BETRAYED BY THE VA Thomas Alan Bowman Sr. asked his country for help. He got silence. Sign the demand →
Dear Doug Collins

The Government Doors — the official channels, and how a family knocks

Not every door is a charity. Some of the most important ones belong to the government itself — the VA's own directory of accredited representatives, the patient advocate inside every VA facility, the caregiver program Congress created, and, in Florida, a second, state-run layer of free service officers. A family in the fight should know every one of these doors, what each one actually opens, and how to knock so the knock is on the record.

1. The VA’s VSO directory — find an accredited representative

Before anyone helps with a VA claim, check that they are accredited. The VA publishes the official directory of accredited veterans service organizations, representatives, attorneys, and claims agents at va.gov/vso. Use it to find a recognized VSO with representatives near you, and to verify the accreditation of anyone who offers to represent your veteran. The organizations in this directory — DAV, the VFW, The American Legion, and the rest — are the ones VA recognizes.

2. The facility patient advocate — and PATS, the system that tracks your complaint

Every VA health care facility has patient advocates who work to resolve concerns about care at that facility. Their complaints do not vanish into the air: VA policy documents complaints, compliments, and other contacts in the Patient Advocate Tracking System (PATS), which the VA describes as its authoritative system to document and track veteran inquiries. Contacts can come from the veteran, from family members, from members of Congress, and from VSOs acting for the veteran.

How a family uses it:

3. The VA Caregiver Support Program — PGCSS and PCAFC

The VA runs one Caregiver Support Program with two doors, and a caregiver support team at every VA medical center. The national Caregiver Support Line is 1-855-260-3274 (Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, Saturday 8 a.m.–5 p.m. ET).

PGCSS — the Program of General Caregiver Support Services is the wide door. Per the VA, it serves caregivers of veterans enrolled in VA health care who need personal care — no disability-rating requirement, no service-connection requirement, and no formal application: you contact your local Caregiver Support Program team or the Support Line and complete a brief intake. It offers skills training (Caregivers FIRST; the six-week online Building Better Caregivers workshop), one-on-one coaching (REACH VA), peer support and support groups, respite-care resources for the veteran, and the Annie caregiver text program. PGCSS does not pay a stipend.

PCAFC — the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers is the narrow door, and the one that pays. Per the VA, the veteran must have a serious injury (including serious illness) incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, with a service-connected disability rated 70 percent or more (single or combined), and must need in-person personal care services for a minimum of six continuous months — because of an inability to perform an activity of daily living, a need for supervision or protection, or a need for regular or extensive instruction or supervision. The veteran must receive care at home and ongoing care from a VA primary care team. Since October 2022 the program covers veterans of all eras. The veteran and caregiver apply jointly on VA Form 10-10CG (online, by mail, or in person at a VA medical center), followed by clinical evaluations. An approved Primary Family Caregiver receives a monthly stipend, training, mental health counseling, respite, beneficiary travel where eligible, and — if the caregiver has no other health coverage — possible health coverage through CHAMPVA. A denial or discharge from PCAFC carries appeal rights through VA’s clinical appeal process; the door that stays open either way is PGCSS.

How a family uses it: call the Caregiver Support Line, or ask your VA facility for its Caregiver Support Coordinator, and say which door you are asking about by name — PGCSS for support now, PCAFC if the 70-percent and six-month tests look met.

4. The VA Hotline — the complaint line above the facility

The VA Hotline, 1-855-948-2311, began in 2017 as the White House VA Hotline and is staffed by VA employees, around the clock. The VA describes it as its first non-clinical, non-emergency 24/7 call center: a supplemental way to report an issue that is not being addressed through the VA’s normal customer-service channels. Agents can refer and track concerns and generate reports to the VA offices responsible for the issue. In 2020 the VA folded its many phone numbers into one front door — 1-800-MyVA411 (1-800-698-2411) — and the 855 number remains in service alongside it.

How a family uses it: call when the facility-level doors have not moved — and keep the advocate’s PATS record and your own dates and names in front of you when you do. (This site’s own record of knocking on this door is kept at The Hotline That Doesn’t Call Back.)

5. Florida’s doors — FDVA and the county service officers

Florida runs its own veterans’ agency, the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs (FDVA) — floridavets.org — and two free layers of human help:

How a family uses it: state and county officers can act for the veteran and work with the family the same way a VSO service officer does — and because they are government, using them costs nothing and commits you to nothing. A Florida family can hold a state officer, a county officer, and a VSO service officer’s advice at once and compare.

6. The veteran-run knowledge base — HadIt.com

Not a government door at all — the door veterans built for each other. HadIt.com has run free, veteran-to-veteran VA claims guidance since 1997: step-by-step filing guides, C&P exam and DBQ explainers, a backpay calculator, a searchable database of Board of Veterans’ Appeals decisions, current and historical rate charts, and plain-English coverage of the policy changes that move claims. Its community — more than 26,000 members and 400,000 posts — is where veterans answer each other’s claims questions from hard experience, including whole forums for appeals, C&P exams, VA.gov problems, and navigating VA medical centers and community care. If your fight is a claims fight — a denial, a low rating, an exam gone wrong — start there alongside your service officer. HadIt is a knowledge base and a community, not an accredited representative; it says so itself, and its guidance is written to be checked against the regulation it cites.

7. Veteran teachers, on video — SelfGrowthVideos

Not a door into the government at all — a door into what other veterans have already learned the hard way. Our sister publication’s Veterans & Their Families hub at SelfGrowthVideos gathers thousands of video lessons from veteran teachers — service, transition, benefits, and the fights in between — together with get-help paths for veterans and the people who care for them. When the fight pauses, that is a good room to sit in.

In this case

The Bowman family’s first ask for help went to the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs — by email to FDVAInfo@fdva.state.fl.us on July 23, 2026, the first entry in the family’s preserved correspondence. The full record of the doors this family knocked on is kept at The Correspondence.

Facts on this page are drawn from the VA's own published materials (va.gov, caregiver.va.gov) and the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs' own published materials (floridavets.org), checked October 2026. Program rules and phone numbers change; the agencies' own sites govern. Corrections: care@bowmanwebservices.com.