Written by Carl Burnett Jr.
The Eagle-Gazette Staff

LANCASTER — When it comes to veterans’ issues, the major stumbling blocks facing former military personnel trying to make it back to the civilian world is a lack of communication between agencies trying to help them and training for people who can help them, area veterans said Monday.

Tom Manuel, of Columbus, said even some basic things were not possible.

“My father is a veteran who suffers from dementia, and we have a power of attorney that is recognized by everyone except any federal agency, including the veterans administration,” Manual said.

He said it works everywhere for all sorts of problems in dealing with his father, and he asked why the federal government doesn’t recognize it.

Manuel was attending a veterans roundtable discussion held Monday by U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus, at the VFW post 1516 in Lancaster.

Fairfield County Veteran Services Officer Ed Mohler noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs does have a separate form that needs to be filled out for fiduciary purposes.

But Stivers noted that the average person who is just trying to help their parent, as in Manuel’s case, wouldn’t know that easily and questioned why a power of attorney accepted in Ohio wasn’t accepted by the VA.

It was one of the problems that Stivers said he was going to take back to Washington to find a legislative solution for.

Communication also was at the core of a couple of other issues raised by a little more than a dozen people who attended the meeting.

The lack of communication between Department of Defense agencies and the VA when it comes to disability benefit awards and medical records is something Stivers said is a congressional concern. Their computer systems do not communicate with the VA, delaying medical claims in the VA system.

“One of the concerns I have now is that, while the VA is concentrating on dealing with the oldest cases and bringing down those numbers, they are pulling away resources from current and less issue-prone cases,” Stivers said. “We might be helping one veteran at the expense of 10 or 20 others. I want to make sure you get the resources you need to get the job done.”

Josh Ricketts, with the Cleveland VA Regional Office, said the numbers are improving, with the average time for claims to be awarded taking about a year.

But Mohler said one of his fears is that veterans getting provisional claims approved aren’t aware they have one year to appeal the provisional claim or it becomes permanent.

In dealing with claims, the consensus was that many of the service agencies, such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and AmVets, have little training before being sent out to help new veterans seeking benefits.

Mohler said he helps train Lancaster American Legion service officers during four-hour training sessions.

“But what we train them to do is refer the veterans to their Veteran Services offices to get real help,” Mohler said.

Mohler said the officers were not given and did not have access to information about returning veterans coming to Fairfield County after they were discharged. The Lancaster American Legion finds out about a veteran when that veteran comes into its office seeking help.

Another communication problem, representatives from Ohio State University and Ohio University said, is that state universities have trouble converting military service training into usable credits for degrees.

Ohio University’s Rob Callahan said that, within Ohio’s system, colleges and universities use the Ohio Transfer Module to transfer credits from one college to another when a student moves. He suggested the federal government should use the Ohio Transfer Module to do the same with military credits.

By using that system, the credits could be uniformly applied to any Ohio college or university.

Andrea Boxhill, a Franklin County Veterans Court representative, said more also needs to be done in the area of mental health services for veterans, including people given less-than-honorable discharges.

She noted there was no place, including the VA, where those people could get help. She also called for more counseling for domestic violence.

“There’s no doubt communication, or the lack of it, is the problem that came up a lot today,” Stivers said. “But in listening to people who are dealing with veterans issues, I’ve come away with some things I can work on in Washington.”

Stivers said he was going to continue working on getting the VA the resources it needs to process claims quicker and find a systematic approach that makes it easier in the future.

He also will look at trying to get more training money for service organization officers dealing with VA claims and benefits.

Stivers also said he wanted to look at finding more money for mental health programming for veterans and look into trying to get more medical and mental health professionals to join the VA’s Tri-Care medical program to aid veterans in rural areas where the VA has limited services.

Stivers also said he will review the collegiate credit system for veterans trying to convert military training and education into college credits.

“There’s definitely some things here we can look at and try to find some solutions,” Stivers said.

cburnett@lancaster