All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
And good afternoon, welcome to Veterans Radio.
My name is Dale Throneberry, CW2 type United States Army Aviator a million years ago.
And we want to welcome you to our program today.
This is our monthly benefits program.
So we've got representatives from our local VA hospital.
We've got representatives from our local county veteran service office.
We've got representatives from legal health for veterans.
So we're here to answer any questions that you might have.
So, you know, take your pencil and write this down.
This is the local number 734-822-1600.
734-822-1600.
If you have any questions, give them a call and we'll try to answer them today.
Like as I mentioned, my guests include Chris Arbino.
Chris is a public affairs specialist at the Ann Arbor Medical Center.
He's a Marine.
We've got David Sames, who is with the Washtenaw County Veterans Service Office.
He's the executive over there.
He's an Army veteran.
And of course, our favorite Brigadier General Retired Air Force,
Caroline Faussone from Legal Health for Veterans.
So these people are here. They know a lot and they can help you out.
So make sure that you give us a call if you have a question,
because we've got some topics we're going to talk about,
and maybe those will trigger some questions that you might have.
Before we get in and start talking with people, oh, I forgot.
We also have a quick interview with Jim Faussone,
who is a veteran at the Ann Arbor Medical Center.
And we've got Mike Cox, who is an attorney specializing in helping out people with the Camp Lejeune issues.
And there's a deadline coming up for that.
So we wanted to make sure that you'll be aware of that.
So we'll be playing that interview a little bit later as well.
So before we get into this, I need to thank our following sponsors for their continuing support of Veterans Radio.
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skirty issue here, so these are the folks to do that. For more information you go to their website
nvvdc.org or give them a call at 888-237-8433. The Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. For more information you can go to va.gov.com. The National Vietnam Veterans
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for your continuing support. If you would like to support Veterans Radio please go to our website
veteransradio.org and click on the donate button. I'll thank you in advance for anything. Now
on to the questions of what's going on in the world of veterans health care and disability.
So first I want to bring on a new guy, Morrison, I just drew his name over the other side of the
table. Anyway, Chris Arbino is a public affairs specialist at the Ann Arbor VA and Chris will
welcome you to the program. No, I really appreciate you having me this afternoon. It's been a good
weekend for the VA. We've been kind of all over southeast Michigan doing events and stuff like
that. That's right. Yeah, I met Chris yesterday at a vet fest at the local community college and
I met a lot of people. These vet fest wherever they are around the country, there are great
opportunities for you as a veteran to find out what you may be eligible for, what other services
are out there. There were so many different things out there I had never even heard of.
Right. Yeah. And even just from VA Ann Arbor, we have the typical services that we bring out with
general information about the PAC DAC and our eligibility. We also had caregiver support yesterday.
We had a veteran benefits administration table, which is kind of rare to have with the VHA coupled
at the same time. And then also the NCA, the cemeteries administration was there with us also
yesterday. So we had sort of all three branches of the Department of Veterans Affairs set up
answering questions yesterday. Yesterday was a fantastic event. We had enrollment transfers,
all those big things we looked to do at those events. So, you know, and the good thing is,
if you missed us in Washtenaw County yesterday at the community college, we're right back up in
Fallabill next week and on Saturday for vet life, vet fest up there. So that I think will
be set up there next week between 11 and three. And again, eligibility, I know that's always
the big one. They can answer all the big questions about, you know, I don't know how to get involved
with VA health care, all those little things. And we love it because we can enroll veterans right on
the spot. Well, we all know that just getting enrolled is step one. Right. To everything
that, you know, that you may be available for. So what is going on on the VA health side right
now? I know that we talked about this earlier about the PACT Act has got another deadline coming up.
Yes, there's, I don't know the exact date. But, you know, I guess all related to the PACT Act,
something we were talking about was the redesign of the burn pit registry, which kind of falls
into that a little bit. So just on August 1, the secretary announced that there's a burn pit
registry 2.0 that will be going out. So prior, and I think some of the issues that we were having
with the first one, it worked out, it did great, but it was very burdensome. It was about 144
questions. And you really had to sit there and think about your military history and go through
all those things to get through it. So what the update does as of August 1 is it automatically
enrolls veterans through that burn pit registry. So I think eventually the plan is, is that the
the former survey will be phased out and then we'll have this new 2.0 version. So what veterans
really need to know, what need to understand about it is it will not impact their personal
health care, their benefits, anything like that. It does help the VA understand our challenges a
little bit better that are facing the veteran population. So it's going to enroll about 5
million veterans across the country. I think there's going to be letters coming out to every
veteran that we can get a hold of to let them know about what's going on. And since they're
automatically enrolled, the change now is that if you're not comfortable with this, if you don't want
your information being shared in this burn pit registry, you can opt out, which takes about
two seconds. It's a couple of questions. You hit submit and it's done. So that's the big change.
