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Hearing Transcript on Media Outreach to Veterans: An Update.
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MEDIA OUTREACH TO VETERANS: AN UPDATE
HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 SERIAL No. 110-106 Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
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CORRINE BROWN, Florida |
STEVE BUYER, Indiana, Ranking |
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Malcom A. Shorter, Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS
Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public hearing records of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs are also published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process of converting between various electronic formats may introduce unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the current publication process and should diminish as the process is further refined. |
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C O N T E N T S
September 23, 2008
Media Outreach to Veterans: An Update
OPENING STATEMENTS
Chairman Harry E. Mitchell
Prepared statement of Chairman Mitchell
WITNESSES
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Hon. Lisette M. Mondello, Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs
Prepared statement of Hon. Mondello
Hawthorne, Brian, Washington, DC
Prepared statement of Mr. Hawthorne
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Carolyn Schapper, Representative
Prepared statement of Ms. Schapper
MDB Communications, Inc., Washington, DC, Cary Hatch, President and Chief Executive Officer
Prepared statement of Ms. Hatch
Spann, Wade J., Washington, DC
Prepared statement of Mr. Spann
Vietnam Veterans of America, Richard F. Weidman, Executive Director for Policy and Government Affairs
Prepared statement of Mr. Weidman
MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
Post Hearing Questions and Responses for the Record:
MEDIA OUTREACH TO VETERANS: AN UPDATE
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
U. S. House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:08 a.m., in Room 2247, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Harry E. Mitchell [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Mitchell and Space.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN MITCHELL
Mr. MITCHELL. Good morning, and welcome to the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing. This is a hearing on media outreach to veterans, an update, September 23, 2008. This hearing will come to order.
Today, we are following up on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) outreach efforts. If, by the VA’s own estimate, only 7.7 million of America’s 25 million veterans are currently enrolled and receiving benefits, how are we bringing the VA to the remaining 17 million veterans?
Waiting for veterans to show up to the VA is neither effective nor acceptable. The VA must be proactive.
We will be hearing from veterans about the perception of the VA’s pilot public awareness campaign in Washington, DC, to promote the suicide hotline and VA mental health services. We are honored to have them here today.
We will also hear from the marketing firm of MDB Communications about the best practices for reaching consumers.
Finally, the VA will update us on the status of the pilot public awareness campaign and its plans for expansion in conjunction with a national outreach strategy.
On July 15th, this Subcommittee heard testimony on the creation of an outreach strategy to alert veterans and their families where they can turn for help. In the hearing, marketing experts encouraged the VA to conduct thorough market research before executing an advertising campaign, emphasizing the need for a strategic plan with a market tested message and with measurable objectives that focus on veterans’ needs.
We also heard from the VA’s Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, Lisette Mondello, about the Department’s outreach plans, specifically the three-month pilot campaign to promote VA’s suicide hotline in Washington, DC.
Today Assistant Secretary Mondello will update us on the status of the pilot project, which is scheduled to conclude next month.
Based on initial results, the VA’s stated intent was to expand the program. We look forward to hearing how VA plans to do this and how the VA can maximize effectiveness.
After hearing about the importance of a well-researched, comprehensive, targeted outreach strategy in the July 15th hearing, we also look forward to hearing what recent progress has been made in procuring the necessary marketing research expertise to help VA develop and refine its national outreach strategy.
Additionally, in the July 15th hearing, a public service announcement (PSA) featuring Gary Sinise was shown. I am curious to learn today why it was not distributed to television stations in the Washington, DC, area as part of the DC-based pilot public awareness campaign so the VA could gain additional feedback.
It is now my understanding based on what the VA has told our Subcommittee staff that the VA plans to award a contract next week to distribute this public service announcement nationwide.
If the subsequent market research concludes that it is not an effective outreach tool, I want to know what the VA will be able to make of the necessary adjustments and that this one PSA will not be distributed as a substitute for thoroughly market tested messages in the future.
I am also eager to learn how the VA will be tracking the use of this public service announcement by television stations and whether it is proving effective.
Finally, I look forward to hearing more about the VA’s potential use of paid advertising at movie theaters nationwide to show the Gary Sinise public service announcement.
In response to a post-hearing question from our July hearing, Ms. Mondello suggested the VA is considering this as an option. This is certainly innovative and if this is the best way to reach veterans at risk for suicide and let them know where they can turn for help, then I am all for it. The only question is, is it the best method?
But first we will hear from four veterans who live in the Washington, DC, area, who have been exposed to the pilot public awareness campaign. I am eager to hear their impressions of this campaign and I trust their input will be useful to the VA as well.
We will also hear from Ms. Cary Hatch, President and Chief Executive Officer of MDB Communications. I expect that her testimony will enlighten all of us on the requirements and potential pitfalls of launching an effective national advertising campaign.
I want to thank all of our witnesses for coming to testify before the Subcommittee today. The fact that we are holding this hearing, the second this year to focus on media outreach, should make clear the importance of this issue. And we look forward to your testimony.
