A little less help for severely injured veterans

January 23, 2007

The Army Times reported this week on a development that hasn’t generated much attention outside the military press. (thanks to reader P.R. for the tip)

Defense Department officials have laid off most of their case workers who help severely injured service members, sources said.

The case workers for the Military Severely Injured Center serve as advocates for wounded service members who have questions or issues related to benefits, financial resources and their successful return to duty or reintegration into civilian life — all forms of support other than medical care. […]

Reports indicate that Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Lewis, Wash.; and Fort Campbell, Ky., were among the locations that had case workers cut…. The laid-off workers were told Wednesday to finish up their case work with severely injured troops, and that Friday would be their last day.

“I’m just livid about this,” said Janice Buckley, Washington state chapter president for Operation Homefront.

The Army Times reported that the Defense Department decided the program was unnecessary because it was a duplication of other programs available to wounded troops. Operation Homefront Buckley, however, said, “The kind of work [counselors at the Military Severely Injured Center would] do for these families who are hanging by a thread … no other organization helped service members and their families like they did.”

Frankly, I haven’t looked into the details. It’s possible that there may be some duplication of services, which the Pentagon is anxious to avoid. But given that we’re talking about severely injured service members, who may need a hand navigating through a bureaucracy, did the Bush administration really have to close the centers and fire the case workers? Is this what it means to “support the troops”?

“… no other organization helped service members and their families like they did.”
Sounds like a perfectly good reason to end the program, no? It was working far to well! Leave it to someone who doesn’t believe gov’t can help to be the ones to really screw it up.

  • If there are other ways to get the same services, the DoD has an obligation to name them so people can get the help they need. I haven’t heard them say anything yet.

    And considering that Bush is going to propose treating health benefits as taxable income, too, it’s obvious he’s once again trying to make the sick and injured pay for his mistakes.

    He could ask his billionaire friends to help out with just a fraction of their enormous wealth, but nooooooo, that would just be wrong, wouldn’t it? 🙁

  • My guess is that Haliburton or Bechtel has a private sector wounded veteran program that will only cost our government $100,000 per veteran but being a private program will be far more efficent. It probably involves giving them a tin cup and some warm clothes.

    The GOP loves their military, untill they are no longer active soldiers.

  • “The Army Times reported this week on a development that hasn’t generated much attention outside the military press”

    More evidence of a non-existent liberal media. If the media did have a liberal bend, they would’ve been on this story like flies on shit.

    And I too would like to know:
    1) What “other programs” are there?; and
    2) What does the DoD do to ensure that veterans who need these programs are informed about them?

    There’s no money for this effective program, but there is money to fund the $80 million Iran-Syria Operations Group, headed by Liz Cheney.

    Fuck impeachment. We need to Mussolini their asses.

  • did the Bush administration really have to close the centers and fire the case workers? Is this what it means to “support the troops”?

    sure it is — and don’t fergit t’ buy new bumperstickers, flags and magnets an’ other useless shit.

    fucking fuckers.

  • Yo—2M—where do you want the guillotines shipped to?

    The Pentagon doesn’t have any “duplicate programs” for these guys. Neither does the VA. Dollars to doughnuts the money’s going into a crony’s pocket…or maybe one of those money-sucking “faith-based” front groups. It’s a sweet deal when you can scam the taxpayers by pretending to be “religious,” and have all that money be completely tax-free….

  • Steve,
    Actually, I prefer the hanging upside down in public, seems more degrading.

    I’m sure there’s some fly-by-night outfit that’s fleecing our tax money “helping” the vets, and without any oversight.

  • “The GOP loves their military, untill they are no longer active soldiers.” – MNP

    I’m not sure they really “love” the active duty military. Not in the sense of care for them. Maybe in the sense of “boy, more tasty looking victums” Sadism.