And one of the big things that happened on August 1. So that's as far as health care,
I think that's the biggest thing we're talking about right now.
Well, yeah, I was looking at it here that it's, you know, you can go to va.gov.slashpact
to find out more information for you out there. And does this still affect the, you know, the
age and orange generation? Are we part of that registry or is this pretty much 9-11?
No, I believe, again, you know, we were talking, it's 5 million veterans. So it's difficult to,
I can maybe pull it up online here. I thought I had it pulled up as I was looking at it.
But so the groups that are included, and in fact, instead of me getting into the groups,
let me just say that you can contact our local environmental health coordinator. I gotta do
this column, say, hey, this is my name, my social, and they'll tell you right then and there if you're
enrolled or not enrolled into this new burn pit registry. Okay, so if I don't do anything, I'm in,
right? That's correct. Yeah, that's that's the new perk to it, I guess, is you're automatically
enrolled. There's no going to that website and answering all those questions, you're automatically
enrolled, you just need to make the decision on whether or not you want to stay enrolled and opt
out. So within the registry, there's no personal health information that is shared within that
registry. It's all about your deployments, what branch of service you are in. And then that's
shared only with VA researchers or VA epidemiologists so they can make better informed decisions about
policy going into the future and better medical decisions, medical policy decisions for veterans
going forward. And Dale, I just wanted to chime in just a little bit. If you're a Vietnam veteran
in country, you're automatically, if you enroll in the VA, you're priority group six and they're
not going to turn you away. Okay, all right. Just want to know, I keep, you know, the funny thing
is I keep running into people from the Vietnam era that haven't registered, you know, or haven't
even signed up or signed up with the VA healthcare. And like, you know, we keep encouraging people
just, you know, at least sign in, you know, get signed up, because you never know when you're
going to need not just the benefit side of the issue, but maybe you're going to need the healthcare,
because you may come down with something that only the VA is really that familiar with.
Right. The big thing we tell people is there's no disadvantage to signing up for VA healthcare. A
lot of people think it might affect their private health insurance or anything like that. VA
works with your private insurance. So, you know, you never know, you find out your cover is something
and it brings in benefits or something like that. You get right into VA healthcare. So,
I can't reiterate enough, there is no drawback. There's no disadvantage to signing up for VA
healthcare. No. And if you end up getting benefits for a particular condition, your healthcare is
free. That's correct. That's absolutely right. Yep. And even then, you know, copays are very
cheap for the most part if you're using your private health insurance. So, sometimes we're
talking 10, 15 bucks per visit. And, you know, as you said, if it's connected, it's usually a free
copay, $0 copay. I like the concept. Yeah. And if you're greater than 50%, there's no copays.
Correct. I got to get over that limit. Not that I have to use it very often. All right. I think
that's kind of cool. Is there anything else you can think of that the VA health center or any of
the VA health side of that wall that we need to know? Sure. Yeah. A couple other things I wanted
to bring up with just a couple of more events. One, we actually just, Congresswoman Dingell was at
the event briefly yesterday. I spoke with her staff a little bit. And so we're in the early
stages of planning a women's veteran town hall at the Major General Dillard Seabock in Canton,
Michigan. I mean, we're hoping to have put that together for August 26, which is Women's Equality
Day. So we're in the very early stages of planning that this week, we're hoping to have something
put together and we'll start advertising that. So highly encourage everyone to keep up with our
socials, especially the women veterans in this area that would like to come and talk about
our new women's clinic named after Brigadier General Falzone, obviously. So that's a great event
that we're planning here for the end of the month. And then also, I know this doesn't particularly
affect Southeast Michigan veterans, but we love to get the word of mouth out there that we're
opening our new Finley, Ohio Seabock. That's just about completed as far as construction.
And we're hoping to see veterans coming in there and receiving health care towards the end of this
month or the beginning of next month. And then we'll have our big ceremonial grand opening,
ribbon cutting at the beginning of October. So we're really excited about that.
Since COVID and since I've been here in 2020, I think this is the third or fourth clinic that VA
Ann Arbor Health Care has opened. So when I started here was Jackson, it was Flint, it was Toledo,
as far as clinics. Now we have Howe, Adrian, Can, and now we're down at Finley. So we've really,
really expanded our reach here in the last three or four years to put VA health care right in
everyone's backyard. We're very fortunate here, obviously, with the Ann Arbor VA. This is occurring
though all across the country. And then with other VA hospitals, they're setting up these Seabots
everywhere. Right. I see the news clips all the time. I know Jackson, not Jackson, I'm sorry,
Battle Creek, it's just opened a couple of them recently. And then I had a separate project I
was working on where we went all the way up north and to Gaylord. And they had a beautiful brand
new clinic up there. I think it was only a couple of years old. And that was a fantastic facility.
