Transcripts For CSPAN Mental Health Resources For Returning Veterans 20141112

Battlefield injuries are survivable, but it has left the system overtaxed and overburdened. Since 2001. Only 40 of veterans receive their full benefits entitled to at the v. A. With unemployment at its highest, marital discord, threatening social support, and other problems to read it and undetected, they are looking towards social Services Agencies like the red cross in providing help. So the Red Cross Services to the Armed Forces Provide services at every stage of a Service Members military life four, during, and after, so if we look military,vices after it consists of providing veterans with veterans claims for benefits as a vso as well to those who seek to appeal, and that is mostly through our andless outreach project case coordination. We have volunteers at v. A. Reintegration still building courses in the form of reconnection workshops. So our veteran claims have common characteristics. Support who to peer have been trained for the Veterans Service officers, and the red cross revives case collaboration, preparing, developing, and obtaining provides case collaboration. The red cross reaches out to veterans who are not engaged with the v. A. Who are homeless or in the community and establishes a trust relationship. They educate veterans as to what is available to them. All of the benefits you can possibly think of. They provide advocacy during the process. Hey provide referrals denied, benefits are they provide this with the board of appeals, or they may look to other resources for assistance, like ssd i and ssi. There are two programs in the nation that i would like to talk about today. Tucson region and another in West Virginia. So the southern arizona, it is also better known as operation desert home. And it received two grants from the department of Veterans Affairs, and one for veterans at risk of being homeless and another to rehouse those at risk for being homeless. Served 237they veterans, 130 and the rapid rehousing. Use a model, where volunteers and spouses assist , with temporary Financial Assistance with deposits, assistance with landlordtenant issues, and benefit applications. They provide education, job search. Nd Financial Literacy and budgeting and physical and Mental Health care referrals. Our West Virginia benefit Assistance Program began as a pilot, serving 25 veterans, assisted by two red cross volunteers. They provide outreach to veterans in the Community Using a hearer model. These volunteer vets are certified, and they develop a trust relationship and then educate veterans about what benefits they have to assist them. Successful was so that they have tripled their funding base through private funders and have extended their services through serving four times the veterans they serve now. The veterans appeals project is that theyone program are providing services to, and this is using mobile technology vsos,r the bsos resources to get to a vet center. Each Technology Kits includes the necessary items for job search. They print and submit applications and communicate with agencies and or employers. The strategy is to ensure meeting veterans where they are physically, emotionally, and professionally. This is with the retrieval of and clothing for interviews, job fairs. Are employers paid veterans identified by homeless shelters, v. A. Hospitals, the jails, and other community groups. With the aservice is hospitals. Of the original v. A. Bollettieri services. It was created in 1946 at the and thisf the v. A. , was for the programs. It is governed by the natural advisory committee. Cross support the recovery and rehabilitation of veterans as they prepare for their return to civilian life. Animal visitation programs, and we assist in comfort cart is interview shown, support for clinics, rehab,rtation, patient services, and community living. We also have licensed volunteer , ands, Rehab Specialists the American Red Cross also offers Confidential Services to veterans and their families i connecting them with local, state, and National Resources. We provide case coordination and referral to mental and and weral health care, also offer information about v. A. Cemetery, burial benefits, and other unique needs of veterans. As well as our red cross chapters provide food, clothing, training. Support,integration which is the last service that is anvide to veterans important tool and strategy to assist them in the challenges with civilian life. It is important for reintegration of veterans. It provides in communities free of charge workshops that are 90 minutes to 120 minutes long. They are in small groups, focusing on several topics, including communicating positively with Family Members, employees, employers, and others in the community, coping with trauma and recognizing signs of stress. We offer information about ptsd and tbi. Learning about triggers of wetion and changing how think, and changing feelings of sadness while recognizing and helping others who are depressed. The groups are interactive and provide a powerful model for Group Cohesion and universality. Facilitators, we have about three facilitators, licensed Mental Health professionals, and they are red cross volunteers in the community, all over the nation and internationally. Some are veterans. Some are spouses or other kind of Family Members. The future of red cross is about expanding those v. A. Benefit Assistance Programs using a peer to peer support model for case coordination, advocacy, appeals process, and combined with information, referral, and other programs and other communities. Will also be expanding our reconnection workshops and our stress and trauma model with the includesmodule that blending our mind and body skills program, deep breathing, meditation, for those veterans who have been diagnosed with ptsd or tbi born out of their combat experiences. Additionally, we are also launching a couple of new children,r military and children of veterans next year. One on communication and another on coping skills. So i would like to, in your packets, i do not know if you have received, if you have a packet from the red cross, but in the packet, there is a list of websites and Contact Information and about our services. Having meso much for on this panel. I wanted to leave you with a quote that i heard from