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The
Veterans Multi-Purpose Center – a
veteran’s mental health care advocate
and veteran support organization in the
field for more than 20 years – is
pleased to introduce our new Corporate
Sponsorship Program. Corporate Sponsors
are now invited to join our Center in
its continuing mission to develop and
promote programs that touch people, and
save lives.
Equine
Therapy
A unique approach to helping veterans
recover from trauma.
"Horses
are prey animals and they can sense when
something is not right," said Lorisa
Lewis, a licensed mental health
counselor who works with veterans at the
Center. "We use these horses to teach
the veterans about themselves and to
help them readjust to society.
Lewis has
found that many veterans struggle to
gain acceptance back into their families
and workplaces after one or more
deployments to Afghanistan or Iraq.
A man or woman has gone and the
remaining spouse and children have moved
on...
War-torn Troops Soothed
by Horses’ Spirit
(zootoo.com)
MIAMI -- The science of the
human-animal bond is proving very effective in a
new arena: on the home front of a new war.
Returning veterans are finding help, as well as
healing in therapy that involves a saddle and a
set of reins.
"It feels pretty good. I feel
tall," said U.S. Marine Gene Calonge, who
recently returned from his deployment. Learning
to ride again is strengthening the bodies and
minds of young vets here at the South Florida
Veterans Multi-Purpose Center in Davie, Fla.
The last time Calonge mounted
a horse, was his service with the Marine Corps.
This time around it's Sam, a 4-year-old Arabian,
giving him a much-needed boost.
"It's different bonding with
an animal, you feel like you're not going to be
judged so much about anything so ... you and him
just have a good time,” said Calonge.
The Dignity Memorial® Vietnam Wall
N. LAUDERDALE, Fla. – (September 30, 2009) – The
Dignity Memorial® Vietnam Wall, a
three-quarter-scale traveling replica of the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.,
will be open for public viewing November 6-8,
2009, at Bailey Memorial Gardens, 7801 Bailey
Road, North Lauderdale, Fla. 33068.
Free and
open to the public 24 hours a day from Friday,
November 6 through Sunday, November 8, the
replica is eight feet high and 240 feet long.
Its black, reflective surface is inscribed with
the names of more than 58,000 servicemen and
women who died or are missing in Vietnam. Paper
and pencils will be provided...
The Department of Veterans Affairs is still
struggling
By Adam Levine CNN
The Department of Veterans Affairs is still
struggling with an enormous backlog in claims
for medical and educational benefits that are
piling up despite efforts to diminish the
paperwork, the secretary of the department
admitted Wednesday.
The VA has implemented an
electronic records system, but faces a flood of
medical claims each month. In July alone, the VA
processed 92,000 claims, but another 91,200 came
in...
"Where I come from we had a saying; When you
discover that you are riding a dead horse, the
best strategy is to dismount."
However in
government and in much of corporate America more
advanced strategies are often employed to insure
we are in fact dealing correctly with the dead
horse problem. Such as:
1. Try putting on a different rider.
2. Appointing a committee to study the dead
horse.
3. Arranging to visit other countries to see how
other cultures ride dead horses...
Current and former servicemembers who were
involuntarily held on active duty beyond an
approved separation or retirement date as a
direct result of stop loss from Sept. 11, 2001 -
Sept. 30, 2009, may be eligible for a
Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay compensation
of $500 for each month they were affected.
To
make a claim, eligible active, retired and
former service members, or legally designated
beneficiaries, must provide documented proof
they were stop lossed with their claim. Family
members of deceased service members should
contact the appropriate military service for
assistance in filing their claim.
VA Extends “Agent Orange” Benefits to More
Veterans
WASHINGTON – Relying on an independent study by
the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki decided to
establish a service-connection for Vietnam
Veterans with three specific illnesses based on
the latest evidence of an association with the
herbicides referred to Agent Orange.
The
illnesses affected by the recent decision are B
cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia;
Parkinson’s disease; and ischemic heart disease.
Used in Vietnam to defoliate trees and remove
concealment for the enemy, Agent Orange left a
legacy of suffering and disability that
continues to the present. Between January 1965
and April 1970, an estimated 2.6 million
military personnel who served in Vietnam were
potentially exposed to sprayed Agent Orange...
A front page story in the Los Angeles Times
(10/126, A1, Watanabe) reports, "Two years after
returning from his service in Iraq," 26-year-old
US Army Spc. Jack Barrios "is fighting
sleeplessness, sudden angry outbursts, aversion
to emotional intimacy and other fallout from his
post-traumatic stress disorder."
But "as he
undergoes counseling and swallows
anti-depressants, the soldier is fighting an
even bigger battle: to keep his family from
collapsing as his wife, an undocumented
immigrant from Guatemala, faces deportation."
The Times adds, "Hundreds of US soldiers are
facing the same trouble as they fight to
legalize their spouses' status, a difficult
process that has affected their military
readiness, according...
Artist hopes to paint 100 personnel who
served in Iraq, Afghanistan
Retired
Army Sgt. Richard Yarosh has gotten used to the
stares. His face is blanketed in knotty scar
tissue. His nose tip is missing. His ears are
gone, as is part of his right leg. His fingers
are permanently bent and rigid. All is the
result of an explosion in Iraq that doused him
in fuel and fire three years ago.
"I know
people are curious," he said. "They'll stop in
their tracks and look. I guess I can understand.
I probably would have stared, too."
Soon, a lot more people will be staring at
Yarosh's face but in a very different way: A
life-sized oil painting of him will go on
display at the National Portrait Gallery at the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington later this
month. The portrait, by Matthew Mitchell, is a
finalist in the Outwin Boochever Portrait
Competition, which recognizes modern portraiture
at the gallery known for its collection of
notable Americans.
The gallery received more than 3,300 entries.
Many are less conventional portraits, including
video and photos, but others, like that of
Yarosh, draw strength from the traditional
head-and-shoulders composition, said curator
Brandon Fortune...
Veterans
returning from the fighting in Afghanistan and
Iraq are displaying many of the same
post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms of
troops that fought in Viet Nam, yet most do not
seek treatment, authorities say.
“I’m not an
alarmist but I think this is a serious problem,”
Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the
Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center
for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), wrote
in The New England Journal of Medicine.Referring
to a 2004 study of 6,201...
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) are
hosting a first-of-its-kind national summit to
address the mental health care needs of
America’s military personnel, families and
Veterans, harnessing the programs, resources and
expertise of both departments to deal with the
aftermath of the battlefield.
“This is about
doing what is best for those who serve this
country and using every federal, state and
community asset to do it,” said Secretary
Shinseki. “We’re proud of the people and the
organizations who have stepped up today to make
sure everyone who fought for this country gets a
fighting chance for a sound mind and an
independent life.”
The summit, which opened today at the Capital
Hilton in Washington, D.C., invited mental
health experts from both departments, Congress,
the president’s cabinet and more than 57
non-government organizations to discuss an
innovative...
Equine
Therapy
Retired
Army Sgt. Richard Yarosh has gotten used to the
stares. His face is blanketed in knotty scar
tissue. His nose tip is missing. His ears are
gone, as is part of his right leg. His fingers
are permanently bent and rigid. All is the
result of an explosion in Iraq that doused him
in fuel and fire three years ago.
Veterans
returning from the fighting in Afghanistan and
Iraq are displaying many of the same
post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms of
troops that fought in Viet Nam, yet most do not
seek treatment, authorities say.
