The Nevada County Veterans Services Office (NCVSO) assists veterans with obtaining compensation for injuries, diseases, or health conditions that were a result of service. When assisting veterans to submit their claims for compensation to the Veterans Administration (VA), it is important that our office uses every available resource to gather the evidence needed to support the claim of our veteran. Often, it would be beneficial if we could submit a peer-reviewed medical study that supports the type of claim that the veteran is filing. These medical studies are usually only available for a fee or through a subscription service and the NCVSO has limited financial resources. Enter…our amazing library!
The NCVSO and Madelyn Helling Library are teaming up on an effort to build a comprehensive digital library of medical studies that will be used to help support the claims of our veterans. Why is this significant, you ask? Good question! Many veterans are currently battling conditions that they believe are due to their exposure to either jet fuel, Agent Orange, solvents, herbicides, and most recently the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because of current VA laws & regulations these claims can be extremely difficult to be decided in favor of the veteran. Our collaboration with the library will build a comprehensive resource of medical studies to help support difficult claims and increase the chances that a claim will be decided in favor of our veterans.
Medical studies can be used to show a strong relationship with conditions veterans are already living with and the subsequent development of another relatable condition. A good example of this would be a veteran who is battling the symptoms of his or her PTSD and their development of migraine headaches, which is a common complaint in our office. Our office can now assist the veteran with researching and obtaining a peer-reviewed medical study that shows a causal relationship between PTSD and migraines. We are now providing the necessary information to the VA on behalf of our veterans without relying on the VA doctors who decide these claims.
Last, the NCVSO will soon be adding an Office Assistant to our staff and we are dedicating a different staff member to assist our walk-ins each day of the week. This means that soon a larger volume of calls will be answered immediately and every veteran who walks in our office will receive our services in a timely manner. We encourage you to either visit our office or give us a call to discuss your current health conditions and if they may be related to your time in service.
David West is the Nevada County Veterans Service Officer. Reach him at (530) 265-1446 or david.west@co.nevada.ca.us. The Nevada County Veteran’s Services Office, 988 McCourtney Rd, Grass Valley, CA, is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.