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THE PROBLEMS
VETERANS HAVE IN THE UNITED STATES
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DEMOGRAPHICS
Approximately 40% of homeless men are veterans,
although veterans comprise only 34% of the general adult male
population. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates that
on any given night, 271,000 veterans are homeless (National Coalition
for Homeless Veterans, 1994).
Despite the overrepresentation of veterans in the homeless population,
homelessness among veterans is not clearly related to combat military
experience. Rather, studies show that homeless veterans appear less
likely to have served in combat than housed veterans (Rosenheck, 1996).
Homeless veterans are more likely to be white, better educated, and
previously or currently married than homeless nonveterans (Rosenheck,
1996).
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46% have chronic health problems
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57% suffer from mental health problems
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60% suffer from drug/alcohol addiction
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47% suffer from a dual diagnosis
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55% have no health insurance
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40% are families
According to Homes For The Homeless,
families account for 38% of America's homeless.
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22% report having been physically abused by a household member
before the age of 18
According to the Ford Foundation, nearly
fifty percent of all homeless women and children are fleeing
domestic violence.
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60% are homeless for the first time
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NEW
REVELATIONS ABOUT GULF WAR II "MYSTERY ILLNESS"
By
Joyce Riley and Dave vonKleist
August 8, 2003
NewsWithViews.com
The American Gulf War Veterans
Association (AGWVA), an independent Gulf War Veterans’ support
organization, has long searched for answers to explain why nearly half
of the 697,000 Gulf War I Veterans are now ill and why over 200,000 of
those servicemen/women have requested disability, but have received no
adequate diagnosis or treatment, from either the Department of Defense
(DOD), or Veteran’s Affairs. Though there have been over 125 studies
done by the government at the cost of over $300,000,000 to the taxpayer,
we still have no answers as to what caused so many of our soldiers to
become ill. Meanwhile, the suffering veterans are receiving little, if
any, medical treatment for this illness. It seems that whenever veterans
become ill, the term “mystery illness” seems to be the first and
often the only diagnosis that is ever made. Veterans are then left to
fend for themselves, sick and unable to work, with little hope of a
normal life again.
The AGWVA is now again asking
questions, this time, about the newest “mystery illness” to hit the
military. After being pressured by a few independent news reporters who
have not permitted this “mystery” to continue unabated, The DOD
recently has been forced to announce the “mystery” deaths of Gulf
War II soldiers and that at least 100 other men and women have become
ill. Again, however, there were no adequate answers, but, only that the
“mystery illness” diagnosis had reared its ugly head again.
According to a family member of one of the military victims, the DOD
recently, has changed its label of the illness and is now calling it
“pneumonia” in sharp contrast to what a physician on the scene
reported. Due to continuing pressure for sound answers, the DOD was
again forced to send an investigative team to Iraq, however the
convenient, repeated lack of diagnosis, unfortunately translates into
lack of treatment, and lack of compensation for the veteran. The jury is
still out, however, if the DOD will be forthcoming with the truth this
time.
Contrary to the “pneumonia”
and “mystery illness” labels, enlightening information surfaced
today on “THE POWER HOUR” radio show (www.thepowerhour.com)
in an interview with Mark Neusche, father of Josh Neusche, one of the GW
II troops to lose his life from the “mystery illness” while serving
in Iraq. The father stated that his 20-year-old healthy son, a former
track star and non-smoker, had written home on June 26th explaining that
he would be going on a 30-hour “hauling” mission, but that he could
not disclose what they would be hauling. The son had stated that he had
been to the Palace of Sadaam Hussein, and it was later learned that he
was “hauling” at the Baghdad Airport.
Marsha Paxson also appeared on
the show, as she is the journalist who broke the U.S. story for the Lake
Sun Leader (www.lakesunleader.com).
Although the “facts” behind this story are continually changing, Ms.
Paxson is one of the few journalists who is remaining true to the facts
of the original story. Ms. Paxson revealed in her articles that the
father reported that his son was not the only ill soldier. Neusche
stated that while his son was in a coma at Landstuhl Hospital, the
father overheard the nurses say that they were expecting numerous sick
troops to be brought in all at one time. In fact, the father actually
witnessed approximately 55 other troops being received by the hospital
after they were transported by a military ambulance (bus). According to
the father, the transported troops were exhibiting varying degrees of
the illness. Some walked, some were in wheelchairs and others were on
respirators. In the commotion, a doctor reported to the father that his
son was suffering from a “toxin.” No mention of pneumonia was made,
nor was it ever reported in the medical record.
Paxton and the AGWVA now
question the diagnosis, the actual number of troops that were reported
ill, and the date when the DOD first became aware of this incident.
One of the most surprising
statements to come from The Power Hour interview conducted on “The
Genesis Network” was that while the son, Josh Neusche, was a healthy
young soldier on June 26, 2003, when he reported that he was going to
serve on the secret hauling mission, by July 1, 2003, he was in a coma,
and that day was suddenly classified by the military, as medically
retired from the Army without Josh or his family’s consent. Josh did
not die until July 12, 2003. Among other problems that this new
classification created was that the DOD was no longer obligated to
assist the family in getting to Germany to be with their son as he lay
in a coma. Because the DOD would not provide even so much as plane or
taxi fare for the Neusche family, all 650 members of the 203rd Engineer
Battalion each contributed $10.00 to make the family’s final visit
possible.
The AGWVA is demanding answers
in a timely fashion and according to spokesperson Joyce Riley, “We
cannot tolerate another whitewashing of a tragedy against our veterans.
It has happened too many times before with our failure to safeguard our
troops, adequately diagnose and effectively treat the victims of Agent
Orange spraying, Project Shad shipboard-experimentation, and Gulf War
Illness I. This time someone has to be held accountable.” Ms. Riley
closed by saying, “Speaking out for our past and present sick veterans
is the best way for Americans to support our troops!”
The interview with Mark Neusche
and Marsha Paxson can be heard at: www.thepowerhour.com click on the
“GWII mystery illness interview.”
For more information on Gulf War
illnesses, go to www.gulfwarvets.com
For more information on Project
Shad, go to www.projectshad.org
© 2003 Joyce Riley - All Rights
Reserved
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Ill Wind
– Desert Storm Blows Back with a Fury
Evidence
pointing to chemical and biological warfare — and to
communicable illness stemming from the Gulf War, whether
generated by sprayers or not — has long since warranted
urgent attention.
“If you have a contagious disease that is brought back
from a war and it’s slowly penetrating into the population,
don’t you think that’s alarming?” asked Garth Nicolson.
U.S. Representative Christopher Shays (R-CT), vice chair of
the House Committee on Government Reform, is among those who
believe that government officials responsible for helping Gulf
veterans have pursued a strategy to deny the existence of
illness and to delay effective action — a course similar to
that followed for so many years with Vietnam veterans exposed
to Agent Orange.
“It’s just amazing to think it would be true, but I
think it is,” he told Freedom. Rep. Shays has
encountered veterans who have been told by VA staff that their
problems are all in their heads, and that they should handle
those problems by taking drugs.
