The Veteran's PTSD Handbook: How to File and Collect on Claims for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Language: English
Pages: 251
ISBN: B005CWJ7KU
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
From the author of The Veteran’s Survival Guide, The Veteran’s PTSD Handbook addresses the obstacles that veterans face when filing for benefits related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One of the greatest obstacles, John Roche writes, is establishing a connection between a veteran’s service and PTSD. Because both combat stressors and noncombat stressors can cause PTSD and because of the difficulties in diagnosing the condition, filing a successful claim for benefits based on PTSD is difficult.
In the same accessible, self-help style used in The Veteran’s Survival Guide, Roche offers detailed instructions on how to prepare a well-grounded claim for veterans’ benefits relating to PTSD. He also discusses the four years he spent helping one veteran establish a “service connection” for his PTSD claim with Veterans Affairs. This book will be required reading for any veteran or veteran’s dependent who wishes to obtain his or her well-earned benefits and for those officials of veterans’ service organizations who assist veterans with their claims.
preexisting vulnerability factors such as genetics, early age of onset and longer-lasting childhood trauma, lack of functional social support, and concurrent stressful life events; those who report greater perceived threat or danger, suffering, upset, terror, and horror or fear; and those with a social environment that produces shame, guilt, stigmatization, or self-hatred. What Are the Consequences Associated with PTSD? People with PTSD tend to have abnormal levels of key hormones involved in
(NOD) to the VA disagreeing with the January 28, 2002, denial of benefits. He used VA Form 21-4138, also used earlier to put the VA on notice about the claim date. He stated the effective date of the award (figure 3.4) was erroneous. He also restated that the VA was advised on September 3, 2001, that an informal claim was filed February 28, 2001. Attached to this NOD were three sworn statements by the veteran (figure 3.10), his wife (figure 3.9), and an addendum from Dr. Jones’s medical
assume that of the remaining three out of ten claims approved, one and a half to two would be for pension benefits. The second issue raised by the fact sheet is how well claims are evaluated if there are more than 324,000 claims pending and the overall incentive for acceptable performance is based on how many claims can be processed per day. If in fact merit pay increases are tied to daily production, it is in the claims examiner’s best interest to save time and deny claims when there isn’t
depression.” No BVA decision apparently was issued in connection with the 1979 RO denial. The ROA does not reflect further contact with the VA by the veteran until 1993. When the error was found in 1993, a C&P examination was scheduled. During the November 1993 VA medical examination, the veteran stated, for the first time to any medical professional, that while he was at Fort Bragg, he had been raped by three men and that he did not report it because of “fear and shame.” He disclosed that after
Healthcare Reform Act (1996), 143–44, 159 Veterans Survival Guide (Roche), 119, 184 vocational evidence, 170–71 West, Barela v., 191 West, Patton v., 200–205 witnesses to C&P Exam, 158 statements from, 40–43, 121, 137, 172–73 Yancey v. Principi, 200–205 Zarycki v. Brown, 205–14 ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Roche’s involvement as a veteran’s advocate began nine years before he retired from the U.S. Air Force. His VA actions on behalf of retired military personnel came to the attention of the