VA secretary releases draft Gulf War task force report
By Staff Writer
Air Force Link
Source:
http://www.militaryinfo.com/news_story.cfm?textnewsid=4993
April 01, 2010 - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced March
31 that the department's Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Task Force has completed
the final draft of a comprehensive report that will redefine how VA officials
address the concerns of veterans who deployed during the Gulf War in 1990 and
1991.
"Our mission at VA is to be advocates for veterans," Secretary Shinseki said.
"This report's action plans provide a roadmap to transform the care and
services we deliver to Gulf War veterans. We must learn from the past and take
the opportunity to anticipate the future needs of our veterans."
Notification of the draft written report will be published in the Federal
Register April 1. The draft written report identifies seven areas where VA
officials will improve services for this group of veterans.
Among these improvements, VA representatives will reconnect with veterans from
the 1990 - 1991 Gulf War, strengthen the training of clinicians and claims
processors and reenergize the department's research effort. They also will
proactively strengthen partnerships and medical surveillance to address the
potential health impacts on veterans from the environmental exposures on today's
battlefields.
Earlier this month, VA officials published a proposed rule that will enable
department specialists to grant service connection on a presumptive basis for
nine specific infectious diseases associated with military service in Southwest
Asia after August 2, 1990, or in Afghanistan on or after September 19, 2001. The
proposed rule change was based on a recent Institute of Medicine review of the
scientific literature, and is a part of VA's on-going Gulf War studies. This
rule, when implemented, will make it easier for veterans to obtain disability
compensation and related healthcare.
The mission of VA's Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Task Force is to identify both
gaps in services as well as opportunities to better serve veterans of the
Gulf War. Of the almost 700,000 service members who deployed to Operation Desert
Shield in 1990 and Operation Desert Storm in 1991, more than 300,000 have filed
disability claims and more than 85 percent have been granted service connection
for at least one condition.
The chairman of the task force is John R. Gingrich, chief of staff at VA. He is
a retired Army officer who also served during the Gulf War.
"Reaching out to Gulf War veterans is not only essential to our transformation
of VA, for many of us it is also personal," said Mr. Gingrich. "Having
commanded troops in the Gulf War, and then knowing that some of these brave men
and women have fallen to mysterious illnesses has been both a frustrating and
saddening experience. We now have an opportunity to do something about this
situation. With this task force, I know that we will improve the care and
services these veterans have earned."
The Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Task Force recommendations build on the work
and findings of The Gulf War Veterans Illnesses Advisory Committee, the VA
Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses, the interagency Deployment
Health Working Group and other related sources. Some of the task force's
recommendations include:
Improve data sharing with the Department of Defense to notify veterans of
potential exposures, monitor their long-term health and inform them about
decisions regarding additional follow up.
-- Improve the delivery of benefits to veterans with Gulf War-related
disabilities by:
-- Reviewing and, if necessary, updating regulations affecting Gulf War
veterans.
-- Expanding training for Veterans Benefit Administration examiners on how to
administer disability claims with multiple known toxin exposure incidents.
-- Improve VA healthcare for veterans through a new model of interdisciplinary
health education and training.
-- Increase number of long-term, veteran-focused studies of veterans to enhance
the quality of care VA provides.
-- Transition from reactive to proactive medical surveillance to help better
manage veterans' potential hazardous exposures.
-- Find new treatments for Gulf War veterans through new research.
-- Enhance outreach to provide information and guidance to veterans about
benefits and services available to them for injuries/illnesses associated with
Gulf War service.
As a first step, VA officials are seeking public comments on the draft written
report before final publication. The public notice will be posted at
http://www.Regulations.gov,
and the draft written report will be open for comment for thirty days. Comments
also may be submitted via mail as described in the public notice.
In addition, VA officials recognize that a great number of Gulf War veterans use
a computer on a daily basis to socialize their issues and concerns, so they have
also created a public discussion board on the seven recommendations at: http://yourgulfwarvoice.uservoice.com.
To view the report without making recommendations, visit VA's website at
http://www1.va.gov/opa/vadocs/gwvi_draft_report.pdf.