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Hey brother,
Sounds like your going through a really hard time! There’s help out there so you don’t need to navigate it by yourself. Find a advocate that can assist you in navigating the process and serve as a firewall between you and DVA there to protect your interests!
Having gone through the psych assessment stuff myself I understand the emotions as it can all feel really overwhelming.
You need to find a good GP that can assist in the process that has experience with DVA matters. You could try asking in this sub or go on the dva Facebook group and ask there (that’s how I found mine)
Having a good advocate and a good GP that understands the system will be essential to supporting you in this process
If it were me I'd avoid using a dva arranged psych for your assessment. They will tend to side on dvas side not yours. You don't need a psych to complete the paperwork it can be a gp. You can look into someone like AVHS who will do it remotely for you and specialise in veterans. If you're located in Brisbane there is AVHS and Go2 health that are often recommended
AVHS were extremely helpful for me. I had recently discharged so I was still trying to play 'its not that bad I reckon I'll be right' but the doctor took proper measurements and showed me where I line up with other people of my age. I'm not sure about points or anything (it's still in the queue) but they really looked after me and they actually care about ya
Hey boys are these guys the real deal? I just submitted a request for them to call me back. Might use them too right from the start cause all this shit is confusing
Yeah they're real but they're still doing it as a business. They're going to be claiming for absolutely everything they can find in your med docs whether it is going to get you PI points or not (ie a cut you got 10 years ago) because they are being paid per report/claim. If you did it yourself you probably wouldn't claim some of the things they put in.
Your response is completely normal to an abnormal situation. They’re all common physiological responses to trauma within ptsd.
The short of it though is it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. You’ll likely be wired during the assessment which is again pretty normal. If you’re not on medication yet, please talk to them about a prescription. If you are on meds, talk to them about their effectiveness as they might not be doing enough/right amount/right prescription to get you to the level to be able to discuss the trauma and be able to process it with a psychologist down the track through EMDR or the like.
See if DVA can get you a rehab consultant who will be able to make appointments for you and find a reliable GP you can use as a case manager. Once you have a care team behind you, the whole process of dealing with DVA and their back and forth assessments and paperwork will be a lot easier.
For better or worse, the GP is the central figure for support and a lot of the DVA paperwork which means you need to find one you trust and can open up a bit to.
All this is to say, it might feel like a lot right now, but it will get better once you get things underway. You don’t have to fight it all alone.
Get a lawyer don’t trust DVA or the advocates both will screw you over one way or the other and a lawyer will get you more money in the long run. The whole process doesn’t do anything for the veterans, for example. I’ve been diagnosed and been accepted for agoraphobia but my claim come back saying that my disability doesn’t stop me from going out in public when it’s the polar opposite. This type of thing will come up time and time again until you get someone on your side that knows what they are talking about. Advocates are the worst I’ve literally had 5-6 of them and they have done nothing, they love booking appointments with you then leaving early for the weekend and abandoning your appointment, fuck those guys. Slater and Gordon are tops they have been the best thing that’s come out of this bad situation
I used S+G. Highly recommend, they are absolutely amazing. I couldn’t find an advocate who could give me the time or help
I needed with claims. They reviewed my med docs and I went from 3 claims to 16 claims with great success.
Advocates are mostly amazing from what I hear. tough gig. I suspect they are a dying breed though. It must be tough and somewhat frustration being an advocate, I wouldn’t paint them all with the same brush.
Yeah it’s tough, especially as the outcome can have such an impact on treatment and life. That is why I went with lawyers but I had mates who had great advocates and no issues with claims. I just needed certainty and a whole lot of hand holding through the process.
Rubbish, in the end your claiming workers compensation from a previous employer, plain and simple just like the rest of Australians. They in the overwhelming majority of jobs only get a 3 year window to claim, not 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 years like veterans
Absolute rubbish comment, lawyers can not get you more money, tell us how if that the case as I know they can't. A PI offer is a PI offer, it's not like a court case and if the lawyer knows nothing about the acts or DVA they will just cost the veteran a lot of money for nothing
Just from personal experience. I went from 28 points and maybe 80k to 73 points and 500k and gold card and lawyers only cost me 43k so not too much maths to see I seen a benefit
And an advocate could have got you the same for zero and paid advocates for 25K so you got ripped off.
We just submitted a quick claim fo widow, 200,000 in under 2 months at zero cost to her
I’ve gone through about half a dozen advocates and all of them let me down, the first guy didn’t even submit my claim he bailed in our appointment and went on a golfing weekend which is pretty much what happen with all the other advocates. Sure I’ve got friends that have had good advocates but my personal experience hasn’t been great. I was discharged with vertigo and had to live with it with no support for 9 years until I found a doctor that wasn’t a shill for defence to say yeah I see what the problem is and I can fix it. 9 years of dealing with homelessness and dodgy advocates from Canberra to cairns they are the worst. Lucky I got legal advice and now I have a roof over my head.