So these brand new clinics, especially at Finley, we gutted the building and built it,
purpose built it to the way we needed it. They're fantastic facilities, very clean, very modern.
I just, I can't speak well enough about these clinics now, how great they are for our veterans
here. Well, I want to encourage our listening audience, whether you're in Southeast Michigan
or not, you know, wherever you are in the country, check with your VA's, you know, healthcare center
and see where these Seabots are, because you may have one closer to you. I mean, the reason
behind these was so you didn't have to drive 50 miles, you know, to see your primary care physician
and some other things. So, so check and I'm sure that they have, you know, all the different
websites that are out there for all of, you know, however many VA hospitals there are,
we'll probably have a list. Yeah. You go to the location section on our website and it lists it
right from the Kettles VAMC in Ann Arbor and then all of our associated clinics. So you got to scroll
down. A lot of people, you know, just speaking with people yesterday, a lot of found veterans were
unaware of Jackson and the how and stuff like that. And then you tell them that and, you know, a lot
of the, the clinic's covered the basic day-to-day services. So you're not driving, you know, all
the way to Ann Arbor for a blood draw or something that we can do that's, you know, relatively not
complicated. And then, you know, now you're in VA Ann Arbor healthcare system and, you know, if you
would ever need to hire complexity care, something with cardiology or something like that, then you
need to travel. Then we have the Fisher House, which helps you with lodging if you ever need to
travel to Ann Arbor because, you know, if you're coming from a couple of hours away and you're
a veteran that lives by himself, that's, that's a lot of logistics that you need to figure out.
But VA will help you take care of that every step of the way. So I guess, you know, my big selling
point is if you feel like you're far away from Ann Arbor, just keep in mind that we're putting
these clinics within a half hour of densely populated veteran areas. So you get to those clinics,
you do the smaller things. And, you know, if you ever need something a little bit more complex,
you know, we've got you, we'll get you to Ann Arbor, we'll get you to help you need.
Well, there are a couple of other things I wanted to mention. You know, the,
you know, it used to be the Returians Crisis hotline. Now, you know, we've been
promoting the Dial 988 and then press one. So it's easier to remember you don't have to dial a whole
bunch of things, but that's going up on their second year of operation. And I know that there's a
number of veterans here in the local area that are plastering, you know, Dial 988 on everything
they can find. And I just want to remind our audience, if you are going through some sort of
mental crisis, this is a, this is, there's help there 24 hours a day, every day. No, nobody's,
you know, there's always somebody there that you can talk to. And I'm hoping that you will take
advantage of that. If you find yourself down that low and you need help, this is a good place to
start because not only can they help talk you down, but they also would be able to direct you to
wherever to go to find the, you know, the help that you need. Right. With it being the anniversary,
we're starting to see some of the numbers and some of the data that people, I mean, we're
thousands of calls to 988. It's very effective. And, you know, just echoing your point, you know,
if you find yourself in that situation and that mental crisis, please reach out. You know,
they're there to help you. They're very good at what they do. Yeah. So I said, well, it's a 23%
increase in calls since the introduction of the 988 number. So again, use it. You know, the VA is
trying to help you as much as possible. And I know that there's frustration with some people
because it's difficult sometimes to get appointments because sometimes we have a tendency to overwhelm
the staff, but they'll get to you. I promise. Yeah. And, you know, I guess kind of building off
that a little bit is it doesn't need to feel like a crisis. I mean, you know, people go through
low times that maybe it's not to that level where you have suicidal ideation. But even if you're
feeling through a little bit of depression, anything like that, give that number a call.
They're there to help through any, you know, if it's on a spectrum or whatever of where you're
at on that, they're there to help with that. I would think, I mean, I don't know this, and
hopefully you can correct this for me, though, if we were talking about homeless veterans earlier,
and you know, if somebody were to call that, I'm sure that they would refer them over to the
place to go. That's correct. Yeah, we have a homeless veteran,
care coordinator. So, you know, even if you call that number and, you know, they walk you through
the situation, the emergent situation at the year end, but then they get to know you a little bit,
and, you know, figure out what other health services you need to bring you back up, you know,
they connect you with that here and VA and Arbor. Or, you know, even if you're just listening and
you're wanting to talk to our home with a veteran care coordinator, our main number, just give that
a call. And, you know, hey, this is what I need. This is what I'm looking for. And we'll get you
in the direction you need to go. And again, this, you know, it takes place at all of VA centers
across the country. It's not just in southeast Michigan. So, you know, if you're looking for help,
and that's the big thing, you know, don't be afraid to ask for help.