  • The Army Times reported this week on a development that hasn’t generated much attention outside the military press. — CB

    Hopefully, Webb will mention this little tidbit in his response to SOTU tonight. He *is* up on such things, and it would even slot nicely with Bush’s (expected) murder of health care

  • These cuts sound worse than they are. IF you understand defense beauracracy (though, really, who does?) you understand that DOD functions as an umbrella over 3 laregly autonomous executive departments (Army, Navy and Air Force). All of the Services have a program to replicate the services that were being provided by the centralized Military Severely Injured Center (which still exists for purposes that require centralization, and as required by Congress, just without the duplicative efforts). As anyone in uniform will tell you, the Services prefer to take care of their own, and they do a good job. Ms. Jowers is clearly sourcing this thing through counselors who’ve lost their jobs, and we should feel bad for them. But they’re not the ones who matter here. Kudos to the administration, frankly, for choosing better management instead of avoiding sensationalist headlines like this.

  • I appreciate attention to the loss of the MSIC by “The Carpetbagger”. Let me identify my bias upfront: I am one of those who received the 48-hour ax. Yes, the advocates in the field are as distraught as any of you might expect at the loss of employment. We all got accustomed to lights and hot water. So, some of the misfortune of the MSIC’s loss is blatantly personal for me. Now, with that out of the way, I state with no reservation whatsoever that the MSICs advocates in the field made up one of the most talented, dedicated, motivated, and goal-oriented group of folks I’ve ever worked with. There were 2 or 3 that were an embarrassment; but they were the exception. Many of us continued employment with the MSIC long after we knew we should have been sending out resumes; because we also knew that in our absence, the 19y/o grunt whose life has been turned upside down by a severe injury would be at the mercy of DOD & government agencies that have an unacceptable failure rate in the care of service members & vets. They do a fine job in many routine cases. Cookie-cutter cases without curveballs or monkey wrenches thrown into the works. However, the inflexibility of these agencies cripples them in the face of any situation they do not handle several times weekly. Do the services prefer to take care of their own? Yes. Do they excel at this task? Well, no. The rates of PTSD and TBI are sky-high and neither the MTFs nor the VA know how to deal with these soldiers. Process them quickly, pass them on to the next station, & get them through the MEB. But then what? The vision of the MSIC was never to duplicate services. It was to help as much as possible with the “non-routine” – even the most minor operational complication tends to bring mighty medical centers to a grinding halt. But our most important charge was to remain in the community to provide care & assistance to service members as they readjusted and transitioned to civilian life. To be there when the bouquet of balloons stop floating in and the politicians no longer drop by for photo ops. Did you know that, until MSIC advocates spent over a 100 hours advocating for- because the soldier and every soldier with similar injuries deserved it – and battling with the established powers to obtain a prosthetic finger that the Army said the soldier did not have a “medical or functional” need for? I am unable to quantify the numbers of SMs/FMs who DID NOT have their electricity service interrupted and were not evicted because a MSIC advocate stepped in and worked tirelessly to ensure the SM was taken care of. The BOS tend to bounce those issues around, scratch their heads, and think, “wow, glad that isn’t me….” You will not recall extensive articles or numerous mentions of the accomplishments of MSIC advocates. We were told to maintain a low profile and allow other organizations to accept the credit for our achievements. As odd as this sounds, most of us were happy to do so; our interest was generally in assuring the Service & Family Members were taken care of. Deployment Health case managers have taken credit for the vast majority of gains arising from my work. God help the DCCS if he expects them to continue to achieve and pull rabbits out of their hats at the same level. In my conversations with my colleagues, we all agree that we were treated unprofessionally and without even minimal regard. What repeatedly arises during these conversations isn’t, “Poor, poor, pitiful me.” It’s “Oh my God, what is going to happen to our service members?” Believe me, I’ve never once heard reps from any of the agencies who claim we were stepping on their toes or duplicating their services wonder out loud over anything other than what they were going to have for lunch. I have my legs and my arms. I have a solid resume. I’ll be O.K. But nothing will make abandoning our severely wounded service members to existing government resources O.K. Barney, I understand your point and truly respect your opinion. But I sincerely hope that neither you nor anyone you love is left dependent on the care of all those well managed, money-saving entities that are left. To everyone else, thank you for your thoughts and comments.

