WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Delahunt announced that Cape Cod would be the site of a new Department of Veterans Affairs “Vet Center”, one of 23 new facilities that will be opening across the country in 2007 and 2008.

“I applaud the VA for helping our veterans who are returning from overseas gain access to critical readjustment and counseling services.  This new “Vet Center” will be a boost for our veterans, especially those having served in the National Guard and the Reserve and are coming back home to the Cape and Islands.” Delahunt said today.

The VA’s Vet Center program provides readjustment counseling and other services to combat veterans who are returning home after completing their military service. The Cape facility will be one of six centers that will begin operations in 2007. The Cape and Islands, along with the South Shore, has one of the largest concentrations of veterans in the Commonwealth and has many local men and women who are either on active duty or have been called to active duty as members of the Reserves or National Guard. 

In 1997, Delahunt was instrumental in securing a Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) to provide primary health care services for veterans from the Cape and Islands.  That facility is located in Hyannis and Delahunt is working with the VA to expand this facility to provide more services to local veterans. 

“The establishment of the Clinic in Hyannis has been successful in no small part because the primary and preventive care needs of our veterans can be better addressed in a setting closer to home and with a minimum of travel. In the same way, the opening of a Vet Center will be vital in addressing the unique difficulties – whether reentering the job market, dealing with the stress of combat or reintegrating into family life -- that returning veterans face when coming home.”

Currently, the VA maintains 209 vet centers in all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and other US territories.  Each Vet Center is community based and provides a range of counseling services to returning veterans and their families, including: mental health, employment, education and family issues. The Vet Center program, established by Congress in 1979, was born out of the recognition that a significant number of Vietnam era vets were still experiencing readjustment problems. Initially limited to Vietnam Veterans, in succeeding years, Secretaries of Veterans Affairs have broadened eligibility to include veterans from World War Two to the present conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.  

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