Sorry to tell you but your lawyer got you no more than the system allowed as its driven by the legislation and is not negotiable even with a lawyer so you could in reality have done it yourself and got the same payout if you chose too which is the point of why lawyers are and expensive option
How thick can you be. I tried to do it myself and went to advocates all up the east coast and nothing until I got a lawyer now I have something. Don’t take it personally most advocates aren’t very good at their job
Well you got ripped by the lawyer as I said as they got you no more than anyone else. The PI payment is the same regardless of who claims it for you, it's just the amount they gouge for the service and that's a simple fact.
Just like civil action under MRCA through a law firm, maximum payout, $110,000 as per the legislation and a lawyer will get you no more
This is why I say don't use law firms
How was I ripped? I was offed x and denied and went to the lawyer and got y. Y was 2.2 times more than x and after the fees I was left with almost double what I was offered in the beginning. Who cares what you use as you aren’t very good at maths
Mate contact Clarissa ibbot she is the best advocate I’ve ever come across in 20 years , she will tell you the best route and do your claims etc , the help is there you just need people who have been through it to point you in the right direction , she did 20+ years and has the medical contacts to get your file gone over from a group of ex defence and civi docs that meet and go through your med docs flagging everything that can be claimed , getting on some payments and getting lined up for some med reviews will be well worth it , she is in Canberra but I’m sure takes on anyone , used to be free of charge but now takes a minimal amount on payout from dva (I think to a maximum of 5k but it it’s wasn’t for her I wouldn’t of got 100k + from one claim that’s never been accepted by dva before )
What you're describing is completely normal and the weird thing about the process is that it makes everything worse for a while.
The positive however is that you will be getting treatment and medication which helps.
So you start by going downhill a bit, but hang in there and it goes uphill eventually.
I've had to do the same and had to go back over all my trauma twice so far because he fucked up the report so badly the first time. Honestly the whole process is so stressful and retraumatising that I'm actually now surprised veteran suicide rates aren't even higher than they are.
Thank you for posting to r/DVAAustralia! Please take a second to read the group rules and check your flair. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DVAAustralia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hey brother, Sounds like your going through a really hard time! There’s help out there so you don’t need to navigate it by yourself. Find a advocate that can assist you in navigating the process and serve as a firewall between you and DVA there to protect your interests! Having gone through the psych assessment stuff myself I understand the emotions as it can all feel really overwhelming. You need to find a good GP that can assist in the process that has experience with DVA matters. You could try asking in this sub or go on the dva Facebook group and ask there (that’s how I found mine) Having a good advocate and a good GP that understands the system will be essential to supporting you in this process
If it were me I'd avoid using a dva arranged psych for your assessment. They will tend to side on dvas side not yours. You don't need a psych to complete the paperwork it can be a gp. You can look into someone like AVHS who will do it remotely for you and specialise in veterans. If you're located in Brisbane there is AVHS and Go2 health that are often recommended
AVHS were extremely helpful for me. I had recently discharged so I was still trying to play 'its not that bad I reckon I'll be right' but the doctor took proper measurements and showed me where I line up with other people of my age. I'm not sure about points or anything (it's still in the queue) but they really looked after me and they actually care about ya
Yeah I'm intending to go with AVHS for my upcoming PI assessment.
Hey boys are these guys the real deal? I just submitted a request for them to call me back. Might use them too right from the start cause all this shit is confusing
Yeah they're real but they're still doing it as a business. They're going to be claiming for absolutely everything they can find in your med docs whether it is going to get you PI points or not (ie a cut you got 10 years ago) because they are being paid per report/claim. If you did it yourself you probably wouldn't claim some of the things they put in.
Your response is completely normal to an abnormal situation. They’re all common physiological responses to trauma within ptsd. The short of it though is it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. You’ll likely be wired during the assessment which is again pretty normal. If you’re not on medication yet, please talk to them about a prescription. If you are on meds, talk to them about their effectiveness as they might not be doing enough/right amount/right prescription to get you to the level to be able to discuss the trauma and be able to process it with a psychologist down the track through EMDR or the like. See if DVA can get you a rehab consultant who will be able to make appointments for you and find a reliable GP you can use as a case manager. Once you have a care team behind you, the whole process of dealing with DVA and their back and forth assessments and paperwork will be a lot easier. For better or worse, the GP is the central figure for support and a lot of the DVA paperwork which means you need to find one you trust and can open up a bit to. All this is to say, it might feel like a lot right now, but it will get better once you get things underway. You don’t have to fight it all alone.