Before I recognize the Ranking Member for her remarks, I would like to swear in our witnesses. I ask that all witnesses, please stand and raise their right hand.
[Witnesses sworn.]
[The prepared statement of Chairman Mitchell appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you.
I ask unanimous consent that all Members have five legislative days to submit a statement for the record. Hearing no objection, so ordered.
The first panel, at this time, I would like to recognize Mr. Brian Hawthorne, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF); Mr. Wade Spann, also a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom; Ms. Carolyn Schapper, our third OIF veteran; and Mr. Rick Weidman, Executive Director of Policy and Government Affairs for the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) as well as a Vietnam vet.
I thank all of you for coming and I thank you for your service to our country. Would you please come to the table.
And I ask all of our witnesses to stay within the five minutes of their opening statements and your full statement will be submitted for the record.
And we will begin with Mr. Hawthorne, if you do not mind, and then we will just go on down the table.
STATEMENTS OF BRIAN HAWTHORNE, WASHINGTON, DC (OIF VETERAN); WADE J. SPANN, WASHINGTON, DC (OIF VETERAN); CAROLYN SCHAPPER, REPRESENTATIVE, IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS OF AMERICA (OIF VETERAN); AND RICHARD F. WEIDMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR POLICY AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS, VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA
Mr. HAWTHORNE. Good morning, Chairman Mitchell and the other Members of this distinguished Subcommittee. I truly appreciate the privilege of your time to offer my perspective on veterans’ health and suicide prevention.
My name is Brian Hawthorne. I am currently serving as an Army Reservist while I attend George Washington University here in DC.
I am a combat medic in the military and served two tours in Iraq, most recent as part of the surge in Baghdad. I returned to U.S. soil on Memorial Day of this year after ten difficult months.
As a medic, I am responsible and intimately connected to the health and well-being of the soldiers in my unit, which is increasingly revolving around mental health.
The Army has begun placing much greater emphasis on the mental health of its soldiers with the assignment of combat stress teams on most bases in theater and many more required hours of training and briefings for Commanders, medics, and soldiers alike.
These efforts have paid great dividends in reducing the stigma associated with mental healthcare and I believe that leadership at all levels are now much more available and able to identify soldiers at risk for this condition.
This not only enhances the level of care available to most soldiers in theater, but it is encouraging the efforts across the military to reduce these stigmas.
Obviously, however, this fight does not stop upon leaving the battlefield. Even more important than the availability of mental healthcare in theater is the availability and usage of such care at home.
There are some key differences between these environments, however, that I would like to outline for you.
In country, your average servicemember has daily interactions with their chain of command as well as with their peers who are experiencing essentially the same stresses. Therefore, it is significantly easier for an aware leader to be able to identify at risk individuals by comparing how he or she is handling their stress compared to everyone else.
Along these same lines, it is much easier for a healthcare provider or Commander to track the development of a condition over the course of a tour because for the most part, everyone entered theater at the same time and, therefore, their exposure to trauma and stress is equal.
In these conflicts, especially at this phase, when the theaters are so mature and rich with resources, servicemembers have many more stimuli affecting their stress levels than ever before. It is not uncommon to have soldiers talking to their family or friends hours or even minutes before leaving the wire on a combat patrol.
Now, imagine for a moment if that short, albeit critical, conversation does not end well for that servicemember, be it a fight with a spouse, a sick child, a sudden or unexpected expense, or just tension on the other line. That soldier now has significantly more on his or her mind than their peers, yet still must be able to handle the same stresses of their mission.
I am not a psychologist, but I can say from experience that stresses from home can significantly amplify the stress in combat.
Upon redeployment, homecoming experiences run the gamut from good to bad. For the most part, excitement of reuniting with families and the real world takes precedence over all else and whatever issues that servicemember was facing are pushed down.
As we now know, this is not only unproductive, but it is normal. The mantra of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas does not apply here, yet many servicemembers wish it did. Maybe they think their buddies do not want to talk about it anymore or that their families or friends just would not understand. But for the most part in those first few weeks, elation and relief is perceived for progress and a cure.
The veteran selects middle of the road answers on a mental health survey and is released from the out-processing center. In most units, this is the time when most issues begin to occur. A family or a lifestyle is not as he remembered and he no longer has his battle buddies around to talk to, to keep track of him. He may have had a few months off now with a regular paycheck and no one accountable for him.
As a Reservist with multiple tours, I had almost 70 days of leave accrued which was kindly tacked on to the end of my tour as part of my terminal leave. During this time, I reached out to my families and friends and a few battle buddies from the tour. However, at no time did anyone from my chain of command or the VA contact me to see how I was doing.
The rationale for this, at least in my experience, soldiers do not want to be bothered with Army visits during this time, so they are not.
During these months, however, other soldiers reached out to me even though we were off duty and in some cases not in the same unit or even the same country. My guys from down range still felt comfortable calling Doc Hawthorne and to chat about what was going on as they had while we were in Iraq.