Yes, we're here for the veterans. Absolutely. Yeah, this is a service that they've earned.
You know, they deserve this. They earn this. And everybody, you know, we employ a lot of
veterans ourselves. Everybody understands for the most part, you know, the population we're
working with, because that's who we are to. I know. And there are so many things that are going on
at the VA. I mean, we just, you know, could just sit here and say, okay, this is what we're doing
here. We're doing this for that and so on and so forth. But that's again, why we encourage you so
much to utilize the VA health care. As Chris pointed out, even if you have health insurance on the
outside, you know, and there's the ability to go, you know, to a civilian hospital if you need to,
if it's an emergency situation, and all you got to do is go through the process, contact the VA
that you're there. And if you've been covered at the VA, it's going to be covered there. So
I think this is also, you know, another good point to bring up is the Compact Act,
C-O-M-P-A-C-T. You know, we were talking about the veterans crisis line, you know, if you want to
go to an emergency room because you're experiencing these feelings, for the most part, if you qualify
and again, I won't go into the specific details of it. But if you go to any emergency room,
whether it's a VA or a private health care system, and you're experiencing a mental health crisis,
the VA will pay for that. And so again, that's not just VA hospitals. That's any private
hospital within the area. So again, I'm down here in Toledo, so ProMedica, Mercy Health,
anything like that. If you're a veteran, you go there, you're experiencing a mental health crisis,
the hospital's already know what to do, you just need to let them know you're a veteran,
and they'll help you through the paperwork, and the VA will pay for your stay up to, I think,
the limit is 90 days. And, you know, don't quote me on that. I don't know the exact number, but it's
an expansive period of time where the VA will pay for that if you're going through that situation.
So if the phone number is not the thing for you and you need to get to an emergency room to get
help, the VA will pay for that as well. That's done. And on that note, we're going to take a
quick break here. We've been talking with Chris Garbino, who is a public affairs specialist at
the Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I curse I want to thank you
so much for dropping in. It's great. I hope you stick around when we go around the corner. So
we're going to be playing, I want to go to the interview that we did with Mike Cox. This was
recorded by my partner Jim Faustone. So we're going to play that. And then we're going to go
straight to our Medal of Honor for today. And when we come out, we're going to start talking
benefits. So again, if you have any questions on benefits, the number to call locally is 734-822-1600.
So we're going to go into that interview right now. You're listening to Veterans Radio.
We want to welcome back to Veterans Radio to give us an update and a call to somebody who's
been waiting around too long. This is Attorney Mike Cox back to talk to us about the Camp Lejeune
Justice Act. Mike, welcome back to Veterans Radio. Jim, it's great to be back on Veterans Radio again.
Well, listen, you know I'm especially proud because I'm a veteran. You are. You're a Marine.
You got it in the whole family. But we've talked to you in the past about the Camp Lejeune Justice
Act. And for those who may recognize his name or his voice, Mike was the Attorney General for the
State of Michigan for a number of years and now is out in private practice doing all kinds of good
work on a variety of issues. But one that's near and dear to your heart is trying to take care of
some veterans who got exposed to toxic water when they were at Camp Lejeune. Why don't you with that
setup go ahead and talk to us what's going on. Absolutely, Jim. You know, and the general in
your house knows that long before I was Attorney General, I was the 0311 Infantry Corporal in
the United States Marine Corps. In fact, I was stationed on Camp Lejeune in 82 and 83 with the
Second Marine, Second Marine Regiment. And I was served there during the 30 years where
Marines were literally poisoned through negligence and later on kind of wanton disregard by higher
ups in the Defense Department. But again, that was, you know, there's now an opportunity for
your listeners who haven't done anything yet that they cut off his August 10th of this year,
because it was on August 10th of 2022, where President Biden signed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act
in a rare feat of bipartisanship overwhelmingly supported by Republicans and Democrats to bring
some justice to several hundred thousand Marines sailors and employees on Camp Lejeune base between
December of 1952 and excuse me, August of 1952 and December of 1987, who were subject to horrible,
horrible toxins, benzene, PCE, vinyl chloride, methylene chloride, DCE, and has led many,
many to suffer bladder cancers, esophageal cancers, kidney cancers, Hodgkin's disease,
you know, Parkinson's, bile duct cancer, and a variety of diseases that they that
the federal government has admitted through its own studies were directly related to the water
that we all drank either out of water buffaloes or in KP duty or just in showers or while we're
at Camp Lejeune. Yeah, it's really amazing the extent of time and the different ways people got
exposed. But Congress finally stepped in and said, okay, we're going to give a limited opportunity