an iraq and afghanistan veteran. He says, we do not want pity. We are not broken. We just want a little help to reintegrate back to the new normal. Thank you. [applause] and now we will hear from beryl from the amvets. Thank you, mike. It is a pleasure to be with you, and kenny forjb having something to do with the reason i am here today. And i just want to share with you that i really appreciate your theme for this convention, advocates for change, from dialogue to action. On a 43 year career nonprofit executive, and i have sat through far too many meetings where there was nothing but dialogue and discussion and no action. And so seeing this and being a part of the reality of when you leave here, we may facilitate some sharing of opportunities for action, it is tremendous. Something that served me well over the years, early on in my career, and a quote from a poet that i believe of lebanese origin, and he said a little bit is worthdge acted on infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle. Said another way, it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission, so having said that, what i want to do is give you a real quick overview and make sure you understand who amvets, a major Veterans Association is, and then talk about some programs. There are a whole host of programs from a through z that take place across the country. At the local levels, and diane just mention one of the things the red cross is doing, the v. A. Bollettieri service. Takeis, in fact, if you all of our many programs, our volunteers across the country are engaged in that, and that is, in fact, the largest number of hours in cash donations to the v. A. Program. Second, the secondlargest program where our folks are spending a majority of their of the 18 programs we track is military funeral honors, assisting the interment of roughly the 1700 or 1800 veterans daily. In 2000, it was a congressional Unfunded Mandate to give every veteran and military funeral, and they are not able to do that with the two uniform active service personnel, though they have been augmented by vsos all over the country, known as the ap3 program. This was born out of world war ii. Veteranse independent association coming back from and about nine of them were in kansas city, missouri, and when they left, it was the American Veterans of world war ii. Petition to amvets congress to actually get a charter, and that was signed by harry truman in july, and we have not looked back since then in terms of our advocacy on behalf of veterans. Largest program that we deliver in terms of services to our veterans is our Service Officer corps. Roughly 55 across the country. In 2013, they settled more than 63,000 claims, and by the v. A. Calculations, fiscal year 2013, 1 . 4 billion. Services that we provide. The unique thing about amvets, different from the other vsos, is put the uniform on, raise the hand, and take the oath. Beenriginal charter has amended over the years, so eligibility is to have served your country in any branch anytime, including the guard and reserve. With that, however, you do not have to be a member of amvets to receive the services that are available. In the material that is on the table, i think hopefully everyone of you have gotten a brochure as they were having out some things, but before i focus on a couple of things, a couple the Information Available in the back is the legislative priorities. Is we have a legislative office that is monitoring any laws and introducing working , thatepresentatives affect the active military as well as our veterans. They work regularly with our committee with Veterans Affairs and give testimony as so therety provides, are the issues that i am sure will resonate. The Mental Health issues. Women veterans, as well as the treatment. I talked to several people who thought one of the things done was supporting that. Legislativethe action that we have attempted to introduce and did introduce, it was sponsored by a representative out of washington, and it was the veterans and servicemembers employment and housing act of kind and the short story of summary of what we are recommending in this bill, it has now been kicked down the road and is in committees, but it is doing knowledge the sacrifice of our veterans and to allow them to have the legally mandated nondiscriminatory access to housing and employment and training opportunities as other deserving individuals. Want toy do not introduce another nondiscrimination law. Not, it is only 7 of the u. S. Populace that served in the military. Currently, only 1 . We think that qualifies as a minority. We are going to round out some comments highlighting that, and in supporting that, there is an evaluation of those workshops and theavailable there, last piece is our Service Officers directory. Do not have a Service Officer in every state. But amvets is in 40 states where we have a presence, and we have members in all states. And in essence, through the virtual world, we reach out and provide programs, even in those states where we are not officially organized, so the is a take back. In the brochure that was passed around, that kind of highlights the three national programs, and i want to spend my remaining minutes talking about it, and it is basically three programs that are coordinated on a national our post9 11 to veterans as well as this veterans from previous wars that are struggling with stressors. And i am prompted to see this orange block. Since 2008, the previous mike , there was a memorandum of understanding that said where we have the presence, and there are local chapters that we ought to be looking for opportunities to support each other and in serving our veterans. I know i have had a few of these calls, so we can perhaps make that a more dynamic mo u. N. Bring that to live, but the three national programs, including career centers, it is kind of a three legged stool, and the hearing healing heroes is a program we have given out more than 1 million. It helps keep the Families Together in those 50,000 plus warriors that have been wounded. Many of them severely, and they are in hospitals, v. A. Trauma sites, dod facilities, and they are separated from families, and sadly, there are not enough houses yet. There is an issue of bureaucracy, when a spouse sees a returning spouse coming back, and they are double or