Rep. Costa Announces Extended Benefits for Valley Veterans

Applauds actionby VA to step up care for soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

FRESNO, CA – Congressman Jim Costa hailedyesterday's announcement by Veterans Administration Secretary Shinseki that theVA is adopting new regulations to make it easier for our nation's veteranssuffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to receive critical healthand disability benefits.

"Those who risk their lives in defense of ourliberties deserve the best available care when they return home," saidCosta. "This includes our service members with injuries like PTSD that maynot be visible. The benefits that these new rules will provide our Valley'sveterans are long overdue, and I commend the VA for taking action to improvehealth care for our veterans struggling with PTSD."

Beforethis change in VA regulations, veterans seeking health and disability benefitsfor PTSD were faced with the often impossible task of pinpointing the specifictraumatic incident or stressor (i.e. an exploding bomb or ambush) that mighthave triggered their disorders. As a result, less than half of the Iraq andAfghanistan veterans diagnosed with PTSD are receiving benefits from theVA.Under the new rule, veterans simply need to prove they served in a war zonewhere the conditions were consistent with their symptoms. The new rule willalso make it easier for all veterans suffering from PTSD to receive VA healthcare and disability compensation, and many Vietnam veterans who were deniedPTSD benefits in the past may now be eligible.

For more information, see the attached fact sheet.Additional information can also be found at www.va.gov or by calling the VA's toll freebenefits number at 1-800-827-1000.

Background

Over two million service members have served in Iraq andAfghanistan since 2001. It is estimated that 20 percent of these servicemembers will develop PTSD. PTSD is a medically recognized anxiety disorder thatcan develop from seeing or experiencing an event that involves actual orthreatened death or serious injury to which a person responds with intensefear, helplessness or horror, and is not uncommon among war veterans.