“They have wanted it to be a mental problem, and in some
cases it is, without recognizing that there’s a physical
cause for that mental challenge,” he said. Studies have
shown physical changes in the brain common to Gulf War
veterans, he said. “That’s not post-traumatic stress
disorder. This is literally a change in the chemical makeup of
the brain unique to Gulf War veterans who have serious
physical symptoms....”
“What Were They Doing with These Insect Cages?”
Katherine
Murray Leisure, M.D., worked at a VA medical facility in
Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and personally examined hundreds of
Gulf War veterans. There she observed an epidemic and listed
symptoms that seemed common to all. Her primary concern is the
high rate of veterans who were burdened with leishmaniasis. By
her estimate, “one-third to one-half of seriously ailing
Gulf War veterans with ‘unexplained illnesses’ and the...
Desert Syndrome we saw in the 1990s had one of several forms
of leishmaniasis.”
Leisure, a Harvard Medical School graduate and
board-certified specialist in internal medicine and infectious
diseases, assembled a grant request to study Gulf veterans
from Pennsylvania and their spouses, as well as their children
born between 1990 and 1995. Expecting financing from Congress
to dig into leishmaniasis as she had proposed, she instead saw
the VA redirect the money to examine effects of Agent Orange
in Vietnam veterans and their children — a worthwhile
purpose, but yet another case of Gulf veterans’ problems
taking a back seat.
Others share Leisure’s concern about leishmaniasis.
“There are so many Gulf War veterans that have this. It
seems to be some aberrant form,” said Joyce Riley. According
to sources, leishmaniasis is far more prevalent among Gulf
veterans than has been admitted by the Defense Department —
something Riley said she confirmed in a conversation with one
of the department’s own doctors.
Although it cannot yet be proven that Saddam’s forces
spread disease-bearing sand flies in the path of advancing
allied forces, the possibility exists. According to Kirt Love,
director of the Desert Storm Battle Registry and a Gulf War
veteran, such a biowarfare action “is not out of the
question at all.” In the 1950s, the U.S. Army demonstrated that insects could
be bred and spread on a massive scale when it released 600,000
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes — the type capable of
carrying yellow fever and dengue fever — at one site in
Florida, and more in Savannah, Georgia. The Army estimated in
1960 that it could produce 130 million mosquitoes a month. In 1998, Dr. Diane Seaman, a microbiologist who headed a
United Nations Special Commission team that inspected possible
Iraqi biowarfare sites, told the BBC, “We saw insect cages.
What were they doing with these insect cages? Insects can be
used as vectors of disease, a means of transmitting
disease.”
“What’s In All of Those Documents?”
Love, like
other veterans, wants the truth. He points to an estimated 6
million pages of classified documents in just one portion of
the Defense Department — the Deployment Health Support
Directorate — regarding the Gulf War, many of them dealing
with leishmaniasis. “The question is,” said Love,
“what’s in all of those documents?”
In her own quest for answers, Dr. Leisure encountered what
she condemned as a “stone wall or iron curtain erected by
the VA Environmental Agents Office (Frances Murphy, M.D.) and
Research Program Directors (Timothy Gerrity, Ph.D.) against
Persian Gulf veterans.”
In a five-page memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by Freedom,
Leisure wrote in 1997 that Gulf veterans had observed that VA
officials thwarted investigation into their health problems by
avoiding studies of actual physical problems involving
ear-nose-throat, stomach and intestinal tract, lungs, skin,
nervous system, endocrine system and metabolism. Instead,
Leisure noted, psychiatric and psychological studies were
primarily funded.
Another source, Garth Nicolson, estimated psychiatric
studies to constitute 80 percent of the total number of
studies of Gulf veterans’ health problems funded by the
federal government.
Expenditures on the psychiatric studies, critics note,
would be far better allocated to saving veterans’ lives.
“It Had to Have Been Some Kind of Bug”
Whether
wasteful endeavors to dismiss Gulf War Illness as purely
“mental” are due to stupidity or strategy, other aspects
of the problem, says Leisure, include efforts to:
“Keep veterans’ claims lost in limbo for years until
Gulf veterans develop crippling fatigue, dementia, die of
disease, or die from suicide or accidents.”
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“Alter medical diagnoses to reflect depression, stress
and post-combat fatigue
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“Stop funds for projects when clinical abnormalities are
discovered among Persian Gulf veterans. Block medical
publication of their research data. Fire medical editors of
federal publications as needed.”
When contacted by Freedom, Gerrity, who is no
longer with the VA, was unwilling to comment. Murphy
referred questions to Mark Brown, Ph.D., director of the
VA’s Environmental Agents Service, who said, “There is a
group of Gulf War veterans who do have very serious,
debilitating illnesses which we have difficulty
diagnosing.... And, of course, if they’re difficult to
diagnose, then, of course, they’re difficult to treat.”
Circumstances surrounding the 1991 inventory detail of
gear returned from the Persian Gulf were described to Brown,
including how Officer A and his family — all previously
healthy — developed severe, persistent health problems. He
said, “[Garth] Nicolson says it’s an infectious agent.
And that would make sense for the guy you’re describing.
Because it seems that his family maybe contracted it from
him. So it had to have been some kind of bug.”
From: http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35i1/page06.htm
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Contact
your Congressman for Full Disclosure
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Concerns
and Opinions of Vietnam Era Veterans.
... CONTENT NOTATION: Vietnam-era veterans
problems and assistance programs DESCRIPTORS: SUBCOM ON OVERSIGHT
AND INVESTIGATIONS, VETERANS' AFFAIRS. ...
www.cpas.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cis/asia/eng/92-H761-9.html
Agent
Orange Veterans
Its purpose is to try and bring MORE awareness of the problems
caused by AO to the public, to list those veterans' problems
for comparison with other vets, to ...
cybersarges.tripod.com/aov.html
Gulf
War veterans suffered brain damage after chemical exposure
... controversial, the study suggests there is a
physical mechanism -- the exposure to neurotoxic chemicals (OP's)--
responsible for the veterans' problems. ...
www.safe2use.com/ca-ipm/0099-12-01.htm
Health
Problems in PGW Veterans
Chapter Five: Health Problems in PGW Veterans.
The epidemiology of illness ... Gulf War Veterans Report
Health Problems.
www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/ pb_paper/mr1018.2.chap5.html
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| Posted on Wed, Mar. 27, 2002 |
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Veterans Hospital problems
Reports of past filth, rodents and insects at the Veterans
Hospital in Kansas City present an appalling picture. Officials
at the hospital, who say they have made vast improvements
already, must do everything possible to ensure that their
patients receive the respect and decent care they deserve.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs must
determine how these problems were allowed to develop -- and how
they can be avoided in the future. Inspections of hospital food
facilities by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for
example, have been considered in the past. This idea deserves
serious reconsideration.
A recent report in the journal Archives of Internal
Medicine said that the hospital in Kansas City was overrun
with flies and mice in mid-1998. Nurses even found maggots
growing in the noses of two comatose patients. Both patients,
astoundingly, were in the intensive-care unit.
