After years of lip service to veterans, a president is finally making good on promises to veterans but you wouldn’t know it after listening to a “nonprofit” advancee within the Department of Veteran Affairs.

Despite working her way up the ranks during the Obama administration, Executive Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Education Service, Charmain Bogue gives no attribution or kudos to President Donald Trump or the then-Republican Congress in their attempt to rectify the wrongs of the past and make education opportunities open to all veterans.

Served as the Senior Project Management Officer for VA’s implementation of the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act (commonly referred to as the Forever GI Bill), which contains the most comprehensive changes to the GI Bill program since the creation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill program.
— Charmain Bogue, LinkedIn

A Forever GI Bill NOT introduced or passed by a Democrat Congress and signed by President Obama….

President Donald Trump signed an expansion of veterans education benefits Wednesday, boosting aid by $3 billion over the next 10 years and extending assistance to some veterans and dependents who didn’t qualify.

Trump signed the bill – dubbed the “Forever GI Bill” by its supporters – at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., with little fanfare and no press or public remarks, and only Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin at his side.
— Stars & Stripes, 11/16/17

The “Forever GI Bill” was signed over two years ago and Executive Director of the VA Education Service and her “team” is only now promoting it?

Must be “the process” and the competence of those implementing it….

Like the insulting verbiage used by nonprofits where veterans are “clients” as opposed to customers, veterans are dehumanized as “projects” needing a “team” to lead them which explains a lot.

…
We’re again hearing about the infamously ineffective “process” that seldom delivers as promised when it comes to veterans, long after it was promised, if they even know about said promise at all.

Last year, the VA said it would hire 200 temporary workers and shell out $70 million to implement the “Forever” GI bill, which contains 34 changes to veterans’ education benefits and boosts spending by $3 billion for 10 years. Higher-than-anticipated costs has been one of a number of problems that the agency faced in the yearlong charge to implement the plan, which most recently had a July 16 target date that had to be postponed.
— Stars & Stripes, 7/18/18

#BestYearEver… seriously? Have no fear.

The team of leaders will give it another shot.

After catastrophic technology failings led to missed or lower GI Bill payments last year left some student veterans evicted or struggling, Department of Veterans Affairs leaders assured Congress Tuesday that it is prepared to try again. But it doesn’t plan to begin repaying those students until next summer at the earliest.

In 2018, VA spent months telling Congress it was ready to launch Forever GI Bill updates that included changes to the amount of money student veterans or family members using GI Bill benefits would receive as a housing allowance. Some of those students are still waiting to be paid, members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee said Tuesday. VA leaders did not answer questions about how many students were underpaid, or how much they are owed.

While VA leaders told Congress it planned to make those veterans whole and ensure they’re paid what they’re owed, leaders said that may not happen until this time next year. Some students could be repaid as soon as next summer, leaders said.
— Connecting Vets, 11/19/19

As usual, the “VA leaders” are in no hurry because they are safely employed and protected so there’s no real sense of urgency. Meanwhile, a 38-year-old “Executive Director of VA Education Service” was promoted up the ranks and as it sadly appears to be the norm, the approved mandate is oh-so slowly being efficiently implemented and promoted for those who are the rightful, yet still underserved beneficiaries.

Thanks to self-serving politicians with no term or office limits, exploitative nonprofits and the social worker class, it’s automatically assumed most veterans are troubled and oh-so close to ending it all. From experience in dealing with all of the above in having to deal with the condescension and almost uniform callous indifference, we understand what drives some veterans to the very alcohol, drug abuse, and potential suicide social workers claim to want to head off.

How Do I Know I Need A Social Worker?

If you really aren’t sure what you need, but things just don’t feel right
— Department of Veteran Affairs

You may have just opened the door to a predator. This is not to say all veteran social workers are bad. We just haven’t personally experienced any of the motivated ones yet.

Not all veterans have “issues” when they reenter the civilian world. So, who started that stigmatizing notion?