Mostly they want to know what normal was. Should I be having trouble sleeping still? Is three beers a night too much? I have flashbacks. What do I do? And so forth.
As I said, I am not a psychologist. I know the limits of my capabilities. I would help as I could, but mostly I referred them to Military OneSource which was heavily advertised to us both down range and during our post-deployment briefings.
For the most part, they received outstanding treatment from the system there, continued to see one of their assigned therapists with great success. The question then becomes, hence this hearing, what of the veterans who do not have a doc, who do not know about Military OneSource, or are not eligible for its services? What about the family member who has concern about their recently returned veteran?
That, I believe, is where the VA suicide hotline plays the most important role. By advertising its availability and convenience, not only where the veterans are, but where their families are, by making this service public knowledge, we are infinitely increasing the likelihood that a veteran will end up using it either through his own discovery or peer pressure of a concerned family member or friend. If this is indeed our objective, then there should be no limit to the creativity applied to its distribution. While it could be argued that a veteran is not likely to be sitting at home at noon on a Tuesday watching soap operas, it is very possible that his mother or grandmother could be and having had just the conversation with him on his difficulties had been empowered with information that could save his life.
At the other end of the spectrum, his or her teenager may not be able to fully understand what their parent has been through, but understand they are different now. While soap operas may not be the medium to reach this demographic, but certainly ads on arenas such as Facebook, MySpace, Google, et cetera, can register enough with them to prompt a conversation or intervention. We cannot afford to forget the influence of such mediums.
To speak specifically on the ads that are currently running in DC, I would like to make the following comments.
First, it is imperative to emphasize the confidentiality of such services. Bearing in mind that many veterans are still in some kind of government service or in the military, career progression is a major consideration when seeking help.
I personally know soldiers who refrain from seeking any sort of official mental healthcare due to the fact they do not want a black mark in their record. This is not an official or institutional issue. This is a personal one and that in the military, we promote in our own image.
Take, for example, a friend of mine who is a young infantry platoon leader. He served in Iraq and comes home and wants to seek mental health. How likely is his unit to send him to an arduous course such as ranger school after seeing he struggled with combat stress? What about when he is up for promotion to Major or eligible for Battalion Command? Are officers on his board likely to give him that command with his history of mental health issues? We must allow this soldier the opportunity to talk through some of these issues without hurting their career opportunities down the road. And I believe the VA is the agency for that.
Secondly, the strength of a warrior quote, is an excellent one, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. However, I believe it is limited to the Army and Marine Corps and does little to reach out to our water and skyborne brethren. We cannot afford to have this service seem exclusive in the least.
In closing, I would like to reemphasize the fact that the military is currently making great strides in caring for the mental health of our servicemembers while they are deployed and when they return home. There is still much to be done, especially for Guard and Reservists.
And between the two years of my demobilizations, the difference was night and day. I would highly recommend collaboration with Military OneSource and other such services for best practice.
Second, these initial efforts of advertisements are to be commended. And I would like to ask the VA to expand on these initiatives for all their benefits, particularly education and the new GI Bill.
What often keeps a veteran from achieving their full potential with earned benefits is sadly just ignorance of their entitlements. Again, it may be an observant family member or friend that sees an ad. It can drastically improve the life of one of our Nation’s heroes.
Thank you for your time and for your service to our veterans and their families. I welcome the opportunity to answer your questions, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hawthorne appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you.
Mr. Spann?
Mr. SPANN. Chairman Mitchell, my name is Wade Spann and I am honored to be here today. I speak about my experience as a combat-wounded veteran.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank the VA in helping with my transition from the Marine Corps to academic life.
I joined the United States Marine Corps in August 2001. I fought alongside my brothers in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. As an infantryman, I did three separate and distinct tours. The first was the push to Baghdad. The second was in Fallujah and my third was Al Ramadi.
In June 2004, while on my second tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, four of my fellow Marines and I were wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in our Humvee. I wish I could speak about this incident in detail, but my injuries and the loss of consciousness prevent me from remembering a whole lot.
The following year in March 2005, I returned to Iraq with one five. This time to Al Ramadi, Iraq. During this point, I reached the end of my obligated tour of duty and returned home in June of 2005.
Upon returning from Iraq, I participated in the mandatory separation classes. These classes made an attempt to explain to me all the veterans’ benefits that I was entitled to and available, but it was difficult to fully understand.
There was a great deal of paper that needed to be sent and people who needed to be contacted. Accomplishing this while simultaneously preparing to move across the country presented a significant obstacle.
On August 6th, 2005, I finally said my farewells and started a new chapter in my life. The changes from the Marine Corps to an academic environment was filled with frustration, miscommunication, and a sense of feeling out of place. To be honest, I felt more comfortable in Iraq than in a classroom.
Only a few short weeks after my discharge from active duty, I began my first college classes and quickly learned that my injuries I suffered in Iraq were complicating my transition into student life.
The short-term memory loss that I suffered was a direct result of my head wounds in Iraq. Having this dramatic effect on ability to retain information, I was going to need every-day assistance from professors and tutors in order to succeed in academic life.
