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Too many veterans' disability claims take more than a year to process, the Veterans Affairs Department's inspector general said. An audit showed that a year ago, 11,000 veterans had claims pending more than a year. It said the agency awarded retroactive payments totaling about $43 million for about a third of them. Of that total, it says about $14 million was unnecessarily delayed. Among the worst cases, the inspector general said, was one involving a veteran who was owed nearly $65,000 for a delayed claim, and another in which a veteran waited more than two years for payment, the inspector general said. The report said the veterans agency had made progress in reducing handling claims, but that delays still created too much of a financial burden for veterans.

For the second consecutive year, the Elmendorf hospital was named the best hospital in the Air Force after receiving the Air Force Surgeon General Award Feb. 3.

S. Ward Casscells, M.D. , Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, talks about his visit with British Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Louis Lillywhite with regards to combat care, care in UK, and PTSD.

Major General Edler Granger Joins SBTR to Discuss TRICARE

The National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD) aims to advance the clinical care and social welfare of U.S. Veterans through research, education and training on PTSD and stress-related disorders. This site is an educational resource on PTSD and traumatic stress, for veterans and also for mental health care providers, researchers and the general public.

The Hawaii State Chapter of the American Red Cross announced that a new course, Coping With Deployments: Psychological First Aid for Military Families, is now available. The course, offered free of charge, is open to military family members of active duty, Reserve and National Guard forces, as well as veterans and their families. It is not offered to the general public.

Today we hear from Dr. Shakir Jawad, former director general of health in Iraq. He now serves on the faculty of Uniformed Services University and as a member of the Office of International Health.

Smoking and other tobacco use is common in the military, presenting a major health risk to the men and women in uniform. Indeed, tobacco use rates within the Department of Defense (DoD) exceed those of the general population by two percent. So this November 20, as we observe the Great American Smokeout established by the American Cancer Society, the Military Health System (MHS) encourages service members and their families to make a commitment to quitting smoking.

Maj. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, RN, the new chief of the Army Nurse Corps, has ambitious plans to transform Army nursing using lessons learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the best of military nursing research, and the latest advances in the nursing profession.

Army Maj. Gen. David Blackledge is doing his part to reduce the social stigma attached to seeking mental health treatment for war-related stress.

Although fewer than half of military veterans achieve recommended amounts of physical activity, they are still more active than their counterparts who did not serve in the military, according to a study published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).