Veteran Denied Care At Two VA Facilities Thought No One Would Believe Him, So He Filmed It

The VA clinic in Lawrenceville, Ga., initially turned him away for the same reason, which is why he decided to bring his camera along to the Community Based Outpatient Clinic in Oakwood. He received the same response. But this time, he captured the interaction on camera.

The full video shows 33-year-old Dorsey waiting for five minutes before telling an employee that he needs a transfer from the VA system in Athens.

“We’re not accepting any new patients — not this clinic,” the VA employee said in response, signaling an abrupt end to the interaction.

Dorsey, who served in Iraq in 2003, has PTSD and was seeking treatment for escalating symptoms. Aside from the Oakwood clinic, Dorsey’s other option is in Atlanta, which is more than 50 miles away from his current location. PTSD is a fairly common diagnosis in veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The VA states that anywhere between 11-20 percent of those veterans suffer from PTSD.

“It takes a lot to say, ‘You know what, I need to get help,’” Dorsey told the New York Daily News. “And for a veteran to be told on multiple occasions that they can’t get help is just very, very discouraging.”

While this means that the VA Choice program applies, no employees offered that information. It was only after he had discussed his experiences at the two clinics with another veteran that he learned of the program.

“We have some very serious geographical issues. Now we have the VA Choice card but we have doctors who won’t accept it or don’t understand it,” Jerry Edwards, founder of North Georgia Veteran’s Outreach Center, told Military Times.

Not only do doctors often refuse to accept the program, but internally, the VA has previously tried to interpret the legislation establishing the program to mean that if any facility exists within 40 miles of a veteran, regardless of whether that facility provides appropriate care, then that veteran can’t access the program.

Other administrative problems have plagued the VA. Over 500,000 veterans have inquired about the VA Choice Program from the period between November 2014 and May. Just 50,000 received authorization for appointments.

Via: American Spectator

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[VIDEO] The Inspiring True Story of the Four-Legged Hero Behind the Film 'Max'

Sheldon Lettich got his first Belgian Malinois by accident.

The LA-based screenwriter had just put down a pet when he and his wife went to the pound to look for a new companion. “We like big dogs,” Lettich, 64, says. “We wanted something like a German shepherd.”

As luck would have it, the shelter had a litter of what looked like four German shepherd puppies. Lettich and his wife took two, and named the pair Tina and Charlie.

But as the pups grew, Lettich realized they didn’t look like other German shepherds in the neighborhood. Months later, he found out why.

“I was reading an article about the bomb-sniffing dogs at LAX, and there’s a photo of a dog accompanying it that looked exactly like my dogs. The article

stated it was a Belgian Malinois, and I thought, ‘What the hell? What’s this?’ ”

Lettich fell in love with the breed. “They’re a bit of a handful, especially when they’re puppies,” he says. “But once they bond with you, they’re very loving pets.”

Fifteen years later, his Belgian Malinois inspired Lettich to write a script starring a dog of the same breed. “Max,” a family flick about a war dog relocated from Afghanistan to Texas to live with his handler’s family after his death, arrives in theaters Friday.

The military and police switched to the Belgian Malinois several years back, finding them better suited for the work than German shepherds, explains Lettich, who adopted a third Belgian Malinois, Zoe, a few years ago, after Tina and Charlie had passed away.

“They’re a little bit smaller, lighter, more agile; they can be very aggressive, they live a little bit longer, and they don’t have hip-dysplasia problems as much as German shepherds do.”

In the film, Max — who suffers from PTSD following the death of his handler, Kyle Wincott (Robbie Amell, best known as Firestorm on “The Flash”) — moves to Texas to live with the Wincott family and adapt to “civilian” life. Kyle’s younger brother, Justin (Josh Wiggins), is put in charge of the unruly canine.

Via: New York Post

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Home Free: Female Veterans Find Fresh Start in Los Angeles Housing Community

Army veteran Danielle Chavez stands in front of her new home. (Photo: Billy Glading/The Daily Signal)

 SAN PEDRO, Calif. — Thirty minutes south of Los Angeles, nestled into a drought-dry San Pedro hillside, sits the small townhome community of Blue Butterfly Village. Named for sharing land with a preserve for the endangered Palos Verdes blue butterfly, it’s the sort of place you’d never know was there unless you were looking for it. Even then, you may have some trouble.

The women who call Blue Butterfly Village home don’t mind the quiet. They have a noisy past: All are female veterans who have dealt with poverty and homelessness, oftentimes alongside domestic violence, sexual assault, or mental health issues, making up part of what the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs calls the fastest-growing segment of the country’s homeless population.

“Being here is a really humbling experience,” says Danielle Chavez, an army veteran whose five years of service included stints in Iraq, Germany, and Fort Bragg. “This is like, only in your wildest dreams. You look around and you think, ‘Is this really my backyard?’”

After returning from Iraq, Chavez lost her mother and faced the dissolution of her marriage around the same time. She became homeless before a VA worker mentioned Blue Butterfly Village, which is owned and operated by the Volunteers of America. She now lives in a bright corner unit on a freshly paved cul-de-sac with her two young daughters, flown in from a relative’s home in Arizona by Volunteers of America.

Chavez, who suffers from PTSD, is one of four women veterans who moved into the 73-unit community last month, representing a small pilot lease group. A ribbon cutting ceremony drew city councilmen, the Los Angeles mayor, and the U.S secretary of Veteran Affairs.

It was an emotional celebration for the trailblazing, female-focused community — one of the first of its kind in the nation.

Via: The Daily Signal

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