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Categories: VA Healthat
Categories: Mental HealthSome troubled Los Angeles veterans are getting help through an unlikely source: orphaned parrots.
The West L.A. campus of the Department of Veterans Affairs has an exotic-bird rescue facility on its sprawling 387-acre campus. It houses 21 aviaries with nearly 40 parrots that are part of a unique animal-assisted therapy program for veterans coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, alcoholism and other ailments.
The Feathered Friends program at the VA Medical Center gives veterans a chance to work through their issues by caring for orphaned exotic birds.
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By DAVE PHILIPPS | JAN. 7, 2015
New York Times
COLORADO SPRINGS — Nearly 200 sick and wounded soldiers in a gym at Fort Carson last month listened silently as Lt. Col. Daniel Gade offered a surprising warning: The disability checks designed to help troops like them after they leave the service might actually be harmful.
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Young veterans want the public to listen to their needs, not worship them as 'heroes.'
By Chris Marvin Nov. 11, 2014 | 11:00 a.m. EST | U.S. News and World Report
By the end of this year, the Pentagon will have only about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan. As 13 years of combat operations come to a close, it’s time to pivot. We need to turn our attention toward service members and veterans here at home, and we need to engage with them.
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By Leo Shane III
Military Times Staff writer
Oct. 10, 2014 - 10:59AM
The American Legion has a message for federal workers upset over veterans preference rules: Get over it.
“Those who have served in uniform have earned such preference,” American Legion National Commander Michael Helm said in a statement late Thursday. “Helping those who have served in uniform, especially disabled veterans, get jobs is a policy that must remain in place.”
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A Veterans benefit outreach was held at the Turtle Mountain Community College Auditorium in Belcourt on September 4th with representatives from the Minot Vet Center; Brenda Bergsrud, ND DVA; Grand Forks CBOC; Military Outreach, NDNG Family Assistance Coordinator, Lutheran Social Services, VA Home loan program and VA Voc Rehab. Veterans were also educated on Agent Orange presumptive conditions and benefits.
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By Martin Matishak - 07/19/14 11:14 AM EDT
With only two weeks to go before the August recess, Congress has yet to take action on legislation that would renew the pilot program before it expires on Sept. 30.
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Stacy Kaper
National Journal
June 12, 2014
The Senate’s passage Wednesday of legislation intended to stop veterans from dying waiting for health care is likely to be Congress’s last major reform bill for the year to address failings in veterans’ services or clean up the embattled Veterans Affairs Department.
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By Patricia Kime
Military Times Staff writer
May. 14, 2014 - 10:20AM
Marine Cpl. Jacob Schick was an early casualty of the Iraq War, his body blown apart by an anti-tank mine in Anbar province in 2004.
The force of the explosion threw Schick through the soft top of his unarmored Humvee, blew off his right leg, shredded his left and ripped off portions of his arm and fingers.
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By Jeff Schogol
Staff Writer
Veterans advocates are denouncing an opinion piece in the New York Times that draws links between veterans and white supremacist groups in attempting to explain the actions of the suspected gunman in a recent and deadly shooting outside a Kansas Jewish center.