Some problems continued into 1999, when flies were in the
operating room area.
Hospital officials acknowledged some of the problems while
quibbling with the report over their severity. They dispute, for
example, the report's contention that mice actually ran over the
feet of people at a conference in the hospital director's
office.
Any pest or sanitation problems in a medical environment,
however, should be considered serious. The Kansas City hospital
obviously failed many of its past patients by providing
substandard care.
Although reforms and improvements have apparently been
made, hospital employees must remain vigilant in keeping their
facility clean and protecting their patients.
No doubt the recent report has embarrassed and upset many
diligent employees at the hospital. To win back public
confidence, they must redouble their efforts to keep the
hospital clean and free of pests.
They must also resist the temptation to downplay the
severity of past problems.
In discussing the maggot cases, for example, one
administrator was quoted in The Star this week as saying
"there was no adverse effect on the patients." Such
unfortunate remarks can leave patients and their families with
the queasy impression that hospital officials are insensitive to
fundamental problems.
Maggots in patients should be considered, by definition,
to be an "adverse effect." For many people, the
problem sounds like something out of a nightmare.
No patients should ever have to worry about such problems
when they enter a hospital. Certainly those who have helped to
defend our country deserve better.
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| Release Date: November 1, 1999
Contact: Cheryl Hankin, PhD
(650) 403-5000 ext. 65926
hankinc@icon.palo-alto.med.va.gov
Women Assaulted in Military Suffer Depression, Alcohol Problems
One in four female outpatients of Veterans Affairs medical
facilities may have been sexually assaulted during her tour of duty,
according to a national survey. Depression and alcohol problems plague
these veterans.
"The presence and magnitude of military-related sexual
assault may be an issue not only of military and social concern, but
also of importance to health care institutions and providers," said
Cheryl Hankin, PhD, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services
Research and Development, Centers of Excellence at Bedford,
Massachusetts and Palo Alto, California.
Outpatients from many of the nation's 172 VA hospitals took part
in the study. Mailed questionnaires were completed by 3,632 women, who
comprised 56 percent of a randomly identified sample of female VA
patients. Twenty-three percent answered ‘yes' to the question:
"Did you ever have an experience where someone used force or the
threat of force to have sexual relations with you against your will
while you were in the military?"
Those responding affirmatively were significantly younger (42.6
versus 48.8 years), served longer on active duty (6.5 versus 5.2 years),
and were likelier to be enlisted than those who responded in the
negative.
Veterans who reported having been assaulted were three times
likelier to experience symptoms of depression and twice as likely to
have problems with alcohol. Sixty percent had significant symptoms of
depression, and 7 percent reported current problems with alcohol. Of
veterans who reported having been assaulted and who suffered symptoms of
depression, half had received recent mental health treatment, as had 40
percent of assault victims who had problems with alcohol. The results of
the study appear in the October issue of the Journal of Traumatic
Stress.
Hankin cautioned that this study's findings do not reflect sexual
assault incidence within the active military as a whole.
"Given recent notoriety regarding cases of sexual assault of
women in the U.S. Armed Forces, the extent and impact demand further
investigation," said Hankin.
The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Health Services Research and Development Service.
~~~~~~~~~
The Journal of Traumatic Stress is the peer-reviewed
journal of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies. For
information about the journal, contact Dean Kilpatrick, PhD, (843)
792-2945.
Center for the Advancement of Health
Contact: Petrina Chong
Director of Communications
202.387.2829
FROM: http://www.hbns.org/newsrelease/women11-1-99.cfm
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| WWII - U.S. NOT THE ONLY COUNTRY WHO TREATS THEIR VETERANS
SHAMEFULLY
HEALTH
PROBLEMS
Many veterans
experienced physical and/or psychological injuries as a result of their
experiences during the test program. These problems are reflected also
in the findings of survivors at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb sites.
In the cohort of British Nuclear Test Veterans studied, 68% of the men
sampled died of cancer. 80% died before the age of 65.
Several cancer
types have been implicated in survivors from the British tests including
colorectal cancers, multiple myeloma, melanoma, brain cancers, lung
cancer, oesophogeal cancer, leukemia variations, non-Hodgkins lymphoma,
and prostate cancer. The United States Government has accepted that the
majority of cancers could be potentially caused by the exposure of their
nuclear veterans to ionising radiation at their weapons test program.
Of non-fatal
injuries, muskulo-skeletal, skin and gastrointestinal conditions
accounted for 45% of all non-cancer conditions reported by BTNVA. Severe
dental problems, early hair loss, hearing loss and tinnitis, musculo-skeletal
conditions, burns and blistering of the skin, serious skin conditions
(96% of men reported dermatitis, eczema, and psoriasis), respiratory
problems, heart condition and gastrointestinal conditions were reported
by veterans.
Significant
psychological problems were also reported by survivors of the test
programs. These may have occurred in conjunction with physical injuries,
and included anxiety, depression, insomnia, nightmares, and significant
anger. This has led to a label called the "nuclear veterans'
syndrome", which reflects severe fear and negative belief patterns
that have consistently developed in veterans due to the psychological
stresses imposed on the indoctrination forces
FROM: http://www.tac.com.au/~anva/veterans.htm
(link no long available)
|
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|
| Many
Homeless in U.S. Are Veterans |
|
Thursday, November 27, 2003
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of
thousands of homeless veterans will be walking into shelters and
soup kitchens on Thanksgiving, and advocates warn that many more
will follow if the United States does not prepare to assist
soldiers returning from the current war in Iraq.
"We have to be almost hyper-vigilant
when these guys get back," said Steve Robinson, executive
director of the National Gulf War Resource Center,
an advocacy organization for Persian Gulf War-era veterans.
U.S. veterans face a greater chance of
becoming homeless than the general population, say experts.
According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans \,
a study released in 1999 found that while veterans count for 9
percent of the entire population, they are nearly 23 percent of
the homeless population and 33 percent of the adult male homeless
population.
The 1999 report — the most recent of its
kind — issued by the Interagency Council on Homelessness showed
that nearly 85 percent of homeless vets have high school or
graduate equivalency degrees, as opposed to 56 percent of
non-veteran homeless.
"There are many homeless veterans
sleeping in the streets of America," said Linda Boone,
executive director of the NCHV.
Boone said no "sound bite" causes
or solutions can explain the circumstances that lead veterans to
become homeless. But Robinson and other experts note that 76
percent of all homeless vets — about 500,000, according to
estimates — have substantial substance abuse and mental
health problems.
These experts contend that in many
cases, problems stem from post-traumatic stress disorder caused
by their military service.
The ICH study showed that as of 1996, nearly
47 percent of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam War and
17 percent served after Vietnam. Robinson said some troops in Iraq
have seen Vietnam War-level carnage, a certain cause of
post-traumatic stress disorder.
"When the combat is particularly
devastating — like it is now — when those people
come back they will change and forever be changed," said
Robinson, pointing to the daily guerilla attacks on U.S.
servicemen and women in Iraq. Approximately 130,000 soldiers are
currently serving in Iraq, and have experienced nearly 300 casualties
since May 1, the declared end of major combat.
