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VA Creating 28 New Vet Centers
WASHINGTON (August 14, 2009) - Today, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced that combat Veterans will receive readjustment counseling and other assistance in 28 additional communities across the country where the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will establish Vet Centers in 2010.
"VA is committed to providing high-quality outreach and readjustment counseling to all combat Veterans," Secretary Shinseki said. "These 28 new Vet Centers will address the growing need for those services."
The community-based Vet Centers -- already in all 50 states -- are a key component of VA's mental health program, providing Veterans with mental health screening and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) counseling.
The existing 232 centers conduct community outreach to offer counseling on employment, family issues and education to combat Veterans and family members, as well as bereavement counseling for families of servicemembers killed on active duty and counseling for Veterans who were sexually harassed on active duty.
Vet Center services are earned through service in a combat zone or area of hostility and are provided at no cost to Veterans or their families. They are staffed by small multi-disciplinary teams, which may include social workers, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, master's-level counselors and outreach specialists. Over 70 percent of Vet Center employees are Veterans themselves, a majority of whom served in combat zones.
The Vet Center program was established in 1979 by Congress, recognizing that many Vietnam Veterans were still having readjustment problems. In 2008, the Vet Center program provided over 1.1 million visits to over 167,000 Veterans, including over 53,000 visits by more than 14,500 Veteran families. More information about Vet Centers can be found at www.vetcenter.va.gov/index.asp.
The VA approved two requests by Senator Jon Tester to open new Vet Centers in Great Falls and Kalispell, Tester made the requests, along with Montana's Lieutenant Governor John Bohlinger, in a face-to-face meeting with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki last December.
"This is great news for Montana's veterans," said Tester, Montana's only member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. "These new Vet Centers will help veterans in Great Falls, Kalispell and surrounding communities access valuable and vital services closer to home."