for Marines, and I want you to expand who can file claims, but Marines who were there during
that period to file claims down in administrative process, but really this goes to North Carolina,
who can file claims and what do they have to do by August 10th of 2024? Okay, so anyone who was
at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days between August of 1952 and December of 1987, so 30 days
on base, and you could be a Marine, you could be a semen, you know, someone who served as a
corpsman or other support services on the base, you could be a civilian employee, or you could be
and we have a number of clients who were family members of Marines or sailors stationed there,
especially, you know, children, minors, you know, who many of them who were there with their parents
for extended tours are some of the most impacted, and it even includes Jim's civilian employees
who may have worked on base during that time. So if you were a Marine, a soldier, you know,
who had temporary duty there or training on the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, a sailor,
or a dependent, a child, a spouse of any of those who did at least 30 days on base between
August of 1952 and December of 1987, and if you've suffered a variety of diseases, and I'll cover some
of them, but it's bladder cancer, breast cancer, esophageal, kidney, liver, lung cancer, bile
duct, colorectal, there's a series of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, there's also a series of
neurological issues like Parkinson's and other autoimmune diseases, even teeth issues and mouth
issues. If there were miscarriages or infertility in your family, all those could relate back to
time at Camp Lejeune. And now that we're in the last 10 days, if someone in your family or you,
you know, were impacted, I suggest you call a lawyer. Of course, we'd love you to call our firm
and our number 734-591-4002 or go on to our website at mikecoxlaw.com. But it's really,
look, I'm a Marine, I want all Marines or sailors who are impacted to get some help
or their family members. So if you don't come, let's talk to somebody soon. You go online,
there's a ton of firms out there that can help you out. It's very, very important you do that over
this next 10 days as we head up to the deadline. And I want to get across to people, even if your
dad is dead, he was a Marine, you understand he was at Camp Lejeune, the spouse, the children still
have an opportunity to file this claim. They may be the ones sitting on the sideline going,
wow, dad's dead. You still want them to get in touch with you, right, Mike? Absolutely.
Wrongful deaths are a big chunk of our client base. For people who lost those extra years with
a loved one, a parent, that's the serious blow. And as you know, Jim, in the civil law, that's a
very common claim. And that's part of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act. And the most important thing
is don't wait, reach out now. Another thing is a lot of people think this will impact any VA
benefits that they may get. It will not. Let me repeat, this will not impact your benefits.
There's no cost to you. There's no downside. You should do it for yourself, do it for your family,
and certainly make the call or send the email in these waning days before we come to the end,
you know, August 10th, which is a Saturday, to reach out to us or someone else. Because this
is Veterans Radio. Jim, you and the Brigadier General bring great advocates for veterans over
these many, many years. And I'm glad that you're reminding folks of this very, very important
program. We just wanted to get out this last shout out before the window closes. And that'll be that.
You've got to get in now. So don't sit on the sidelines because you think dad's dead or you're
not really sure if this is a real deal or if it'll impact your VA benefits, as Mike Cox, former
Attorney General says, it will not. So reach out and let's make sure you get those benefits that
you're entitled to under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022. Mike, thanks for taking some time
with us on Veterans Radio today to get the word out. And thank you, Jim. The Medal of Honors,
the highest award for valor in combat given a member of the Armed Forces of the United States.
There had been over 3400 recipients of the nation's highest award. This is one of them.
Marine Corps Sergeant Daniel Matthews became a one man army before being killed. Details after this.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for Veterans
at 1-800-693-4800. They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for
Veterans Claims. Their number again, 1-800-693-4800. Participating in a counterattack against a
firmly entrenched and welcome sealed North Vietnamese force, Matthews fearlessly advanced
in the attack until his squad was pinned down by a murderous sweep of fire from an enemy machine
gun. Observing that the deadly fire prevented a corment from removing a wounded man in an open
area, Matthews worked his way to the base of the hostile and machine gun emplacement,
leaped onto the rock formations surrounding the gun, and single-handedly charged the hostile
emplacement with his rifle. Although severely wounded when the enemy brought a withering halo
fire to bear upon him, he continued his one man assault, and firing his rifle with deadly
effectiveness succeeded in killing two of the enemy, routing a third, and completely silencing
the enemy weapon, thereby enabling his comrades to evacuate the stricken marine to a safe position.
