VA Reaching Sexual Assault Survivors Through Facebook

Stripes.com reported this month that General Alison Hickey, the Undersecretary for Benefits at the Veterans Benefits Administration has appointed a claims specialist trained in “Military Sexual Trauma” (MST) to a group Facebook page for survivors of MST.  The Facebook page was created by an MST survivor who reports that since a claims specialist has been appointed to liaison with the group 19 veterans have had their MST claims for benefits approved by the VA.  Anecdotally, it has often been true of the VA that if a veteran can just speak to someone about their claims (as opposed to passing a never ending stream of paperwork back and forth between veteran and VA) the veterans claims are much more likely to be understood and approved.  Perhaps this approach is a new way to help at least those who reach out on social media for help?  http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/va-reaches-out-to-sexual-trauma-survivors-via-facebook-1.329813