Public Comment to President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors

Last updated: 07/25/07

Public comment by NDRN Staff to the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors

Good Afternoon. My name is Eric Buehlmann, Senior Public Policy Analyst with the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN). NDRN represents the 57 Protection and Advocacy systems throughout the United States.

The blank looks I am receiving from some is why I am here. In my time speaking with you, I want to convey just what the protection and advocacy system is and what we believe it can do to help our disabled veterans and their families.

The protection and advocacy system (shorthand the P&A system) is a federally created and federally funded system in every state, territory, and Washington DC. There also is a Native American program in the Southwest. This system was created, and its mandate is, to protect and advocate for the rights of poeple with disabilities and their families, and to help individuals with disabilities receive the supports and services they deserve and require to live successfully in their communities.

The P&A system began following a Geraldo Rivera expose concerning the treatment of individuals with developmental disabilities in New York. Congress was so outraged by this story that during consideration of the Developmental Disability Bill of Rights Act in the early 1970s it created the P&A system to ensure the rights of individuals with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities were protected and they received the services they required.

Over time, the P&A system’s duties to protect and advocate have expanded from just individuals with developmental disabilities to protecting and advocating for individuals with all types of disabilities – individuals with mental health needs; individuals with physical disabilities; individuals with traumatic brain injuries; individuals with sensory disabilities and the list goes on and on.

Concurrent with this expansion of individuals for whom the P&As advocate, has come an expansion of the supports and services we help these individuals obtain. The P&As work to help individuals with disabilities obtain a wide range of services, including, but not limited to, health care, education, assistive technology, Social Security benefits, housing, transportation, and employment. In fact, the P&A system is the only one-stop for people of disabilities to ensure their rights are protected and to receive the services they deserve.

This brings me to why I am here today. The good news, technology has meant more of our soldiers are alive from the injuries they have sustained in this war than in past wars. The bad news, our country is not prepared to address the needs of our returning injured soldiers. For example, I have heard that over 2/3 of the returning injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered some kind of traumatic brain injury. This percentage is much higher than past wars, and brings with it complications in almost all aspects of the veteran’s life, not to mention their family, friends, and employers.

I speak from personal experience about the changes a traumatic brain injury can bring to a person’s life. On the day of President Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993 I suffered a traumatic brain injury. Luckily, through the skill of my surgeons and therapists at Georgetown and the National Rehabilitation Hospital, I was able to walk again, finish law school, pass the Bar, and be employed, first with Senator Jim Jeffords and now with NDRN. However, to this day I have no field of vision from my nose, left, and when tired will ignore things on my left. For me, this has meant I can no longer drive, my reading speed is slower, and I will run into things on my left when tired.

This has affected my life in many ways. In order to finish law school and pass the Bar I required extra time to take tests. When my wife and I were looking to buy a house in the DC area, we needed to make sure that we were close to the Metro so I could get to and from work. In addition, we learned that we also needed to be near a food store and a drug store so I could walk there and get needed supplies if my wife was sick and therefore also unable to drive.

In the grand scheme of things, I was lucky. The aftereffects of my traumatic brain injury are mild compared to the ones our returning veterans are suffering from. I also had a family who knew how to access the benefits I should receive. A family that was able to provide me financial support while I recovered, and an employer, Senator Jeffords, who was willing to wait the 7 months before I could return to work.

I stand here today, confident in my following statement, that not many of our returning veterans who have suffered a traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder have that combination of luck. That is where the P&A system can help.

As I said earlier, the P&A system is a one-stop where individuals with all types of disabilities can find someone to protect their rights and advocate for the services they deserve. P&As have already begun seeing veterans with a variety of disabilities from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars coming in for assistance. However, I fear that these individuals are just the tip of the iceberg of veterans that could use our services.

I am not here to say that the P&A system should replace the VA, but we have expertise in helping individuals with disabilities make the transition back into the community that should be utilized. The VA already has enough issues to address internally without having to recreate a system to help veterans make the transition from the VA back into the community. The P&A system stands ready to help these heroes, and we hope you will take advantage of our services.

For anyone that would like to learn more about NDRN and the P&A system or make contact with their local P&A, please visit our website at www.ndrn.org to find a list of all the P&A systems in the United States and how to contact them.

Thank you for the opportunity to address you today.