The Foreign Service Journal, November 2013

18 NOVEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL ments in which Foreign Service personnel work all over the world. Accordingly, State should aggressively educate DOL adjudi- cators about the realities of service abroad and advocate on their behalf. State could also offer low-cost disabil- ity insurance—or at least publicize other avenues for obtaining it—and educate its employees, especially new recruits, about the limits of the assistance it can offer. Information about disability insurance for federal employees is actually just a click away on the Internet, but howmany people know it exists or that they need it? Another idea would be for State to use employees’ contributions to fund its own workers’ compensation program, rather than contributing to the Labor Department plan. Better still, State should emulate the Department of Defense’s approach to assisting employees who have been disabled by injury or illness incurred overseas. DOD’s congressionally mandated “Wounded Warriors” programmakes injured soldiers’ care a priority. Shouldn’t State recognize that the injuries and life- changing illnesses of its own employees are equally worthy of care and compensation? Let me note a valuable resource with great potential to aid Foreign Service per- sonnel in my situation. With an infusion of staff and funding, the Employee Consulta- tion Service could play a welcome role as advocate and adviser for those suffering from illness or injuries. The department’s new, congressionally mandated creation of a Post-Combat Case Coordinator is another step in the right direction. Sadly, though, it is not only war and captivity that cause life-changing illness and injury. To ignore the plight of Foreign Service members who serve on the “front lines” is wrong, especially those left with something as severe as a brain injury. Sending the Wrong Message One of the lowest points in coming to terms with my illness was the realiza- tion that the agency I’d so loyally worked for was unwilling to help me in my time of need. MED, HR and other bureaus I asked to help me often had consol- ing words, but none were able to offer me what I sought: compensation for my medical bills and recognition of the sacrifices I’d made in serving abroad. An illness I’d contracted while serving my country denied me six years of a career that I loved, yet I was no one’s Wounded Warrior at the Department of State—even though I had served and excelled at some of its most difficult posts. If the department does not start taking the health and welfare of its returning over- seas employees more seriously, it will send the wrong message to all its employees— especially its talented and eager new hires. Unless it consistently demonstrates that commitment, it will quickly find the goal of recruiting and retaining the best employees becoming more and more difficult. n State could offer low-cost disability insurance, or at least publicize other avenues for obtaining it.