Showing posts with label Salt Lake City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salt Lake City. Show all posts

Monday, July 10, 2017

Doing More Than Raising Awareness--Feeding Hungry Veterans

With all the groups out there raising awareness and collecting lots of money for talking, how about you guys put your money where their mouth is and FEED THEM! Want to bet that will go a long way toward changing the title of your charity in a good way?
‘A godsend’: Salt Lake V.A.’s new food pantry is in high demand
The Salt Lake Tribune
By LUKE RAMSETH
First Published 6 hours ago
Green said she was surprised to find only four other VA hospitals nationwide with a food pantry, and those operated only a day or two each month.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Aaron Hornok selects food at the Salt Lake VA's new food pantry, Thursday June 22, 2017. Research shows one-quarter of vets who got care through VA reported food insecurity in the past month. That's a higher rate than the general population.
Navy veteran Carl Callahan and his wife, Shannon, receive about $1,600 in Social Security benefits each month.

They use it to pay rent and utilities on their South Salt Lake apartment, which the Department of Veterans Affairs helped them find after a stint of homelessness two years ago. They use it to pay their cellphone bills and buy gas for the car. Sometimes they use it to pay medical bills for Shannon, who takes frequent trips to the hospital for her asthma.

By the time the bills are paid, Callahan said, about $100 is leftover for groceries — "if we're lucky."

That's why the couple makes weekly trips to a new food pantry at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Opened in March, the pantry already serves close to 100 veterans and their families per month, said Natalie Green, a VA health care administration trainee who started the program.

Late last year, Green said, she realized the extent of the veteran hunger problem. Some 1.7 million veterans experience food insecurity annually. And for younger veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, the food insecurity rate is about 27 percent — nearly double that of the general U.S. population, according to a University of Minnesota study.
"We have veterans coming back with an immense need for support," she said. "We know food and nutrition directly affects health outcomes, yet [access to food] was something that was kind of missing from the whole health picture."

Part of the problem, Green quickly learned, was that VA funds couldn't be allocated for a food pantry. They must be used for traditional medical services. So she had to get creative.
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Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Salt Lake VA Drugs Stolen Over 5 Years For "Fictitious Patients"

Feds probe massive theft of opioids from Salt Lake City’s VA hospital
The Salt Lake Tribune
By MATT CANHAM
First Published Mar 08 2016
A detailed investigation found that over a five-year period, this user stole 25 vials of testosterone, 12,205 pills of controlled opioids and 12,335 noncontrolled tablets of tramadol, a painkiller that the government elevated to a controlled substance in 2014.
(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) The George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, March 8, 2016.
Administrators at Salt Lake City's veterans hospital believe a pharmacy supervisor bypassed security and created fictitious patients, some with famous names, as a way to hide the theft of more than 24,000 painkillers and 25 vials of testosterone.

The breach may not have happened, according to Department of Veterans Affairs leaders, if required software had been in place.

A criminal probe by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the V.A.'s Office of Inspector General has now entered its 12th month, and so far no one has been charged, though the main suspect no longer works at the Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center. His pharmacy license expired in September.

The theft case is laid out in incident reports, emails and memos obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune, purportedly compiled by employees of the medical center who are upset by inaction in the case and the response of the medical center's leaders.

Beyond confirming the ongoing criminal investigation, federal law enforcement and officials at the medical center declined to comment Tuesday.

The suspect declined to comment through a lawyer.
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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Magistrate says veterans "come back damaged"

Seriously I hope this is just a poor choice of words. "Damaged" is not what they are. They are changed. No one ever leaves combat the same way they were before no matter how many times they made the trip. Humans in general are never the same after they lived through terrible things.

The problems come when the military has told the country they were taking care of what combat does to far too many and they ended up with the wrong message.

These men and women are not damaged but they have been treated like a markdown special with a no return policy.

They need help but not the "better than nothing" help the DOD has settled for. They need to understand what PTSD is and why they have it but they don't need the same B.S. they have been getting from the DOD stuffing "resilience" training into their heads.

How can they ever be called "damaged" by anyone?
Veterans task force focuses on crime and suicide
Veteran affairs
Vets treated differently than others in court system because they are different, judge says.
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Peg Mcentee
Jul 10 2013

The state Veterans Reintegration Task Force on Wednesday discussed how to help military veterans involved in criminal proceedings and reduce suicide among their ranks.

Veterans who commit crimes can suffer untreated mental health problems and post traumatic stress disorder, self-medicate with drugs and alcohol and feel anxious and angry, said U.S. District Court Magistrate Paul Warner.

He presides over a federal veterans court that involves misdemeanor and some felony cases that normally are heard in state courts. Defendants can stay out of jail or get lesser sentences if they get treatment, usually at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

"Why treat vets any differently from others?" Warner asked. "They are different. In most instances, they were sent into harm’s way in an insane environment, often with multiple deployments, and they come back damaged. When they get help, everything changes."
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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Marine to be jailed after accidentally shooting brother

Marine to be jailed for brother's death
By Paul Foy
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 15, 2013

SALT LAKE CITY — A grieving former Marine who accidentally shot and killed his younger brother over a campfire was sentenced Tuesday to 90 days in jail followed by a public-speaking tour.

