I as a female veteran am absolutely ashamed of this action! We served along our fellow Americans and sacrificed everything to protect our nation and the constitution. It doesn’t matter if we are women, black, brown. There is no race in the military, but the human race!!!! Do the honorable and what is right and reinstate their names and honor they deserve for serving their country!
We recently had a to good friend lose his life, waiting on the VA to to schedule various procedures, and he waited and was pushed around so long, he just started going downhill. He passed two weeks ago. VA healthcare needs to work on this!
As a veteran myself, and my wife being a veteran, there have been far too many appointments we’ve had to delay, cancel, or just never follow through on because between work schedules, child care and cost it just wasn’t accessible. Most recently my wife decided she absolutely had to attend an appointment given that she had been waiting and asking to see this specialist for months. If she had declined it could have been another 3-6 months before it was available again. With my job not allowing me to take off on short notice, my wife had to bring our 4 and 2 year old with her. Due to our children being distracting to both her and the provider, several key pieces of information were overlooked, and my wife sent away with no resolution to the health issues she has been suffering with years. If only we had a service like this petition calls for, maybe she would have had a chance to better advocate for her own care. But now it’s back to the drawing board and being bounced around to different doctors until someone is able to help. The stress and toll this is taking on our family is borderline destructive, and we just need help.
I run a non profit focussing on helping veterans transiton from military life to civilian life though fitness and peer to peer support. We are `12 years old and going strong, the only way we could have helped service over 5,000 vets and their families was with the direct help of the VA recreation coordinators whose care and attention to the vets are saving lives daily. We need them!!
I worked for over a year at a VA Hospital and saw first hand the positive benefits Recreation Therapy had on the Veterans every day lives. Doctors and Nurses treated the Veterans, but the Recreation therapist provided the personal connection.
Veterans are entitled to active, healthy leisure lifestyles. Such a lifestyle will provide a quality life that will also prolong a healthy lifestyle and decrease healthcare costs for all! Recreation Therapy provides opportunities, rehabilitation, social interaction that we all need! It is not a luxury! It is a necessity!
As a double amputee combat vet, these programs have been essential in my early stage recovery. Easily one of the most productive uses of the VA's programs.