triple amputees, and the spouse cannot handle it, and they want to start initially right away separation papers. Mom and dad would like to go. The dod does not pay for that. Healing heroes provides basically the travel, lodging, and childcare to allow those families to get together and be together at bedside. Transition workshop, we are really excited. Pushing the wet years,up the hill for and it is a boot camp for those suffering from stress issues. Those that are reluctant to self identify for seeing a psychiatrist, it is going to hurt their rank, it is going to hurt their job opportunities, it is a laidback weekend, and early on, we realize we needed to have measured outcomes, so the whole intent was to have a beta type outcome making a difference through reintegration, coping with how to deal with those things that have been a part of multiple deployments, that we would have to have some measured outcomes, so we work very hard on that, and it is interesting. Those of you that read that. There was a published report in june, commission or charged by the dod to say what have we been with 3. 5 billion dollars in recent years. What has worked, and what has and sadly,ting ptsd, there are no measurable outcomes. We are fortunate that we have that report that shows from a very small study we were fortunate to have the National Institute of health provide a survey, and the acronym is bymise, and it was evaluated the American Institute of research, and what we found with veterans going into the weekend, testing, going out 30 days and 90 days, there has been better improvement with social isolation, anger, anxiety, and we are really quite pleased with that, and phds have recommended a larger study to substantiate this. And hopefully, we will be knocking on the door of the ba and the dod with those results. And i just want to leave you with we have talked about three national programs, and i almost dropped it. Career centers. They have got stress issues under control. V. A. , successful at the the call of duty endowment, which is a foundation established by the people who play the wargames, and they have raised so much money that they have decided to give back to the community and the military, so we are one of the grantees, and we have set up 16 Centers Across the country and have about 1000 veterans in that a todays and have placed many in the last months, and we do that with many of the same things that diane mentioned. It is everything from resume assessment to clothing from mens wearhouse and education if they needed if they have used all of their post 9 11 bill. We provide that, as well. Over my time,bly but you have heard me go on with kind of an extensive overview in 10 or 12 minutes, and the reality is, back to that mo you, mou, and it is close to some local posts, particularly close to those who have a post facility, those two can come together and network and provide a Little Service that is a gap really community, and we do not even know that, but collectively on the back of that brochure, we try to track that, and not counting what we have spent with these national programs, in 2013, the figure stands at 28 million. With a sector formula and cash, if you take away from here they will help you figure out if youre close to one of those local units, the collaboration locally is happening in spite of people up here, and that is a good thing. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. [applause] hear now about the code of support foundation. Please. Hi, everybody. I have a couple questions for the audience, actually, before we start. First, about passing these out, that is the first question, and the second question, how many people in here have served . How many people in here are Family Members . How many people feel both really encouraged by all of these resources and a little overwhelmed at the same time . Yes. It is not you. It is definitely not you. The great things we have seen, and my background is i married a soldier in 2001 right for the war started, so that makes me one of the entire generations of military families that knows nothing about war, and i think you guys are dealing from a military perspective, i want to thank you for what youre doing. You have this entire population, and the suicide statistics have been mentioned for the Service Members and the veterans. We are not even counting the families, and you all know, both the servicemembers, veterans, families, that one goes down, and so is the other. There is no separation between a veteran and a family, for good or for bad, so looking at all of these programs and trying to approach them holistically from a family point of view is something i really admire about nami and the work that you do, because i think it is really important. You have heard a couple of words here over and over again. Peer support. And, again, something that you guys really focus on is key. Key, andolutely without that, without that kind that you have a friendship or a relationship with somebody, all of the official resources in the world are not going to do much. I was telling caitlin last night that we had a case come in over the weekend, and i will tell you a little bit about the code support, but you can read about it. We do direct case coordination, where we have members from all generations regardless of discharge status or disability contact us or are referred to us by our partner organizations, both public and private when they are in some kind of crisis. Number one, the first is financial. You guys have probably heard that too. From aa call coming mother whose son was going through withdrawal and was suicidal. He had been home for about three years. He was being seen at the v. A. I am not sure if it was for Mental Health or not, but the long story short, we were able to use three or ever you are different organizations simultaneously, to get this guy the help he needed. And we take advantage of the resources, and i wanted to make sure there was a bed available for him in ann arbor, michigan, so we ascertain that through the crisis line, and i had his mom on the cell phone with me, and i had jeremy on my office phone, and we were able to make that happen. Now, what made the difference is our veteran coordinator on our staff. This was the first time this guy had actually talked to somebody who he felt really