Helping Gulf War Veterans
March 1, 2010
Concluding more than a year of research, the Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' recommendations focuses on health care priority, access, undiagnosed illnesses, classification of records, outreach and timelines.
The Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans recently concluded more than a year of exhaustive research, producing a comprehensive set of recommendations to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki titled, “Changing the Culture: Placing Care Before Process.”
Six health care and benefits themes were addressed in detail. They were health care priority, access to care, undiagnosed illnesses, classification of Gulf War I records, outreach and timeliness.
The committee, includes active duty and retired servicemembers, veterans of the first Gulf War and other conflicts, representatives of the major veterans service organizations, medical experts, and a widow and family members of Gulf War I veterans. The DAV’s National Service Director Randy Reese also sits on the committee.
The VA established the committee in April 2008 to conduct an independent examination of the VA health care and benefits received by veterans who served in the Southwest Asia Theater of Operations in the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91 and to provide recommendations on how these veterans can be better served.
“Due to the lack of reliable data regarding the 70,000 veterans who served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, we based most of our findings on scattered scientific research and anecdotal information,” Reese said of the committee. “With that in mind, we made extra efforts to contact veterans who use VA services and veterans who do not use VA services to come before the committee and report on their personal experiences.”
In its final report, the committee stated, “The VA culture has significantly changed for the better since Gulf War I, but more needs to be accomplished. As VA continues to transform its culture and practices, caring for veterans must not be bogged down by bureaucratic processes.”
The committee went on to say it found that VA’s processes often prevented the effective and timely delivery of care and benefits to Gulf War I veterans.
“The process itself created barriers,” Reese said, “like the experience with undiagnosed illness. There definitely is a need to move beyond the narrow and restrictive confines of treating diagnosable illness, to addressing the broader functional limitations which remain as ongoing problems requiring health and social interventions.”
The committee recommended that the VA eliminate the end date for the presumptive period for compensation for undiagnosed illness in Gulf War I veterans, and to apply the same standardized diagnostic criteria in VA’s health care diagnoses and benefits ratings for undiagnosed illness.
It was also recommended that the VA reinstate authority to enroll Gulf War I veterans into health care Priority Group 6, as well as to implement specialized programs to educate VA and contract medical personnel on Gulf War I medical issues, research and regulations.
The final report stressed the importance of establishing a “much stronger and more formal health care support mechanism” at VA facilities by assigning a person, who would provide a friendly and informed primary point of contact during their initial interaction with the VA.
The committee found that Gulf War I veterans need to be identified and grouped as a distinct population in all VA databases. The recommendations included paying closer attention to the overall quality of information within the VA databases.
“These recommendations will go a long way in helping this underserved group, but only if our recommendation to carry out a comprehensive and targeted outreach to Gulf War veterans is executed,” Reese said. “The 20th anniversary of the Gulf War is a very positive opportunity to attract Gulf War veterans to the VA.”
The report stated additional emphasis is needed in outreach to female veterans.
The committee expressed, in length, that timely responses from the VA are critical to the success in caring for veterans. The recommendations included setting a standard of 30 days in which to respond to inquiries from the Advisory Committees.
“We worked to present recommendations that are people-centric, result-oriented and forward-looking,” Resse said. “Our goal is to improve access to VA benefits and health care services for veterans of Gulf War I, and I feel strongly that if appropriately acted upon, the committee’s recommendations will go a long way toward achieving that.”
