The NVGAG is a prime example of the preventative and therapeutic value of sports, fitness and recreation. Being fit and staying active are huge priorities of the VA’s National Rehabilitation Special Events section. Older individuals that are physically active on a regular basis are clinically proven to be healthier, recover from injuries faster, and have a higher overall quality of life.

The events themselves include a huge variety of sports and recreational activities, including: swimming, cycling, golf, shot-put, discus, 10-meter air rifle, table tennis, dominoes, shuffleboard, horseshoes, nine-ball, bowling, checkers and croquet.

Furthermore, with each event, the participants will be separated by age brackets, with a total of seven age categories for each event. (55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80-84 and 85 and up).

Veterans with visual impairments and those who use wheelchairs for mobility can compete in the additional Visually Impaired or Wheelchair divisions, respectively, but these divisions are limited to only bowling, horseshoes, shuffleboard, and golf.

Some events are also separated by gender, and these include: cycling, bowling, horseshoes, shot put, discus, javelin and swimming. Please note that all athletes must enter at least two but no more than four events, excluding exhibition events.

NVGAG is hailed as one of the most progressive and adaptive rehabilitative sports programs in the world, but there is a lot that you need to know before becoming an athlete, non-athlete or volunteer.

To begin, the NVGAG will be held May 31st through June 5th, 2012, in St. Louis, Missouri. This wonderful city is famous for its music and performing arts, as well as some fantastic architecture, such as the Gateway Arch.

Due to the fast approaching date for this event, the registration deadline has been set for February 29, 2012. This is important to note, because everyone, including athletes, coaches, support staff, and volunteers, must complete a separate registration form.

The forms themselves can be found online at the following website:
http://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/gag/docs/registration.asp

Please make sure that you complete all of the required forms for your specific class of participant, as any missing documents will cause a delay in registration and possibly prevent enrollment.

If you are unable to access the internet, you may also visit your Veterans Affairs medical facility’s Voluntary or Recreation Service for more information and to download a copy of the 2012 registration package. The completed forms can be faxed to (314) 894-6114, or be mailed to the address below:

Administration Subcommittee
2012 National Veterans Golden Age Games
St. Louis VAMC
1 Jefferson Barracks Dr 128/JB
St. Louis, MO. 63125

At this time, the hotel to be used has not been released to the public, but instead will be forwarded to athletes after acceptance of registration. Despite this, the pricing has been made public, and has been locked in at $104.00/night plus taxes $18.45 per night and round trip portage fees of $8, for a multi-day total of $865.15 per person.

Disabled veterans will be happy to note that the selected hotel is ADA-compliant in all rooms. Though the cost may seem high, please keep in mind that all meals will be furnished at no cost to all athletes of the 2012 NVGAG, starting with breakfast on May 31st, 2012 and ending with dinner on June 5th, 2012.

If you’re planning on flying to the NVGAG, the closest airport is the St. Louis Lambert Airport, approximately 20 minutes from the hotel which the VA has partnered with for this specific event.

If you’re a wheelchair user, make sure to contact the airline you’ll be using, and inform them of your needs. To ensure that your wheelchair or scooter is properly handled, please provide the airline with written, equipment handling instructions.

The organizers for the Games will be at the St. Louis Lambert Airport on May 30, 2012, to greet all participants and provide transportation free-of-cost to the aforementioned hotel. Transportation will also be provided to the airport for departures on Wednesday, June 6, 2012.

There are two more key points that you should be aware of, and these are the traditional NVGAG “Wall of Heroes” and the local St. Louis climate, with instructions on what you should bring to the event. Each year, the NVGAG asks that veterans include with their registration packet two photos of themselves; one photo should be of them at some point in their military past, preferably in uniform, and the other should be a current photograph of the veteran. Once registration for the event has closed out, event organizers will begin to create the aptly named “Wall of Heroes” by putting up each set of pictures with the participating veteran’s name.

As for the climate, the weather in May and June for this part of Missouri is normally warm and sunny, with the occasional late-spring shower. Be advised that it can also get rather humid in St. Louis, if that is an issue for you.

Temperatures will range from mid to high 80s and can drop to the high 60s or low 70s at night, so dress accordingly. (The hotel is fully air-conditioned, though, with each room having individual temperature controls).

If you are an athlete, you should bring the following items: clothes for layers, tennis shoes, hat, sunscreen, insect repellant swimsuit, umbrella, sunglasses, medication, personal identification and personal equipment (i.e., golf clubs, bowling ball).

So, if you happen to have some free time in the end of May and beginning of June, and finances to cover travel and lodging costs, check out the National Veterans Golden Age Games, and see if it’s something that you’d be interested in.