  • Petitions won’t do any good (though, in the interest of fairness, google David Chu, undersecretary for Personnel, and mail your petitions there if you must.)

    I think it’s a shame Alice lost her job. I really do. I have no doubt at all that she and most of her colleagues did outstanding work. They should be applauded.

    However, every Military Service has an operation dedicated to doing the exact same work. The counselors are just as qualified, just as dedicated; in some cases, it’s likely they’ll be the same people. Maybe counselor X, who worked for MSIC, was qualitatively better at his or her job than counselor Y, who works for Army Wounded Warrior. The opposite could just as easily be true.

    Wounded troops are not being left out in the cold. They have a case manager/counselor who is just as qualified and dedicated. Troops and families are not deluged with too much help (a bigger problem than you’d think, when every non-profit, vets group and social worker is trying to be your advocate). The government has ceased replicating efforts, and resources can be turned towards work that actually needs to be done.

    This is a good thing.

  • A neglected thought on this, too: Alice called the remaining programs “well managed, money-saving entities.” I assume the first part of that is sarcastic, so I’ll address it as such.

    1. “Well Managed”: Army Wounded Warrior, the only program that will assume any of the work previously done by MSIC case managers, is a well managed program (or, to be fair, no more badly run than MSIC or any other government program). The resources and capabilities available to the program are on par with MSIC, and benefit from augmentation by the latter (which, per Congress’s intent, is now a permanent institution intended to support the forward efforts of Service programs). AW2 counselors also have the benefit of being integrated into the Army beauracracy–a very real advantage to a wounded soldier with pay and benefit issues that need to be resolved from within the system. MSIC counselors were contracted employees, mostly lacking substantial military experience. As anyone who has worked with the military knows, results are easier to get from inside the hive than from out. It’s unfair and wrong to claim that AW2 is somehow inferior to MSIC.

    2. Money Saving: No one has made the case that this is money saving. It’s not.

  • Do you all know that AW2 is contracted out? That they only serve those who are 30% disabled or more? That if a soldier’s disability has not been determined they are often refused services until their medical board process is completed regardless of the fact that AW2 reports they will work with a soldier until such a time they are not deemed 30% or more disabled. They even report they will continue to work with a soldier if there is adjudication involving the disability determination.
    Did you know that most of the service members who have problems have them because they suffered financial losses due to family members providing care for them and losing time and income related to their full time jobs? Do you understand that most of our front line military are underpaid requiring that their spouses be employed? Do you know and understand that hundreds of soldiers who did not or do not need assistance with their activities of daily living for more than 30 days do not benefit from the TSGLI payouts? Do you know that soldiers who are not deemed disabled by the Army oftentimes are then determined to be 30, 40, even 60 percent disabled by the VA? That these soldiers and their families do not qualify for services under the black and white rules of AW2? That would be even if they officially didn’t need help pulling on their pants and wiping their butts for over 30 days they most likely did need assistance for longer than that? Did you know that many soldiers refuse to let family, even spouses, wipe their butts and feed them due to their extreme pride? Did you know that when they do this they cheat themselves out of benefits and a proper evaluation of their difficulties by an MD or an associate with AW2? Barney Barney, so many things you maybe don’t know if you are not one of them or one of us that served exactly this population. MSIC didn’t have the black and white bureaucratic tape so much as they had individual assessments and compassion and empathy and understanding. Yup, I am one of the displaced workers and only feel sad that my soldiers were first turned down by AW2 or didn’t trigger the AW2 radar (they have a tracking system for the “severely injured” such as amputations and blindness and that they would have preferred they be taken care of by their own. Subsequently they believed they were inferior soldiers and not worthy of the uniform any longer as they had to go outside their beloved Army.
    Oh, Barney, so much you and so many others have no clue about. I suspect thou art a republican and thinks thou know way too much than you actually do.
    Oh, don’t feel sorry for me. I am highly qualified and will find alternate employment in any number of open positions in my field. It is the families of the brain injured soldiers and those with PTSD that live in fear that you should feel for. Fear of the lights being turned off is a minor thing compared to what they live with. Such a war that is making such horrible things happen to our young people and their young families just to line the pockets…you get it. Need I say any more about “did you know”?

