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Gianna Vazquez-Davis
Mrs. DeBock
25 October 2016
English 4
Essential Question: Are veteran affair clinics giving adequate care to veterans in need?
Working Thesis: what is Veteran Affairs really doing for our veterans?
Refined Thesis: Some argue that Veterans Affairs is doing everything they can for our veterans.
With some research I have come to the conclusion that this is false. The VA is under diagnosing
and misdiagnosing veterans with PTSD and this causes veterans to lack the proper health care
that they need and being denied medical benefits.
Service Annotated Bibliography
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Is Underdiagnosed
Littlepage, Mary Susan. "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Is Underdiagnosed." The US Military.
Ed. Noah Berlatsky. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing
Viewpoints. Rpt. from "CREW Files Lawsuit, Alleges the VA Underreported Number of
PTSD Cases." 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.
CREW (The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) found out about an email that had been sent by Norma Perez a VA employee stating the the VA (Veterans Affairs) is
underdiagnosing veterans with PTSD in May of 2008. CREW requested to have all documents
that VA holds. CREW was not able to find any e-mail from Perez but the VA resisted sending all
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documents and only sent some. The VA stated that they no longer had access to documents
before 9 December 2008. Anne Weismann, CREW's chief counsel, said, "There appears to be
and I don't know this for certaina growing recognition on the part of the VA that there has been
an underdiagnosis [of PTSD] and there seems to be a growing recognition that they have a
problem with high suicide rates. Obviously recognizing there is a problem is the first step toward
curing it, but that's why the actions of the VA here in destroying e-mails is so disturbing." CREW
filed a lawsuit against the VA for destroying documents. CREW hopes that with the lawsuit they
will be able to discover the extent of underdiagnosed cases of PTSD. With there being
underdiagnosed PTSD cases, veterans who had been misdiagnosed are being denied the proper
care that they should be given.
The US Veteran Health Care System Is Overwhelmed and Failing
"The US Veteran Health Care System Is Overwhelmed and Failing." The US Military. Ed. Noah
Berlatsky. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt.
from "'Significant and Chronic System Failures' at VA: White House Report." 2014.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
The Department of Veteran Affairs is failing in doing their job assisting and providing to
the needs of veterans. The VA provides health care to about 8.8 million veterans a year.
According to Rob Nabors deputy White House chief of staff Veterans Health
Administration...has systematically ignored warnings about its deficiencies and must be
fundamentally restructured. In May of 2014 Obama ordered a review in a response to
widespread reports of long delays for treatment, medical appointments and of veterans dying
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while on waiting lists. Obamas review showed that the VA is in need of more doctors, nurses,
and trained staff. Due to short staffing veterans are having to wait at least 30 days before having
an appointment. In some cases this is too long of a wait and some veterans are dying. It is
unclear if the lack of medical attention is the reason for these veterans deaths but I would like to
argue that it is pretty obvious in my eyes that the reason for these deaths is in fact due to lack of
medical attention. Veterans have put so much into our country and when they come back home
we lack giving them the proper medical attention needed. This is unfair and unacceptable and we
need to find a better way in assisting them
The VA Is Misdiagnosing Veterans in Order to Deny Benefits
Kors, Joshua. "The VA Is Misdiagnosing Veterans in Order to Deny Benefits." Veterans. Ed.
Margaret Haerens. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from
"How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits." Nation (29 Mar. 2007). Opposing Viewpoints
in Context. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
Veterans have been misdiagnosed by VA doctors after coming back from being deployed.
When many veterans come back from a deployment they experience different signs and
symptoms of PTSD. Unfortunately a majority of the time these PTSD cases go misdiagnosed and
veterans are being diagnosed with personality disorders rather an PTSD. VA doctors are
purposely misdiagnosing veterans to deny U.S. veterans the benefits they had been promised
when enlisting. These benefits include lifetime disability and medical care. The government and
VA have been working together on this malpractice in hopes of saving money. This has in fact
worked and saved the government billions of dollars each year. $8 billion in disability and $4.5
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billion in medical care. When a veteran is diagnosed with a personality disorder they get booted
from the military for having a pre existing condition and the VA is only required to treat
wounds sustained during service nor can the veteran collect disability according to Chapter 5-13
of the Armys Separation Manual. There has been cases where VA doctors have told veterans
who do not know about Chapter 5-13 that if they agree to having a pre existing condition that
they will be discharged faster and still be able to keep their benefits. This is false and veterans
are being taken advantage of. Between 2001 and 2006 the Army alone has diagnosed and
discharged more than 5,600 soldiers because of personality disorder, according to the Defense
Department and numbers keep rising: 805 cases in 2001, 980 cases in 2003, 1,086 from January
to November 2006. This is an outrage and I strongly believe that we should not priorities saving
money over properly diagnosing our veterans and giving them the proper care they need after
they have risked their lives for our freedom.