Although George Washington University and major colleges and universities do not offer transition programs for veterans, I was lucky because my injuries qualified me for disability student support.
With an established infrastructure for providing services and information, it seems only natural that VA should take the opportunity to partner with schools and to assist educating veterans on benefits available to them.
Through educating one veteran about the benefits available to them, many more can be reached. There were numerous times when I learned of a benefit or other service available to me through word of mouth. A great deal of my knowledge about my entitlements and disability benefits has come from listening to other veterans who have already gone down ths process.
For instance, I would have been unable to attend George Washington University had I not learned about the VA Chapter 31 benefit.
Vocational rehabilitation. It was not easy to get approval for this benefit of vocational rehab. It is the only reason I am able to attend such a prestigious institution.
When I informed a fellow Marine that he could qualify for the same Chapter 31 benefit and return to Pepperdine University and finish his degree he had started prior to enlistment, he was amazed.
The word of mouth is a powerful thing, but it should not be the primary nor the most successful way to disseminating information about veterans’ benefits. An effort must be made to better disseminate the information to veterans about the services available to them.
These are benefits and services that have been earned in a very real painful and sometimes life-changing way. Whether by way of a more sophisticated Web site, through an intense e-mail campaign, or by some other method, information about the services must get to the people who have earned and deserve them.
Now that you have heard my experiences of transition out of the military and into an academic environment, I want to speak about the main reason I came here today.
As everyone is well aware, there is a brotherhood formed when men are in combat. It has been over three years since my platoon turned in our weapons, dropped our packs, and took off our body armor, yet we continue to suffer casualties.
On July 31st of this year, I received word that my best friend, Gunnery Sergeant Timothy Cyparski, that a member of our platoon, Timothy Nelson, had taken his life. Corporal Nelson was an ideal Marine. He took on diversity, followed orders, respected authority, and was a relief during trying times. I had not spoken to Nelson since I got out, but the news shook me to my core.
That week, I talked to Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski regularly for support and just to find answers. Corporal Nelson’s death had brought a lot of the guys from the platoon back together and persuaded me to call guys I had not talked to in years.
From talking to the other Marines in the platoon, I learned that Corporal Nelson had been recalled, was preparing to honor his country, called back to duty. Following his medical physical, he was disqualified from returning to duty because he had previously been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This among other several factors was a significant contributor to his tragic death.
Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski flew to Washington State to help Corporal Nelson’s newly-wed wife and grieving family. He wanted to show that Corporal Nelson was, and always will be, a brother in our platoon and that we would always keep him in our hearts.
Only a week after Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski flew out to Washington, I received the most devastating news imaginable. My best friend and my mentor, Gunnery Sergeant Timothy Cyparski, had taken his own life, leaving behind his wife and two beautiful young children.
The news hit us hard within the company and many Marines came together searching for answers to why we lost two brothers in two weeks. To me, Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski was the greatest Marine infantryman imaginable and he was a role model to all of us.
A Purple Heart recipient, he was injured by the same IED explosion that I was. The injuries Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski received that day only truly manifested themselves three years after the event, at the beginning of this year. His traumatic brain injury (TBI) diagnosed as a hematoma deep inside his right hemisphere of his brain began causing him significant cognitive issues and memory loss. This caused Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski to be assigned to a limited duty and the Wounded Warrior Program as he pursued medical treatment.
Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski had also been awarded two Bronze Stars for valor in combat. These awards, though significant, do little to illustrate the full measure of a man who was so admired and respected by everyone who met him and worked with him. To me, he was a great influence and I base much of my success in school to his encouragement. We constantly talked and I asked him for advice and guidance.
That being said, Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski did suffer from the effects of war and he had difficulties dealing with physical and psychological. However, he was proactive in seeking treatment and hoped to one day finish an academic degree to better provide for his family.
I consider Corporal Nelson and Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski to be combat casualties. Their deaths were a direct result of their combat duty and this great Nation lost two outstanding heroes that can never be replaced. For this loss, our great country is a little weaker now.
The past month, I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on these events and what could have been done to save these two young Marines who had so much to look forward.
Through this reflection, I have found that there is no single absolute correct answer because each individual needs a different approach and different solutions. However, there are clear signs and similarities in a majority of these cases.
For Corporal Nelson and Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski, their similarities began with their diagnosis of PTSD. And this diagnosis led both to be disqualified from serving their country as Marine infantrymen. Being an infantryman was what they had signed up to be in the Marines and it was their passion.
In addition, both were given difficult to adjust medications as treatment for PTSD following their doctors’ advice.
Through my observations and experience, I have come to a conclusion that there needs to be a strong network of friends and family they are going to educate on the signs and symptoms of both PTSD and TBI. Obviously families are more easily accessible than friends. However, if you consider friends being members of their respective military unit, others in the military, and those who served with them, they are more likely to be accessible to VA outreach and more likely to recognize a problem and an issue.
