Maximizing VA Benefits for Survivors of Military Sexual Trauma: A Practical Guide for Survivors and Their Advocates

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Military Sexual Trauma (MST) an imprecise term that basically relates to or repeated, unsolicited, threatening acts of sexual harassment that occurs during military (1) Despite a variety of definitions for assault and (e.g., some including verbal harassment), (2) and differences in populations sampled (e.g., active duty members versus treatment-seeking veterans), (3) estimates consistently indicate that that just over 20% of females and 1 % of males are sexually assaulted in a physical manner during their service. (4) The numbers rise substantially to 20% of males and 70% of females in studies where verbal trauma included in the definition. (5) Importantly, the term MST was created to capture the different forms of sexual maltreatment reported by military personnel. (6) Thus, MST is not a syndrome, diagnosis, or construct associated with clear treatment indications. (7) Instead, it represents a type of stressor that can result in such maladies. (8) Recent and renewed interest in the MST epidemic has resulted in legislative proposals to revamp the entire military justice system to hold perpetrators accountable and encourage survivors to report their abuse, (9) as well as ongoing efforts within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to accommodate MST survivors' needs for medical treatment and empathic, bias-free benefits adjudication. (10) However, commentators emphasize the likelihood that pervasive systemic oversights within the VA and the Department of Defense (DoD) will result in continued incidences of MST among active duty service members and the erroneous denial of VA benefits to MST survivors who, in many cases, desperately need and rightfully deserve them. While legal clinics and scholars have suggested broad reforms of VA and DoD policies on MST in the long term, (11) this Article offers a short-term practical orientation for working within the current constructs for documenting, substantiating, and adjudicating MST claims. We focus mainly on the issue of disability compensation because of its instrumental value to MST survivors, above and beyond the current free health care at VA facilities that has been made available to any person who claims to have suffered from MST, even if a former service member would otherwise be ineligible for the full array of VA benefits. (12) Although the VA offers survivors the ability to obtain care for MST-related psychiatric and physical conditions, it struggles to overcome significant hurdles facing MST survivors. For example, many veterans face: (1) tremendous discomfort requesting benefits for sexual assaults, especially from revisiting the details of their abuse; (13) (2) residual effects of the VA's historic difficulty maintaining sensitivity to gender which manifests in male survivors having to interact with VA programs that focus almost exclusively on women's needs, (14) and female survivors often fearing that they may have to interact with male veterans at VA facilities who appear little different than their abusers, even if the facility has professionals with specialized services oriented to women; (15) (3) the VA's affiliation with the military, which can fuel concerns that the VA represents the same interests as a military organization that quite possibly ignored the survivor's complaints or even retaliated against the survivor for making a complaint regarding the victimization; (16) (4) an adjudicatory system that requires MST survivors to prove by a 50% chance or greater that their occurred, despite presumptions of service-connection for combat-related mental or physical conditions; (17) (5) the fact that the VA continues to deny a significant number of MST claims, which undermines the VA's efforts at outreach to this population of survivors, specifically; (18) and, most significantly, (6) the fact that health care alone cannot address the significant consequences of MST on one's employment opportunities and employability, which often results in women victims' suspicion and distrust of male coworkers and a variety of other consequences, especially those related to self-sufficiency and independence. …