million, over the 2012 funding level.

The additional funding will provide grants and technical assistance to community nonprofit organizations to maintain veterans and their families in current housing or get them quickly into new housing. It also will provide grants and per diem payments for community-based organizations offering transitional housing to 32,000 veterans.

Shinseki also plans to hire 200 coordinators to help homeless veterans with disability claims, housing problems, job and vocational opportunities and problems with the courts.

Since announcing his homeless initiative, Shinseki said, he's come to understand that dealing with homelessness is really a two-part challenge.

It's one thing to get homeless veterans physically off the streets in what he calls the "rescue" part of the challenge. Shinseki said he feels confident that this part of the mission to be completed by 2015, as promised.

But the less visible and more challenging part of the problem, he said, is addressing a population that's at risk of becoming homeless. These, Shinseki explained, are veterans who are "one paycheck, one mortgage payment, one more missed utility bill away from being evicted."

"We never see that. But if we are going to truly end homelessness, we have to have a better picture of [that]... and go into prevention mode," Shinseki said. "Otherwise, you will never be able to solve this."

So while he expects the rescue mission to wrap up in 2015, Shinseki said, he'll be able to dedicate more resources toward an ongoing prevention effort.

"If you don't stop this faucet, you never end homelessness," he said.