Eric Charlton, 27, was ordered to talk about the dangers of mixing alcohol and firearms twice a week for 45 weeks, said a court clerk for the 4th District judge in Nephi, about 75 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Judge James Brady spared the veteran of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan a longer jail term after Charlton's family, friends and counselors pleaded for mercy.

His wife of six years, Julianne, said jail would keep him from a 3-year-old daughter, a son born in October and "cause Eric to become locked inside his head."

Charlton was described as inconsolable by more than a dozen people who wrote letters describing a special bond between brothers. They asked the judge to reject prosecutors' requests for a stiffer sentence. The judge previously dismissed a felony manslaughter charge. Charlton was sentenced Tuesday for negligent homicide and handling a weapon while intoxicated, both misdemeanors.
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Friday, January 27, 2012

Salt Lake Veterans Affairs enlists vets for huge medical research project

Salt Lake Veterans Affairs enlists vets for huge medical research project

BY KRISTEN MOULTON
The Salt Lake Tribune
6 million vets get ongoing care through VA, and a national program aims to get 1 million to help create a huge database of continually updated records.

First published Jan 26 2012
Becky Kemp Carpenter’s dad, a Vietnam War veteran, died two years ago of ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. So when she heard about the Million Veteran Program to help medical research, she — a third-generation veteran — didn’t hesitate to sign up.

"I come from a strong history of service," said Carpenter, who was one of 35 veterans enrolled Thursday during the program’s formal kickoff at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

"By doing a simple blood test and answering questions, we can help not just future vets but people who are around now," said Carpenter, a West Valley City resident who served in the Air Force in the 1990s. "There is so much more we can continue to do to serve our country."

Begun last year in Boston, the Million Veteran Program has so far enlisted more than 20,000 veterans to donate their DNA and release their VA medical records to researchers. The VA in Salt Lake City is one of 40 hospitals participating so far and has enrolled more than 300 veterans since fall; the program hopes to have 50 participating hospitals by summer.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Funeral for 16 forgotten veterans held for first time in Utah

Funeral for forgotten veterans held for first time in Utah

Published: 8/15 3:47 pm
Reported by: Brian Carlson

RIVERTON, Utah (ABC 4 News) - For the first time, a national group which honors forgotten veterans held a special type of funeral in Utah Monday. The Missing in America Project is remembering 16 military men and women who died in Salt Lake County but no one claimed their bodies.

Monday those that were forgotten are being remembered.

“We adopt them as one of our own today,” said Brig. Gen Michael R. Liechty, National Guard Bureau.

They are the remains of 15 military men and one military woman who all died in Utah, but their bodies were never claimed.

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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Mystery surrounds soldier’s disappearance

Photo courtesy of Bushling family Army Spc. Joseph Bushling, 26, seen here in a recent photograph, has not been heard from since May 8 when he called a friend to say his car ran out of gas 40 miles from Dugway Proving Ground where he was assigned.

Mystery surrounds soldier’s disappearance
BY NATE CARLISLE
The Salt Lake Tribune

First published May 14 2011 01:52PM
Updated 7 hours ago
Army Spc. Joseph Bushling was days away from starting training to be a nurse.

“He had a career path in mind,” said his father, Kevin Bushling.

That path veered May 8 when Joseph Bushling vanished near Dugway Proving Ground in Tooele County. The elder Bushling wonders if his son is the victim of foul play.

“This is just totally out of character for him,” Kevin Bushling said. “This is nothing he would have done.”

Kevin Bushling said he has no evidence of something nefarious and there were no threats against or concerns for his son before his disappearance. But Kevin Bushling does not know how else to explain his son’s absence.
read more here
Mystery surrounds soldier’s disappearance

Friday, September 3, 2010

Soldier survived brutal deployment

Shooter’s troubled soul: Soldier survived brutal deployment
By Matthew D. LaPlante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Sep 3, 2010
A U.S. Army soldier who was killed in a shootout with police in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon had suffered through a brutal combat tour in Afghanistan, where he survived mortar attacks, sniper ambushes, roadside bomb blasts and a suicide bombing — and in which he took the lives of several enemy fighters, according to soldiers who served with him.

Just days after returning home from the war, Brandon Barrett was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol after police found him asleep and intoxicated behind the wheel of his car at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in western Washington. Fellow soldiers say that Barrett went AWOL on July 19 shortly after being berated for the incident in front of his comrades by a senior soldier.

“We all thought he was going to take a month or two and come back,” said one of Barrett’s fellow soldiers. “I guess that wasn’t his plan.”