Another aspect that needs to be addressed is seeking treatment is confidential and their cases will not be disclosed to anyone or threaten future job opportunities. I know the stigma associated with PTSD is not easily altered, but there are steps that can be taken to educate veterans and our society as a whole about this seeming epidemic.
Accessibility to VA’s resources should reflect an emerging demographic of veterans. Problems need to be addressed and new outlets need to be explored. The majority of recent veterans are a young, technologically savvy generation and we depend on online mediums for information. The VA needs to make their Web site more user friendly and benefits easier to understand with resources available either by electronic chat services or by phone. As it stands now, I still have trouble comprehending it.
A case manager to coordinate appointments and discuss benefits with each individual would be ideal. The small details and the upscale programs that the VA offers need to be divulged to the veteran rather than the individual having to rely on their own investigative skills.
I have great hope for the VA that it will be able to carry its message regarding PTSD and TBI to a larger audience of veterans and their families. It needs to utilize the very best America has to offer in technology and media in order to increase veteran awareness on what has the potential to become a true epidemic if continued unresolved.
If the Army and Marine Corps can sponsor commercials at halftime shows, I am sure the VA can equally do a good job putting the word out during these same time slots and to those same viewers.
We also utilize social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. In fact, this is one of the easiest ways for me to stay in contact with my brothers in the Marine Corps. These networks make it effortless to contact one another and there are support initiatives that could easily be utilized for veterans and their families.
In a more expansive effort, the VA could invest in its own social networking sites allowing veterans to join these groups specific to their unit. This would enable them to maintain contact with their fellow servicemembers, their primary source of support for all combat trauma-related issues, or providing a form for easy dissemination of relevant information from the VA.
Several veteran groups from individual units have tried to do this with some success, but detachment from the VA’s information and services data and prohibitive start-up costs have handicapped the true potential of such sites.
An additional network that the VA could utilize or perhaps organize is the veteran nonprofit community. Americans have always been generous and grateful to its veterans. This is demonstrated through the many organizations and individuals who have donated time and money to assist us. However, there is no defined coalition that ensures these services are not duplicating and that veterans know how to utilize these services.
A veteran will not ask for something if he does not know it exists or where to go to receive it.
I came here today for action. PTSD and TBI are very real afflictions facing an unknown number of veterans today. The nature of these injuries means that the true number of these affected may never be known. The type of combat we have been or are currently engaged in ensures the numbers will be large.
Preparations must be made now for what unfortunately may prove to be the most significant long-term maladies suffered by this generation of servicemembers.
Getting information to us first is the most important step to preventing a tragedy that has already befallen too many of my brothers. I know that being here today will not change the fact that my two brothers will never return. However, if speaking to you in this room can do anything to prevent one of my fellow brothers from going down that same path, I will have done my part.
I know the VA is aware of the media outreach. It is a necessity in order to inform veterans and the resources. It must happen now. This is a situation where oversaturation of the message is not possible.
I ask America’s leaders to unite under a solid commitment and do whatever it takes to end these unnecessary losses. Corporal Nelson, Gunnery Sergeant Cyparski, and all veterans made a solemn oath to defend you and this Nation. Please do the same for us.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Spann appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you.
Ms. Schapper?
Ms. SCHAPPER. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the VA’s first efforts at media outreach to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
As an Iraq veteran, I know well the importance of VA’s outreach. As a member of the Army National Guard, I served in Iraq from October 2005 to September 2006. I was a member of a military intelligence team that went out on over 200 combat patrols. My team and I experienced IEDs, mortar fire, and sniper fire.
When I came home, I began to deal with a wide range of adjustment issues including anger, isolation, increased drinking, nightmares, and hypervigilance. My symptoms altered and grew over time. I knew I was not the person I used to be.
I suspected I might have PTSD, but I had no way to figure it out. I started to look online for factors for war veterans and PTSD, but nothing spoke to me as an Iraq veteran. I even looked at the VA’s Web site and I did not find anything on there that was helpful.
Fortunately, I ran into another vet who had gone to a Vet Center and asked for help. So I, too, went to a Vet Center that helped me start going through the maze that is the Veterans Affairs Administration.
The best way to describe PTSD is feeling like you are in the bottom of a dark hole and that you are lost and disconnected. When you feel this way, it is very hard to pull yourself out of that hole and to start going to the VA and figuring out who you need to talk to.
So when I saw the posters in the Metro recently, I was very excited because I could have used this two years ago. If I had known there was a hotline I could call, I would have been all over it.
However, one of my questions about the posters is, they are great for DC metro area, but how do we reach out to the people in rural areas that do not have buses and subways?
Also, the phone number on the poster, unless you are sitting right next to it, you cannot really see it. And if someone thinks they are dealing with mental health problems, they are not going to want to walk up to a public poster and start writing down a phone number. So I just recommend something as simple as making the phone number bigger.
Something that has been done well is I read a copy of the letter the VA is apparently sending out in conjunction with this campaign that outlines several of the symptoms I described previously. The letter is good and comprehensive, but I ask who and who is not receiving it as I personally have not received it.
