Georgia post helps veterans with PACT Act claims

In response to hearing that an Afghanistan Army veteran and Legionnaire was having trouble filing a claim for PACT Act benefits, American Legion Post 45 in Canton, Ga., held a PACT Act workshop to help others experiencing the same problem.

The workshop was held Jan. 19 at Post 45 where 28 tables were set up that included service officers and staff from the Atlanta VA Medical Center to conduct screenings and provide available resources to address mental health, suicide prevention and veteran homelessness.

“From talking to veterans who tried to sign up for the PACT Act online it was confusing and there was no one to ask questions of,” said Post 45 Service Officer Jim Lindenmayer. “This event gave them full access to the people that had the answers.” 

The PACT Act provides a comprehensive framework to improve the presumptive process for burn pit veterans by streamlining access to health-care benefits for those who served in areas of known toxic exposure — regardless of disability status — and provides health care for as many as 3.5 million veterans exposed to airborne hazards and burn pits. Since Jan. 1, the VA has been processing PACT Act benefit claims for all veterans and their survivors. Eligible veterans and survivors are encouraged to apply for those benefits now at VA.gov/PACT.  

Lindenmayer said more than 200 veterans attended the PACT Act workshop, with the majority of claims processed for Vietnam veterans. “Another great thing that was an outcome was that most of the veterans who went through the workshop had follow-up CMP exams within two weeks,” added Lindenmayer, who also is the Cherokee County Homeless Veteran Program director.

“This was the first such program initiated in the state for the PACT Act, but not the last. The lessons learned from this event are being used to establish several other PACT Act workshops across the region.”

When planning an event like this, Lindenmayer said it’s important to:

- Know how the VA’s eligibility and claims teams want to be set up and how they want the veteran flow to take place. 

- Know the additional VA teams that are coming (in Post 45’s case, it was VA’s homeless veterans, workforce, suicide prevention, women’s health, post-9/11 and others) so you can understand how these groups need to be set up. 

- Have seating for veterans to wait as well as refreshments on hand for those who wish to have something to eat or drink while they wait. 

- Have ample parking and extensive internet capability to support the logins of the VA, etc.

Lessons Post 45 learned and will take moving forward include to:

- Have an event sheet detailing the resources present that every veteran gets when they arrive. “An event sheet would have better given the veterans an idea of who they could see and wanted to see while they waited their turn to go through the PACT ACT screening.”

- Have signage. “You need to have signs for the various tables so that veterans can see where they want to go and not get lost. We had the VA give us a list of signs prior to the event that we made for them, but it did not include the other groups they brought.”