Kagen Enlists Veterans Affairs Chief’s Help To Set Up Hotline
(APPLETON, WI) — Congressman Steve Kagen, M.D. today urged Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake to help set up a proposed hotline for veterans suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
“Our servicemen and women are performing their duties with incredible skill, but their extended and frequent deployments — with shorter leave times — are causing a great deal of stress,” Kagen wrote in a bi-partisan letter to Secretary Peake and signed by nearly a dozen of his House colleagues.
The Purple Heart Service Foundation has agreed to participate in a PTSD call center staffed by combat wounded veterans.
Kagen, who served as a physician at VA hospitals in Madison, Chicago, and Milwaukee during the 1970s, said other lawmakers signing the letter included Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL), Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS), Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM), Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH), Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV), and Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH).
As many as 20 percent of all soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan experience PTSD, according to estimates, and nearly 40 percent of National Guard and Reserve troops are afflicted with some emotional difficulties.
Kagen said the trained veterans who would staff the hotline are well-suited to respond to fellow veterans in need and would work closely with the Department of Veterans Affairs to facilitate a smooth transition to available services. Currently, veterans are referred to a VA benefits hotline or a suicide prevention center when they call for PTSD-related assistance.
“We applaud the VA for its commitment to meeting the special needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and believe this proposal will help fulfill that commitment,” the letter from kagen and the other lawmakers states. “We believe the hotline as proposed by the Purple Heart Foundation and the Veterans Corps of America will complement the valiant work of the VA in serving the needs of our brave men and women in uniform.”
Kagen and his wife Gayle, President of the Freshman Congressional Spouses Class of the 110th Congress, have championed 2-1-1, a national effort to make the three digit call centers a single point of contact for veterans and their families seeking counseling and other services. Created though a partnership between the United Way, the National Military Family Association, and the congressional spouses, the 2-1-1 service connects veterans with local leaders and agencies that can provide affordable housing, medical assistance and job training.