Before being asked to testify, I had not come across the public service announcement with Gary Sinise, so I think it is a great announced PSA. However, it only focuses on suicide. I took the time to call the number myself to find out about the hotline. It is also for anybody suffering from any symptoms of PTSD, even their family members that have concerns.
If a message is just focusing on suicide, it is too little too late. If you can hit PTSD symptoms before they get to the point of suicide, that is when people can really be helped.
However, a lot of soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors are just going to suck it up. If they think it is just for people who have suicidal thoughts, they are not going to call it. They are going to be like I came home with all my body parts, I am okay. I can handle this. Again, we do not want to wait until they get to suicidal tendencies before they call that hotline.
I think a lot of these problems could be solved if the VA did more testing of ads before they rolled them out including more focus groups and taking the suggestion of online social networking sites, Army Times, anything that can be found in the Post Exchange (PX) that a soldier can buy.
In my spare time, I am also representative for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. We are one of the largest nonpartisan Iraq and Afghanistan veterans groups in America and we are also working on a public service announcement partnered with the Ad Council to conduct a multi-year PSA campaign to reduce the stigma surrounding mental healthcare and to ensure veterans seeking access to care and benefits, and particularly those who need treatment for their psychological injuries. But we alone cannot do it. The VA needs to do it because they are ultimately the ones that can provide services.
So our PSA campaign will in no way eliminate the need for the VA to plan its own outreach and advertising campaign. Only a concerted effort on the part of the VA will ensure that veterans finally have easy access to the many benefits the VA has to offer.
Thank you for your time.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Schapper appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you.
Mr. Weidman?
STATEMENT OF RICHARD F. WEIDMAN
Mr. WEIDMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership in holding this hearing and the previous hearings that led to this today. We appreciate it from Vietnam Veterans of America.
And it is not just a question of media. The media really emanates from a communication strategy. And the communication strategy has to begin with your governance strategy and your decisions about how you are going to interact with the people whom you serve. If you were in private business, it would be how you are going to interact with your customer and then how you are going to do business. And then from that emanates your communication strategy that has to be of a whole.
VA is doing a lot of stuff, but it is not very well coordinated nor does it grow organically from the way in which they practice medicine within the VA itself. All too often it is stuff on the side in response to outside pressure.
A lot of it has to do with credibility. You heard people to my right, these fine young people who served in OIF, talk about that a veteran will believe another veteran before they will believe anything in a shiny brochure or a PSA. And that is accurate. The question is, how do you start the chain going where one veteran is convinced and passes it on to another and how do you reach enough veterans in order to do that.
The first thing you have to do is develop credibility. Vietnam veterans and the VA have had a rocky history since we came home some 40 years ago. One could put a diplomatic face on it, but basically we were lied to over and over again and not welcomed at the VA.
And the founding principle of Vietnam Veterans of America is, and we still remain true to that, never again shall one generation of American veterans abandon another. That credibility or lack of credibility that the VA has still with many Vietnam veterans is not faced by as many OIF and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) veterans. However, I know young people who do not have the same faith in the Marine Corps or the military that these young people have talked about this morning nor do they have the same faith in the VA.
So the first thing is that you have to look at and start telling people the unvarnished truth. I will tell a vignette if I may digress a moment.
Fifteen years ago, someone who should have had better judgment invited me down when I was working for Governor Cuomo in New York to interview for the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Information. Everybody who knows me started to laugh and said, Weidman, you are the anti-flack, no way that you could fulfill that position. Ultimately they hired somebody much more qualified for what they wanted, Jim Holly, who is terrific, did well in the position from their point of view.
But in that, I was watching come down while the young lady who was the Assistant Secretary, it was the same day that the first announcement leaked that there had been veterans exposed to ionizing radiation, and so she was on the phone back and forth with Didi Myers at the White House, with Hazel O'Leary's office over at Energy, et cetera. And the line then was we think a few dozen veterans may have been exposed.
And so I listened to all of this and then finally she turns to me and while she has the phone on hold, she covers the receiver and says, Mr. Weidman, really what we want to do here, Rick, is restore credibility with the veterans community, what are the first three things you do?
And I said, well, the first thing is the most important thing is I would stop lying to veterans. She looked at me, hung up the phone, and said what do you mean. I said you do not even know you are lying to them. I will tell you right now, it will not be a couple a dozen, but you will change your story about the end of the week and it will be a couple a hundred. Next week it will be a couple a thousand. And before this is all done, my guess is that we are going to be talking about six figures. And, in fact, that turned out to be prescient.
But instead of saying from the outset we do not know how many have been exposed, but by God, we are going to find them all, we are going to provide the healthcare that they are due and we are going to provide the benefits that they have earned by virtue of being injured, they took exactly the opposite tact and tried to minimize everything and say everything is okay, it never happened.
That has been traditionally and still remains today VA’s first response no matter what it is. There is no suicide epidemic. There is no major problem. We are on top of it. And it does not matter whether it is physiological or neuropsychiatric.
