On the morning of 14 November at Lehigh University’s Mountaintop Campus, the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council is hosting a special physician and advanced practitioner training symposium through its Healthcare in Our Community alliance – one of a series of events that week. It is possibly the first time nationally Read more…
Gulf War Vets Needed for Research: The War Related Illness and Injury Study Center at the VA in East Orange, N.J., currently has several research studies focused on Gulf War veterans who deployed to Operation Desert Shield/Storm, as well as non-deployed veterans of the same era. If you are a veteran from the 1990-91 era, or if you have a Gulf War illness and would like to know more about the research, please call 1-800-248-8005 or visit their Gulf War Research page at: http://www.warrelatedillness.va.gov/research/volunteer/nj-wriisc.asp.
(Source: VFW Action Corps Weekly, 18 September 205) (more…)
Editor’s Note: It has been written about before on this blogsite, but the September 19 date for the Lehigh Valley’s first Agent Orange Seminar is nigh and we think it important that you do not miss out on a chance to educate yourselves because your children may be affected — whether or not you are a Vietnam War veteran or ever served. It is high time to register and reserve a seat.
Expert speakers from as far away as the state of Maryland are coming to the Lipkin Theatre, the site of the seminar. Dr. Peter Kahn of the Department of Biochemistry & Microbiology at Rutgers University; Dr. Tom Berger of the Vietnam Veterans of America’s (VVA) Veterans Health Center; Professor Kelly Allen of the Sustainability Committee of Northampton Community College; Paul Sutton, the VVA’s special advisor to the National Committee on Agent Orange and Mike Eckstein, the VVA State Council Chair for New Jersey’s Agent Orange efforts, will all speak.
This is an unique opportunity to listen and learn about a subject constantly in the papers but not well understood. The Press Release below tells you more: (more…)
We are in the era of tablets and smartphones. To take advantage of this new technology, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Health Administration (VHA) has recently arrived on the healthcare mobile applications (apps) scene. We believe their products may prove useful to veterans, caregivers and medical professionals, but they are not alone in producing such products. (more…)
Editor’s Note: We wish to bring your attention to something we consider to be a very special event in the Lehigh Valley — a seminar on Agent Orange not only for veterans, but also their progeny and the general public. Pennsylvania VVA Chapter 415 of the Vietnam Veterans of America is sponsoring it and is bringing in well-known, national-level speakers, some with academic credentials. Please note we’re using the term “Agent Orange” as an umbrella term for several different kinds of herbicides used in Vietnam … and in the United States.
You may be asking yourself why invite the progeny of veterans and the general public, for weren’t the effects of Agent Orange limited to those military veterans who served in Vietnam? It is because, many believe, more than military veterans have been affected but also their progeny and, additionally, the general public — these products were not only used in Vietnam. Consequently, the chapter is seeking to heighten their awareness through education and to gain their assistance in pushing needed government research studies long overdue and resisted. The Congress, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other departments of government may have been turning a blind eye to a matter of importance to all of us.
For more information and how to register for the event, refer to the article below, which is being republished with the kind permission of its author and appeared in the June 2015 issue of Lifestyles over 50. (more…)
VA Extends Disability Benefits to Air Force Personnel Exposed to Contaminated C-123 Aircraft
On 18 June, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) published a long-awaited regulation that expands eligibility for some benefits for a select group of Air Force Veterans and Air Force Reserve personnel who were exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange through regular and repeated contact with contaminated C-123 aircraft that had been used in Vietnam as part of Operation Ranch Hand (ORH). (more…)
Probably for the first time in its history, the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center is about to conduct a Town Hall in the Lehigh Valley. You know something has got to be behind this. Read on. (more…)
Few doubt that Congress had a point in wanting the Veterans Choice Card provision in the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 (VACAA) — excessive delays in service merited this temporary measure — but it seems also to have rushed the Department of Veterans Affairs, whether unfairly or not. In its haste to respond to short deadlines, the VA has made some poor regulatory decisions along the way. (more…)
Just announced on 17 March 2015 and effective as of 2015, the VA has eliminated the use of net worth as a determining factor for both health care programs and copayment responsibilities. The intention is to make the program more accessible to low-income veterans. The VA estimates this may affect only 190,000 Veterans over a five year period, but VA estimates can be wrong. (more…)
VA Announces Single Regional Framework under MyVA Initiative
Internal Organizations to Realign Their Existing Structures
As a result of last year’s scandals, Washington Headquarters announced on 26 January that is taking the first steps under the MyVA initiative to realign its many organizational maps into one map with five regions utilizing state boundaries to better serve military veterans. We will be part of Region 1 (the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and a couple of South Atlantic states). (more…)