My Fellow Ozpoliticians and Fellow Unelected Swill of the Star Chamber... feast your eyes on this ongoing disgrace:-

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/19595616/veterans-with-ptsd-turn-to-social-media-claiming-victimisation-from-australian-defence-force/

What are your thoughts?

I always say (as did a past VVAA President) they should all get TPI - it's only Average Weekly Earnings or so and this form of disability is for life.

Grappler Deep State Feller wrote on Oct 30^th, 2013 at 12:12pm:

My Fellow Ozpoliticians and Fellow Unelected Swill of the Star Chamber... feast your eyes on this ongoing disgrace:- http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/19595616/veterans-with-ptsd-turn-to-social-media-claiming-victimisation-from-australian-defence-force/ What are your thoughts? I always say (as did a past VVAA President) they should all get TPI - it's only Average Weekly Earnings or so and this form of disability is for life.

Myself and a few of my fellow ex-servicemembers have been finding out of late that the DVA is very keen on rejecting applications that would have been valid only a decade or so ago.


Well when you cut the defence budget to the bone, you have to find savings somewhere, including smacking over those who serve as they are the easiest cutback to find

my daughter has had a bad experience at work..which now sees her receiving workers comp.. and psychology  ::) ::)

$232 an hour thats norm not WC..

he told her he sees more from the Defence dept than any other dept for the same problems as she has been put through..

that would just be from the ACT the every day problems in the public service are enormous...

and basically nothing changes...at the top the bosses ,who turn a blindeye or worse dont wan t to kn ow..

check out Duntroon...bullying is out of control..its everywhere..

I know vets are a different problem.. and I think we should be ashamed to think any vet should have to begging.  for help especially..

what can we do??????...is there an email address we can vent on???...

I am passed being careful what I say...

Yup.. Bigole - every time we come around to a conflict the same thing arises... bean counters and number crunchers matter more than people.

I posted on a Vets newspaper years ago that DVA had budget for X number of TPIs (etc), and the sudden rush of Vietnam PTSD cases nearly clean-bowled them and caused them to go into near-hibernation on claims.

Now the same deal is coming down for the Ghan and the Rack people - endless delays and shift the goal posts on 'diagnosis'.

We've already seen the Chief of Medical Services - a woman - say that PTSD amongst Ghan and Rack Vets is no more than the level of the rest of the Military community.

CODS!  (not you, sweet chucks - I meant CODS WALLOP) I saw their eyes......the thousand yard stare looking at things they'd rather forget.

Damn you politicians!    >:(

You should all be like me and tell the young uns not to sign up in the first place.....

"there aint no one gunna look after you if you come back with an addled brain"

"the dole won't mess ya head up half as much as war will"

Grappler Deep State Feller wrote on Oct 30^th, 2013 at 3:29pm:

Yup.. Bigole - every time we come around to a conflict the same thing arises... bean counters and number crunchers matter more than people. I posted on a Vets newspaper years ago that DVA had budget for X number of TPIs (etc), and the sudden rush of Vietnam PTSD cases nearly clean-bowled them and caused them to go into near-hibernation on claims. Now the same deal is coming down for the Ghan and the Rack people - endless delays and shift the goal posts on 'diagnosis'. We've already seen the Chief of Medical Services - a woman - say that PTSD amongst Ghan and Rack Vets is no more than the level of the rest of the Military community. CODS!  (not you, sweet chucks - I meant CODS WALLOP) I saw their eyes......the thousand yard stare looking at things they'd rather forget. Damn you politicians!    >:(

we seem to go through this  every time we have  a few more war veterans.. dont we??>.

there always seems to be a group who have to fight for everything..

what is wrong with a country that spends hundreds of thousands on EX POLLIES.. EX PM and EX PREMIERS in particular...year in year out.

have you ever heard of one of them COMPLAINING THEY ARE NOT LOOKED AFTER???

I WOULDNT CARE JUST ABOUT ALL OF THEM WERE FIRED..

I am so over it I really am

if we can afford to feed and clothe 50.000 uninvited guest surely we can take care of our own..

if not someone needs to take a good hard look at themselves.  and I will help them do that

Are these volunteers or conscripts? Forced to go or choose to go?

When I applied for a Veteran's Pension during the Vietnam era I was put the flying trapeze by DVA for a pension I was totally entitled to.

When I rang Vet Affairs one Barbara Jalcavik told me my 'Extract of a Birth Certificate' was not good enough and I would have to provide an original. She treated me like crap and put me through an obstacle course of red tape.

The birth certificate  extract was good enough for me to sign up with the R.A.A.F. was good enough for me to be accepted into the NSW Police Force but when I wanted my pension it was no good.

Further when I rang DVA and was spoken to by a Barbara Jalcavik;  I never will forget her name because when I asked about the original, she said to go to the Department of Birth Deaths and Marriages. When I asked her where it was she told me to look it up in the phone book.

I went ballistic and fronted my Federal Member's Office Kerry Bartlett a great and caring pollie. His secretary read my complaint and said I had been treated so badly, that she  sent it off with a covering letter to the Minister for Veteran Affairs on the spot.

A week later the NO2 in Vet Affairs in NSW rang me and told me she 'was all over it', a week later I got my pension.

I got a nice letter from the Minister asking me if I was happy, I wrote back and said that I wouldn't be happy until Jalcavik was brought to account....SHE WAS after my reply to the Minister.

Think I was just as happy with that, as I was to get the pension I was entitled to after two tours of active duty.

ian wrote on Oct 30^th, 2013 at 5:29pm:

Are these volunteers or conscripts? Forced to go or choose to go?

Volunteers.  So was my grandfather in WWI, and countless others.

Your point is?  It matters not whether or not a man/woman is a volunteer - they still are entitled to the same treatment and receive the same impact from incidents on the battlefield.

PTSD is a very pernicious thing - many people don't realise they are suffering from it, even when it is as plain as day to others.  A good rule of thumb is 'ask their wives' (or husbands these days).

Try years of not sleeping at night and getting maybe an hour's sleep before going to work in an office, socially isolating yourself, jumping at sudden sounds and then later when you begin to realise you are deaf as well, jumping at sounds but having no real idea where they come from, or diving under the dash of your car while driving when a jackhammer goes off next to you on a busy street, early onset of heart and similar troubles and so forth...

I've known men who washed out bloodied APCs who went into the same... battle fatigue, shock, whatever you want to call it, and  still had it thirty years later.

Viet Vets had a 32% rate with a tail-to-tooth ratio of around 10:1.  - i.e. around 10% combat troops.   Ghan and Rack Vets in-house say around 25% and counting - the Defence Force says 6% at this time, the same as the general military community, as if they somehow can't see those eyes, or don't want to.