Hall, right, met with several veterans and advocates

WAPPINGERS FALLS – There is no arguing that cutting through red tape to gain approval for a diagnosis for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a top priority.

Congressman John Hall hosted a series of roundtable discussions with Hudson Valley veterans on Monday, one in Wappingers Falls, to hear opinions about a rule change proposed by the Department of Veterans Affairs that would make it easier for veterans suffering from PTSD to receive their benefits.

Hall will then take the input of Hudson Valley veterans to the VA while comments are still being considered pending the release of a final regulation.

It was Hall’s COMBAT Act H.R. 952 that first called for reform to the current rules and ultimately inspired the VA to draft a proposal of new regulations.

If a serviceman or woman comes back from Iraq or Afghanistan and is diagnosed with PTSD, currently, the law requires that they prove a connection to a specific battle or an attack or a medal or some incident,” said Hall.

“If you served in the uniform in a war zone and you come back and have that diagnosed from a psychiatrist or psychologist, you have nothing more to prove,” he said.

“We have too many overseas that are coming home and having trouble adjusting,” said William Nazario of the Military Order of Purple Heart. According to Nazario, “if we lend a hand now rather than wait for things to get to get way out of tune,” we can reduce cases of domestic violence, suicide, and incarceration amongst veterans.

According to VA counselor Tom Walker, under the current system there is room for private doctors to make appeals regarding the diagnosis of a veteran with PTSD and the proposed rule change would eliminate that.

“Our management believes that it is unfair for the VA to restrict the decision making in this process to just VA employees, because we believe they are going to come under undue pressure to come up with a particular decision.”

“The first thing we have to establish is that no one comes back from a combat situation without emotional baggage,” said former Prisoner of War Norman Bussel. Bussel felt that in cases regarding the diagnosis of patients who had been in a combat zone the VA’s employees might be more efficient given the fact that they specialize in treating veterans.