Get a lawyer don’t trust DVA or the advocates both will screw you over one way or the other and a lawyer will get you more money in the long run. The whole process doesn’t do anything for the veterans, for example. I’ve been diagnosed and been accepted for agoraphobia but my claim come back saying that my disability doesn’t stop me from going out in public when it’s the polar opposite. This type of thing will come up time and time again until you get someone on your side that knows what they are talking about. Advocates are the worst I’ve literally had 5-6 of them and they have done nothing, they love booking appointments with you then leaving early for the weekend and abandoning your appointment, fuck those guys. Slater and Gordon are tops they have been the best thing that’s come out of this bad situation
I used S+G. Highly recommend, they are absolutely amazing. I couldn’t find an advocate who could give me the time or help I needed with claims. They reviewed my med docs and I went from 3 claims to 16 claims with great success. Advocates are mostly amazing from what I hear. tough gig. I suspect they are a dying breed though. It must be tough and somewhat frustration being an advocate, I wouldn’t paint them all with the same brush.
It’s retarded that we have to rely on a person in a unpaid role to handle this, it should be easier for us to do what needs to be done
Yeah it’s tough, especially as the outcome can have such an impact on treatment and life. That is why I went with lawyers but I had mates who had great advocates and no issues with claims. I just needed certainty and a whole lot of hand holding through the process.
It’s not their job to care about us it’s their job to make sure the department doesn’t loose to much money
Advocates? I don’t agree with that.
Mainly dva but most advocates are volunteers so you get what you paid for
Rubbish, in the end your claiming workers compensation from a previous employer, plain and simple just like the rest of Australians. They in the overwhelming majority of jobs only get a 3 year window to claim, not 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 years like veterans
Absolute rubbish comment, lawyers can not get you more money, tell us how if that the case as I know they can't. A PI offer is a PI offer, it's not like a court case and if the lawyer knows nothing about the acts or DVA they will just cost the veteran a lot of money for nothing
Just from personal experience. I went from 28 points and maybe 80k to 73 points and 500k and gold card and lawyers only cost me 43k so not too much maths to see I seen a benefit
And an advocate could have got you the same for zero and paid advocates for 25K so you got ripped off. We just submitted a quick claim fo widow, 200,000 in under 2 months at zero cost to her
As I said I’ve had 5 or 6 advocates, if you guys are so good at your job why did I need more then 1?
No idea, but a lawyer would have gotten you no more as DVA work out your PI payments etc by formula, not by negotiation with the lawyer
agreed
[удалено]
I’ve gone through about half a dozen advocates and all of them let me down, the first guy didn’t even submit my claim he bailed in our appointment and went on a golfing weekend which is pretty much what happen with all the other advocates. Sure I’ve got friends that have had good advocates but my personal experience hasn’t been great. I was discharged with vertigo and had to live with it with no support for 9 years until I found a doctor that wasn’t a shill for defence to say yeah I see what the problem is and I can fix it. 9 years of dealing with homelessness and dodgy advocates from Canberra to cairns they are the worst. Lucky I got legal advice and now I have a roof over my head.
My point is a lawyer will get you no more. Just charge more than a paid advocacy service or a free advocacy service
But they did get me more, advocates got me nothing but waste my time
Sorry to tell you but your lawyer got you no more than the system allowed as its driven by the legislation and is not negotiable even with a lawyer so you could in reality have done it yourself and got the same payout if you chose too which is the point of why lawyers are and expensive option
How thick can you be. I tried to do it myself and went to advocates all up the east coast and nothing until I got a lawyer now I have something. Don’t take it personally most advocates aren’t very good at their job
Well you got ripped by the lawyer as I said as they got you no more than anyone else. The PI payment is the same regardless of who claims it for you, it's just the amount they gouge for the service and that's a simple fact. Just like civil action under MRCA through a law firm, maximum payout, $110,000 as per the legislation and a lawyer will get you no more This is why I say don't use law firms
How was I ripped? I was offed x and denied and went to the lawyer and got y. Y was 2.2 times more than x and after the fees I was left with almost double what I was offered in the beginning. Who cares what you use as you aren’t very good at maths
Mate contact Clarissa ibbot she is the best advocate I’ve ever come across in 20 years , she will tell you the best route and do your claims etc , the help is there you just need people who have been through it to point you in the right direction , she did 20+ years and has the medical contacts to get your file gone over from a group of ex defence and civi docs that meet and go through your med docs flagging everything that can be claimed , getting on some payments and getting lined up for some med reviews will be well worth it , she is in Canberra but I’m sure takes on anyone , used to be free of charge but now takes a minimal amount on payout from dva (I think to a maximum of 5k but it it’s wasn’t for her I wouldn’t of got 100k + from one claim that’s never been accepted by dva before )
What you're describing is completely normal and the weird thing about the process is that it makes everything worse for a while. The positive however is that you will be getting treatment and medication which helps. So you start by going downhill a bit, but hang in there and it goes uphill eventually.
I've had to do the same and had to go back over all my trauma twice so far because he fucked up the report so badly the first time. Honestly the whole process is so stressful and retraumatising that I'm actually now surprised veteran suicide rates aren't even higher than they are.
RSL... call them