Caring for Wounded Veterans: Comprehensive Recovery Plans

An ever important, if oft ignored, issue for our country is how we care for our military veterans, especially those wounded in the defense of our country. This issue must be elevated even higher now that we are in the seventh year of a war that has seen thousands of military servicemembers come home seriously wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush addressed the issue of veterans' care by appointing Bob Dole, Donna Shalala, and seven other commissioners to review the system of care provided by the Department of Defense (DOD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) and recommend steps necessary to improve all aspects of that care.

The Commission's first major recommendation is to assign each seriously injured servicemember a Recovery Coordinator to develop a personalized recovery plan for the servicemember and manage the plan's execution. Providing the injured servicemembers with this single point of contact is intended to eliminate delays and gaps in treatment. These Recovery Coordinators would have authority to coordinate medical care, rehabilitation, education, job training, and disability benefits and the responsibility for guiding patients and their families through the process. Furthermore, these Recovery Plans, overseen by Recovery Coordinators, would be created for all those seriously injured since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) who could still benefit from such a plan.

Wounded warriors dealing with the complex bureaucracy of the DOD and VA could be greatly aided by having a knowledgeable coordinator to guide them through the process. Very few soldiers deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan aware of the extent of care and services available to them should they be injured in combat, and if they are wounded, they deserve that care as quickly and efficiently as possible. This recommendation appears to effectively address that problem.

Coming in the next installment...Restructuring Disability and Compensation Systems
Read More. . . .

SOTU Review: Caring for Wounded Veterans

One of the major initiatives that President Bush promoted during his State of the Union Address was to enact the reforms proposed by the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, co-chaired by Bob Dole and Donna Shalala. The commission issued a fairly lengthy report of its proposals, which you may read in its entirety here, so I intend to review the plan in a series of posts over the next few days. Since you now have the link, you may read ahead and be better able to contribute to the upcoming discussion of an important issue made even more critical by the large number of wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read More. . . .