Claims Task – Section 13 (I was absent on 10/4 so I chose a section at random)

The amount of progress in Caleb’s six years of therapy has been frustrating for everyone. 

This is an Evaluative Claim. This sentence alone provides judgment on Caleb’s situation. As it says in the definition for evaluative claims, they are arguable. Another person may claim something different pertaining to Caleb’s progress in therapy. Claiming that something is frustrating is subjective because more than likely using that adjective to describe something leaves it open for argument.

 But ultimately, says Alain Brunet, vice president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and director of the Traumatic Stress Laboratory at McGill University in Canada, “we have reason to be reasonably optimistic. Psychotherapy does work for typical PTSD.” 

This is an example of an Attributive Claim and also a Credibility Claim. The author directly uses a claim from someone else making it attributive (more than likely because the author can not or just simply didn’t verify it). This is also a credibility claim because it identifies Alain Brunet (the man who made the claim) by his job position, which by the sound of it, makes him seem like a very credible source to pull a claim from.

The VA tends to favor cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy—whereby traumatic events are hashed out and rehashed until they become, theoretically, less consuming.

This is an example of a Definition Claim. This claim briefly defines cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy.

Some state VA offices also offer group therapy. For severe cases, the agency offers inpatient programs, one of which Caleb resided in for three months in 2010. The VA also endorses eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), which is based on the theory that memories of traumatic events are, in effect, improperly stored, and tries to refile them by discussing those memories while providing visual or auditory stimulus.

This is an example of a Factual Claim. This claim provides examples of different types of therapies that the VA does in fact offer. This excerpt can also be looked at as a Definition Claim as well because it briefly defines EMDR therapy and what it is used for. 

To stay up to date on the latest advances in PTSD treatment, the VA collaborates with outside entities through its Intramural Research Program.

This is another example of a Factual Claim and also a Causal Claim. This sentence describes a circumstance that does exist (the VA’s collaboration with outside entities), making it factual. It demonstrates the elements of a causal claim as well because it shows a clear cause and effect relationship. Because the VA needs to stay up to date on PTSD treatment, the effect of this is collaboration with outside entities. 

Currently, the agency is funding 130 PTSD-related studies, from testing whether hypertension drugs might help to examining the effectiveness of meditation therapy, or providing veterans with trauma-sensitive service dogs, like Caleb’s.

The beginning of this excerpt demonstrates a Quantitative Claim. It provides a clear and concise number of PTSD related studies (130) that the agency is funding (also making it a Factual Claim). 

Up until 2006, the VA was spending $9.9 million, just 2.5 percent of its medical and prosthetic research budget, on PTSD studies. In 2009, funding was upped to $24.5 million. 

This is another example of a Quantitative Claim and Factual Claim. It provides two precise budgets that the VA was spending and a numerical statistic as well. Using these exact numbers and leaving nothing up for interpretation is what makes it a factual claim as well. 

But studies take a long time, and any resulting new directives take even longer to be implemented.

This can be viewed as a Comparative Claim. I believe this claim can be viewed as comparative because it compares the amount of time studies take which is long, to the amount of time new directives take to be implemented which is described as being even longer.