FEINGOLD
LEADS WISCONSIN DELEGATION IN URGING VA TO OPEN TWO MORE VETERAN CENTERS
More Vet Centers Will Increase Access to Much Needed Veteran Care
January 7, 2008
Washington, D.C. –
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold led a letter from the Wisconsin congressional
delegation in an effort to establish more Veteran Centers in Wisconsin.
In the letter, Feingold and all nine other members of the delegation
urged the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to open two additional
Vet Centers in Wisconsin’s La Crosse and Brown counties. The delegation
expressed its disappointment that none of the 23 new centers the VA
plans to open in the U.S. this year would be built in Wisconsin, which
ranks seventh worst in the nation for veterans’ access to these
centers. Approximately 40 percent of Wisconsin veterans do not have
a Vet Center close enough for them to go on a regular basis.
“Veterans face a unique
set of challenges and it troubles me when I hear from some veterans
in Wisconsin that their access to Vet Centers is inadequate,”
Feingold said. “Our country can never fully repay veterans for
the sacrifices they have made, but we can ensure that they and their
families have someplace to go in their community to receive counseling
and learn about the benefits they have more than earned.”
Vet Centers provide counseling
in a non-medical setting to complement the services provided in VA medical
centers and outpatient clinics. Wisconsin only has two Vet Centers,
both in the southern part of the state, to serve the state’s 469,000
veterans. States with similar veteran populations have more than double
this number of Vet Centers. Maryland, for example, has fewer veterans
than Wisconsin and is one fifth its size but has four Vet Centers. Massachusetts
is about one eighth the size of Wisconsin, and has only a slightly larger
veteran population, but it has seven Vet Centers. If Vet Centers were
established in La Crosse and Brown counties in Wisconsin, roughly 82
percent of Wisconsin veterans would be within an hour drive of a Vet
Center.
“We are very concerned
that over forty percent of Wisconsin veterans do not currently have
reasonable access to a Vet Center,” the delegation wrote. “Servicemembers
are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with alarming rates of PTSD
(Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and other mental health and readjustment
issues. Additional Vet centers are urgently needed to ensure that Wisconsin
veterans and their families have reasonable access to necessary counseling
in the welcoming, non-clinical environment that Vet Centers offer.”
A copy of the letter can
be viewed here.
|
