5th National Summit on Women Veterans

As usual the VA again misses the point with another “summit,” where the upper echelon touts the benefits of the “great services available to female veterans, and yet, once you cross the thresholds of your local VA hospitals, the “summit” quickly transform into a slippery slope into Hell… It is ridiculous that these meetings are not more beneficial to female veterans, since most of the attendees are the staffmembers of the VA, and little or no notification is provided to the female veterans these summits are met to serve… Yeah, with my limiteds income, i can really afford to spend several days in Washington DC in a hotel, when I am concerned about maintaining myself from homelessness, medical mistreatment, sexual assualt, gender discrimination, failure of services, the denial of services, childcare while receiving medical care, transportation, medication fromulary requests, counseling for PTSD/MST/sucide Prevention; and all while trying to maintain my family, as the sole head of household provider, as I provide caregiving for my special needs adult child, my granddaughter, and my elderly parents with Alzheimers disease… Yet, I can travel to DC to learn of services that DO NOT meet my needs or the hundreds of other female veterans, who are much tyounger than me, as they try to fathom the inadequate services, where our Women Health cooridnators rotate faster than the revolving door leading into our medical facility… I think that the main issue that Shineski needs to ask is “Why needs to change?” Like the revision of all the hierarchy in to the VA systems, where the directors are more shielded than the body parts xrayed in radiology; where there IS NOT an effective system of reprtoing Sexual/gender/handicapped discrimination not just from the opposite gender, but the medical personnel, the staff and employees, the same sex, and the contractors who were “hired,” to support the veterans, except if you are female, you are continously attacked for your gender difference, even more than the attacks you suffered in your military service… If you want to make changes, try doing to the places WHERE THE WOMEN ARE… That is why the VA fails, because it hasn’t moved forward to the 21st century, and still works from the “safety,” of the marbled halls of DC… For if you contact this veteran, I have more stories of women who has suffered, and it is not getting better… As a former corpsman, I have not forgotten to “reach back, and give a fellow soldier a hand, however, my vision had to shift to reach out to my SISTERS who are hurting, and the system where we live is not for the women, who enter its’ dorrs. I have collected so many stories of pain form the VA, that I cannot longer keep quiet, because, my “Sisters” are hurting, and their needs are not being met… I welcome the providers of the women’s health program to come to my region, and speak to the women I have met, because their stories would make you “stop cold” in your tracks… Because you would question how does this occur? It is terrible to retraumatized while serving your country, and again in the hospital meant to treat you… It is time for a house cleaning, and the VA needs to begin making changes, where women veterans are not discriminated upon… It amazes me that the entire federal government had a mandatory standdown in the 80s and 90s for issues that effected the overall welfare of those individuals who served their country, however, this same method of correction has NOT been provided consistently, and has reprimands where if you do not comply, you need to go… The rampant amount of discrimination, harrassment, reprisals, and denial of care because you “blow the whistle,” is not maintained, and includes the veterans who utilize these facilities… Revision of the Patient Contact Representatives into their own SEPARATE chain of command, where reprisals for doing WHAT IS CORRECT AND LAWFUL, since the current system, only patches the most noisest problem… The issue of Quality Assurance, and utilizing best practices for ALL aspects of how the VA functionns, does not seem to trickle down to effective care for the veteran, except to further deny or hinder their care. The Dependent Care medical care program needs revision,and the use of Tricare is NOT effective in this region, most facilities DO NOT accept! So, when the VA wants women veterans to enter into their services, maybe it would be better, if the VA revised its system, to be more effective, because it sucks in the NY/NJ/PA region… Especially if you are homelessness or reaching the point of becoming one, because women recieve the scraps, and normally, there answer for help is, “No, we do not do that!” So, when you tout the services you described in DC, maybe you should send a “sectret veteran” throug hto see if the programs actually do work, an stop leading already fragile veterans, down a road of further self-destructive, initiated by the renegade VA hospitals who do not comply… Bet, you would be really surprised…
Oh, and another thing thagt really angers me is that our facility spent thousands of dollars to installed flatscreens televisions into the main waitng areas to present public announcements to the vaterans of what is occuring in the VA as a whole… The one thing that pisses me off is the these TVS are being used for staffmebemrs and their upcoming training information, maybe, I might have been able to learn to the upcoming events that matter to me as a veteran, if the televisons provided more veteran-centered information, since the hospital staff has access to the ENTIRE computer system where education programs can run a sceensavers, upon opneing the database. for those staffmembers with limited access the installation of worksit spcific computer or television information can run in their employee staff areas, and allow the decimination of Veteran related information, such as upcoming WOMEN HEALTH INFORMATION, could be permanently and consistently appear for better promotion of issues that relate to me, for if you want me to participate, INCLUDE ME!!! The staff have far more venues to gain education, health, or employedd related matters… For me the one to two hours I am walking through the hospital, I could gain better inclusion, if you afforded me better notification of upcoming events that pertain to me… that is why most females do not participate is because they are exclude or notified TOO DAMN LATE!!!

Its a start, I did 3 yrs. in 70’s never burdened the VA for financial assistance or health concerns. Only education, but if you don’t request they don’t know what we need. After 22 yrs chronic medical issues all probably service connected but denied. However, for others the VA is starting to listen and address the VA responsibilities. The main issues are as I see it, Medical Care for the lower income vet, homelessness, wOMEN IN SERVICE NEEDS, and the TBI/PTSD. It took me 35 yrs to seek assistance thru VA as a category 8. So far everyone has seen me as if 30% or higher rated vet, BUT ONLY 10% SCD not requiring management. Needless to say my complaints are trivial. However, our OIF/OEF/GULF WAR Vets and Agent Orange need as much support they can get before they’re gone. I know its not a perfect world. The VA needs to look to the future and prepare itself for the pyschological and physical disabilities incurred from Iraq and Afghanistan especially from PTSD and not exclude the Service Women Vets.

I was reading about what occured at the conference. It appeared to be a very well orgainized and informed program on issues that every woman who is or has been in the Uniformed Services would want to be appraised of.

In the Washington Post Fed Section was a very interesting article with direct implications on any participant at todays’ conference who participates in Tricare or Tricare prime for Life. Sen. Coburn,R.OK, believes we have been getting a break we do not deserve and further more would move the cost up so far past what we now pay.

Sen. Coburn is himself a Veteran so this comes from someone who should care but no what he wants is that those of us who strugg;e to make ends meet in retirement have no chance at all. This is after being paid near povert wages for twenty years or more, deployments to who knows where, doing every
task with pride and why, because for us there is no other way to serve.

But Shylock wants His pound of flesh well let him have it with out any blood from us.

Catherine A. Whliley,DT1,USN,Ret