got it, because andy had been through something similar. We would not have been able to get in there unless andy had ifked him to go there and his family was able to drive him, and then he stood outside the emergency room for two hours, and what we did on our media platform without any identifying information, we have a veteran at the emergency and who is trying to go in, he needs some encouragement, and we posted those and had 50 comments, and she cut and pasted them in and show them to his fiancee, who showed it to him. There is no one public or private that is more important. We cannot do it separately. Way forto figure out a you guys, the frontline providers, to be able to that arethe resources out there. I listened to some of the things you said, and some of the things i was familiar with, some of them i was not. With 45ook on paper thousand plus nonprofits and all of the government agencies, you would not think we had a problem, but clearly that is not can you do . What what code of support can do for you right now is you can call us if you have a veteran or a Family Member, and when i say emily member, caregiver, friend, struggling, call us, and we will help you navigate the resources. That in a nutshell is what we are doing. We are doing direct coordination. Maybe i should not say this. How many are volunteers . Ok. So i know nami is a volunteer model. Right. So i know one of the struggles is say you have one of your peer education groups, and it is going really well, but people bring to you things that you really do not have the resources to deal with, right . 80 it is financial. Maybe it is education. Maybe it is benefits, and beryl and the v. A. Have all sorts of resources. Office, go back to your and roll through it. Has anybody heard of the National Resource directory . Has anybody heard of military one source . Ok, and has anyone heard of warrior gateway . Can be very valuable tools, but they can also be incredibly frustrating, right, because basically it is a ton of resources, and you put in your zip code, and you put in your keyword, and 50 things might come up, and maybe your veteran or yourself or your client while fis for one, right, because there is no Eligibility Criteria attached to it. There is no scope. There is no capacity. So what we are doing, and you can see with the handout i gave out, we are partnering to have a more strategically populated not database but collaboration wetform that, hopefully, will be able to have in beta form in the spring, and our goal is to be able to provide that to every service provider, to every volunteer, at no cost, in order for you guys to be able to actually find the help that you need for your clients. We know how frustrating it is. Which ishe same thing, they get on google. That is not the most efficient way to do it. But that is how we are doing it. And it is so difficult to navigate. And that is with the best of Mental Health. Willat we are developing be for veterans and Family Members but really is focused on the Service Providers that are doing the work on the ground to make it easier for you guys to connect. Providedr office space by catholic charities, which i had no idea until they gave us office space, the incredible work that they do for our military and veteran families. That asnly did not know a Military Spouse. It used to drive me absolutely nuts. When we were at fort rai, my husband had command of a battalion that we were sending batteries over every six months, so in every battery for two years, i was able to see the impact not just with the soldiers but with the families for they went, while they were there, and when they came back, all at once. It was nuts. It was really nuts. It was in 2008, during the search, and i had a volunteer spouse, six volunteers, and no money, and the way the regulations are is that we are it is not prohibited but highly discouraged for reaching out into the community, right, so i told the story how every time we had a deployment, we would have these kids, and really helped them to have teddy bears to hang onto. It is not a lifechanging thing, but in terms of wellbeing, it is nice to have a little teddy bear, so like most command teams, they would go out and spent hundreds of dollars every six months on these teddy bears. To call just been able out to amvets or American Legion or red cross, i probably would have had a thousand teddy bears the next day, but we were discouraged from doing that. Here is the good news. People at the leadership level now really do understand the importance of publicprivate partnerships. There are barriers still to that, but both because of physical realities and because clearly at this point we cannot take care of it, as we say ashley used to say the military, on our own. It used to drive me nuts when we ofld say we can take care our own. Are we not american now . Just because we are military does not mean we should be cut off from the rest of the community. From a Family Member point of view, once you leave active duty service, and there are limitations for Mental Health just because there is not Mental Health nationwide, but if you are a Military Spouse or a kid who has been negatively impacted by your servicemembers deployment, and or living with someone who has mental illness, limited have very access to care through the v. A. They have a Great Program for caregivers that has about i think 16,000 people right now. There are 1. 