"It's going to take aggressive
counseling and services" to ensure soldiers don't fall into a
spiral of depression when they return, Robinson said, adding that
depression can lead to the kind of self-destructive behavior that
has led many vets to eventual homelessness.
Nancy Verespy, executive director of Veterans
of the Vietnam War,
said post-traumatic stress disorder does not always affect
veterans right away, nor are veterans necessarily homeless right
after discharge. Sometimes, it takes years for depression,
anxiety, substance abuse and bad economic situations to take their
toll, driving them into the streets, she said.
PTSD is an insidious thing, it creeps into
the mind," she said. "Hopefully these younger vets will
recognize their need sooner. Hopefully they will get help."
According to Veterans Administration officials,
the federal government operates 134 outreach health care
facilities that assist about 40,000 homeless veterans across the
country. They also provide special services for the homeless at
regional hospitals, have acquired properties for homeless shelters
and provide readjustment services at its 206 Vet Centers
nationwide. The agency expects to fund soon about 8,000
beds for the homeless at 34 VA sites.
"We’ve exponentially increased our
capability to reach out into the community right now, and from
that standpoint we've improved," said Al Taylor, VA program
specialist. "There are never enough resources to get out
there and do everything we'd like to do, but we feel like we are
making progress."
Rick Weidman, director of government
relations with Vietnam Veterans of America, said he thinks the VA
has worked hard to build a network of programs for the homeless
that hadn’t even existed before the 1980s, but the VA is still
serving only about one-fifth of the estimated veteran
homeless population.
He said the department needs to put more
resources into the right places to deal with mental illness in the
veteran population, including more money toward prevention.
"We are simply not prepared to deal with
the mental problems, or even the physiological problems at a
healthy rate," he said. "We could prevent a great number
of veterans becoming homeless in the first place."
Not all homelessness among veterans can be
blamed on traumatic military service or a failure
by the Pentagon to provide essential readjustment training to
discharged soldiers, say some experts. Some veterans had
mental health or life skills problems before they went into the
military. Some are victims of substance abuse or a bad economy.
Others don't want to be found.
"Does it all lay at the feet of the
military? Probably not," Boone said. But, she added, she has
not found an adequate explanation how so many veterans can
leave the service with so few life skills, little wherewithal
to get jobs or the ability to integrate back into society.
She said both the Veterans Administration and
the communities to which these veterans are returning have an
obligation to help provide job assistance, education and
mental health counseling, if necessary.
"The community in which a veteran lives
has to say, 'What can I do?'" Boone said.
Verespy said her group has been leading a
campaign to get homeless veterans transitional housing. Called the
"United Veterans Beacon House," the
project has funded special housing for veterans who have completed
drug or alcohol rehabilitation, counseling and other assistance
programs in Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio,
Louisiana and Florida.
Verespy said she has helped at least two
veterans from the first Persian Gulf War find such housing, and
expects she will see more of these veterans, who are typically in
their 30s, after they return from Iraq.
"We need to support them because
they’ve supported us. Veterans should never want for everything
— maybe that’s not realistic, but it’s hopeful," she
said.
FROM: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104184,00.html
|
|
| Excerpt from the statement of Vietnam Veterans of America submitted
by Marsha Tansey Four, RN, Chair, Women Veterans Committee before the
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Committee on Veterans
Affairs.
"Approximately 3 to 4% of the 275,00 homeless veterans across
this county are women. Homeless women veterans present different needs
with reference to privacy, gender related care, treatment for physical
and sexual trauma, and care for dependent children. Due to these
compounding issues very few programs are available to serve and
appropriately meet the needs of this particular homeless population.
This deficiency in available programs was recognized by Congress,
when in FY2000, approximately $2.3 million dollars of the additional $50
million of those funds allocated to VA Homeless Programs were designated
and fenced for homeless women veteran projects. Ten Homeless Women
Veteran Projects have been selected.
FROM: http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/homeless.html
|
Female Vets More Likely to Be Homeless
But researchers and experts say the causes aren't
clear
By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
(HealthDay
is the new name for HealthScoutNews.)
WEDNESDAY, July 2 (HealthDayNews) -- New research suggests women
who are veterans face an
even greater risk of homelessness than their male counterparts.
But the challenges of military life may not be the sole cause of
homelessness among these women.
Instead, they may be harboring personal problems
from years earlier, says study co-author Dr. Robert Rosenheck, the
director of the VA Northeast Program Evaluation Center.
"Women join the military exclusively on a voluntary basis, and
they often don't have strong civilian prospects or are looking for a way
out of difficult family relationships," he says. "We don't
have evidence for (this theory), but we think it's a reasonable
interpretation."
Female veterans are a
fairly small group -- they made up just 5 percent of all American vets
in 2000 -- but their numbers will grow over the next several years
because more women are
in the armed forces. The percentage of women
in the military has grown from 4 percent in 1983 to 12 percent in 2000.
Rosenheck and his colleagues examined the results of two surveys of
homeless
people for their findings, which appear in the July issue of the American
Journal of Public Health .
One survey, taken over five years in nine states, targeted mentally
ill homeless people who
didn't receive services. The researchers looked at the results from
2,658 women surveyed
from 1994-1998 and found that 4.4 percent were veterans.
In the other survey, from 1996, federal researchers talked to 832 homeless
women from more than 100
communities. Of those women,
3.1 percent were veterans.
In contrast, about 1.2 percent of non-homeless women
are veterans.
The numbers suggest that homeless women are three to four
times more likely to be veterans
than those who have homes, Rosenheck says. By contrast, homeless
men are only 1.3 times more likely to be vets.
While there's a common perception that the ranks of the homeless
are filled with male veterans,
that's not actually the case, Rosenheck adds. And, in another swipe at
common wisdom, veterans
who served after the Vietnam War actually suffer from more homelessness
than Vietnam vets.
"In spite of the criticism of the (Vietnam War) draft, it
actually was a great leveler," Rosenheck says. "The military
services actually were quite representative of the population, although
they didn't have the very well off or the severely disabled or people
with mental retardation."
After the Vietnam War, the armed forces returned to volunteer status
and began getting more applicants who "don't have very good
prospects," he says. "We have some evidence that in the
immediate post-Vietnam period, 1970s to 1980s, people going into the
military had more several mental health and addiction problems.
They have more problems
when they get out."
Dr. Margot Kushel, an assistant professor of medicine at the
University of California at San Francisco and an expert on homelessness,
agrees that women vets
may enter the military with personal problems
that could lead to homelessness after their service is completed.
"People who have less stable home environments may seek out
military experience in order to gain stability. We know that a major
risk for homelessness in general is fewer social supports like family
and community," she says.
It could also be that women
are more vulnerable to the traumas of serving in the military and may
develop post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychiatric conditions
more often.
"It is possible that women
experience not only traumatic events in combat but also are exposed to
sexual assault in the military. Prior sexual assault may be a risk
factor," Kushel adds.