While we’re all led to believe a concerning percentage of military personnel exit service with post-traumatic stress disorder, the numbers tend to vary greatly.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rates have increased among members of the UK armed forces, new research suggests. The overall rate of probable PTSD among current and ex-serving military personnel was 6% in 2014-16, compared with 4% in 2004-06.
— The Guardian, 10/8/18

Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF): About 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year.

Gulf War (Desert Storm): About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans (or 12%) have PTSD in a given year.

Vietnam War: About 15 out of every 100 Vietnam Veterans (or 15%) were currently diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 (or 30%) of Vietnam Veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime.
— Department of Veteran Affairs

It appears it all depends on who’s doing the diagnosing because the Department of Veterans Affairs is also a magnet for mostly women who’ve never served in the Armed Forces and because of their educational indoctrination, probably don’t care much for the military. (We were once told by a nonprofit department head that she’d have more money to help veterans if the government didn’t spend so much for “armaments”. Cart before horse…?)

Do an online image search for “veteran social worker” and you’ll see a consistent….

It all starts as an early-targeted career path, so ideological noses are held and academic proficiency appears (in some cases) sacrificed.

Don’t “axe” us why….

WHAT IS A MILITARY SOCIAL WORK DEGREE?
A military social work degree is most often found as a Master of Social Work (MSW) program. It studies the many ways to help people solve and cope with problems. Then applies these concepts to support active-duty personnel, veterans and their families.

Those who want to use counseling methods need a master’s degree and state license. They’ll also need 2 years of supervised field work. A military social work degree may ready you to pursue this licensure. Or, at the bachelor’s level, may ready you to help out as a case manager.
— Education Connection

From the onset, veterans are portrayed as helpless human beings with “problems” that can only be addressed by a social worker’s “case management”, thus close life supervision. It’s clear stigmatized veterans are a great employment lure and keeping them vulnerable and dependent is profitable.

50 Highest Paying Jobs in Social Work

#4 Veteran’s Affairs Social Worker
Average Salary: $85,639.63 (as of 2022)
Job Outlook: Excellent (20% growth rate within the next decade)

Not bad. Decent money right out of the box, not to mention those great “golden handcuff” bennies associated with working for he federal government. So, the more the perception goes out that veterans are potentially crazy and are in need of supervision, “growth” is assured.

The 2014 Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Service members compared service members to the general population and found that the rate of major depression is five times higher among soldiers, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is nearly 15 times as high, and intermittent explosive disorder is six times as high.

They seldom reveal what the rate of depression was upon discharge and compare that to after the veteran had to deal with an unmotivated social worker or nonprofit for a period of time. That might not be a good number.

VA social workers are responsible for ensuring continuity of care through the admission, evaluation, treatment, and follow-up processes. This includes coordinating discharge planning and providing case management services based on the patients clinical and community health and social services resources. Social workers often provide long-term case management services to veterans who are at high risk of being admitted to a hospital, those who have very complex medical problems, and those who need additional help and support. They are available when needed to provide and coordinate a variety of services including counseling and support services. Social workers can advocate and go to bat for those who have a hard time doing it by themselves.

The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs employs approximately 12,000 social workers.
— Best MSW (Master of Social Work) Programs

Veteran social workers also have advocacy nonprofits to make sure the jobs keep coming. After all, they’re only being paid with that never-ending supply of taxpayer dollars.

The Association of VA Social Workers encourages the development of comprehensive Social Work services to veteran beneficiaries through education, collaboration and advocacy to enhance the effectiveness of all Social Workers throughout the entire US Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Healthcare system. The Association advocates for the recruitment, retention, and increased recognition of  Social Workers of the VA. At this time, there are more than 12,000 social workers throughout the VA system. More than 1500 student interns are preparing for their Masters level social work degrees (from colleges and universities approved by the Council on Social Work Education), many of whom are receiving VA educational stipiends during their field placements in the VA. (How VA Social Workers Help Veterans)
— Association of VA Social Workers

According to the Association, only one of their 2018 “Social Workers of the Quarter” was a veteran. The rest appear to have gone straight from college into the field and wound up working with… veterans.

