 |
|
|
|
|
|
WASHINGTON, July 26, 2007-- America's oldest and largest organization of combat veterans is applauding most of the recommendations released yesterday by the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors.
The nine-member commission, co-chaired by former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, was created in March to examine the whole continuum of care and programs for wounded servicemembers, as well as what is needed to assure their successful return to military duty or civilian life.
Gary Kurpius, who leads the 1.7 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., gave high marks to the commission's call for increased support for family members of the wounded.
Also lauded were information technology improvements, the need to keep Walter Reed Army Medical Center fully staffed until its scheduled closure in 2011, and the recommendations for the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to rapidly improve the awareness, diagnosis and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, and the treatment of the signature wound of this war: traumatic brain injuries.
Kurpius also applauded the creation of patient-centered recovery plans, but did insist that the new recovery coordinator positions come from the VA, not the U.S. Public Health Service. The recommendation that the VFW cannot support is the one that would completely restructure the disability compensation systems.
"The commission's recommendation to create two different classes of disabled veterans and compensate them differently is something we absolutely cannot support," said Kurpius, a Vietnam veteran from Anchorage, Alaska.
"The current system isn't perfect, but it does treat similar disabilities equally without regard to whether the injury was combat-related or training-related or due to an accident back at your home station," he explained.
"My entire organization consists of those who have served in harm's way, and as much as we want improvements, we don't want it at the expense of creating a dual system that compensates similar injuries or wounds differently," he said.
Kurpius said that where the system is today is the result of encountering and overcoming decades of problems.
"The report we are anxiously awaiting is from the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission, which was created in 2004 to study the benefits provided to compensate and assist veterans and their survivors for disabilities and deaths attributable to military service," he said. "That commission has been working this issue for more than two years and is expected to publish their report this October."
Kurpius does support part of the recommendation that calls for DOD and VA to standardize the medical exams, but insists that VA doctors be the ones conducting the exams. Some of the other issues addressed in the report are being worked out cooperatively between DOD and VA.
"I'm grateful to Senator Dole and Secretary Shalala and their entire team, and to the thousands of military and civilian healthcare providers in DOD and VA who are making a difference in the lives of our injured warriors and their families every day," said Kurpius
Click to read the Dole-Shalala Commission report
Find out more about the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission
> back to news
|
|
|
|
