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OBTAINING VETERANS' BENEFITS SOMETIMES A
STRUGGLE -- "The whole system is just broken.
There's
the way it should work and the way it does
work."
Story here...
http://www.recordnet.com/
apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2007
0729/A_NEWS/707290318
Story below:
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Obtaining benefits sometimes a struggle
By Joe Goldeen
Record Staff Writer
STOCKTON - Returning to civilian life after serving their nation half a
world away can be overwhelming for some veterans.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' job is to help ease that
transition. VA benefits for health care, education, home loans, job
services and other compensation are some of the most extensive in the
world.
For some, the difficulty is in accessing them.
"The whole system is just broken. There's the way it should work and the
way it does work. A lot of times when a veteran does make claims, the
doors are shut," said Marcos Mendez, a sergeant in the California
National Guard based in Stockton.
World War II-era Navy veteran Norm Pruitt of Stockton takes another
view. He contracted tuberculosis during deployment to China and
recuperated at the former VA hospital in Livermore. He believes his care
was top-notch.
"The VA overall takes pretty good care of the people who need care.
There may be individual instances where they drop the ball," said
Pruitt, 80, a spokesman, founding member and longtime officer with
Disabled American Veterans Charities of San Joaquin County. The
35-year-old organization is a local chapter of the national DAV, which
lobbies Congress for increased veterans benefits.
Ron Green is the director of the San Joaquin County Veterans Service
Office, a county-run agency often mistaken for an arm of the vast VA
federal bureaucracy. In fact, Green and his staff in downtown Stockton
serve as advocates for local veterans who need help navigating the
system.
"Where we get involved is when there are problems - problems getting a
claim adjudicated or to make their claim stronger," Green said.
For health care - in the forefront of veterans benefits because of the
28,000 newly wounded servicemen and women nationwide in the past five
years - the VA Palo Alto Health Care System oversees services in San
Joaquin County. It estimates there are about 45,000 veterans in the
county.
Of that total, about 11 percent - some 5,000 veterans - have enrolled in
the Stockton VA Clinic that sits just south of San Joaquin General
Hospital in French Camp.
Very few of those patients are veterans of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
While there are an estimated 165 war wounded from the county, many have
healed and redeployed to the war zone or may still be active-duty
military based around the world or retired and living elsewhere. No one
could provide the number of wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan
now living in the county.
The Stockton VA Clinic is a general medicine clinic that generally does
not provide the kinds of specialized medical services for veterans. VA
physician specialists are based in Livermore and Palo Alto.
For years, that has posed a transportation problem for local veterans,
and that problem is only getting worse as traffic congestion
deteriorates and more returning veterans seek services from the VA.
Administrators at the Palo Alto VA have contracted for some newly
injured veterans to receive care at Stockton's Dameron Hospital and
other local specialty providers. The total number of such contracts was
unavailable.
Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or
jgoldeen@recordnet.com.
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Larry Scott --