Matthews succumbed to his wounds before aid could reach him. The Medal of Honor series
is a production of Veterans Radio. Military veterans touch everyone's life. I'm guessing right now
you're thinking of a veteran, a close friend, relative, maybe it's you. Even the toughest of us
sometimes need help, but don't know where to turn for support. You don't need special training to
help a veteran in your life. We can all help someone going through a difficult time. Learn how you
can be there for veterans. Visit veteranscrisisline.net VeteransCrisisLine.net, a message from the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs. And we're back here on Veterans Radio, and it's our second half
of the program where they're talking about benefits. Let's tell them if you have any questions.
You can still give us a call. The number here locally in southeast Michigan is 734-822-1600.
Our guests today include David Sames. David is the Director of Veterans Service Office here in
our local Washtenaw County. We've got retired Brigadier General of the United States Air Force,
Caroline Faussone from Legal Health for Veterans, and we still got Chris Arbino on the line from
the VA hospital here in Ann Arbor. So, Caroline, I'm going to go to you first. Anything new in
the benefits field that we should be talking about? Well, it's kind of interesting. I love some of the
stuff that Chris brought up, and I really did like the interview with Mike Cox because that was a
great update, and that, you know, it truly affects the VBA side, the benefits side, and it really
affects the VHA side. And so, you know, we're all together on this. What a great team trying to help
our veterans. The VA put out, you know, and I know we talk about it a lot, but the VA put out a great
piece a week or so ago about the VA benefits to spouses and what they might be entitled to,
whether if somebody perished while they were serving or after, if they were connected disability-wise,
and we've talked about that a lot. Unless you, you know, call and ask us, there might be education
benefits for spouse and children, there might be housing benefits, but unless you ask, you never
know. And so, I think that's a great thing. And the one thing that I see really going rampant along
with the aid in attendance is kind of the branch off with the caregivers. It's our number one podcast
that's going on right now, and the questions whether how do I get help in the home? How does my spouse
or a significant other get paid for it? I mean, it is a great program, and there's three distinct
elements within the caregivers, and I would say to anybody, do not do it by yourself. Do not go to
the national level first. I'm finding that and Chris is smiling. This is the biggest reason
that some of our clients are being denied because they're doing it on their own, and you know what,
you should be starting locally with your own team, your physician, your primary care, your nurse,
and your social worker. This is a social worker program at the VA, and they are awesome to help
you with this. So start at the local level. That's where it could be approved first level,
ground routes, and so that's what I would encourage our listeners to do. If you need help with caregivers,
go to your team at the VA. A question about that I was thinking as you were talking.
Suppose I signed up, you know, become eligible at the VA, but I never really went there for any
reason, and I die. Can my dependents or spouse, would you advise that maybe they contact the VA
and see if there's something that they may be eligible for? That or a county counselor,
VSO, legal help for veterans, or the VA. The VA has reps there for eligibility. I think the
beautiful thing is every person has their own story. You might have a disability, and you died,
and your passing was because of that disability, because you served. You never know until you
start to peel back the layers of the onion and find out what that person's story is. You know,
it always is real interesting when particularly men will call and say, I served next to this
person, and they got 60% or they got, and now Dave is smiling, and 50%. And so I was right next to
him, and so we have the same stuff, and so I want that disability. No, it's not like that.
You know, each of you have your own story, and we want to help you, but you got to tell us your
story, and then we'll help you and get you those benefits that you're entitled to.
Okay. David, do you want to add anything to the general?
No, I mean, that's, you know, with the caregiver support program, when they expanded it,
don't quote me on the timeframe, but it was probably a couple years ago where
the main focus was for post-911, but now they expanded it more and more, and the general brought
up that I didn't even know it, because it's a really easy portal to apply. But if a lot of
them are getting denied, I can see why it'd be beneficial to go through your doctor and also
your social worker to build that case in order to say, hey, this caregiver is doing a lot of work
for the veteran, and they need to be paid for it. So a lot of good information that,
like I say to everybody, I learned something new every day.
So I learned something yesterday at our vet fest. There's a company, I'm not going to mention it,
you know, on the air right now, but they provide, and I have to get this number right,
but they provide free, basically free in-home care for a veteran who is disabled, and I think it
was over 60%, and I'd never heard that myself, and I thought that that was really important,
and that we're not aware, there's so many of us out there, veterans and their spouses in community,
that are unaware of these benefits that are there for the veteran themselves, and again,
you know, I know I'm repeating myself, but I really encourage our listening audience, for my
generation especially, because we're kind of fading away, I realize that, but our spouses are not,
and they should be aware that there are certain benefits that they may be entitled to,
and as you mentioned, the dependent care, even to our benefits that we're receiving.