Should you have any further questions, you can contact a Games representative at nationalveteransgoldenagegames2012@va.gov or 1-888-374-3046.

Best of luck to all those that sign up as an athlete, and thank you to the wonderful people that sign up as volunteers!

Stephen Fricano
National Service Officer

A new video produced by VA’s Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service discusses how service dogs might be a good option for some veterans living with disabilities.

VA also provides a Q&A on Guide and Service Dogs that explains eligibility and other info.

For anyone interested in this benefit, it may be a solid starting point in your journey to acquiring your very own service dog.

VetsFirst has actively advocated for greater availability of service dogs for veterans who need them. For many, these animals are critical to greater quality of life and independence. They are beneficial to veterans living with a variety of disabilities, including hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, seizures, and mobility issues.

The Veterans Equal Treatment for Service Dogs Act (H.R. 1154), was approved as an amendment to another bill, which recently passed the House. This amendment will ensure that all veterans with disabilities who use service dogs are able to access VA facilities.

“This is an important legal clarification for every veteran who uses a service dog,” says John Carter, co-chairman of the House Army Caucus who introduced The Veterans Equal Treatment for Service Dogs Act. “When this becomes law, veterans will have the unquestioned right to use their medical service dog in VA facilities under the same rules as those acknowledged for seeing-eye dogs. This is already the practice in many facilities today through administrative policy, but this law permanently codifies those policies in all facilities.”

In the past, the only dogs fully-protected by law to enter all VA facilities were guide dogs, which are used by people with vision problems. The VA has left it up to each facility’s discretion whether or not to permit access to service dogs.

A few months ago, VetsFirst reported on one U.S. Army veteran’s frustration of being turned away from a VA facility because of his service dog. Kevin Stone was denied Inpatient Services at Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia and missed important medical appointments because officials said his dog Mambo presented too many risks to let in.

For many veterans like Stone, service dogs are critical to greater quality of life and independence. Service dogs are beneficial to veterans living with a variety of disabilities, including hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, seizures, and mobility issues. VetsFirst believes that exempting guide dogs but not service dogs from VA property will lead to unequal protection for veterans and all people with disabilities.

The advocacy efforts of Congressman Carter, VetsFirst, AMVETS and others, was instrumental in the VA releasing new directives this past Spring in an attempt to resolve access issues. Each VA medical center now has a service dog policy that veterans may request.

We would like to know what you think of the policies and if you are hearing of any problems. VetsFirst will continue to fight to ensure that access is not a problem for veterans.

Heather Ansley, Esq., MSW
Director Veterans Policy
VetsFirst, a program of United Spinal Association

Further Reading:

Service Dogs-A Veteran’s Best Friend

VetsFirst Joins Congressman John Carter to Introduce Veterans Equal Treatment for Service Dogs Act

Bloomberg stated that “it’s too dangerous” for wheelchair users to hail a cab in NYC and that most drivers would “pretend they didn’t see them”. He also said wheelchair users “sit too far from the driver to establish a dialogue” and therefore “they would not tip well”.

It’s time to call out the offensive remarks of Bloomberg by showing your support for a fully-accessible NYC taxi fleet. Sadly, only 231 of the City’s 13,000 taxis are accessible to wheelchair users.

The New York Daily News is taking an online poll regarding the desirability of accessible taxis.

Click Here To Take The Survey

VetsFirst’s parent organization United Spinal Association has advocated for accessible taxis in NYC for many years.

Terry Moakley, chair of the VetsFirst Committee, was a chairperson for the Taxis For All Campaign for over 10 years, challenging the inaccessibility of New York City cabs and advocating for wheelchair users, disabled vets, and others to have greater freedom in getting around the Big Apple.

But this fight reaches far beyond the City’s front lines. If NYC creates an equitable system of accessible public transportation then other cities both small and large will follow.

You need not be a City resident to join this cause as it affects our entire community, including disabled vets. So please let your voice be heard by taking this important survey that only takes a few seconds to complete.

Background Reading:

Push for Cab Access Grows

One Wheelchair User’s Ordeal in Hailing an Accessible NYC Taxi

Accessible Taxis and Disabled Veterans

In stark contrast to this effort is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the opening of the 9/11 Memorial on that hallowed ground. As veterans, we need to remind this super committee every day that young men and women across this great nation responded to these horrendous attacks by joining the military to fight against terrorists around the world who seek to destroy our way of life.

This battle against terrorism is not over. Some of those brave Americans who entered the military post-9/11 have made the ultimate sacrifice, and many more will carry the physical and mental scars of battle with them for the rest of their lives.

