New York, NY - In an effort to provide the highest standard of representation to disabled veterans and their families, United Spinal Association and Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) recently conducted their first advanced training seminar for federally-accredited veterans service representatives from across the nation. The seminar, which was held on August 28 – 29, 2007, in Orlando, Florida, was presented during United Spinal’s North American Spinal Cord Injury Disability Conference and Exposition.

With more than 50 service representatives in attendance, the seminar presented information that focused on issues of particular concern to wounded service members who have returned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Presenters included medical and legal experts who spoke about such topics as traumatic brain injury, poly-traumatic injuries, VA special monthly compensation benefits for severely disabled veterans, Social Security claims and appeals, common errors in VA claims decisions, VA appeals proceedings, operating a service representative office, as well as the special needs of Persian Gulf War veterans.

The complexity of establishing eligibility for VA benefits and healthcare necessitates continuing education and training even for experienced service representatives, particularly in light of the devastating injuries produced by weapons of modern warfare. With so many injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the training was designed to provide service representatives with the most up-to-date information available concerning VA-related laws, regulations and policies, patient issues and claims strategies and techniques.

United Spinal and VVA hope that the advanced training will afford the attendees practical information they can use every day in their representational activities. Having informed veterans service representatives is crucial to the success of veterans’ claims for VA disability benefits, which is often the threshold for eligibility to priority VA heath care.

United Spinal plans to conduct regular advanced live training sessions and on-line continuing education programs for veterans service representatives nationwide. “I learned a lot from the advanced training course that will allow me to be a better representative for disabled veterans,” stated United Spinal veterans service representative Keith Reimers of Naples, FL. As an organization originally founded by veterans and for veterans, United Spinal Association is committed to providing advanced service representative training through its VetsFirst program.