Another theory is the job skills women
pick up in the military may not transfer as well into careers in
civilian life, she says. "It is also possible that the systems in
place to support veterans
(benefits, health care, etc.) are less accessible to women
than men," she adds.
The findings suggest the veterans
system must pay more attention to women
vets, especially when they're discharged because of psychological problems,
Rosenheck says. "We did another recent study that showed only about
40 percent of people discharged because they had a mental illness made
it to the VA system."
Did the veterans left
behind become homeless?
Nobody knows, Rosenheck says.
More information
To find out more about the problem of homelessness, visit the
National
Coalition for the Homeless
or the Department
of Housing and Urban Development .
SOURCES: Robert Rosenheck, M.D., director, VA Northeast Program
Evaluation Center, and professor, psychiatry, Yale University, West
Haven, Conn.; Margot Kushel, M.D., assistant professor, medicine,
University of California at San Francisco; July 2003 American Journal
of Public Health
Copyright © 2003 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
|
| How many people are homeless in
Connecticut?
According to national data, close to 16,700 different people in CT
used emergency shelters last year with 78% being adult males. This is a
4.6% increase over the previous year. Over 9,953 people were turned away
due to lack of bed space. An additional 900 homeless veterans resided in
VA supported beds.
There are 250,000 homeless veterans identified nationally, but it
is estimated that there may be actually three times this number. Most
experts estimate that for every veteran identified at a shelter or
treatment facility, there are two to three homeless veterans residing
under bridges, in abandoned buildings or in other unsuitable situations.
CT includes three of the poorest cities in the US (Bridgeport,
Hartford, and New Haven). At the same time CT as a state has the second
highest income per capita in the US. CT truly is a state of have and
have-nots. The 1998 statistics from the CT Coalition to End Homelessness
show that the number of homeless individuals and families in our state
has increased over the past year.
Who are homeless veterans?
The U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says homeless
veterans are mostly male (2 % are women). The vast majority are single,
most come from poor, disadvantaged communities, 45% suffer from mental
illness, and half have substance abuse problems. 92% have mental health
and/or substance abuse problems. America’s homeless veterans have
served in World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama,
Lebanon, Persian Gulf or the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts
in South America. 47% of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam
Era. More than 67% served our country for at least three years and 33%
were stationed in a war zone.
How many homeless veterans are
there?
Although accurate numbers are impossible to come by (no one keeps
national records on homeless veterans) the VA estimates that more than
275,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. And, more than half-a
million experience homelessness over the course of a year.
Conservatively, one out of every four homeless males who is sleeping in
a doorway, alley, or box in our cities and rural communities has put on
a uniform and served our country – now they need America to remember
them.
Why are veterans homeless?
In addition to the complex set of factors affecting all
homelessness – extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income,
and access to health care – a large number of displaced and at-risk
veterans live with lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
and substance abuse, compounded by a lack of family and social support
networks.
Veterans comprise 11-13% of America’s work force and
approximately 26% of displaced and unemployed workers nationally,
according to the Department of Labor. In 1995, the Disabled American
Veterans, Inc. estimated that 50% of unemployed adults in CT were
veterans.
A significant number of manufacturing jobs have moved to less
expensive areas outside the state and many jobs have higher standards
for employment requiring more technical expertise. This trend has
adversely affected veterans, many of whom migrated to jobs in the
defense and manufacturing industries after military service. As jobs
move elsewhere, more and more veterans are becoming unemployed and at
risk of homelessness
A top priority is secure, safe, clean housing that is free of
drugs and alcohol, and has a supportive environment.
While “most homeless people are single, unaffiliated men, most
housing money in existing federal homelessness programs, in contrast, is
devoted to helping homeless families or homeless women with dependant
children,” according to “Is Homelessness a Housing Problem?” in
Understanding Homelessness: New Policy and Research Perspectives
published by Fannie Mae Foundation, 1997.
Doesn’t the Department of
Veterans Affairs take care of homeless veterans?
To a certain degree, yes. According to the VA’s 1997 report, in
the years since it “began responding to the special needs of homeless
veterans, its homeless treatment and assistance network has developed
into the Nation’s largest provider of homeless services. Serving more
than 40,000 veterans annually.”
With an estimated 500,000 veterans homeless, at some time during a
year, the VA reaches less than 10% of those in need ... leaving 460,000
veterans still without services.
FROM: http://www.ctjobbank.com/homes/faqs.htm
|
WE NEED TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR VETERANS
Some VA Hospitals In Shocking Shape
ABCNEWS.com - April 9, 2004
Fourteen years ago, an ABCNEWS hidden-camera investigation
ignited a firestorm about conditions and competence inside Veterans
Administration hospitals.
Recently, there have been new stories of misdiagnosis,
disastrous management and deficient care at some of the nation's 162
facilities.
At a hospital near Cleveland, an ABCNEWS hidden-camera
investigation found bathrooms filthy with what appeared to be human
excrement. Supply cabinets were in disarray, with dirty linens from
some patients mixed in with clean supplies, or left in hallways on
gurneys.
At a neighboring facility, examining tables had dried blood and
medications still on them. In several areas, open bio-hazardous
waste cans were spilling over. Primetime obtained internal memos
documenting that the equipment used to sterilize surgical
instruments had broken down - causing surgical delays and possible
infection risks.
With 130,000 young American men and women putting their lives
at risk in Iraq today, these conditions are particularly relevant.
While current soldiers are treated in military hospitals, when they
leave the service and need treatment, many will seek care at
Veterans Affairs (as the Veterans Administration is now known)
hospitals.
"Once you come back to be a veteran, it's like a black hole,
you know - nothing," former Army Sgt. Vannessa Turner told ABCNEWS.
Turner
was stricken with a mysterious illness while on duty in Iraq this
past year. She retired from the military on medical grounds, and
when she reported to a VA hospital for treatment, doctors scheduled
her for an appointment six months later.
Not a Point of Pride
Veterans who responded to a survey by the American Legion
in 2003 said it
took an average of seven months to get a first appointment at a VA
hospital. In some hospitals, patients have waited as long as two
years.
In 1999,
Jack Christensen, a former army sergeant who served in the Korean
War, was admitted to the VA hospital in Temple, Texas, with
pneumonia, and ended up staying three years.
Christensen's wife, Pat, says
the attitude of some of the practical nurses was shocking.
Some of the
patients were forced to beg for food and water, she says.
Instead of helping her husband go to the bathroom, she said, "they
would put a towel under his hips and tell him to use the towel."
Pat
Christensen said her husband's condition worsened over several
months - so badly that at one point he developed horrific bedsores
and dangerous infections, and she says his doctors said they would
have to amputate his legs.
Pat moved her husband to a private facility, where his
infection healed and he underwent extensive physical therapy.
She sued the VA, and then used the money to pay for private care for
her husband. The VA denied liability but paid a settlement.
Dr. Jonathan Perlin, the deputy undersecretary for health, said
the VA system has sophisticated quality control. But when he was
shown ABCNEWS' hidden-camera video of hallways and supply closets in
disarray, he said, "This is something we're not proud of."