You have to change that attitude and the attitude begins in your attitude towards the individual whom you are seeing of taking the veteran as your full partner in his or her health overall and the veterans community.
I want to compliment Dr. Vic Nowabi and the whole suicide thing, but the problem is, is that he is laboring under that is one part of VA over here and it is not going organically and emanating from the Under Secretary’s and the Secretary’s Office as a piece of the governance structure as an overall communication strategy so that many of your materials even do not look alike.
Now, we are small and poor and we are struggling hard to get a better look. These are our three most effective brochures that begin with a service ribbon. If you have got this, check and see if you have got diabetes or prostate cancer or these other things. And this one in particular, we cannot keep in stock. And we are dropping back now and reviewing our whole process to get a much more coordinated strategy with folks and to work through the private sector.
Eighty percent of vets, it is a slightly higher proportion among the young vets, but 80 percent of vets do not go anywhere near the VA. Only about 15 to 20 percent use the VA. And the same is true, it is a slightly higher proportion of the young vets use the VA.
So most of them are going to go to the private sector, so you have to work through the media and you have to work through the civilian medical establishment and how do you educate the public and how do you educate the providers who in turn will educate the public and those individual veterans who do not go anywhere near the VA.
And there is no overall communication strategy that is trying to reach out and educate folks as to what are the wounds, maladies, illnesses, and conditions that are endemic to military service depending on branch of service, when did you serve, where did you serve, what was your military occupational specialty or military job, and what actually happened to you.
And that is the crux of the issue and that can only emanate from the top down beginning with the Secretary ensuring that all of his or her hopefully in the future lieutenants have the message and the same thing and work to change the corporate culture that is always deny, deny, deny, everything is fine, to one of we are going to openly and cooperatively with the rest of America address something that is not a veteran’s problem but is an American problem which is the health of our returned warriors of every generation.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Weidman appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you.
First, I want to thank all of you for your service to our country. It is terrific.
And I want to ask Mr. Weidman, first of all, I have a general impression that veterans from the Vietnam era will best be reached in ways much different than the OEF and OIF era.
What do you think would be the best way to communicate with Vietnam veterans?
Mr. WEIDMAN. Well, we are a more skeptical bunch because we have been burned more often. And, frankly, the VA today is, in fact, much better than when we came home. And we would like to think that those of us who are Vietnam vets, whether in Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) or not, have had something to do with that different attitude on the part of society.
Most people, just the average citizen, is determined not to have happen to these young people what the country did to Vietnam vets when we came home. It was not just what happened in combat, but when we came home.
So what sets us differently than the other folks? I think the Vietnam vets, because we are more skeptical, you have to approach us in a different way. And that different way is, number one, changing the way in which you do business at the VA. You can have all the slick ads in the world about telling other Vietnam vets that the VA is today not what it was in 1977 or 1975 and it is only from another vet that they will believe that.
So how do you reach more of those other vets? And we would suggest that going through the medical societies and going through the disease groups and to reach to the civilian medical establishment is probably the most credible way of convincing folks. We have become convinced of that.
VA is supposed to be doing that. We have despaired of them taking a military history. We have despaired of them even using the veterans health initiative curricula and the wounds and maladies of war. Therefore, we have on our own started a private effort, sir, working with the major medical societies and with the disease groups in order to do that kind of consistent outreach and education with the goal of improving veterans’ health, not just healthcare, veterans’ health through education and advocacy.
Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you.
And to Brian, Wade, and Carolyn, let me ask you. You know, looking through all of your written testimony, you have mentioned things like networking through Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, is ideal for reaching out to veterans.
What kind of information would you want to know in that initial snapshot, whom to call, what Web site to visit, what benefits are available? For you three and other veterans you know, what is the most pressing question the VA could answer in a quick online advertising?
And any of you could answer.
Mr. HAWTHORNE. Sir, I would say that in a flash, you need to provide what services are available, so not just suicide hotline, but also, as we have mentioned, general mental health counseling and, if possible, absolutely the statement of confidentiality and the fact that it does not have to be a commitment.
And when we go to the VA, we do not want to necessarily commit to a year of therapy. Maybe we want an hour long conversation. And so the statements of what kind of care is available, how to contact, and the fact that it is confidential should absolutely be on that first flash.
Ms. SCHAPPER. The ad that is currently running in the Metro, I think, says it all for me personally. I think if you just simply had that ad on the online advertising, it would work because it says any emotional problems or disorders or anything you are experiencing, just call this number. And that number definitely can help you.
Mr. SPANN. What I would say about this ad put online, definitely need to be changed. We want to include suicide. Suicide is big for me, but also the benefits that veterans are entitled to, not just suicide, but also, you know, VA home loan, GI benefits.
A lot of people do not know about the new GI Bill, you know, because they are outside of this region. And that is one of the big important things that I have been stressing to the veterans I talk to. They have not heard about it and, yet, you know, everybody here is still carrying on as usual, but they know about the new GI Bill.