The factors leading up to Barrett’s death in Salt Lake City may never be clear, but friends and family members say the Army appears to have quickly washed its hands of Barrett after he left, leaving a clearly troubled soldier to his own devices just weeks after returning home from war.
read the rest here
Soldier survived brutal deployment

Sunday, August 29, 2010

AWOL soldier shot dead after Dad says Army failed him

Dad: GI shot dead seemed happy, Army failed him
By Matthew D. LaPlante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated Aug 28, 2010 11:12PM
There was something different about Brandon Barrett when he came home from Army basic training in early 2007.

Bill Barrett had always been proud of his son. But now, the Marine Corps veteran noticed, “Brandon held himself higher. Joining the Army was a life-changing experience for him. It was a good change.”

But Bill Barrett now fears that his son’s experiences at war brought on another change — something deeper, something darker.

Something deadly.

The younger Barrett, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, was wearing full battle gear and carrying a loaded rifle when a police officer confronted him in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon. A police spokeswoman said Barrett opened fire, striking the officer in the leg. The officer returned fire, killing the 28-year-old soldier, whose bloodied body fell in a patch of grass behind the Grand America Hotel, near one of the city’s busiest intersections.

According to military records, Brandon Barrett served in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Force from July 2009 to June 2010, a member of the Army’s 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment.
read more here
GI shot dead seemed happy Army failed him

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Disabled Vets:Salt Lake Utah makes it easier for tax exemptions

Disabled veterans given easier path to benefits
By Arthur Raymond

Deseret News

Published: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 11:14 p.m. MDT


Disabled veterans facing bureaucratic hurdles in obtaining property tax exemptions in Salt Lake County should have an easier path following a policy shift approved by the County Council Tuesday.

Terry Schow, executive director of the Utah Department of Veteran Affairs, said Tuesday that his office has been besieged with complaints from vets running into trouble securing benefits from the county.

"We've received more complaints from veterans with disabilities in Salt Lake County than the whole rest of the state combined," Schow said.

Disabled veterans are eligible for a break on property taxes, collected by the county treasurer, based on the percentage of their disability — a number that is determined by the Veteran's Administration. Schow said the benefit is offered to vets who have been determined to have a 10 percent or higher level of disability. Each 10 percent increment represents about a $25,000 decrease on the taxable value of their property, up to about $230,000, a number set by the Utah Tax Commission.
go here for more
Disabled veterans given easier path to benefits

Friday, October 3, 2008

Son was hit by Taser in Farmington standoff, shot to death while on the ground

Dad: Son was hit by Taser in Farmington standoff, shot to death while on the ground
By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 10/03/2008 11:04:50 AM MDT


Posted: 9:47 PM- FARMINGTON - The family of a man killed during a police standoff here last week said he had been stung by a Taser and was on the ground when a police officer shot and killed him.
Brian P. Wood was getting up when an officer fired a shot from a .308-caliber rifle, according to Wood's father and brother.
During a Thursday interview, Wood's father, Jerry Wood, wondered why so much force was used. He maintains his son was not a danger to anyone else.
"Why was such a lethal force used?" Jerry Wood asked. "And aren't the police suppose to protect us? And aren't they putting their officers in danger by forcing that kind of response from anyone."
Jerry Wood also claims police lied to the family and to Brian Wood throughout the 12-hour standoff last month.
Farmington police on Thursday referred questions to the Utah Attorney General's Office, which is investigating the standoff. That office declined comment.
A preliminary death certificate from a medical examiner says Wood died from a gunshot wound to the "head/neck."
The deadly episode began at about 9 a.m. on Sept. 22, when Brian Wood, a 37-year-old part-time Farmington firefighter, had a dispute with his wife. Jerry Wood and his surviving son, Andy Wood, on Thursday said they do not know what triggered the dispute and have not asked Brian Wood's widow.
go here for more
http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_10624080

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

3 Veterans Rural Health Resource Centers opening in October

VA Opening Rural Health Resource Centers
Last update: 12:18 p.m. EDT Aug. 18, 2008
WASHINGTON, Aug 18, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will open three Veterans Rural Health Resource Centers on Oct. 1 to better understand rural health issues for veterans and develop special practices and products to implement across the country.
"For our veterans living in rural areas, the nearest medical center can be miles away," said VA Secretary Dr. James B. Peake. "VA's commitment is to provide the best quality care to veterans regardless of their address. These centers are a major step toward ensuring that commitment is met."
The centers will serve as satellite offices for VA's Office of Rural Health. The eastern center will be located in Vermont at the White River Junction VA Medical Center, the central region in Iowa at the Iowa City VA Medical Center and the western region at the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center.
Each resource center will be staffed with administrative, clinical and research staff who will identify disparities in health care for rural veterans and formulate practices or programs to enhance the delivery of care.
"VA has always been committed to providing quality care to rural veterans," said Dr. Michael J. Kussman, VA's under secretary for health. "These centers will allow us to better identify and meet the unique needs of our rural veterans as their population continues to grow."
For the latest news releases and other information, visit VA on the Internet at:
http://www.va.gov/opa.