As a nation, we simply cannot allow political differences to shortchange this generation, or any previous or future generation, of veterans of the benefits that they have earned.

We are and we should continue to be a grateful nation for those who have served. To harm the services and benefits needed by veterans is simply unconscionable.

VetsFirst is working for veterans with disabilities on Capitol Hill. Please take a moment to read VetsFirst’s letter to Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Co-Chair of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs’ Committee, regarding the need to preserve services and benefits that help veterans with disabilities.

Terry Moakley
Chair of the VetsFirst Committee

The proposed legislation––titled the “Charles August Long (CAL) Undiagnosed Diseases Research and Collaboration Network Act of 2011”(H.R. 2671)––will provide the medical community the ability to instantly share data on undiagnosed illnesses with each other so that they can work together to develop effective treatments and ultimately cures for illnesses that are currently a mystery.

Heather Ansley, VetsFirst’s director of Veterans Policy, discussed how the CAL Network could be particularly useful to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) during a recent press conference in Washington, DC that introduced the bill.

“We are excited about the opportunities for collaboration between physicians, researchers, and government agencies that will be created through this legislation,” Ansley said.

“Although VA maintains registries for exposure to certain substances and environments, the CAL Network will allow VA to benefit from the experiences of and facilitate collaboration with the larger health and research communities,” she added.

The legislation would also help veterans who do not obtain health care through VA but develop undiagnosed diseases more easily connect to the illnesses of other veterans who use VA health care. Specifically, the CAL Network will ensure that VA is able to see patterns among not only the veterans they serve but those present in veterans who seek private care.

This bill will provide the commonsense networking tools for our medical community to better share information on undiagnosed illnesses,” said Congressman John Carter, who sponsored the legislation in response to thousands of families across the country struggling to care for loved ones with undiagnosed diseases.

Other sponsors include Congressmen David Dreier (R-CA); Michael Burgess (R-TX); and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

“After studying this issue for some time, I was surprised to learn that there is not a more effective approach for physicians to identify and talk with other doctors who are treating patients with similar undiagnosed illnesses. The establishment of the CAL Network will put in place a forum for physicians to search for similar cases and facilitate cross-disease research of undiagnosed diseases. Ultimately, the faster a problem can be identified, the easier it will become to improve the care of the patient,” Dreier explained in a press release.

The Cal Network Act is named for Charles August Long ‘Cal’ of Cedar Park, Texas, who passed away in December 2006 at the age of 5 due to an undiagnosed illness.

Press conference attendees included Heather Long (the bill is named for her son); James Alton, an undiagnosed disease patient and his parents, Greg Alton and Caroline Loewy of Atherton, California; and AMVETS National Acting Legislative Director Christina Roof.

Cal Network press conference attendees. From left to right: Congressman Dreier, Heather Long, Greg Alton, Caroline Loewy, James Alton, Emily Long, Congressman Carter, Heather Ansley (VetsFirst), Christina Roof (AMVETS)

For more than 15 years now, I have been part of a coalition in New York City known as the Taxis For All Campaign. There are a ton of taxis that operate in the Big Apple: a little more than 13,000 of them are the world-renowned “yellow” cabs and for the most part, they operate in midtown and lower Manhattan; and, there are also 20,000-plus “livery” cabs that operate in the other four boroughs of the city and in northern Manhattan. Today, only 231 yellow taxis are accessible to persons who use wheelchairs, and a much smaller number of livery cabs have access features. Therefore, most taxis and liveries here are not accessible to veterans with mobility disabilities either. I think the tide is about to turn in our favor.

Two weeks ago, I gave a presentation to members of the U.S. Access Board in Washington, DC about accessible taxi progress in our city. Some of what I wrote above is what they heard that day. Before and since my visit to this Board, I’m wondering, why are they interested?

Well, the Access Board develops specifications for transportation systems and vehicles covered in ADA regulations. Currently, these rules state that automobiles used as taxis do not have to be wheelchair accessible. But within the next few months, the first-ever wheelchair accessible automobile will start rolling off the assembly line in Indiana. Originally known as the Standard Taxi and now called the MV-1, this vehicle has an open seating area in the front next to the driver to accommodate a passenger who uses a wheelchair or a scooter, and a built-in ramp. In addition to being used as a taxi, the MV-1 can be purchased by anyone as a personal vehicle, and it can be used in ADA paratransit, Medicaid and VA transportation and rental car services. Perhaps the Access Board is considering a change or two to their vehicle rules.

