Veterans Care Today: Paul A Dillon On How The US Has Improved Its Care For Veterans Over The Past Five Years
An Interview With Eric Pines
Make strong and close personal and business relationships. You can’t have too many good friends.
The daily headlines remind us of how countries around the world care or do not care for their military service members. How does the United States hold up with regard to how it cares for its veterans? We know in the past questions have been raised about the VA system, but it seems that a corner has been turned and veterans’ care has improved. How exactly has the VA system been improved? How does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries? What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes? To address these questions, we are talking to successful physicians, healthcare workers, veterans, or other VA employees and officials who can share stories and insights from their experience about the state of veterans’ care today and how the US has improved its care for veterans over the last five years.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure to interview Paul A. Dillon.
Paul A. Dillon is the president and CEO of Dillon Consulting Services LLC. He is a former U.S. Army officer and Vietnam veteran, who was awarded two Bronze Star Medals. Paul is also an Adjunct Instructor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he created and teaches a course on veterans issues. He helps to represent our nation’s veteran community on the Kennedy Forum, and serves on the Leadership Council of the Kennedy Forum Illinois.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and a bit about what brought you to this specific career path?
I have been fortunate to have been involved with the Kennedy Forum since its inception. The Kennedy Forum is a national nonprofit organization that was created by former U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy in 2013 to set a new standard for the future of healthcare in theUnited States.
I describe my work with the Kennedy Forum in an interview that I did some years ago for the SitRep Report, which is a program devoted to veterans’ issues on UNC-TV, the PBS station in Raleigh, NC. Here’s the link:
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I have had the distinct honor and great privilege to represent veteran mental health issues for the Kennedy Forum on any number of media outlets. Here’s an example of an interview that I did on this issue with the CBS Radio “Eye on Veterans” nationally syndicated program. It can be found at the following link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hb4RQuJp_lLOfUBluXww0OWp8kPc4pur/view?usp=sharing
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Patrick Kennedy often says that, when you go for your annual physical, your doctor should ask about your mental health, as well as your physical health. He calls it “getting a check up from the neck up.”
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I am working on planning my veterans issues course at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, which will be offered again during the Spring, 2023 semester. Here is the link to a story that describes this course:
https://sanford.duke.edu/story/students-explore-public-policy-and-veterans/
How would you define an “excellent healthcare provider”?
An excellent health care provider is one that is professional, flexible, responsible, and able to communicate with patients with empathy and compassion.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. Based on your experience can you please share three recent improvements to veterans care that you are really pleased about?
I don’t think that people realize how far we’ve come with veterans care since the time of the Vietnam War. When I came home from Vietnam in early 1971, I knew that the VA healthcare system existed — but, I was not given any direction to contact the VA for any healthcare needs that I might have as a result of my service in that war.
It is my impression that veterans returning from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are well informed of the many services that they can receive from the VA healthcare system.
In contrast, can you highlight three areas of veterans care that still need improvement? What would you suggest needs to be done to address those challenges?
It is estimated that approximately two-thirds of veterans get their primary healthcare outside of the VA system. These veterans most likely get their healthcare from private providers, through the insurance plans from their employers, or their spouse’s employers, similar to the non-veteran population.
This is important when it comes to veteran mental health.
Basically, the issues of mental health for civilians and veterans are the same, e.g., erasing the stigma of mental illness, and providing information on mental heath parity for those who have healthcare plans from their employer.
With regard to erasing the stigma of mental illness: We need to BREAK THE SILENCE. We need to turn around the conversation in our companies that no one should be ashamed of having these pathologies. We need to reinforce in our employees that it is the weak person who hides these diseases. It is the strong person…it is the courageous person — who seeks help for these diseases, so as to not put their their families, and their communities, in jeopardy. For, it takes courage to ask for help.
With regard to mental health parity: We need to inform employees that, as noted in the Kennedy Forum’s website, “The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA or Parity Law) promised equity in the insurance coverage of mental health and substance use disorder care, but years later mental health parity is still not a reality and too many Americans continue to be denied care when they need it the most. To fulfill the promise of the Parity law, we must hold health insurance plans accountable to comply with the letter and spirit of the law.”
From your perspective how does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries?
It is my understanding that eligibility for veteran healthcare benefits is much more limited in other countries than in the United States.
What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes?
There is no doubt that the pandemic has greatly accelerated the use of telemedicine, including for behavioral health — a trend that I hope will continue. And, the implementation of the “988” number as the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is an extremely valuable improvement in the current suicide prevention toolkit.
This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?
- Be flexible! And, don’t take no for an answer. If you meet with rejection, get up, brush yourself off, and try again. There is always more that one way to skin the proverbial cat.
- The concept of emotional resilience has always intrigued me. Why is it that some people can bounce back from an awful situation, while others succumb to utter defeat? BE RESILIENT!
- Take care of yourself. Eat well…sleep well…and, be active.
- Make strong and close personal and business relationships. You can’t have too many good friends.
- It’s not about you; it’s about them. A life of service to others is a life well lived.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
As I have said before, I don’t think that it is necessary to start a movement. But, I do think that we have to do something to bring this country together.
We need to understand that life in this world is short — some of us who experienced combat as a 26 year old U.S. Army Reserve officer in Vietnam understand that perfectly — and, that all of these beautiful material things that we have will one day pass away…but, that love endures forever.
And, we need to realize that we are all brothers and sisters — and, that all of us have worth and merit. You learn this in the military. The whole Armed Forces are built on the “buddy system”. Nobody accomplishes the mission alone. If you’re going to be successful in the military, you need to work with all types and kinds of people, from all races, creeds, genders, backgrounds and persuasions, and weld all of these disparate interests into a fighting force that’s going to defeat the enemy. Service in the military makes you understand the concept of “teamwork” — and, each individual’s value and worth — perfectly. And, as an officer, or non-commissioned officer, you learn how to lead a team to accomplish the mission. If you can’t do this — if you can’t forge your troops into an effective fighting force — you’re mustered out of the service pretty quickly. There’s no margin for error here. There’s no second chances. This is serious business. This isn’t just about “corporate profits”. Lives are at stake.
There is much more. But, these two ideas aren’t a bad start.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
They can go to my website at www.dillonconsult.com—or, follow me on my LinkedIn profile at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dillonconsult/
Finally, they can email me at paul@dillonconsult.com
Thank you so much for these insights! This was very inspirational and we wish you continued success in your great work.
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
Veterans Care Today: Paul A Dillon On How The US Has Improved Its Care For Veterans Over The Past F was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.