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BOSTON - Senator John Kerry announced that the nation's VA Vet Centers will receive $20 million in funding, as part of the Fiscal 2007 Supplemental Appropriations Conference Report which passed the Senate yesterday. Seven Massachusetts Vet Centers will benefit from the additional funding. Senator Kerry asked fellow senators to include the money as part of the war funding supplemental.
The new funding for VA Vet Centers will be used to hire additional staff and run the centers already operating in within the system.
"We have nearly 477,000 veterans throughout Massachusetts and hundreds of thousands more nationwide and all of them have earned our care and respect. You don't support the troops when you fail to provide adequate care when they come home," said Senator Kerry. "This funding will enable the Vet Centers to hire additional staff and start doing outreach that is long overdue. There are still service members from this generation that are unaware of what a Vet Center is, and the services they provide. This much needed funding will provide assistance for our service members transition from combat to everyday life."
VA Vet Centers provide readjustment counseling and outreach services to all veterans who served in any combat zone. Our veterans earned these benefits through their service to country, and we must fulfill the nation's commitment to them by providing the highest quality services possible.
The Vet Center program was established to assist Vietnam-era veterans who were experiencing readjustment problems. In 1991, Congress extended the eligibility to veterans who served during other periods of armed hostilities after the Vietnam era. The goal of the Centers is to provide a broad range of counseling, outreach and referral services to help veterans successfully readjust to civilian life. Services include individual counseling, group counseling, marital and family counseling, bereavement counseling, medical referrals, assistance in applying for VA benefits, and employment counseling.
A report by the House Veterans Affairs Committee Democratic staff found that in nine months, between October 2005 and June 2006, the number of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who turned to Vet Centers for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) services doubled. The increased demand for services is beginning to affect access to quality care. One in four Vet Centers surveyed has been forced to limit services or establish waiting lists for critically needed services.
Approximately one-third of the veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan come to the VA with mental health concerns. We have seen the cases of PTSD rise sharply along with the need for readjustment care when veterans return home. This funding will help insure VA Vet Centers have enough trained professionals to offer quality mental health services. They are currently unable to deal with the increasing demand for mental health services. Each of these centers needs this additional funding to hire sufficient staff to deal with the recent influx of patients.
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