  • With a little help from my friends, I wrote this petition:

    We may have been standing across the street from each other in Fort Collins, Colorado demonstrating our opposite views on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001. We do strongly agree however that wounded veterans should get all the help we can possibly give them. We are asking you to reopen the Military Severely Injured Center (MSIC) which was closed in January, supposedly because of duplication of efforts.

    We realize that each service branch has a facility for helping wounded veterans, but the MSIC gave something extra. For example, MSIC advocates spent over 100 hours battling with the established powers to obtain a prosthetic finger that the army said the soldier did not have a “medical or functional” need for. They did this so that other veterans with this need could be served. The MSIC did not have the red tape that other agencies are burdened with and so could meet the specific needs of each veteran with compassion, empathy, and understanding.

    You presided over the opening of the MSIC. We hope youy can preside over its reopening.

    I got some signatures from our peace side, none from the other side, and sent it to Dr. Chu. Thank you, Barney, for directing me to Dr. Chu. Huge thanks to Alice and Deborah for opening your hearts here, and apologies for stealing a line from each of you. I know you will find other places to give your beautiful compassion.

    Will it do any good? It probably won’t reopen the center. Standing on the corner probably won’t stop the war. I believe with Howard Zinn that you do what you can and it all helps.

  • I am a veteran that has become so disappointed in the way our wounded service members have been taken care of, that my company came up with our own small way of trying to help. We are currently trying to locate another donation project recipient.

    NewswireToday – /newswire/ – Raleigh, NC, United States, 11/20/2007 – Company partners with Refined Hardwood Flooring to help wounded serviceman regain independence.

    Horizon Forest Products (HFP), a top distributor of products for hardwood flooring contractors and custom cabinetmakers in the southeast, recently donated materials used to upfit Marine Sean Debevoise’s home. Debevoise was shot four times while on raid in al Anbar Province in Iraq and after many months of rehabilitation, still walks with a severe limp.

    David and Melissa Allen, owners of Wilmington-based Refined Hardwood Flooring, found out about Debevoise through an Army acquaintance of David Allen, who served in the Middle East in the 90’s. “As an Army veteran, I remember how important it was for me to know that people back home supported me and my mission,” explains Allen. “Both Melissa and I wanted to help a wounded veteran and that’s when we heard about Sean.”

    Partnering with Horizon Forest Products, Refined Hardwood Flooring removed the carpeting from the common living areas and master bedroom of Debevoise and his wife, Rachel’s, home and replaced it with ½” engineered flooring. HFP donated the materials and Refined Hardwood Flooring donated the labor. Allen says that according to Debevoise, the new floor has “made his life easier and his recovery faster.”

    Says Horizon Forest Products’ Wilmington Branch Leader, David Blackburn, “As a company, it is an honor and a privilege to help someone that has given so much for our country. In this time, when all you hear are negative stories in the world, we are fortunate to be connected with a story, like Sean’s, that we know has made a positive difference.”

    Adds Allen, “It is my hope that others will read this story and remember that we still have many men and women in harm’s way, fighting so that we can all continue to do what we love doing day to day. I also hope that we can help other veterans out there that need us.”

    About Horizon Forest Products
    Horizon Forest Products is a top distributor of products for hardwood flooring contractors and custom cabinetmakers in the southeast. The company currently services areas around Raleigh, NC; Wilmington, NC; Greensboro, NC; Charleston, SC; and Knoxville, TN. Horizon Forest Products provides premium materials to cabinetmakers and hardwood flooring contractors and is particularly proud to offer one of the largest selections of exotic and hard-to-find pine flooring.

    About Refined Hardwood Flooring
    Refined Hardwood Flooring has been in existence for over three generations. Originally based out of New York State, the large demand for hardwood flooring has called for an expansion into North Carolina. Now based out of Wilmington, RHF offers the expert knowledge of hardwood flooring and the guarantee of complete customer satisfaction. Refined Hardwood Flooring is a proud member of the National Wood Flooring Association.

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