I also told the Access Board about two accessible taxi-related legal actions ongoing in New York City. One is an ADA complaint lodged with the U.S. Department of Justice by a New York State Assembly Member who happens to have a disability. It alleges that the City of New York discriminates against persons with disabilities by choosing a vehicle that is not accessible as the winner of its “Taxi of Tomorrow” design competition. One of the three finalists was an accessible vehicle, but the city failed to include “accessibility” as one of the competition’s design criteria. The Justice Department has opened an investigation based on this complaint.

VetsFirst parent organization, United Spinal Association, is one of a number of plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission alleging discrimination based on disability because this city agency has allowed more than 1,100 Toyota Sienna minivans to be used as taxis without including access features. The current ADA transportation vehicle regulations state that when demand-response vehicles that carry less than 16 passengers are placed into service, “equivalent service” must be provided to individuals with disabilities, including persons who use wheeled mobility devices. A couple of months ago, the presiding judge denied the Commission its motion to dismiss our case, so it will move forward.

So my fellow veterans, I believe that someday soon because of the ADA, you will be able to ride in accessible taxis in communities large and small throughout our great nation. The tide is turning in our favor.

Terry Moakley
Chair of the VetsFirst Committee

Social Security reform would impact over one-third of America’s 54 million current beneficiaries who are either veterans or family members living with them, such as their spouses.

Of the 13 to 14 million veterans––or 6 in 10––who are not Social Security beneficiaries, the vast majority will become beneficiaries in the future.

Terence Moakley, a board member at United Spinal Association and chair of the VetsFirst Committee, contributed his personal story to the report, detailing how Social Security has played a vital role in his life.

Moakley, along with other individuals who shared their experiences in the report, demonstrates Social Security’s longstanding importance to the well-being of Americans who serve our nation and their families.

Their stories underscore that:

• Social Security is essential to veterans and their families.
• Social Security’s disability and life insurance protections are especially important to those who place themselves in harm’s way in service to the country.
• Every dollar counts; even small Social Security benefit cuts would mean real sacrifice in basic necessities and quality of life.
• Political leaders should restore fiscal discipline without going back on this country’s promises to veterans, including the promise of Social Security.

The report quotes the following by President George Washington, “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.”

Moakley specifically documented how Social Security’s disability benefits enabled him to return to school and regain economic self-sufficiency for over 30 years. Now 66, he resumed Social Security disabled worker benefits at age 63 because his condition worsened, and his wife and 14-year-old daughter received Social Security as his dependents.

The following organizations partnered with Social Security Works for the report: American GI Forum; Blinded Veterans Association; Gold Star Wives of America; National Association of American Veterans; National Military Families Association; Paralyzed Veterans of America; Union Veterans Council-AFL-CIO; VetsFirst, a program of United Spinal Association; Vietnam Veterans of America; and VoteVets.org.

Under the program, eligible post-9/11 veterans and service members may designate a primary family caregiver who will be eligible to receive services that include a stipend, mental health assistance, and access to healthcare insurance.

Other important components of this program include comprehensive caregiver training and medical support.

VetsFirst believes this program is a step in the right direction in addressing the individual needs of our nation’s veterans by offering support to those most important to their health and quality of life––their families and loved ones.

More information about the program is available at www.caregiver.va.gov.

A copy of the Family Caregiver program application (VA Form 1010-CG) is available on the website and can be completed online. Applications can also be filed by calling the Caregiver Support line at (855) 260-3274 or through the Caregiver Support Coordinator at your local VA medical center.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a final rule that will phase out paper checks for federal benefits by March 1, 2013.

What this now means; any veteran receiving benefits from the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) will have until March 1, 2013 to sign up for electronic payment of their benefits.

Veterans are urged to sign up for direct deposit before the deadline because on March 1, 2013, the VA will stop issuing paper checks and those Veterans not having electronic payment arrangements for their benefits will receive their funds via a pre-paid debit card––called the Direct Express Card. This card will be issued by the Commerica Bank, U. S. Treasury’s financial agent.

Another new ruling that will affect individuals receiving VA compensation or pension for the first time went into effect May 1, 2011. If a Veteran files a VA claim for compensation/pension after this date, they will automatically begin receiving their benefits electronically.

The phasing out of paper checks issued by the Treasury Department will not only affect VA benefits, but all federally issued benefits, such as, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Railroad Retirement Board, and Office of Personnel Management.

For more information about the federal government’s switch to direct deposit, visit www.GoDirect.org or call 1-800-333-1795.

You can also contact one of our skilled Veteran Service Officers (VSO) at 1-800-404-2898.

VetsFirst strongly urges federal benefit recipients to switch to electronic payments now, rather than waiting until the final deadline to reduce the risk of lost or stolen checks.

Christine Golden
National Service Officer
VetsFirst