1 million postnine 11 caregivers, and there are 16,000 in this program. And this is where organizations like nami provide such incredible value. And we have never dealt with this before. There is some research, but there is a lot of gaps around the Mental Health impacts of children, on spouses, and those for repeated deployment. So i am probably going to start really early because i would rather have a discussion, but i think it is really important for us all to understand that no one organization can do this alone. Charge, and i know people like caitlin are working in there every single day to do a good job, but the one is that there is no organization, public or private, that can handle this alone, so we have to all figure out ways to truly partner, not just talk silos, butpipes and really figure out how do we actually do it, so i am here to tell you today if you need, if you get stuck, and youre looking for help for a veteran, and we are small, it and it is not like we have huge capacity, but if you get stuck and need help, call us, and we will. Thank you. [applause] ok, now we can talk to one another, and we can ask westons of our panel. There are probably 20 or 30 out there, and these are unique missions. Nami needs to figure it out, and like was said, we need to do it together. And if you have a question, we will come up with a mic for you. Do you have a question . Ok. I am kenny, the chair of veterans and military council. Thank you all so much for being here and for giving us that information. I do have a specific question. About guns, the danger and the education, and those things, and we all know that one of the issues that veterans have when they come in to receive care is the stigma and the issue of perhaps having their gun rights taken away. My understanding is that right now, administratively, over 185,000 veterans have been administratively disapproved from having a firearm, and that is impacting in the community. Wrong, orght or should they instead have due process . Sure. So the question is and thank you so much, and thank you for having us, as well. The question is related to the situation with guns, and the concerns that come up for veterans were they do not necessarily reach out for help because of the fear that they will lose their weapon. I do not know the statistic, so i cannot corroborate that, that you would know better than i would, but at the same in terms of what gun possession can get tricky. V. A. , we are not interested in removing weapons. State, if you to have a mental illness, and you have had your rights revoked to own a weapon, then that is a state issue, and, of course, the v. A. Needs to lawfully recognize that, which we do. At the same time, the fear that if i show up somewhere, and i do these restrictions, if i show up at v. A. , and i am not feeling well and feeling suicidal, the fear that since i say i am feeling suicidal, and then people will then follow up and ask about means, means triction, safety, and so we are talking about the plan. I amlinician will say, really concerned to hear this. Lets talk about, have you had any thoughts about how you would do it, and if somebody says, yes, i think i would use a firearm, there are certainly going to be followup questions about if you own a weapon, how you keep it safe, and those kinds of things, but with those removing the weapon, and we certainly hear stories where that has happened, and with those stories, there is typically another part of the story that we have not heard which may be that somebody has been restricted from using a weapon, but one thing that i also want to make clear is part of our Gun Safety Initiative is we have free gun locks at every v. A. Around the country. No questions asked, they can be passed out to Family Members, friends, and Service Members, so if youre interested in working together in terms of providing gun locks, i know one v. A. Has a huge number of gun locks at the entrance to the v. A. , and the Suicide Prevention coordinators then help to manage that, because what we do want to talk about is gun safety, not removal of guns. A question up here. There you go. Retired marine corps, and mr. Obama signed an executive order modifying rehabilitation requiring all federal contractors and subcontractors to have 7 of their workforce be people with disabilities and 7 of the workforce is being veterans. Signed one year ago. Therefore, it took effect six months ago. , how can intly asked as an unemployed veteran take advantage of this, what amounts to a quota system, coming from the president s office, how can that be accessed . I particularly like mr. Loves comment that the laws are nice, but it is far better to have one , sohem actually implemented does anything i have said make any sense to anybody up there, and if so, could you please respond in a polite manner. You be able to take this . I think i understood the question. I am not sure i have any answer. Have is legislation we to have the veterans added as a minority, if you will, to be protected, and it really comes down in that case, and, again, i do not believe this is helping to address your question per se, of use reality is if two present as veterans for a job opportunity, and the only difference is that i served downrange, and the employer edginessmay have some and hypervigilance, that i may cause some disturbance, etc. , and he hires the other individual, and right now, there is no Legal Recourse that that veteran has. Now, having the law passed does not necessarily mean that simply it is going to be eradicated overnight and employers are going to readily hire veterans, but it reinforces and educates, and education is the best way to solve a lot of problems. If our employers understand that there is some potential issues that they would have to deal that could it be proven they did not decline that veteran only because he was a veteran . They will think twice, but the reality of Unfunded Mandates and laws, passing one more law does not solve the worlds problems. Think, i i do not certainly have addressed your question question. Ill just i sympathize and empathize with you in terms of the implementation piece because i get frustrated with that all the time. Up here in d. C. You see these laws passed and you get excited. And then when you are actually living down in the trenches not a lot has seemed to change. I will say that the department of labor has these, they keep changing the name, these career one stops. And they have people there that are specifically mandated to work with disabled veterans. And so we frequently partner with them when we have a case come in and employments an issue. Depending where you are, sometimes they are really goo. They know a lot of those laws and they know a lot of employers in their local communities that are hiring veterans. One thing about that, too. I dont know if you had the opportunity to attend any of the v. A. Mental health summits. They started last year i think. And they have been going consistently. I have attended four or five of them throughout missouri, arkansas, and illinois. Always there is a big issue on employment. And they break up in fact, the last one i was at was in springdale, arkansas. We had about 300 folks show up for the Mental Health