Fundamental Problems
Critics have long charged that the VA system puts patients
on a kind of assembly line, passing them from doctor to doctor.
There's also criticism of how
the VA uses residents - doctors still training and not certified in their
specialties.
Terry
Soles served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. His wife, Denise,
says he was one casualty of this practice. In 1998, he went to the
VA hospital in Cleveland complaining of pain and diarrhea, and
doctors removed small cancerous growths from his stomach and
esophagus.
But as
his symptoms persisted over the next two years, his wife says the VA
gave him painful tests and repeatedly lost the results. His wife
says Soles was seen by a parade of constantly rotating resident
doctors, and there was little consistency in his care.
Once,
Soles was prepped for surgery but before the operation the doctors
who were present couldn't agree on what they were going to do, she
said.
Before he got sick, the 6-foot
Soles weighed more than 200 pounds. By the time his family finally decided
to take him to a private hospital, he weighed 80 pounds. Some VA
doctors thought his problem was psychosomatic.
When he
could no longer recognize his own son, Soles was rushed to a private
hospital. There, Soles learned he was "a total mass of cancer from
his trachea to his renal bowel. And that there was nothing that
could be done," his wife says. Terry Soles died three days later.
The VA's Perlin said the Soles story was tragic, but added:
"However, that is not the experience of most of the veterans who
come to us for care. ... We take care of 7 million veterans. While
the majority of care is good, in a big system, bad things happen."
Whose Fault?
Critics charge that one of the
big problems facing the VA is that too much money goes toward
administration, at the cost of nursing and patient care.
Dean Billik,
the former director of the VA in Charleston, S.C., is brought up as
an example.
In 1996, he was denounced for allegedly spending about $200,000
in taxpayer money to redecorate his office; $1.5 million to renovate
a nursing home unit that stayed empty for two years; and tens of
thousands of dollars for a fish tank in the lobby - while there were
budget shortfalls and staff cutbacks were contemplated.
Congress heard testimony claiming Billik was "blatant in his
mismanagement," and an inspector
general's report confirmed several of the numerous allegations
against him.
But after everything was brought to light, Billik still got a
bigger job: He was put in charge of the third-largest hospital
system in the VA, encompassing eight cities, 295 acres of land and
83 buildings. And his salary immediately jumped about $15,000.
Primetime obtained budget information on the central Texas VA
system for Billik's six-year tenure at the top.
It confirms
that Billik cut spending $2 million for the people in direct patient
care - nurses aides and practical nurses.
Other
documents obtained by Primetime show that $129 million was spent on
construction at three of six facilities in Temple, Texas.
One
source says Billik spent $1.8 million renovating a building at
Temple for his own offices - after it had been renovated for patient
care.
Furthermore, Nancy Kelsey, who was a nurse at one of the Temple
facilities under Billik's supervision, says
the way some
of the staff treated patients was alarming. She says IVs ran out,
patients were neglected and dressings weren't changed.
Melba
Bell, whose husband, Ed, served in Korea, said the staff was often
idle and it would often take hours to get help. Other families said
that if patients or their families persisted in asking for help,
some of the staff retaliated.
At one point, Bell's infection got so bad that the hospital
used maggots to try to eat away the decay. That's not unusual
treatment, but what happened afterward was.
"The
dressing that they had on there was real poorly done," said Bell's
granddaughter, Chesney Shirmer. "Some of the maggots got out and
they were in the bed with him, you know? He could feel them in the
bed."
Ed Bell died
of gangrene in the VA hospital in 2002.
One More Problem
When confronted with these details, Perlin said he shared
the outrage and promised to look into fixing these things.
But there is one more problem.
Many
whistle-blowers and critics say if you try to expose the truth, VA
managers don't want to hear it.
Charles Steinert, who worked for Billik in Charleston, says he
felt pressure to leave after he complained about some of the
building projects and how he was being treated by supervisors.
Nurse Melissa Craven, who also worked at the Charleston VA,
says she suffered retribution for two years after spoke out about
some of her supervisors.
Perlin
said it is easy for patients and their loved ones to lodge
complaints about VA care. "That's important to us, because if there
are concerns, we want to address them," he said.
But many
patients and their loved ones told ABCNEWS that wasn't their
experience - and even worse, many of the families are afraid to
speak out.
"They're
afraid to say what really goes on, because they're afraid any little
benefits that they have are going to be taken away from them," said
Denise Soles.
Improvement Efforts
The day after Primetime presented its findings to the VA's Perlin, he ordered inspections of the facilities Primetime
investigated.
They
found a number of problems at the Temple, Texas, VA, including poor
hygiene, insufficient staffing and low satisfaction among patients
and their families.
The VA announced it would bring in new supervisors, reassign
some personnel, train others, and begin recruiting additional staff.
Inspectors who went to the VA in Cleveland said it was in good
condition. However, after their visit, Primetime received phone
calls from several sources saying that the hospital had advance
warning of the so-called surprise inspection.
And to
those patients who accuse the VA of assembly-line care - that
patients go through a succession of doctors - a public relations
officer for the VA said it tries to ensure continuity of care, but
that may not always be possible.
As for Dean Billik, he has now retired. In a phone conversation
on Wednesday, he said he disagreed with the VA inspectors, saying
their report was "an opinion."
Billik said he relied on his staff to supervise nursing and
recommend budgets, and if he had renovated some buildings that then
were closed it was because he didn't possess 20/20 hindsight and
made the best decisions at the time.
Rep. Ted Strickland, a member of
the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called for the White House and
Congress to approve enough money to ensure that veterans get the care they
deserve.
It's a
"situation that's crying out for change," the Ohio Democrat said
after viewing Primetime's tapes.
Veterans
and their families agree they deserve better. "They were good enough
to go fight for their country," said Melba Bell. "They deserve to
have the best treatment that they could get."
Denise
Soles says that before her husband died he asked just one thing of
her: to speak out.
She said
Terry Soles told her, "If we can help one other veteran from going
through the hell ... That's what we have to do."
http://taliaferro.net/closure/page7.html
Marie Buchanan
Researcher, Pastor-Assistant, Translator
|
|
Veterans Administration Hospitals: Do They Measure Up to
an Appropriate Standard of Care? Veterans’
groups and others are raising concerns about conditions in
Veteran Administration (VA) hospitals. Official
VA inspections have revealed unhealthy conditions like
reused objects that can spread infection, inadequate cleaning,
and vermin infestations.
Inspectors have also found that staff members are not
adequately supervised and there is a high rate of adverse
effects from medication. In the Durham, North Carolina facility,
the staff falsified
reports to show that defibrillators—essential
life-saving equipment—were routinely checked, when, in fact, the
equipment was not adequately maintained.
The
inspections have found
even more serious violations in the way resident physicians
are supervised. Inspectors had difficulty locating supervising
physicians in four VA facilities who were supposed to be
present to oversee residents and found many other
irregularities. In Lexington, Kentucky,
inspectors found that
supervising physicians gave their computer passwords to
resident physicians, so that the residents could cosign their
own reports without supervision. Unsupervised resident
physicians create a serious risk of malpractice, and the VA’s
peer review identified
63 malpractice cases between 1997 and 2002 that were caused by
a failure to supervise residents. There may have been many
more.