When inexperienced people are given, in essence, supervisory roles that has profound impact on a veteran’s life, it can go to their heads and for too many we’ve experienced, it does.

Earlier this year, I invited some of my former VA colleagues back to the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to talk about their experiences as VA social workers. When asked about some of their favorite aspects of working in such a large system, they all overwhelmingly said that one of the best job perks was having so much autonomy.

A gold mine for your average power tripper.

Once social workers are initially trained in the core functions of the system, there truly is a great deal of opportunity to work autonomously within your program area team. Read more about just some of the things VA social workers do. In many instances, you are working on processes and problem-solving within a team structure and support, but with a great deal of independence and trust.
— SocialWorker.com

The “autonomy” to make a veteran jump through as many hoops as they want, despite the fact that veterans reach out to them when they’re most vulnerable. Some of these fat-and-happy social workers can’t relate to the sense of urgency and should a veteran become irritated by the indifference, social workers have a varying amount of ways to retaliate and put veterans back in their place.

And we won’t even get into the dysfunctional marriage between the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Urban Development when it comes to social worker interagency miscommunication and/or selective interpretations when it comes to veterans in housing distress. All so they can impose themselves on extorted veterans and justify their existence with makework….

A key component of the program is VA’s case management services. These services are designed to assist Veterans in obtaining and sustaining permanent housing and engage in needed treatment and other supportive services that improve Veterans’ quality of life and end their homelessness. Case Management is the heart of this program and is a requirement for participation in the HUD-VASH voucher program.

Make the Call.
You Fought for Our Home. We’ll Fight for Yours.
— HUD-VASH Eligibility Criteria

Sure.

Almost a month ago, we submitted a Freedom of Information Request to the VA to request “the number of veteran VASH housing vouchers given to the Commonwealth of Virginia during FY2019, how many were used by veterans and how many were rolled into Section 8 housing for general public use.” We have yet to have been even issued a reference number, let alone a response. Rolling VASH vouchers into Section 8 (while keeping veterans unaware of their earned benefit) assures local social workers a greater pool of preferred, single mom-illegal alien-refugee recipients at the expense of veterans.

If one of these social workers found themselves potentially days from losing their housing, you know they’d be tapping into all of the potential “rapid re-housing” options they advertise and be in a new place within a week.

How Does it Feel?

Sadly, should any homeless veteran find themself in urgent need of housing, the FIRST thing a social worker suggests is that he or she go to a shelter. It should be a requirement for all social workers in training to give their home and car keys to their trainer. Then that social worker trainee should be left on the street and let them stay in a shelter for three weeks. After that experience, we sincerely doubt a shelter would be their first suggestion to a veteran in peril.

The best route for veteran independence is finding a good job; not the low wage positions they’re normally steered towards by nonprofit “employment specialists” who spend more time telling said veteran to find jobs online and apply rather than being a “specialist” and make those connections for the veteran. In fact, another constant is the veteran constantly being told by a veteran dot gov or a nonprofit is what they can’t do while that employee or social worker hangs up the phone and continues to earn a paycheck.

It’s not like a veteran can complain because the social worker is the gatekeeper when it comes to access to benefits earned, being made to wait via giving the veteran conflicting or incorrect information, or when the social worker gets around to it, because he or she can subtly cut the veteran off altogether if desired.

So, until the Veterans Administration is purged of the social worker industrial complex and is staffed primarily by understanding veterans and/or the caring family members of veterans, the demonization and abuse of veterans will continue and the problems of depression, drug and alcohol abuse brought on after having to deal with them will continue.

Homelessness and suicides will be the social worker’s promotional tool to keep themselves relevant and employed because if veterans were to actually be properly served, we wouldn’t need so many more social workers and we can’t have that, right?

In 2016, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe started the lie that his state “functionally ended” veteran homelessness and sadly, President Trump’s HUD Secretary repeats the expanded version of that lie to this day. Most recently at the National Coalition for Veteran Homelessness “Annual Conference” on May 31, 2019 to an audience that looked like they had other things they’d much rather be doing….