summit. And at least 150 of them were veterans. We were teaching them how to go about using what laws are available and how to influence their employability. It is being worked. Its a hard battle. Another question. This is for dr. Thompson. Have you seen statistics of the suicides and the calls to the crisis center, do you find it more Certain Group of people like from iraq and afghanistan veterans would basically because they have been going on these tours of duty and employment with maybe a sixmonth break and constantly deployed, do you think its they are worn out . Its such a great question. We are still learning about it. Thus far what we have found is that in fact the numbers of deployments has not been a factor in terms of whether or not someone has died by suicide. When we look at statistics of those who are currently serving, those who have died by suicide, less than half of them were even deployed. So thats very interesting thing for us to step back because one would assume the amount of stress that it takes to constantly have to go back would potentially increase someones rate of suicide increase somebodys risk of suicide. We are not finding that now. But we are certainly looking so hard at it because its a very, very important issue. Thank you for asking. The data we have for Service Members shows that less than half of the deployed. Do we have data for veteran suicide in that specific question . Do we have that yet . That i actually dont know. We can certainly look at it. But it brings up the really important point that looking at rates of veterans who die by suicide is much more difficult than looking at Service Members who died by suicide and being able to answer these questions. I can tell you that d. O. D. And v. A. Have collaborated to have a huge suicide Data Repository and we are able to cull a lot of that information from there. What we are looking at is state data, National Death index data, and those datas from coroners offices. There are states where its not known if somebody is a veteran when they die. With that, they die by suicide and whether or not they have been deployed makes it complicated. We are certainly we continue to work and work and work and better understanding that data. Ask a question, as he gets ready, ill remind our audience that tomorrow night the military veterans nami council is going to have a candlelight vigil. Veterans candlelight vigil where we remember the roughly 22 a day that are dying and possibly one active duty person a day dying. Join us 9 15 in front of the hotel here tomorrow night to remember that which is happening still. Daniel williams. Im the new v. A. Chair or new nami chair. Two things, i work at the v. A. As a peer support specialist, and also im an iraq veteran myself. To answer one of your questions about veterans having accessibility for the v. A. If you are 30 or more disabled from the v. A. , they actually give you preference over anyone else inside the v. A. And actually you are eligible for a internal jobs before anyone else sees them just like any v. A. Employee would be. And that goes as well for government jobs. That is a way that you are accessed to a job sooner than someone else would be. My question is that with all these resources that we have, i still see that we have a humongous gap in getting the information that what veterans are entitled to from the v. A. We have to really put our nose to the grindstone and find out what we are entitled to. Do any one of youall up there see the v. A. Or groups getting together and making it be passed into a law or whatever that the v. A. , once a veteran gets to a certain percentage, that its mandated they tell them what services they are entitled to . I think thats a that would be a really great initiative. Its unfortunate that so many veterans are out there that dont know what they are entitled to. And i think thats what Outreach Services are about. We have Vietnam Veterans who dont realize that they have all of these benefits available to them. And then suddenly somebody tells them or has that trusted relationship like a peer support, and is able to bring them in and hook them in to whatever benefits they are entitled. If they are not, then to be able to provide other resources that they can access. I think that might be the key. There are a lot of veterans out there. Im daughter of veterans. Im also a spouse. And we its just so vast the kind of benefits that are there. Yeah, i think the key really is outreach and peer support. See you were basically out of time. The reason we are cutting it a little sure it is because we want you to be aware of the program following this. Set in someirst, of eso,e are considered but we know that we do not have the kind of knowledge we need to have when it comes to the military culture, and that is where we should reach out to the foundation. We have a new program called homefront. It is an evidencebased program and it is wrapped in the military altar and the military language. And we get this thing out really ready to go, we need to let our of esos know that we have it available so they can help us promote it and we can reach all of the military families out there. So, that is the program that is going to follow this session at 3 30 p. M. That is why we are going to take a break now, go out and walk around a little bit, get a glass of water, but please, that come back here at 3 30 p. M. Know it can be overwhelming and get discouraging, but look at it this way. Veterans cameam or 40 years ago, this country really fell down on the job. We really failed that generation. We have an opportunity to do it so much better this time. It is just a matter of connecting the dots. The people sitting in this audience are the ones that do it. Our job at the National Level is to empower and facilitate your success. We are working for you on your behalf, so thank you for all the work you are doing. It really makes a difference. Lets thank our panel. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] medal of honor ceremonies for veterans of world war ii, korean war, and vietnam. Theident obama speaks at 70th anniversary of the dday invasion. And later, the leader of the American Legion faces testis discusses issues facing veterans. President obama honored 24 Army Veterans tuesday with the medal of honor. Ericae magazine reporter fry looks at Plant Made Pharmaceuticals and how the littleknown industry has helped treat ebola patients. Washington journal, live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Dr. Craig spencer, a physician in new york being treated for ebola was released this week from the hospital after being declared ebola free. Humanday, health and Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell testified on the governments ongoing response to protect americans from the outbreak. We will be live at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan three. The 2014 cspan student camp 2015 cspan student camp competition is underway. There are 200 cash prizes for students and teachers totaling 100,000. For the list of rules and how to get started, go to student camp. Org. Year, president obama awarded 24 recipients the medal of honor for gallantry. The recipients were found to have been wrongly denied the award because of prejudice. They were recognized for their valor during major combat operations in world war ii, korean war and vietnam war. This ceremony from the east room was attended by the three living recipients and those Family Members being honored posthumously. This is an hour and 20 minutes. Let us pray. All knowing god, we are sometimes not the people we like ourselves to think that we are. We have at times failed to be a people whose actions measure up to our words. We have been called to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We are humbled by the love demonstrated by these men, the valor, 24 whom we honor today. From world war ii to korea and vietnam, you will hear stories would haven into a heroic hole remind us that though we may be different in many ways, we are alike. We are american soldiers. We sell bait a legacy which inspires our service, grant unto us the decency of purpose, steadfast the resolve and strength of will which these men possessed, courage, with humility that we may follow their path. Grant us eternal god, that we may never forget that the highest preeshes is not to utter a word but to become a model of what we advocate and we pray and ask in your holy name, amen. Good afternoon, everybody. Please be seated. Welcome to the white house. The presentation of our nations highest military decoration, the medal of honor is always a special occasion. But today, it is truly historic. This is the Single Largest Group of Service Members to be awarded the medal of honor since the second world war. And with several of these soldiers recognized for their valor during that war, this ceremony is 70 years in the making. As one Family Member has said, this is long overdue. Many of these families and i had a chance to meet all of them who are present here today, they have known these stories of heroism for decades. Still, they were pretty surprised when we called them to break the news about the medal of honor. Some of them thought it was a prank. \[laughter] some of them thought it was a scam. A few of them thought it might be some trick to get their credit card number. [laughter] when i called Melvin Morris, who well recognize in a moment for his actions in vietnam, his first reaction was, oh my god, what have i done . When i told him it was all good, the medal of honor, i could hear through the phone, he almost passed out. \[laughter] you see, for their gallantry under fire, each of these soldiers was longer recognized with the armys second highest award, the distinguished service cross. But ask their fellow veterans, ask their families and theyll tell you that their extraordinary deeds merited the highest recognition. And today we had the chance to set the record straight. This ceremony reminds us of one of the enduring qualities that makes america great, that makes us exceptional. No nation is perfect, but here in america, we confront our imperfections and face sometimes a painful past, including the truth that some of these soldiers fought and died for a country that did not always see them as equal. So in each generation we keep striving to live up to our ideals of freedom and equality and recognize the dignity and patriotism of every person, no matter who they are, what they look like or how they pray. And thats why more than a decade ago, congressman dated a review to make sure that the heroism of our veterans wasnt overlooked because of prejudice or discrimination. Our military reviewed thousands of war records. They teamed up with veterans groups and museums to get this right. It was painstaking work made even harder because sometimes our Service Members felt they needed to change their last names to fit in. That tells the story about our past. But ultimately after years of review, these two dozen soldiers, among them hispanic, African American and jewish veterans were identified as having earned the medal of honor. This is the length to which america will go to make sure that everyone who serves under our proud flag receives the thanks that they deserve. This is going to be a long ceremony and we are going to read all 24 citations, because every one is a story of bravery that deserves to be told. But first i want to take a few minutes to describe the americans behind these actions. The men these families know, the brilliant lives behind the Smiling Faces in those old photographs and how they reflected all the beauty and diversity of the country that they served. They were americans by birth and americans by choice. Immigrants, include understanding one who is not yet even a citizen. They grew up in brooklyn, Rural Communities like hooper, nebraska, small towns like puerto rico. They loved to fish and play baseball, they were sons who made their parents proud and brothers who their siblings looked up to. They were so young. Many in their early 20s. And when their country went to war, they answered the call. They put on the uniform and hugged their families goodbye. Some of them hugged the wives and children that they would never see again. They fought in the rocky hills of italy, the bloodstained beaches of france and freezing mountains of korea and human jungles of vietnam. Their courage almost defies imagination. When you read the records of these individuals, its unimaginable the valor that they displayed. Running into bullets, charging machine gun nests and climbing aboard tanks and covering their comrades so they could make