VA facilities and
practitioners have been found liable for malpractice for
errors ranging from misdiagnosis to surgical and medication
errors and inadequate care. It is more difficult to bring a
lawsuit against a VA hospital under federal law than against
an independent hospital, and the cases are tried before
federal judges without a jury. (See
Veterans Medical Malpractice:
What You Should Know for more information.) In spite of this,
several judgments for over $1 million have been entered in
military malpractice cases in recent years. This indicates
that federal judges found the VA malpractice had been very
serious.
Does all of this mean that
VA hospitals are giving a lower standard of care than other
hospitals? The answer seems to be yes. A
study of the VA program
for cardiac care completed by an independent group in 2003
showed that heart patients treated in VA hospitals are more
likely to die from heart attacks or in the 3 years following
an attack than patients of the same age and physical condition
treated in non-VA facilities. VA hospitals were also found to
perform angioplasty or bypass surgery 50% as often as other
hospitals. Those procedures can often extend a life for
several years.
If you have been injured due to the negligence of a doctor or
other medical personnel at a VA hospital, you should seek the
advice of an attorney. To find an experienced VA medical
malpractice attorney, post your case to the free
Case Evaluation Form.
Source:
Marie Buchanan
Researcher, Pastor-Assistant,
Translator
http://www.the-truth-ministries.org
http://lists.the-truth-ministries.org/mailman/listinfo/the-end-times-news
|
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq
and Afghanistan are ending up homeless. How could this happen?
Charles Ommanney / Getty Images for Newsweek
A homeless veteran lies on a bed at New Directions, a private
nonprofit residential and substance-abuse program for homeless
veterans in Los Angeles
By By Sarah Childress
Newsweek
Feb. 24, 2007 - Kevin Felty came back from Iraq in 2003 with
nowhere to stay, and not enough money to rent an apartment. He
and his wife of four years moved in with his sister in Florida,
but the couple quickly overstayed their welcome. Jobless and
wrestling with what he later learned was posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), Felty suddenly found himself scrambling to find
a place for himself and his wife, who was six-months pregnant.
They found their way to a shelter for homeless veterans, which
supported his wife during her pregnancy and helped Felty get
counseling and find a job.
A year later, he's finally thinking his future. "I don't
want to say this is exactly where I want to be-it's really not,"
he says. "But it's what I can get at the moment."
Young, alienated and often living on their own for the first
time, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans increasingly are coming home
to find that they don't have one. Already, nearly 200,000
veterans-many from the Vietnam War-sleep on the streets every
night, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. But
young warriors just back from the Mideast-estimated around 500
to 1,000-are beginning to struggle with homelessness too.
Drinking or using drugs to cope with PTSD, they can lose their
job and the support of family and friends, and start a downward
spiral to the streets. Their tough military mentality can make
them less likely to seek help. Advocates say it can take five to
eight years for a veteran to exhaust their financial resources
and housing options, so they expect the number to rise
exponentially in a few years.
"Rather than wait for the tsunami, we should be
doing something now," says Cheryl Beversdorf, president of the
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
The problem is mainly a lack of resources, advocates say. There
are only about 15,000 beds available in VA-funded shelters or
hospitals nationwide, and nearly every one is taken. In some
smaller cities there simply aren't many places for a homeless
veteran to go. And as affordable housing units shrink
nationwide, veterans living on a disability check of, say, $700
a month, (which means a 50-percent disability rating from the
VA), are hard-pressed to find a place to live. Most shelters
require veterans to participate in a rehabilitation program, but
a "fair amount" of veterans just go back to the streets once
they leave, says Ed Quill, director of external affairs at
Volunteers of America, the nonprofit housing group for veterans
that helped Felty.
The VA says it's making a concerted effort to reach out to vets
before they hit bottom, says Pete Dougherty, the VA's
coordinator for homeless programs. Intake counselors are trained
to ask questions, especially of newer veterans, to seek out
mental health or other problems that could lead to homelessness.
"We're much more sensitive than we were 40 years ago for signs
of problems," he says. And they have expanded some services.
Last week, the VA approved $24 million to boost aid for the
homeless, which will allow them to add about 1,000 more beds and
increase the number of grants to help the growing population of
homeless women veterans and those with mental illnesses.
Much of the work with new veterans is being done one soldier
at a time. At New Directions in Los Angeles, a center that
rehabilitates homeless veterans, Anthony Belcher, a formerly
homeless Vietnam vet who now works at the center, looks out for
one particular Iraq veteran who shows up at the center about
once a month, filthy, drugged out and tortured by PTSD. "He's a
baby," Belcher says. "You can see it in his eyes." So far, the
young vet is too wary to accept more than a night's bed or a hot
meal. But as Belcher says, at least he has a place to go. That's
more than many of the thousands of vets on America's streets can
say tonight.
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.
|
LINKS TO PLACES WHO CAN HELP
Department of Veterans Affairs Home Page
The home page for the Department of Veterans Affairs provides links to
veterans
benefits and services, as well as information and resources
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the US, vfw nonprofit service org, usa military
veterans
benefits, VFW programs, community service, patriotic and world events ...
Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Home Page
Message from DAV National Leaders. ...
Description: Support organisation for veterans, providing a nationwide network
of services, free of charge to all...
Veterans For Peace | Homepage
Veterans for Peace, Inc. (VFP) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational and
humanitarian
organization dedicated to the abolishment of war. ... VETERANS FOR PEACE.
...
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Paralyzed Veterans of America, Paralyzed Veterans of America, ... - more.
A Statement
from Paralyzed Veterans of America National President Joseph L. Fox, Sr.
...
Serving veterans of the Armed Forces who have experienced spinal cord
dysfunction.
VIETNAM VETERANS HOME PAGE
... Taps: Tributes To Vietnam Veterans by their families and friends.
View the latest updates and additions as of 20 January 2004
Links to community resources and support services, testimonies and writings,
recommended books,...
To honor
Vietnam Veterans,
living and dead, who served their country on either side of the conflict.
...
Provides an interactive online forum for Vietnam Veterans and their families
and friends to exchange...
Welcome to the GI Bill Web Site
... Useful Department of Veterans Affairs Sites and Telephone numbers:
...
The home of the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Benefits
Administration
Contains information about VA education benefit programs, including the GI
Bill, Tuition Assistance,...
Vietnam Veterans of America
Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. ... Library Associates of VVA Vietnam Veterans
Assistance
Fund Veterans Collectibles. POW/MIA Committee, VVA Education Subcommittee.
The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall Page
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall Page is dedicated to honoring
those who died in the Vietnam War.
... Stand Down. Help for Homeless Veterans.
Help for Community-based Organizations. ...