It would have been preferred if Secretary Carson consulted with someone like Walter Williams and done an audit of the effectiveness of the nonprofit sector, especially when it comes to homeless veterans. Are they effective or are they essentially making life harder for veterans in order to keep the donor dollars and grant money coming in so those at the nonprofits can continue to live their comfortable lives?

Notice of Funding Availability: HVRP Grant Applications Due April 26
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) announced the availability of approximately $13.5 million in Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program (HVRP) grants. HVRP grants provide services to assist in reintegrating homeless veterans into…continue

Notice of Funding Availability: GPD Grant Applications Due May 20
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is announcing the availability of funds to eligible entities to provide time-limited case management services to improve the retention of housing by Veterans who were previously homeless and are transitioning to permanent housing from…continue
— National Coalition for Homeless Veterans website

While Carson and others pat themselves on the back at how readily available VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program) vouchers are to homeless veterans who need them, the reality on the ground is entirely different. HUD employees who do the “intake” with veterans seldom display or act in any sense of urgency. The perception is that most veterans in need of VASH vouchers have drug, alcohol and/or psychological issues but in too many instances, these “issues” arise only after dealing with the fat and comfortable government employees and nonprofits who are very good at telling the veteran what they can’t do after the lengthy intake process and direct them to other entities that also tell them what can’t be done. Veterans who are fortunate to have received the VASH voucher are then subjected to humiliating “case management” that keeps more employed and fed at the veteran’s expense, seeing how not all veterans are in need of condescending babysitting.

We’ve also heard that VASH vouchers not offered to homeless veterans are rolled into the Section 8 program for local dispersal to those deemed most needy and deserving, like immigrants and refugees.

From NCHV 2016 1099 form

Keeping in good with the grant issuers appears to be doing right by the National Coalition for Veteran Homelessness.

While claiming to respect and care for veterans, this year’s NCHV annual conference theme said it all: homeless veterans are nothing but “data” they can use to justify more money to fund their nonprofit salaries and overhead (including the immodest ±$300k cost of a three-day “annual conference” at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington, D.C.).

2016 NCHV “Annual Conference” cost

As far as the glowing reviews, we still have “case workers” (the vast majority non-veteran) who for the most part are not the most motivated, and government employees who set veterans up for letdowns more than they achieve results, and if they do, it’s a very lengthy process.

BTW — A “Veteran’s Affairs Social Worker” is the #4 “Highest Paying Jobs in Social Work“. #5 is “Executive Director of a Non Profit Organization”….

And “saving the best for last” is another Democrat hack who’s used the nonprofit route to elevate herself, using her veteran status to carve out a niche in supposedly helping homeless female veterans, despite her “Women Veterans Interactive” having $0 in income and assets while receiving grant funding in the past.

Secretary Carson may only be regurgitating the oft-repeated liberal lie of veteran homelessness being “functionally ended” because we all know how employees tend to put the best face on projects for the boss. But until homeless veterans are not looked at as golden goose opportunities to keep career welfare alive in the nonprofit sector in particular, there will be justified need for all the case managers and social workers.

Lastly, a commonly-used justification for the nonprofit and/or VA caseworker class is the slander that too many homeless veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. But it’s never honestly discussed where the PTSD originated because the truth is inconvenient.

At the point of separation from the military, 2.4% of all Veterans and 9.3% of subsequently homeless Veterans were diagnosed with PTSD.
— Homelessness and Risk Factors for Homelessness Among Veterans from the Era of the Afghanistan (OEF) and Iraq (OIF/OND) Conflicts

However, the truth is never publicly mentioned by the comfortable for obvious reasons.

A lot of studies show that homeless people often experience PTSD after becoming homeless….
— Psychologist Jack Tsai, PhD, of Yale University

Dealing with those who promote, promise much and dash hope will do it every time.

A veteran in need will be driven to alcohol, drugs and may even consider suicide because dealing with those who receive taxpayer dollars to care and deliver results don’t have to.

It was easy to criticize and make promises….