Yeah, and also with, you know, I get a lot of calls like, oh, is there any help for
my, you know, my veteran in home, and I'm like, are you enrolled with the VA, because you have to
be enrolled for healthcare services in order to get some of the, well, to get all the benefits to come.
Now they have, I believe it's 16 hours where they can have, per week, where they can have somebody come
in, but you have to be enrolled in the healthcare program in order to do that. General?
David, you're right on. I think the real important thing is being approved by the VA,
and through your team. Dale, when you talked about the company, yes, that is correct, however.
I know there's rules. Well, however, you need to be enrolled, as David said, and I know Chris
will validate this, and then through your team, you're approved for the hours of care. So whether
it's 20 hours of care, 32 hours of care, then this company is able to come in because they're
approved by the VA, and they need to be approved by the VA, almost like contracted out, to come in then,
and then perform the duties of your approved, let's say, 20 hours a week. And for caregivers to be
done, I really need to stress this. It's just not that you need help with somebody to watch you take
a shower, or somebody to assist you to do your shopping. This needs to be significant activities
of daily living. You're probably homebound, or you can't drive, and you need assistance with
toileting and eating, and all of the bathing, and all of those necessities
of the basic activities that we take for granted that we do every day. So that's the first step.
And when I talk to a family, which they're really discouraged, how come I've been
denied? I sit down with them and try to understand their story and their needs,
because it's activities of daily living. And that's what the first thing is, and then to make sure
it's approved by the VA to get those hours. So do you have to have a disability claim in already,
or is this, let's suppose that I'm healthy up until I have a stroke, for whatever reason,
but I'm in the system, and I have a stroke and we need help. So the VA is willing to
go through the process, or my spouse goes through the process, or whoever represents me
goes through the process, theoretically, that I could get some help.
Yes. And so it depends on if you want to apply for the true program caregivers in one of the three
lanes, or if you are enrolled in the VA, and with your team once again, your team knows that you
had a stroke and you're on that team, they could approve, just like in a private hospital, to refer
you to social work, they will evaluate you at the VA and give you hours of care. So you don't even
have to be in the caregivers program to get approved hours of care in your home.
I think that's really important, and that's something that I want our veteran audience to
understand. Tell your friends too, if something's occurring to one of your friends who has become
disabled, even though they have no history of anything with the VA at the time, check it out,
there's help out there available for you, but you've got to go through the process, and that's
what some people get a little frustrated by, well, why should I have to do that? Well,
you know, you've got five million veterans out there, and the money is allocated for the VA,
and they just spend it wisely. And the process, you need to be enrolled, and I want to say once
again, I'm going to give a shout out, I think the Ann Arbor VA is the best in the country.
I referred one of our clients who has just entered hospice, he was not aware of the services
of a disability, he's a Vietnam veteran, Agent Orange, the whole shooting match, and I assisted
in taking him over to Ann Arbor, he needed his DD 214, that was the only thing he needed, and him
and his wife, they got registered because she's a veteran, they got registered, I think it was a
20 minute process, eligibility was phenomenal, they're on the first floor, you walk in, and they
got him into the system, he will have his exam, and then they're going to decide how many hours of
care, here's a good example, how many hours of care that he could get in the home, because
they need help right now, he's just entered hospice. And we've heard that story more
than once, that's one of the issues, and we've talked about this before, because we know
there are some World War II veterans out there, not many, but they're out there, and if they become
disabled, unless they suppose that their spouse is still alive, 93 is not going to be able to
take care of a 95 year old, so this help is available, so we encourage, talk it up folks,
if you're listening out there, and you've got friends that are in these types of situations,
this is what the VA is there for, not only for your healthcare, but also to provide
help in the home, if you get in there soon enough, you may be entitled to disability benefits,
and if something happened to you, all the way back in basic training, unless if you
fell off of one of those confidence towers, or something along those lines, and hurt your back,
but it didn't bother you too much then, they may go back and find that you're disabled because of
that accident, and I know David, you've run into some of these stories that we've gone back so
many years, and you find out, oh, I'm entitled to that because I did this. Yeah, and it's huge,
you know, in Washtenaw County, and a lot of other counties in the state, and I hope a lot of
counties around the US, we get all the death certificates for the veterans that pass away
in Washtenaw County, and we send them a letter to invite the dependents to come talk to us,
to see if there's anything there for them, right, and you'll have a Vietnam vet that never collected
a dime, never did anything with the VA, but they pass of a service-connected condition,
and that spouse is eligible for benefits going forward, you know, it's tough because when,
you know, the veteran dies, so they lose their social security, if they have a pension, they
might lose that, and so then it just goes, the spouse has to live just on social security, and
is there any veterans benefits, and that's what we look at, and so that's the key, and also with,
you know, I mean, veterans that, you know, I've never done anything with the VA, and they have
great private insurance, but then they, my buddies told me to come over and check it out, and, you
know, they might have four or five different conditions related to their service, and so
that kind of monetary benefit and healthcare has improved their quality of life, and that's what
we're, that's what we're here for. I admire all the work that all of you do to help veterans,
it's just awesome what you can do to help these men and women that are out there, and you know,
you mentioned, Chris, I mentioned that you've got an event that you're planning for women veterans
coming up, and I know that there's a lot more of those things going on around the country.