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. ...
www.nchv.org/
Homeless Veterans
VA offers a wide array of special programs and
initiatives specifically designed
to help homeless veterans live as self-sufficiently and
independently as ...
www.va.gov/homeless/
New
England Shelter for Homeless Veterans
A non-profit, substance-free organization established to
empower homeless
veterans to move from homelessness to independent living.
www.neshv.org/
Homeless
Veterans
Homeless Veterans. ... Rather,
studies show that homeless veterans appear less
likely to have served in combat than housed veterans (Rosenheck,
1996). ...
www.nationalhomeless.org/
vietnow
- veterans - vietnam to now - veterans helping veterans
Homeless veterans, agent orange, pow/mia,
ptsd, va, and gulf war syndrome
are important issues for VietNow and veterans. .
www.vietnow.com/ Homeless
Veterans Information Resource Guide
... Winter... Coming to a homeless vet
near you... Homeless Veterans Information
Resource Guide. To add a Web site to this list Link Request | VIP Link. ...
members.aol.com/veterans/warlib6z.htm
The
Base Camp - Homeless Veterans Online
Organization helping homeless veterans; learn about the facility and programs,
read press releases,...
www.awvh.org/
WDVA
- Benefits - Help for the Homeless
... Help for Homeless Veterans and
Those At-Risk of Becoming Homeless.
The Veterans Assistance Program (VAP) helps homeless veterans ...
dva.state.wi.us/Ben_homeless.asp
homeless
veterans
... Military Awards Decorations. Military Pay
Prior Rates. Homeless Veterans Army Newspapers.
Aviation Newspapers & Newsletters. ... They are America's homeless
veterans. ...
www.vetshome.com/homeless_veterans.htm Fact
Sheet VETS-04
... US Department of Labor Program Highlights Veterans'
Employment and Training
Service. Fact Sheet VETS - 04. Homeless Veterans'
Reintegration Project. ...
www.dol.gov/vets/programs/fact/
Homeless_veterans_fs04.htm Homeless
Veterans
... VA offers a wide array of special programs
and initiatives specifically designed
to help homeless veterans live as self-sufficiently and
independently as ...
www1.va.gov/homeless/indextext.cfm ABQjournal:
Homeless Veterans Shelter Reopening
... Saturday, December 20, 2003 Homeless Veterans Shelter Reopening By Miguel Navrot
Journal Staff Writer Albuquerque's shuttered East Central shelter for
hard ...
www.abqjournal.com/news/military/
124926metro12-20-03.htm
Homeless
Veterans, Conference
Homeless Veterans. The Florida ...
backgrounds.
Homeless veterans tend to be older and more educated than homeless non-veterans.
www.floridavets.org/ California
Department of Veterans Affairs - Homeless Veterans ...
... Homeless Veterans Resources, Veterans
Services.
The tragedy of homelessness among veterans persists, even when the economy is robust and
unemployment is low. ...
www.cdva.ca.gov/homeless/default.asp Who
Are America's Homeless Veterans?
According to a survey of more than 1200 homeless veterans conducted in October 1997,
Vietnam veterans account for 42 percent, followed by Korean War veterans
...
www.agrm.org/news/veterans.html
Dignity
Memorial® sponsored Homeless Veterans Burial Program
... Homeless Veterans Burial
Program Every night over 270,000 homeless veterans sleep on the streets.
Why? The reasons are many
www.dignitymemorial.com Legal
Aid Foundation of Los Angeles: Bill Smith Homeless Veterans ...
Bill Smith Homeless Veterans Project. Homeless Veterans make up a third
to half of the homeless population in Los Angeles.
www.lafla.org/clientservices/specialprojects/vets.asp
Google
News about Homeless Veterans
Google
Search for Homeless Veterans Problems
|
|
AMERICAN AND PATRIOTIC
MIDIS
|
SALUTING
OUR VETERANS
7-30-07 -
MILITARY DRAFT VS ALL VOLUNTEERS
THIS INCLUDES YOUR CHILDREN
updated - 7-21-07 -
ANOTHER PEARL HARBOR POSSIBLE
ANOTHER DREAM POINTS TO AN ATTACK
|
updated 7-19-07 -
HOMELAND SECURITY
AMERICA IS NOW SAFE FROM ITS OWN CITIZENS
By the authority vested in me as
President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as
amended (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)(IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act
(50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.)(NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United
States Code, |
|
updated 7-16-07 -
CHINA IS ATTACKING AMERICA
WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT
INVASION OF AMERICA
NORTH AMERICAN UNION BEING DEVELOPED!!!
AMERICA NEEDS TO CLOSE THE BORDER TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
SOME STATES PASSING LEGISLATION NOT TO COOPERATE
THE NEWEST ONE IS IDAHO
RUDY GUILIANI IS PART OF THE LAW GROUP MANAGING
THIS PROJECT |
|
updated 4-26-07 -
WAR WITH IRAN
DAVE AND THE STALEMATE
NOT SO STALE ANYMORE
WILL IRAN STRIKE FIRST?????
NEW PHOTOS
ISRAEL THREATENED TO BE WIPED OFF THE EARTH |
1-16-07-
THE WAR OF GOG-MAGOG
9-29-03 -
WEAPONS OF THE
SEA
IMMINENT WAR AT SEA?
UPDATED - 9-23-2003 -
IRAQ - BAGHDAD - EPISODE
2
D-DAY - HISTORICAL OR
FUTURE?
GULF
WAR ILLNESSES - THE NEXT
GENERATION
THIS PAGE IS NOT FOR PREGNANT WOMEN - BE FOREWARNED!!!
THESE LINKS ARE NOT FOR WEAK STOMACHS
OUR MEN ARE COMING HOME DEFECTIVE!!!
10-27-2002 -
ANTI WAR
PROTESTS
THE
BLITZ - IS THIS A PROPHECY?
PEACE!
NOBODY WANTS ANY - WHO CAN DECLARE WAR?
THE DREAM AND THE REALITY
THE
COMING WAR(S) vs the PAST WARS
"DOGS OF
WAR"
BLOWBACK
THE MARBLE GAME
SYPHILIS
AND THE MILITARY MAN
HORRORS OF WAR - PEACE
AT ANY PRICE?
PAKISTAN PREPARING FOR
WAR
INDIA AND PAKISTAN CLOSE
TO WAR
THE DREAM AND THE REALITY
IS THERE ANOTHER
PEARL HARBOR IN OUR FUTURE?
BIOLOGICAL
WARFARE
A PROPHECY
SMALLPOX
DREAMS
AND PROPHECY OF IRAQ AND SADDAM HUSSEIN
THE BLOODY WAR OF JOEL FOR
WARREN
A PROPHETIC VISION
HOSTAGES, HOSTAGES,
HOSTAGES, HOSTAGES
HEZBOLLAH -
MY EXPERIENCE
AND THE NEWS
WE WERE WARNED
AMERICANS BEING HAULED AWAY IN BOXCARS?
RED LINEBLUE
LINE
WHAT ARE WE IN FOR NEXT?
THE DREAM
OF 33 - NORTH AND SOUTH
DREAMS OF
WAR
DREAMS OF THE GREAT
EARTHCHANGES - MAIN INDEX
|