As far as marketing, I am not a marketing guru, but I could say they could do something about this picture. I would say this does not really interest me if I saw it on the side. Do something that has some history to it or something that, you know, gets the emotions going. I think it would be a better point in case.
Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you.
Mr. Space, do you have a comment or statement?
Mr. SPACE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Schapper, I think you touched on this during your testimony. In rural America, you know, we do not have Metros and we do not have subways. And, unfortunately, many of the people who live in rural America, especially those impoverished pockets that are out there, do not even have access to broadband or, therefore, the internet which, as I see it, puts those rural veterans at a considerable disadvantage when it comes to awareness and it puts the VA at a disadvantage in trying to reach them.
I would be interested in any of your thoughts concerning some creative strategy, marketing strategies that might apply toward those living in impoverished rural America which would be a considerable number.
And I would also be interested in your perspective as to whether there are some things we can do outside of the traditional marketing and advertising venues, specifically the process of making the DD-214s, for example, available to all Veterans Service Offices within 30 days of a veteran’s discharge so that they can engage in progressive outreach within the community.
Our experience has been that a lot of times, we do not know these veterans are back and these veteran service organizations (VSOs) would like to reach out to them, more want to reach out to them, but simply do not have the means of identifying where they are or even that they are home.
So I would be interested in your thoughts on both of those subjects.
Ms. SCHAPPER. Regarding the rural campaign, if the letter that I saw the prototype of online does get sent to everyone, that pretty much covers everything. So we just need to assure that every veteran that is returning gets that. But as you touched on, maybe they do not know who has returned and who has not. How do we overcome that? I do not know.
I would have to think more about the idea of giving DD-214s to VSOs because it may have to be a timing thing because a lot of veterans may not even know they are suffering from anything, may not want to be contacted by an outside person within a month of coming home. They just want to chill out and be alone. I would say definitely targeting six months someone reaching out is definitely a good time period.
Also, going back to the rural, I think they pointed out that if you did the PSAs during football games, that would reach a lot of veterans. So something like that or just, again, magazines that you can generally get in the PX like Army Times or any of those types of things.
Mr. WEIDMAN. Or during NASCAR races, they are going to reach a lot of vets in many parts of the country.
Let me just mention that you do have to think about it differently if you are going to reach veterans in a rural area. And here’s an example. VA has thousands of these sitting around. I mean, we are the biggest customer at VBA in turning around and giving these out.
Now, most of those folks when they go back to a rural area, they are nowhere near a VA hospital. The best shot of reaching them is through the outreach of the VA Vet Centers. Demanding full staffing, increased staffing in existing Vet Centers in order to augment the teams for doing rural outreach. They already purchased the vans last year, so they are ready to do it, but they need the staff to do it, is demanding that they staff up there. It is not a quick process to staff up, but they can do it.
But as an example, reaching through the medical community in rural areas to inform doctors of things like the diseases endemic to southwest Asia and how do you recognize that. It is important for neuropsychiatric reasons and health, but it is the whole health of the individual.
It is not just PTSD today that is still killing and taking Vietnam veterans early or the physiological manifestations of PTSD. It is Agent Orange and it is not going to be Agent Orange for the young people serving in Afghanistan and Iraq today, but it is going to be something else. I will guaran doggone tee you that it is going to be something else.
And so as those things become clear, to do a complete epidemiological study becomes important, but that is not the subject here. It is how do you educate and reach those people in a rural area.
And using the general media and talk shows and employing the veterans organizations in going on talk shows, they all get radio no matter where they live in America, and educating using those media in creative ways.
Oftentimes they will not take a VA spokesperson, but they will take a veteran on a talk show.
As to locating people when they come home, every State Director in all 50 States plus Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and the Pacific Islands receive that DD-214 when an individual ETSs or ends their term of service or when they are demobilized. So somebody gets it in your State and it is the State Director.
In small States, and there are a number of States where such things are happening, but in Connecticut, the State Director, it is small enough that Dr. Schwartz visits every single person who comes home. She is there for every homecoming and then makes sure that they reach out to the families, either the spouse or to the parents of every single person coming home whether wounded or not when they ETS.
So someone in your State has that and the first line of defense is the State Directors. However, they are not coordinated by and large with the VA because the VA, even though the State Directors want to work closely with VA for overall strategy and believe that they are the front line in terms of reaching these young people, VA has not played very well.
Mr. SPACE. Well, our experience has been that there are confidentiality issues that those Directors at home are worried about breaching by providing that information to third parties, specifically the VSOs. And we are trying to figure out a way to break through that wall without compromising privacy issues that are associated with the veterans.
Mr. WEIDMAN. Forty years ago, and it still is under Title 38, it was legal for the VSOs to contact people to inform them of their benefits. And the way in which that was done was a material package and paying for the mailing went to the VA and they mailed that package to the individual.
And that is how the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and Veterans of Foreign Wars got so big after Vietnam, particularly the DAV, because they had the money and the brains to foll
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