it to safety, holding back enemies wave after wave even when the combat was handtohand. Manning their posts, some to their very last breath so their comrades might live of the. Of the 24 american soldiers we honor today, 10 never came home. One of them, corporal Joe Baldonado from the korean war is still missing, reminding us that we have a obligation to give the families from our missing Family Members, a full accounting of their loved ones. Through their grief, the families of our fallen summon the strength to carry on. Wives whose hearts ache for their husbands, sons and daughters who grew up without their dad, nieces and nephews and grandchildren and these families join us today. And they know more than most that because others laid down their lives for us, we have been able to live our lives in freedom, pursue our dreams. So theres a legacy here, borne of sacrifice. And that includes a soldiers nephew, a kid from new york who gue up to become one of the great rock stars of all time and honors his uncle here today. It includes soldiers who came home and took different paths, some continue to serve in uniform, some beginning new careers, some getting married and raising their kids, serving their communities, taking care of their fellow vets. These veterans lived out their lives in the country that they helped to defend in doing what they loved, like William Leonard who at age 71 passed away in his back yard sitting in his chair listening to his beloved yankees play out on the radio. And thats where this story might have ended, but a friend of one of these soldiers and army vet himself set out on a mission. He and his wife spent years writing letters and working with congress and our military to get this done. We thank for all of those who worked so hard to bring us to this moment especially marlin and mitchell who are now 83 years old and i ask them to stand so we can say thank you. [applause] finally, of these 24 soldiers, three remain with us and have joined us here today, men who remind us that sometimes the heroes we seek are right in front of us, literally living right next door. Most days you can find jose row dello in his san antonio home, 76yearold retiree who enjoys baseball on tv and working on his 1975 chevy pickup and mowing the grass. Joe is such a humble guy that he did not even mention the ceremony to his neighbors, who i think would be pretty shocked to turn on the news tonight \[laughter] and see that the guy who cuts their lawn is getting the medal of honor. [laughter] today we remember how 32yearold Sergeant First Class rodela fought through his wounds in vietnam and rallied his men during 18 hours of constant combat. Most days you can find Melvin Morris at home in port st. John, florida. 72 years old. A retired salesman and a greatgrandfather. You will find him working on his boat, going fishing, reading the bible, spending time with his beautiful wife mary, married 53 years this month. You are going to have to give me some tips. We arent that far along yet. [laughter] today we remember how 27yearold Staff Sergeant morris, one of our nations very first green beer a berets think about that, thats legendary, how Staff Sergeant morris recovered a fallen comrade in vietnam and took out several enemy bunkers and kept going after being shot three times. And on most days you can find a santiago erevia at home in san antonio. He is a 68yearold retired postal worker. He is fixing up his house, tending to the garden, going on walks with his wife or doing some pushups to stay in shape. [laughter] today, we remember how 23yearold specialist 4 erevia, under a hail of bullets in vietnam, gave first aid to his wounded comrades and single hand he hadly destroyed four enemy bunkers. These are extraordinary americans. They are exemplary soldiers. And so i want to begin by welcoming santiago areef yeah to the stage for the read erevia for the reading of the citation. Santiago areceivey, United States army, the president of the United States of america authorized by act of Congress March 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of congress the medal of honor to specialist 4 santiago j. Erevia, United States army for gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Santiago j. Erevia distinguished himself above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a radio telephone operator in First Battalion air mobile, 101 Airborne Division near tam ky republic of vietnam on may 21, 1969. Specialist 4 erevia rendered first aid to several casualties and the rest of the plaptoon and moved forward. He came under intense hostile fire from four bunkers. Although he could have taken cover with the rest of the element, he chose a course of action. With heaven my fire directed at him, he moved in full view of the hostile gunners as he proceeded to crawl from one wounded man to the other gathering ammunition. Armed with two m16 rifles, he charged toward the enemy positions behind the suppressive fire of the two rifles. And him under intense fire and him as he continued to advance, he was near the first bunker. Disregarding the enemy fire, he pulled the pin from a hand grenade and advanced on the bunker, wounding the insurgent. Without hesitation, he employed identical tactics as he eliminated the next two enemies. Specialist 4 erevia exhausted his supply. And his supply. Still under intense fire, he courageously charged forward. Arisk at the very edge of the bunker, he silenced the occupant in the for the fix at point is blank range. Through his actions, the lives of the wounded were saved and the members of the Company Command post were relieved. His performance in the face of overwhelming danger was an inspiration to his entire company and contributed to the success of the mission. Specialist 4 erevias gallantry and extraordinary heroism at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty where in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflected upon his unit and the United States army. \[applause] Sergeant First Class Melvin Morris. Sergeant first class Melvin Morris, distinguished himself by acts of gallantry above and beyond the call of duty while serving as commander of a strike force drawn from company d, fifth special forces Group Airborne during combat operations against an armed enemy in the city of chi lang republicic of vietnam