Mental Wellness Campaign: The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), VFW Auxiliary and three partnering organizations launched the new VFW Mental Wellness Campaign at a press event inside the National Press Club in Washington. Joined by leadership from Give an Hour, One Mind and PatientsLikeMe, VFW National Commander Brian Duffy said the overall campaign goal is to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health—for veterans and non-veterans alike—and to raise awareness, foster community engagement, improve research and provide intervention for those affected by invisible injuries and emotional stress.
Also addressed was the partnership with Give an Hour for “A Day to Change Direction” on Oct.8- a day in which VFW Posts can host training sessions or perform community service. A key component of the campaign is to make communities aware of the five signs of emotional suffering: personality change, agitation, withdrawal, poor self-care and hopelessness. Learn more at: http://www.vfw.org/News-and-Events/Articles/2016-Articles/VFW-Introduces-Partners-in-Fight-Against-Mental-Health-Stigma/.
Legislative Conference: More than 70 members of the VFW’s National Legislative Committee met with members of Congress to urge them to eliminate sequestration and to pass a new budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), so that a nation that creates veterans can properly take care of them when they return home.
Congress, however, would rather complain about the problems instead of funding the necessary reforms to bring permanent change to the VA, said Commander Duffy. “I cannot tell you how disappointed I am in the 114th Congress,” he said. “Both the VA and the VFW have point blank told Congress what the department needs to better serve veterans, yet it appears every funding bill is going to be tabled until after the November elections, which means another continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government that does little to strengthen national security or bolster the VA’s programs and services for veterans,” The VFW wants Congress to fix the issues that surfaced after the Veterans Choice Program was implemented two years ago, to expand family caregiver benefits to veterans of all eras, pass meaningful accountability and workforce reform legislation, consolidate and improve the VA’s Community care programs, reduce the appeals backlog, and pass the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2016. “None of this can happen if Congress is in recess,” noted Duffy, who said Congress must also remove the forced sequester provision of the Budget Control Act to ensure that the Department of Defense, the VA, and other agencies have the resources needed to defend our nation and care for those who do the defending. “Federal election year or not, the near 1.7 million members of the VFW and the VFW Auxiliary fully expect those who are elected to represent us do to their jobs,” he said.
War On Terror Memorial: Montana congressman and former Navy Seal Ryan Zinke introduced legislation to authorize the building of a Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) Memorial in Washington, DC. The VFW passed Resolution 302 in July of this year at our annual convention in Charlotte, NC. Congressman Zinke and the VFW agree that due to the nature of the War on Terrorism, waiting for 10 years after conclusion of the war is too long to wait to honor those who gave their lives to defend our freedoms and way of life.
Let’s all remember those in Congress who voted to ignore our pleas and voted to table the request.