That's correct, yeah, we have our, the Town Hall, and again, we're working with Congresswoman
Dingell on that, hopefully she can attend that, but you know, the women's clinic, you know, we
talked a little bit about that at the beginning, I think they are providing healthcare services,
about 6,000 women veterans here around the, in our VA catchment area, and we're always looking to
build that, so you know, I guess I just want to echo a couple of things that were said that,
and you know, I think the VA does great with getting people enrolled, but you know, to what David,
and to what Caroline said, build that local team around you, I'm not afraid to say it as a VA
employee to use your local resources to help you through the federal system.
It's a, it's a lambry, it's a maze, it's like, it's more complicated than those big corn mazes
that are coming up right this time of year, to figure out how to get through it, and I think it's,
you know, again, we encourage you to utilize these experts. You know, I don't know what the
requirements were, I remember talking with David and Caroline, you know, the studying that they
have to go through, and the exams that they have to take to become a qualified veteran service officer
is time consuming, and we can't do it, we don't, you know, speaking for myself, I don't know how
any of this stuff works really, and so I had to depend on them to get me into the system and get
me through whatever it is that I need, and it's the same thing that we're telling everybody out
there to do. And let us help you sort out the paperwork, because when you file the intent,
and that's one thing we're going to touch on is, you know, the, if you filed an intent
for the PACT Act at, you know, August 13th, right before the deadline, you want to make sure you
file your fully developed claim, right? Because when you file that intent, you have a year in
order to file the fully developed claim. And let us let the service officers help you with that,
because, you know, they'll send you a big pack of papers and say, okay, you need to fill all this
stuff out, and they're like, well, I'm so confused. And same with eligibility, you know, I could fill
out that 1010 easy and send it to the Ann Arbor VA, but also they could go to the facility, even the
CBOX, and get enrolled. And their representatives, all they need is their DD Form 214 and some financial
information, if you're not service connected, and they'll enroll you, it's nice and easy. And since
our office is really close to the Ann Arbor VA, I just send them over there because the process is
seamless when they go over to the VA, right? Right. And we, you know, we have a lot of, you know,
the advantage of working with your local resources, they have, you know, like Carolina has my work
cell phone number. And so I've got a call from her before about one specific veteran that she was
advocating for. So that's the other advantage is that, you know, we all talk in a professional
sense also here on the radio, but, you know, they have our phone number and they know how to
utilize and leverage us to get what they need for individual veterans. So again, I understand the
big VA system can be a little bit complicated. Your local resources will make it very easy. And
they literally hold your hand through the process. It can be complicated. They take all the guests
work and all the complications out of it. Well, I think we hopefully we help some people today and
then that they'll, they'll call either their local veteran service organization or their officer or
legal help for veterans or some of these other organizations that are out there that are designed
to help you. So I want to thank everybody for being on the program. David Sames from Washnaw
County, General Carol and Faustone from Legal Health for Veterans and Chris Arbino from the
Ann Arbor VA Health Center. So thank you all very much for being on Veterans Radio and a reminder
to our audiences that we do this benefits program for you every month. So it's the first Sunday of
the month that we do benefits. So keep that in mind. Write it down. If you come out with a question,
send it to either any of us, you know, you can send it through me at Dale at veteransradio.org
and we'll get that for you. I got a couple of real quick announcements. I got to get out there.
Number one is that our major fundraiser is coming up on September 22nd, Radio on the River. Go to
our website veteransradio.org and you'll be able to see what's going on. We got a great guest.
It's Doug Bradley. He's written all about the music of veterans music, you know, during different
various conflicts. So he's going to be there to talk about the music of Vietnam. And other things
are going to be there. So market calendar for that. And I want to thank everybody because we only had
10 seconds to go. God bless America today. It's Celine Dion. So until next week, this is Dale
Thurman. You are dismissed. God bless America. Stand beside her and guide her through the night.
With the light from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with fur.
Whoa, oh, oh, Oh, God bless America my home, sweet.
Oh
God bless America
Land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the light, with the light from above
From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America
My home sweet home