MIAMI – As lack of access to medical care and disability benefits continues to hurt war veterans in South Florida, a few law school students try to make a difference.
The law school students goal, as members of a University of Miami's School of Law Health Rights Clinic, is to prevent homelessness and help veterans get back on their feet, said JoNel Newman, the clinic's director. Newman has been working with U.S. Army Colonel Noel Pace, a UM third-year law school student and war veteran.
Earlier this year the VA estimated there were about 50,000 homeless Iraq and Afghanistan veterans nationwide. Today there are an estimated 170,000 war veterans in South Florida, Pace said. About 200 attend the University of Miami and about 25 of them are law school students who can help those at-risk.
"We have a number of veterans who have returned back to campus and to the law school and with that we started the Student Veterans of America Miami law chapter," said Pace, who helped to host a luncheon on Veterans Day to help UM veterans connect.
Pace has been working with two second-year law school students -- Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's stepson, U.S. Marine Major Douglas Lehtinen, 37, and U.S. Army National Guard First Lieutenant Ashley George, 24.
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The VA is overwhelmed with the growing cost of disability benefits. The benefits administration reported that the number of medical disability claims increased about 44 percent from 2009 to 2013. The VA's Office of the Inspector General false claims arrests were also up 71 percent since 2009.
The UM students' caseload is high. The stories can be sad and relatable. While Lehtinen's dad was injured during his service in Vietnam, George's mom died of breast cancer. They both do their best to detach emotionally from their cases.
"It's not easy to talk to people about their suffering," George, said. "Some of it can be frustrating. It was amazing to me that after they have sacrificed so much, some were having to go through rejections, because of improper medical records."
Lehtinen said that while veterans in their 20s returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have digitized records, Vietnam-era veterans have difficulties getting theirs. And most of them lack knowledge about what help is available and how to obtain it.
"When they start thinking this pain or this injury might have been connected to something, or what I'm dealing with emotionally or mentally might have been connected with something --- at that point they don't remember what they were told," Lehtinen said.
George has only been doing the work for four months. She said she is working on the case of a Navy Gulf War veteran, who has multiple illnesses including Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, inflammatory arthritis and high blood pressure.
"He is 60 percent disabled through the VA, but we are working on getting him the 100 percent disability that he needs," George said.
Pace has had some success. Earlier this year, he helped war veteran Hosea D. Smith prove that a cancer diagnosis was linked to his military service in the 1970s. This case inspired George and Lehtinen.
On Veterans Day, the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I in 1928, she said there is no reason why war veterans should be homeless or not have access to the healthcare they need.
"These men and women have given it all, now their country has to give back to them," she said. Pace and Lehtinen agree.
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